Veronica Lane publishes the bestselling What is? series of life concepts books by children’s author Etan Boritzer. Written for ages 6 to 10, his books promote character education, critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence and values.
Parents, teachers and professionals can use the books to engage children in interactive discussions designed to guide them through difficult issues that children may confront at various developmental stages. The book assist them with such universal problems as bullying, self-esteem, grief, conflict resolution and sharing.
Walt Disney Studios will be adapting the first two books in the Artemis Fowl series written by , Eoin Colfer. and with producer Harvey Weinstein, who is best known for producing Shakespeare in Love, Gangs of New York, Lord of the Rings, The King’s Speech, Kill Bill, Django Unchained and many others.
Juror B37 in the George Zimmerman trial has abandoned her plans to write a book explaining why she found him not guilty of murder in the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. The jury’s decision sparked protests across the United States by activists who said Martin was targeted because he was black. The unidentified juror B37 had signed with Martin Literary Management, an agency based in Mercer Island, Washington, said firm’s president, Sharlene Martin, in a statement on Monday. The juror had planned to write the book with her husband, who is an attorney, explaining how the jury had “no option” but to find Zimmerman not guilty, but she subsequently decided not to proceed with publication, Martin added later. The juror say why she has changed her mind,but said her isolation in the jury room meant she had not been fully aware of the outrage over the case. She did say in a written statement ,”The potential book was always intended to be a respectful observation of the trial from my and my husband’s perspectives solely and it was to be an observation that our ‘system’ of justice can get so complicated that it creates a conflict with our ‘spirit’ of justice,” she said in the written statement. “Now that I am returned to my family and to society in general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life as it was before I was called to sit on this jury,” she added.
The jury has found Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watchman, not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the February 26, 2012, shooting death of Martin, who was 17. Jurors have remained anonymous under a judge’s order. Juror B37 has been described as a mother of two children who grew up in a military family and used to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
Other book deals from Martin agency include a book by Jessica Buchanan, an American aid worker who was kidnapped and rescued by U.S. special forces in Somalia in 2012 after she was held three months in captivity. Another upcoming book based on the high-profile trial of Jodi Arias, who was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder in the death of her ex-boyfriend.
Stephen’s king’s son Joe Hill is getting a movie this year starring Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe will bring Hill’s gothic fiction Horns novel to life, in which he plays main character Ig Perrish, who grows horns after his girlfriend is murdered. And then he uses these magical horns to find out whodunnit. This book is said to be crazy bloody & great.
The Hundred
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the human population is trapped in space, Earth being ruined with radiation and whatnot. But now enough time has passed that it might be habitable again… might. So the government sends 100 expendable kids from the space Juvenile Detention center to test it out. The CW picked up this just released book for a TV series; the trailer was just released, and you
Under the Dome
An invisible forcefield traps a small town under an impenetrable dome. Then everything goes to hell, as it so often does in the small towns of Stephen King’s imagination. The series just aired this week on CBS, thanks to showrunner Brian K. Vaughan. The book is said to be long but a page turner.
Author: Stephen King
Ender’s Game
Boy genius Ender is plucked from obscurity and placed in the middle of an alien war in the future, because kids’ minds are the best weapon in this future world. Gavin Hood is directingHugo star Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggins, who will join Sir Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis and Harrison Ford in space to fight for the future of humanity. A fast read —
Author: Orson Scott Card
Release Date: November 1st, 2013
Divergent
A lot of people have been calling Divergent the new Hunger Games. Set in a future world of Chicago where the population is broken down by personalities (factions), the book features fantastic characters, great action and the love scenes . Granted, The movie is being directed by Neil Burger of Limitless, starring a cast of kids. Think knife-throwing, death and hard kisses mixed with conspiracy.
Author: Veronica Roth
Release Date: March 21st, 2014
The Futurological Congress/The Congress
Loosely (very loosely) based on Stanislaw Lem’s work, the upcoming movie blends cartoons and live-action. Its severely dark humor focuses around actress Robin Wright, playing herself, who’s stuck in actor’s limbo in L.A. Wright signs away her life rights to a futuristic machine that allows everything about her to be used for profit. She enters a utopian oasis that (just like all utopias) turns out to be a lie, but there’s a twist to the twist.
Author: Stanislaw Lem
Release Date: It premiered at Cannes, but doesn’t have an official release date yet (look for it at future festivals)
The Maze Runner
The hugely popular Young Adult novel is coming to the big screen starring that kid everyone likes fromTeen Wolf. Set in the future, the main character wakes up in a giant maze and no memories. Thus begins the running.
Author: James Dashner
Release Date: February 14th, 2014
If I Stay
A strange, out-of-body movie about a teenager who falls into a coma after a terrible accident. From outside her human shell she watches as friends and family visit her hospital room and is faced with a complicated choice: return to her body and lead a hard life… or die. This adaptation has been floating around FOREVER. First, Catherine Hardwicke was attached to direct, then Heitor Dhalia (both are out). Dakota Fanning was originally going to star, but now the torch has been past to Chloe Moretz, who is still attached to the project with RJ Cutler from Nashvilleas director. We have all our fingers crossed for the future of this film.
Author: Gayle Forman
Release Date: No date yet (still in development)
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
There’s still time to catch up on everyone’s favorite airport reading. The second movie is still months away and while its premise is very similar to the first book still suppose to be great.
Author: Suzanne Collins
Release Date: November 22nd, 2013
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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson is back with his band of teen Greek gods, and they’ve got a new mission — they need to find the Golden Fleece. We continue to pledge our love for this cute book series and its similarly adorable movie franchise. Considered fun and clever .
Author: Rick Riordan
Release Date: August 7th, 2013
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The Last Apprentice/ Seventh Son
While penned for the younger breed of humans, The Last Apprentice is a pretty dark bit of fantasy. It’s good versus evil, and in the movie the good will be represented as a sorcerer (or Spook) played by Jeff Bridges, and the evil is gorgeous witch woman Julianne Moore.
Author: Joseph Delaney
Release Date: January 17th, 2014
The Leftovers
The author of Election and Little Children takes on The Rapture. This book doesn’t describe the end of days, but rather what happens to all the leftovers still on the planet. Damon Lindelof and author Tom Perrotta are working together on an HBO series of this amazing book, and Perrotta is a freaking genius, so we can not wait.
Public libraries are teaming up with Redbox, to pilot “Outside the Box” – This is a new community initiative that brings people together for free, fun, public entertainment experiences.
Queen Mary’s Dollhouse is the largest and most famous dollhouse in the world. It has working elevators and toilets as well as a 171-volume library containing some short works which were authored specifically for the dollhouse. The miniature tomes have been bound in leather by the well-known bookbinders Sangorski & Sutcliffe.
A laboratory class in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, is dedicated to rescuing physical, book-dense libraries from obsolescence, the student come up with designs to “create a hybrid space where analog and digital coexist.”
The Alpine Public Library, has partnered with Q4 Mobile’s LibraryTV to create their own Internet-Based LibraryTV Channel, Their patrons can easily subscribe to, personalize their viewing experience, watch and share library videos on a variety of devices. Patrons are also able to create playlists of library video content, and view videos devices such as GoogleTV, iPad and Android tablet, etc. An important benefit of internet-based video content is that instead of one video or DVD being checked out at a time, now any number of patrons can simultaneously access the same content. In addition, video libraries are easier for Libraries to manage via LibraryTV’s user-centric, cloud-based admin panel. Libraries can also view informative analytics regarding which videos are viewed and shared, and on what devices.
As libraries move to cloud-based technology, such as Q4 Mobile’s Libserra Cloud Platform for Libraries, they are integrating mobile and social media based solutions to communicate with their patrons. LibraryTV represents the next step in the evolution of library technology, whereby patrons not only communicate with libraries via mobile, but also access library content via mobile devices.
Apple has been accused of conspiring with major publishers to increase the price of e-books in a scheme that cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, in a New York court. The United States government claimed in court papers that Apple wanted to sell e-books to the public, but did not want to compete against Amazon’s low prices . Apple knew that the major publishers also disliked Amazon’s low prices and saw Apple’s potential entry as a pathway to higher retail prices industry-wide. Publishers, MacMillan, Simons and Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin accused of participation- have already settled, paying out a total of 164 million dollars. The judge has urged Apple to do the same. However, Apple has claimed it had done nothing wrong.
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