Children & YA | Chapter 16

Renovating the Fairy Tale

By Emily Choate

December 13, 2012

December 13, 2012 The New York Times bestselling author Alice Randall and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, have joined forces to create the fairy-tale world of their first children’s novel, The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess. As a thirteen-year-old orphaned princess in hiding on fantastical Bee Isle, B.B. Bright faces a gamut of challenges: earning her godmommies’ good opinion, starting her own beeswax candle business, winning her way off the island by finding eight elusive princesses who hold the keys to her identity, and withstanding Bee Isle’s ultimate pass-fail: The Official Princess Test.

History, Lost and Found

By Emily Choate

November 27, 2012

November 27, 2012 In a blog post for The Huffington Post’s books section, Nashville YA novelist Ruta Sepetys describes the winding, unlikely path her family’s hidden stories took to reach her.

London Calling

By Tina LoTufo

November 15, 2012

November 15, 2012 When brainy, uptight, rule-following Julia Lichtenstein sets out on her junior-year class trip to London, she can’t wait to soak up the old-world ambiance of historical sites associated with her literary heroes. But that’s before Mrs. Tennison, her teacher and chaperone, alphabetically assigns each student a buddy, and Julia is suddenly saddled with Jason Lippincott, a vulgar, arrogant, rule-breaking jerk. Of course, opposites attract and romance ensues, but as William Shakespeare himself once wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” In Meant To Be, the new YA novel by Maryville native Lauren Morrill, Julia is in for a bumpy ride indeed. Lauren Morrill will discuss Meant to Be at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on November 16 at 6 p.m.

The Story of a Barn

By Emily Choate

November 9, 2012

November 9, 2012 Crossville, Tennessee, native and author of such books as Adam’s Navel and Apollo’s Fire Michael Sims celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of E.B. White’s children’s classic Charlotte’s Web by sitting down with NPR to discuss White’s devotion to his beloved characters.

A Brain on Fire

By Tina LoTufo

October 25, 2012

October 25, 2012 Mem Fox believes passionately that a good book has the power to move a reader “profoundly, one way or another—to laughter or tears, horror or delight, disgust or dismay, fascination or fright. If a book makes children laugh, cry, squeal, shiver, or wriggle and jiggle in some way, it takes up residence in their hearts and stays there.” Inspired by decades of experience as an educator, an award-winning children’s book author, and a parent, Fox considers her most important role to be crusading for the importance of reading aloud to young children, which she believes is an absolutely essential component in a child’s healthy development. On November 5 at 6:15 p.m., Mem Fox will appear at the Nashville Public Library as part of the Salon@615 series. The event is free and open to the public.

Tender Hearted

By Fernanda Moore

October 4, 2012

October 5, 2012 The Flint Heart, co-written by Katherine Paterson and her husband, John, reads like a modern retelling of an ancient fairy tale: at the behest of a power-hungry would-be chief, a Stone-Age “mystery man” makes a heart-hardening charm—the Flint Heart—and sells it for thirty-two sheep and thirty-two lambs. What happens next feels deliciously familiar, as all good fairy tales must. Katherine and John Paterson will discuss The Flint Heart at Nashville’s Southern Festival of Books on October 13 at 9:30 a.m. in the War Memorial Auditorium. All festival events are free and open to the public.

“Though Pavese is now most famous for his fiction, he was a poet first of all, and Hard Labor was the work for which he hoped to be remembered. It is a book, he once said, “that might have saved a generation.” William Arrowsmith’s translations—with their strong lines and bold American diction—marvelously convey the spirit and complex vitality of the original.”

~the publisher