Happy Birthday Eun-hee!

Today, July 5th, is Eun-hee Choung's birthday. She is the author and illustrator of Minji's Salon, an adorable story about the power of imaginative play.

Minji's mother heads to the hair salon for an update to her current hairstyle. Meanwhile, back at home, Minji and her black and bouncy canine companion make a mess, have fun and create memories with a hair salon setup all their own.

Told with bright and bold illustrations, Minji's Salon (also available in Spanish) is a lot of fun and guaranteed to be a favorite on the shelves of little girls everywhere.

Eun-hee Choung graduated from the College of Art, Chungang University and studied at the Hankuk Illustration School. In 2005 she was awarded the grand prize in the Korean Published Arts Contest. She lives in South Korea.

National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day

Normally, I don't recommend to anyone that they open an umbrella inside, but today is National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day so I do encourage you, instead, to open a book about rain or umbrellas (or luck?).

Yellow Umbrella is of course the book I'm referring to from the Kane/Miller list. One of our first picture books from South Korea, and one of our titles with the most awards, this beautiful wordless picture book, with accompanying musical CD, is the perfect way to spend a rainy day or a quiet story time that involves listening in a whole new way.

From South Korea

By Jae Soo Liu
Music composed by Dong Il Sheen

My son opens his Spider-Man umbrella inside our house often (and usually while wearing rain boots and Spider-Man pajamas) but so far he hasn't broken any bones - knocking on wood - or had anything happen where I would consider him having bad luck. I'd be curious to learn if anyone truly believes in these superstitious ideas anymore. I know I still practice them...

Fast Forward

Technically, our Spring 2008 titles will not be released until March 1st, and yet, I'm asking you all to fast forward a little bit to talk about fall. Yes, that's right. I will now share the September 1st, Fall 2008, forthcoming books from Kane/Miller.

Included among the twelve books are two Toddler Tales that are being translated into Spanish (Las hermanintas son... - Little Sisters Are...- and Los hermanitos son... - Little Brothers Are...), Book #8 in the Jack Russsell Series - The Kitnapped Creature, four picture books (The Big Little Book of Happy Sadness, The Story of Growl, Something for School, There's No Such Thing as Ghosts), a modern-day fairy tale (Singing to the Sun), and four early readers (The Wicket Chronicles #1 and #2: Ely Plot and Fen Gold, Snake and LIzard, and Wombat & Fox.

From England

978-1-933605-84-5
$5.95 (U.S.)

978-1-933605-87-6
$5.95 (U.S.)


From New Zealand

978-1-933605-83-8
$14.95 (U.S.)


From Australia

978-1-933605-81-4
$13.95 (U.S.)


978-1-933605-90-6
$15.95 (U.S.)


From Belgium

978-1-933605-91-3
$13.95 (U.S.)


From South Korea

978-1-933605-85-2
15.95 (U.S.)


From Australia

978-1-933605-80-7
$15.95 (U.S.)

From England

978-1-933605-94-4
$16.95 (U.S.)

Authors for this forthcoming season are Jucy Horacek, Vivian French, Colin Thompson, Terry Denton, Joy Cowley, Hyun Young Lee, Joan Lennon, Sally & Darrel Odgers, Emanuelle Eekhout, and Beth Norling. Gavin Bishop and Jackie Morris join us as new illustrators we're publishing and countries represented include our first book from New Zealand, along with Australia, England, South Korea, and Belgium.

More details to come...

Outstanding International Books

For the last few years, the USBBY has been putting together a list of the year's most Outstanding International Books.

Kane/Miller is pleased to have three titles on this year's list:

From Australia

Ziba Came on a Boat
Written by Liz Lofthouse
Illustrated by Robert Ingpen

From South Korea

New Clothes for New Year's Day
by Hyun-Ju Bae


My Cat Copies Me
by Yoon-Duck Kwon

One More Story

One More Story is an online library of the best of children's classic and contemporary literature. Through a simple point and click process, children can choose a book, see the illustrations and have the book read to them whenever they want.

They've just created a blog which is a great place to learn more, add suggested titles and discover different ways to use the site, whether you're a parent, teacher, or librarian.

Kane/Miller is pleased to have a growing list of titles available at One More Story:

From France

Tibili
Written by Marie Léonard
Illustrated by Andée Prigent

From England

This is the Tree
Written by Miriam Moss
Illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway

From South Korea

While We Were Out
by Ho Baek Lee

From Taiwan

Guji Guji
by Chih-Yuan Chen

From France

The Costume Party
by Victoria Chess

From Australia

Fox
Written by Margaret Wild
Illustrated by Ron Brooks

From Spain

Sebastian's Roller Skates
Written by Joan de Déu Prats
Illustrated by Francesc Rovira

(Coming Soon)
From Japan

Singing Shijimi Clams
by Naomi Kojima

The Year of the Rat

The Lunar New Year starts fresh on February 7th as we welcome in The Year of the Rat. It's been said that those born in The Year of the Rat are respected and considered courageous and enterprising. Rats know exactly where to find solutions and can take care of themselves and others with ease. They use their instinctive sense of observation to help others in times of need and are among the most fit of all the Animal signs to survive most any situation.

This all can also be said of Riley. He is, of course, a rat and one who inspires and makes readers smile. He's found in The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley (by Colin Thompson & Amy Lissiat of Australia) and encourages us all to be more observant, patient, accepting and courageous.

Another suggested title, of course, is New Clothes for New Year's Day, by Hyun-Ju Bae of South Korea, which honors the Korean celebration of this annual holiday.

Pugs 'N' Picture Books

Although we haven't released our Spring 2008 titles yet, we have sent out catalogs to reviewers. One title in particular, Minji's Salon from South Korean author / illustrator, Eun-hee Choung, caught the attention of a book reviewer who kindly sent a note about her pug, Norma.

Jan, Norma's human companion, feels that "every child with a pet can relate to playing beauty salon with that pet." Norma, you see, was once a show dog and loves being groomed.

I didn't have a pet growing up but I can imagine that those children who do spend plenty of hours grooming their canine or feline friends, much like Minji does with her adorable dog. Thanks, Jan for sharing these wonderful photos of Norma. We always enjoy pictures of pets, especially those who are inspired by our books.

International Language Week

Our Libros del Mundo series now contains a total of twelve titles. Two more will be released in March 2008 but here is a listing of all fourteen:

from Germany

Apolo
by Caroline Gregoire

From the Netherlands

Benny
by Sieb Posthuma

From Australia

La cama grande de Sofia
by Tina Burke

From Germany

Contando con Apolo
by Caroline Gregoire

From Taiwan

En camino a comprar huevos
by Chih-Yuan Chen

From Italy

Feliz Cumpleaños Tengo 1
Written by Matteo Faglia
Illustrations by Luana Rinaldo

From Taiwan

Guji Guji
by Chih-Yuan Chen

From Germany

Lo que Eduardo sabe hacer
by Wilfried Gebhard

From Switzerland

Marta y la bicicleta
Written by Germano Zullo
Illustrated by Albertine

From the Netherlands

Pescadito
by Sanne te Loo

From Japan

¿Quién se esconde?
by Satoru Onishi

From Australia

¿Quieres Jugar?
by Deborah Niland

From South Korea

El salon de Minji
by Eun-hee Choung

From England

Suerte
by Gus Clarke

Books that give kids a taste of another culture

My Father's Shop, from France and written by Satomi Ichikawa, was included in a recent article in the L.A. Times travel section a few days ago but of course we feel that there are several more that could work from our list:

From South Korea

New Clothes for New Year's Day
by Hyun-Ju Bae

From the Netherlands

Little Fish
by Sanne te Loo

From Japan

Girl Fom the Snow Country
by Masako Hidaka

From Taiwan

On My Way to Buy Eggs
by Chih-Yuan Chen

From India

Kali and the Rat Snake
Written by Zai Whitaker
Illustrated by Srividya Natarajan

From Ghana

Sosu's Call
by Meshack Asare

From Australia

Ziba Came on a Boat
Written by Liz Lofthouse
Illustrated by Roberg Ingpen

From Belgium

The Nights of the World
Written by Corrine Albaut
Illustrated by Arno

From England

This is the Oasis


This is the Tree
Written by Miriam Moss
Illustrated by Adrienne Kennaway

Happy Travels!