Clippings

From the March 7th Publishers Weekly:

Publishers Examine the Good, Bad and Ugly
..last week’s joint AAP annual meeting / PW Summit…sponsored by R.R. Bowker, drew approximately 300 people to New York City’s Marriott Marquis hotel…

…The meeting’s afternoon panel, moderated by PW editor-in-chief Sara Nelson, included a surprise warning from Art Spiegelman about the possibility of the collapse of the booming graphic novel market. The comics market has a “history of fads,” Spiegelman said, and he worries that in 2007, publishers could see graphic novels as “so 2005.”

Author Neil Gaiman picked up that theme, explaining that some publishers are releasing graphic novels with little regard to content. “You can’t randomly publish graphic novels and expect to do well,” he said. Despite their caveats, Spiegelman and Gaiman were both thrilled with the growing acceptance of graphic novels by booksellers and librarians, with Spiegelman describing comics “as the gateway drug to reading.”
–Jim Milliot

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From today’s New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The purpose of the Louisiana Young Readers’ Choice Award is to foster a love of reading in the children of Louisiana and to give them the opportunity to participate in the selection of books worthy of receiving an award for literary excellence.

The overall state winner was Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

The awards site does not reflect this information at the moment.

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From the March Teaching K-8:

The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection, written and read by Neil Gaiman. (HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN:0-060-73298-9, one CD, one hour, $13.95)

This horror writer earns his status as a master storyteller with these four scary, and often humorous, tales. This almost-too-short collection includes “The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish,” “The Wolves in the Wall,” “Cinnamon” and “Crazy Hair.” Not appropriate for the very young.
–Lisa Von Drasek