We have so much to be thankful for at EMLA—including this list of notices our clients' books have received over the last few months. Congratulations to all!

For CHRIS BARTON

• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012-2013 Mississippi Magnolia Award Nominee
• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012 North Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee
• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012 Illinois Monarch Award, First Place
• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012 Wyoming Buckaroo Book Award Nominee
• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012 Utah Beehive Book Award Winner
• SHARK VS. TRAIN, 2012 Ohio Buckeye Book Award Nominee

For J. ANDERSON COATS

• THE WICKED AND THE JUST, 2013 Washington State Book Award Winner
• THE WICKED AND THE JUST, 2013 YALSA's List of Best Fiction for Young Adults
• THE WICKED AND THE JUST, Cooperative Children's Book Center Best of the Year Choices for 2013
• THE WICKED AND THE JUST, Texas' 2014 Taysha's High School Reading List

For MELANIE CROWDER

• PARCHED, Junior Library Guild's Spring/Summer 2013 Catalog Book Club Pick

For LYNDA MULLALY HUNT

• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List for 2013
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, Boston Author's Club, Young Reader's Category Finalist 2013
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2013-2014 Sunshine State Young Reader's List
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2014 Kentucky Bluegrass Book Award Nominee
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, Louisiana Young Reader's Choice Award Nominee
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award Nominee
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2013 Association for Library Service to Children's Notables Discussion List
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2012 VOYA's Top Shelf Fiction List
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2013 Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Vermont Reading List Pick
• ONE FOR THE MURPHYS, 2013 BEA's Summer Best New Voices List

For MIKE JUNG

• GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES, 2013 National Parenting Publication Gold Award Winner

For R. L. (ROBIN) LAFEVERS

• 2012 Best Historical Author Award from the Armchair BookExpo of America Committee
• GRAVE MERCY, YALSA's Teen's Top Ten Finalist and Recommended Read for 2012
• GRAVE MERCY, 2013 Indies Choice and E. B. White Read-Aloud Honor Award
• GRAVE MERCY, Amazon's Best of 2012 List
• GRAVE MERCY, 2012 Taysha's Reading List, Texas Library Association
• GRAVE MERCY, 2013 YALSA's List of Best Fiction for Young Adults
• GRAVE MERCY, Cooperative Children's Book Center Best of the Year Choices for 2013
• DARK TRIUMPH, ABA's Fall 2013 Indie's Next List
• DARK TRIUMPH, Amazon's Best Book of 2013

For CYNTHIA LEVINSON

• WE'VE GOT A JOB, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List, marked with outstanding merit for 2013
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2013 International Reading Association's Young Adult Nonfiction Winner
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, Boston Author's Club, Young Reader's Category Finalist 2013
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, YALSA's Teen's Top Ten Finalist and Recommended Read for 2013
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award Nominee
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, Kirkus' Best of 2012 List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2012 Publisher's Weekly Best of the Year List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2012 Best of the Best Chicago Library List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2012 CBC's Diversity Committee's List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2013 Association for Library Service to Children's Notables Discussion List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, Cooperative Children's Book Center Best of the Year Choices for 2013
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2013 National Council for Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Honor Book
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2013 American Library Association's Notable Children's Books
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2012 Society of School Librarians International's Book Honor Award
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2012 Society of School Librarians International's Best Book for Social Studies Award
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 13th Annual Massachusetts Book Award 2013
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2013 Pennsylvania School Librarians Association Young Adults Top 40 Nonfiction List
• WE'VE GOT A JOB, 2015 Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award Nomination List

For NATALIE DIAS LORENZI

• FLYING THE DRAGON, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List, marked with outstanding merit for 2013
• FLYING THE DRAGON, 2013 International Reading Association's Intermediate Fiction Honor Award
• FLYING THE DRAGON, 2013-2014 Texas Bluebonnet Master List
• FLYING THE DRAGON, Cooperative Children's Book Center Best of the Year Choices for 2013
• FLYING THE DRAGON, 2013 Georgia Children's Book Award Alternate List

For PAT ZIETLOW MILLER

• SOPHIE'S SQUASH, Amazon's August 2013 Best Book of the Month Pick

For JEANNIE MOBLEY

• KATERINA'S WISH, American Bookseller Association's Fall 2012 Indie's Next List
• KATERINA'S WISH, 2012 BookPage's Best of the Year List
• KATERINA'S WISH, 2013 Association for Library Service to Children's Notables Discussion List

For ERIN E. MOULTON

• FLUTTER, 2104 Kentucky Bluegrass Book Award Nominee

For JENNIFER A. NIELSEN

• THE FALSE PRINCE, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List for 2013
• THE FALSE PRINCE, YALSA's Teen's Top Ten Finalist and Recommended Read for 2012
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013-2014 Sunshine State Young Reader's List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2014 Kentucky Bluegrass Book Award Nominee
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 Indies Choice and E. B. White Read-Aloud Honor Award
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 National Parenting Publication Silver Award Winner
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2012 Publisher's Weekly Best of the Year List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 Texas Lone Star Reading List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 YALSA's List of Best Fiction for Young Adults
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2012 New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013-2014 Virginia Reader's Choice List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2012 Best of the Best Chicago Library List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 Association for Library Service to Children's Notables Discussion List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013-2014 Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Nominee
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 Grand Canyon Reading List Pick
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013-2014 Beehive Book Finalist
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013-2014 Maine Student Book Award List
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Vermont Reading List Pick
• THE FALSE PRINCE, 2013 First Place Award for Middle-Grade Novel from the Association for Mormon Letters

For ERIC PINDER

• IF ALL THE ANIMALS CAME INSIDE, 2013 National Parenting Publication Silver Award Winner
• IF ALL THE ANIMALS CAME INSIDE, 2013 New Hampshire Ladybug Award Nominee

For MARY LYN RAY

• STARS, 2014 California Young Reader Medal Nominee

For TRENT REEDY

• STEALING AIR, A Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2012
• WORDS IN THE DUST, 2012 YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults and Notable Children's Recording Nominee

For JEAN REIDY

• ALL THROUGH MY TOWN, ABA's Fall 2013 Indie's Next List

For LAURA RESAU

• THE JADE NOTEBOOK, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List
• A STAR IN THE FOREST, 2013-2014 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee
• A STAR IN THE FOREST, 2013-2014 Virginia Reader's Choice Master List
• QUEEN OF WATER, 2013 South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee

For JOANNE ROCKLIN

• THE FIVE LIVES OF OUR CAT ZOOK, 2013-2014 Sunshine State Young Reader's List
• THE FIVE LIVES OF OUR CAT ZOOK, 2013-2014 Horned Toad Tales List
• THE FIVE LIVES OF OUR CAT ZOOK, 2013 Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Vermont Reading List Pick

For JEANNE RYAN

• NERVE, LA Times Young Adult Fall Featured Books List

For SUSAN VAUGHT

• FREAKS LIKE US, NYSRA 2014 Charlotte Award Nominee
• FREAKS LIKE US, 2012 Taysha's Reading List, Texas Library Association
• FREAKS LIKE US, 2014-2015 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Reading Awards List

For AUDREY VERNICK

• BROTHERS AT BAT, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List
• BROTHERS AT BAT, Washington Street Journal's Editor Meghan Cox Gurdon's Best Children's Books of 2012
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2013-2014 Vermont's Red Clover List
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2013 Association for Library Service to Children's Notables Discussion List
• BROTHERS AT BAT, Cooperative Children's Book Center Best of the Year Choices for 2013
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2013 National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council's Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2013 American Library Association's Notable Children's Books
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2013-2014 Horned Toad Tales List
• BROTHERS AT BAT, 2014 Illinois Monarch Award List Nominee
• SO YOU WANT TO BE A ROCK STAR, Bankstreet College of Education's Best Children's Book of the Year List for 2013
• SCREAMING AT THE UMP, Junior Library Guild Pick for 2014

For CLINT YOUNG

• RETURN TO THE WILLOWS, Amazon's Best of 2012 List

It's always a very special moment when you get to introduce the world to a brand new, freshly minted author, and that's a joy I am thrilled to share with you today. I began working with Curtis Manley a few months ago, after being swept away by his wonderful storytelling voice and warm, child-friendly sensibility. While I read a great many of his picture book projects before we agreed to sign together, the one that caught my eye first and most strongly was a charming story called SHAWN LOVED SHARKS.

This school story is infused with dry, quirky humor, following the titular shark-loving Shawn as he prepares for his school's Predator Day—only to learn to his vast dismay that his assignment is not to be the shark after all. No. Shawn has been assigned... the leopard seal.

I can already visualize the images in my head—and, happily for us all, someone else can too: I'm thrilled to share today that SHAWN LOVED SHARKS has been enthusiastically acquired by Emily Feinberg at Roaring Brook Press! Stay tuned for more news about this great title, as it's a keeper for sure.

Congratulations, Curtis!

~ Joan

We are so pleased with the enthusiasm the good folks at Holt Children's and Macmillan have for Katie Speck's spunky cockroach, Maybelle, and her sidekick, Henry the flea.

And how could they not? Not only is Maybelle irresistible, despite her species, but among the three books published in the series so far, we have a Texas Bluebonnet Master List selection, a Bank Street Best of the Year selection, a starred review from Kirkus ("Delightful details will make adults giggle right along with new readers. . . . Maybelle is one cockroach who will be welcome back any day"), and phrases like "laugh-out-loud" and "giggle-worthy shenanigans" peppering reviews.

Now Katie is hard at work at a new story in which Maybelle gets to go to school! Of course, her gastronomic obsessions lead to a riot in the lunchroom. How could they not? The new story will be released in spring 2015 (so soon!), and the previous books will get a spiffy makeover and a re-launch in paperback. Sally Doherty is the editor for the series.

Congratulations, Katie (and Maybelle)!

—Erin

Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy (Arthur A. Levine Books, February 2014) has received a starred review in this week's issue of Publishers Weekly! This is the FIRST starred review for Divided We Fall.

"In this stunning trilogy opener, Reedy (Words in the Dust) envisions a near-future America on the verge of disaster, where political discord, economic crisis, and a controversial new law have created tension between state and federal governments. Enter 17-year-old Pfc. Daniel Wright, a football-playing, truck-driving, country music–loving high school senior and member of the Idaho National Guard. When his unit is called to help with a potential riot in Boise, things get out of hand, eventually sparking a full-blown conflict between Idaho and the Feds. Caught between duty to family, loyalty to the military, and his own sense of honor, Daniel becomes a pawn in a much larger game between governor and president. In a story line tied to current affairs, Reedy tackles pressing issues with prescient clarity and delicate sophistication. His setup is terrifying in its plausibility and made all the more so by Daniel's conflicted everyman nature, with both sides portrayed as sympathetic yet flawed. Though the tech is slightly futuristic, this cautionary tale screams immediacy and urgency, a page-turner that rapidly moves toward a catastrophic cliffhanger. Ages 14–up."

Sarvinder Naberhaus came to EMLA with one book deal already in the bag, the delightful BOOM BOOM, which is due out from Beach Lane Press next year. Right from the start, what especially captivated me about Sarvinder's work was her gorgeous, poetic writing style and her incredible imagination. One text in particular especially appealed to me in how it played with language, using a very few spare words to paint vast evocative pictures that spoke of hope and home and country.

Today I'm delighted to announce that this gem of a picture book text has found its perfect home: BLUE SKY WHITE STARS was acquired by Lucia Monfried at Dial, who has brought her own special vision to the story, and has also found the perfect illustrator to bring it to full visual life: Kadir Nelson!!

This book is truly going to be one to treasure, so set this on your watch list now—you won't be disappointed. And... huge congratulations, Sarvinder!

~ Joan

Anna Staniszewski is certainly one busy lady. This month saw the release of MY SORT OF FAIRY TALE ENDING, the third and final book in the MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE series. She's got three picture books under contract. And her brand new contemporary tween series launches in January 2014 with THE DIRT DIARY, following the misadventures of fourteen-year-old Rachel Lee, who joins up with her mom's new housecleaning business and ends up in all kinds of sticky situations. Rachel's story will continue with THE PRANK LIST, which is forthcoming in July 2014.

What's that, you say? You want more Anna?

Well, WE HAVE MORE ANNA! I'm delighted to share the following Publishers' Marketplace announcement for a brand new, hot-off-the-press book deal:

MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE author Anna Staniszewski's THE GOSSIP FILE, third book in the forthcoming DIRT DIARY series, continuing the madcap adventures of Rachel Lee as a trip away from home seems like the perfect way to reinvent herself—except the past is a lot harder to hide from, again to Aubrey Poole at Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, by Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World English).

This third installment in the series promises to be every bit as hilarious and un-put-downable as the first. Congratulations, Anna!

~ Joan

I know I tend to be enthusiastic when announcing new deals, and I can throw around the exclamation marks, but our latest deal has totally LEGITIMATE exclamation points, I swear. Here it is:

SHARK VS. TRAIN and THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS author Chris Barton's ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE!, an irreverent abecediary of video game terminology that children might use to educate their parents, to Sharyn Rosart of POW!, by Erin Murphy at Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World English).

(Title and publisher name: Four exclamation points.)

(Also, don't you love the word abecediary?)

This deal came about after I read an article in Publishers Weekly announcing a new children's imprint at powerHouse. Editor Sharyn Rosart said the imprint's releases "will be 'heavily visual' and a 'little offbeat.' These books, she added, will 'have a sense of humor with crossover into the adult market.'" Boy, did Chris Barton have the perfect book for her!

Allow me one more exclamation point: Sharyn plans to publish the book in fall 2014 (!). Okay, one more: Can't wait! Congrats, Chris.

—Erin

We are always happy to have news of our clients' books getting into readers' hands around the world! Here's a roundup of deals over the last few months.

For Ruth McNally Barshaw's Ellie McDoodle Diaries (thanks to the sub-rights team at Bloomsbury):

• NEW KID IN SCHOOL and BEST FRIENDS FUR-EVER sold to Il Castoro in ITALY. We're very excited they're continuing on with the series!
• Simplified Chinese rights for the first four books acquired by Posts & Telecom Press in mainland CHINA..
• All six books sold to Ciranda in BRAZIL.
• The first five books to Korim for HEBREW language rights.

For Kelly Bennett's YOUR MOMMY WAS JUST LIKE YOU, rights sold to Iwasaki Shoten in JAPAN via Penguin's sub-rights team. Thank you!

For R. L. La Fevers' NATHANIEL FLUDD: THE UNICORN'S TALE, rights sold to Asunaro Shobo in JAPAN, thanks to Houghton's sub-rights team!

For Robin La Fevers' His Fair Assassin trilogy, complex CHINESE rights sold to Sharp Point Press. Thanks to Alex Webb at Rights People!

For Vahini Naidoo's FALL TO PIECES, rights sold to KOREA via Skyscape's sub-rights team. Thank you!

For Jennifer Nielsen's THE FALSE PRINCE, thanks to the foreign rights team at Scholastic. This makes sixteen foreign rights sold!

• KOREAN rights sold to Sang-Sang-Eui-Hima.
• ITALIAN rights sold to Feltrinelli.
• TURKISH rights sold to Nemesis for all three books in the series.
• INDONESIAN rights sold to PT Gramedia for all three books in the series.

For Jean Reidy's ALL THROUGH MY TOWN, rights sold to Querido in the NETHERLANDS via Bloomsbury's sub-rights group. Thank you!

For Laura Resau's THE QUEEN OF WATER, rights sold to Sanskrit Books in THAILAND by Alex Webb of Rights People.

For Cate Tiernan's IMMORTAL BELOVED (book #1), rights sold to SM Mexico in MEXICO. Thanks to Alex Webb at Rights People!

The year may be winding down, but that doesn't mean the reads are any less wonderful! We have one series starting up this month, and one winding down:

THE MESMER MENACE, by Kersten Hamilton (with illustrations by James Hamilton), launches the Gadgets and Gears series for young middle-graders with a fast-paced story featuring President Teddy Roosevelt, a family of inventors, and a dashing dachshund. Published by Clarion.

MY SORT OF FAIRY TALE ENDING, by Anna Staniszewski, wraps up the tales of Jenny the Adventurer with a battle against the Evil Queen and the hope of reuniting Jenny's family at last. Published by Sourcebooks.

As always, we wish these books into readers' hearts!

—Erin & Joan