A new management structure for the English-language part of Hachette Book Group, designed "to develop the longstanding collaboration between HBG and Hachette UK," has been announced by Hachette Livre.

Michael Pietsch (photo: Kelly Campbell)

Under the new structure, Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch will give up that role and become chairman. Hachette UK CEO David Shelley will continue in that position and will also be CEO of HBG. He will report to Hachette Livre's deputy CEO, Stéphanie Ferran, as well as to chairman and CEO Arnaud Lagardère.

In addition, Richard Kitson, deputy CEO of HUK, will become deputy CEO of both HBG and HUK. HBG's COO Joe Mangan is leaving the company. These changes will be effective January 1, 2024.

"Thanks to this new structure at the helm of our publishing activities in the U.S. and U.K., Hachette Livre will be ideally positioned to pursue its ambitions to be a global leader by bringing business closer together and unlocking new opportunities for growth in those strategic markets," said Lagardère. "The success that David Shelley has built at Hachette UK is both inspiring and impressive, and he is the best person to create a strong and unified English-language publishing team. I know that, thanks to Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group is the best home for our authors and they will continue to prosper in the care of David Shelley."

Pietsch has been CEO of Hachette Book Group for 11 years and earlier was publisher of Little, Brown and an editor. He commented: "I'm proud of everything that all of us at Hachette Book Group have accomplished in the past decade, in close partnership with our authors--thriving, growing, and reinventing ourselves through complex and challenging times. Working even more closely with our wonderful colleagues at Hachette UK, under David Shelley's excellent leadership, will make us an even stronger company, and I look forward to contributing to our future successes in every way possible in my new role."

David Shelley

Shelley, who has been CEO of Hachette UK for six years, said: "I'm incredibly honored to be given this opportunity to lead Hachette Book Group as well as Hachette UK and to work with Richard and the teams on both sides of the Atlantic to bring the two companies closer together--to help each learn from the other, and to continually reach new readers.... I'd like to pay special tribute to Michael as he has been a key figure for me over the years. As well as being a legendary editor, publisher and CEO, he is one of the most kind and thoughtful people in our industry. I am extremely pleased that he will be remaining as chairman for the coming year and I look forward to working closely with him very much."

Kitson has been working with Shelley for the past six years. He is chair of Hachette UK's subsidiary businesses, including Paperblanks and Hachette in Australia, New Zealand, India and Ireland. He also leads Hachette UK's group functions, including the HUK digital, rights and audio, legal, IT, contracts, and sales departments. Since joining the company in 2014, Mangan has been responsible for the company's publishing operations, as well as its corporate strategy. Earlier he was COO for Perseus Books Group.

Two sponsors said they will not attend tonight's National Book Award ceremony, after learning that several NBA finalists plan to call for a cease-fire in Gaza during the event. The New York Times reported that rumors some authors "would take a stand regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict during the ceremony were flying in the days leading up to the event, but it was unclear what the statement would include, leaving several sponsors concerned."

Zibby Owens, founder of Zibby Media, wrote in an essay published on Substack that her company had withdrawn because she was afraid the remarks at the ceremony would take a stance against Israel, noting that "we simply can't be a part of anything that promotes discrimination, in this case of Israel and the Jewish people."

Another sponsor, Book of the Month, has also decided not to attend. In a statement, the organization said it continued to support the event.  

"I don't want to look back on this time, and say that I was silent while people were suffering," said Aaliyah Bilal, a finalist in the fiction category and one of the authors planning to speak out. She told the Times that a number of finalists are planning to take the stage at the end of the ceremony as one person reads the statement calling for a cease-fire, adding that she and other writers want to demonstrate sensitivity to losses on all sides and intend to specifically denounce antisemitism.

"It was very important, as we were constructing it, that we were clear that we are sensitive to all of the antisemitism going on in this moment," Bilal said of the statement. "We don't want to contribute to inflaming that."

Yesterday, the National Book Foundation released a statement noting, in part: "Our mission is to ensure books have a prominent place in our culture, and are central to national, and global, conversation. At this time of so much pain and suffering in our world, we believe writers’ words--and the insight and inspiration they bring--are more important than ever....

"Political statements, if made, are by no means unprecedented in the history of the National Book Awards, or indeed any awards ceremony. We are working with the venue to ensure a safe environment for all our guests. We of course hope that everyone attending the National Book Awards, in person or tuning in online, comes in a spirit of understanding, compassion, and humanity--the very things that the books we love inspire."

Ratty Books, a children's bookstore, has opened at 4893 Main Street in Jeffersonville, N.Y. The Albany Times Union reported that for owner Caitlin Kranz Yaccino, "cracking open a children's book has always been a magical occasion. To her, they're tools for conveying deep themes to young minds as much as they are creators of cherished memories."

"Children's books are just very special," she said. "It's a blend of nostalgia and art because they're so beautiful. They talk about things in small ways."

In addition to books, "stuffed animals and handmade goods fill the shelves and double windows of the cool-blue interior" of the shop named after the character in The Wind and the Willows. The Times Union noted that the owner wanted the store to have a kind of "British cozy" atmosphere. "Its formal grand opening on Halloween drew curious new visitors, along with Yaccino's friends and family who have shown up to lend a hand wherever they could."

"I literally had a painting party and all of the great moms I know from around town came and painted with me for a night," she said. "Friends and family have been incredible getting it all set up."

Yaccino, her husband and two children moved to Sullivan County from Brooklyn, N.Y., during the pandemic after visiting from their weekend house since 2017. She had worked several years in children's boutique retail, but dreamed of owning her own store or launching some sort of pop-up. A friend told her about retail space available in Jeffersonville, and Yaccino jumped at the opportunity.

Yaccino envisions Ratty Books as a space that prompts all kinds of conversations: "I want kids to feel comfortable here. I want kids to feel like they can talk to me about anything, and that I can talk to them about whatever they want to talk about. I want it to be a comfortable moment."

In keeping with the community-building power of third places, she plans to hold events for kids and parents, including weekly story times. "I cannot say enough (about the support) from other business owners to locals popping in," she added. "I feel super loved and supported. I'm really grateful."

Nielsen BookData reported a five-year trend of increasing print book sales during the annual Black Friday retail promotion in Australia. Books+Publishing reported that since 2017, unit sales in the Australian book market have been 32% higher (on average) in the week of Black Friday, compared to the four weeks prior, according to Nielsen. This equates to approximately 440,000 more books being sold during the Black Friday week than in the four previous weeks.

Sales for Black Friday week in 2019 were 36% higher, with a similar rise in 2020, a slight decline to 28% in 2021, and again a 36% peak in 2022, when there were additional unit sales of more than 541,000 during Black Friday week.

The lead-up to Christmas is a key trading period for the book industry, Books+Publishing noted, with the four weeks to Christmas typically accounting for 17% of the annual revenue of the measured Australian book market.

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Kwame Scott Fraser

Kwame Scott Fraser is stepping down as president and publisher at Dundurn Press after five years in the position for the Canadian company. Quill & Quire reported that Fraser is relocating to Jamaica, but will remain at Dundurn as editor-at-large and continue to work on acquiring new titles. He will transition to his new role effective February 1, 2024.

Fraser was named to his position when founder and longtime president and publisher Kirk Howard sold the independent press in 2019 to tech entrepreneurs Jason Martin, Lorne Wallace, and Randall Howard.

"We love what he's done," Martin said. "He's taken Kirk Howard's 50-year-old entity and brought it into the 21st century. We're taking risks and we're more diverse now... all these great things and it's all because of his vision." 

Martin added that the press is looking for a new publisher who will continue to build on the momentum Fraser generated. "Our focus remains to talk about the Canadian experience and to move into the Canadian conversation books, both nonfiction and fiction, that address who we are, that talk about our present, our history, and our future."

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In Italy, sales in comic-specialized bookstores grew by 28.5% last year, according to a survey by the Italian Publishers Association. The European & Independent Booksellers Federation's Newsflash reported that bookshops specializing in the genre sold new comics worth €71.2 million (about $76.2 million), 40% of the €179.1 million (about $191.1 million) turnover from comic sales in all trade channels, including generalist bookshops, e-commerce, and supermarkets. The survey also noted that there are 440 comic-specialized bookstores across Italy.

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British bookseller's holiday season window art: "Thank you to Richard Jones and Laura for the wonderful new window painting for new book 'Tis the Season, a lift the flap poem-a-day Advent Calendar!" Ivybridge Bookshop, Ivybridge, Devon, U.K., posted on Instagram. --Robert Gray

Jim Toole

Jim Toole, a Navy rear admiral "who commanded cruisers, destroyers and Mekong River patrol boats before taking charge of Capitol Hill Books, the Washington [D.C.] bookstore that became as well known for his endearingly grumpy presence at the front desk as for its stock of used and rare books," died November 11, the Washington Post reported. He was 86. Toole owned the used bookshop for more than two decades before selling it to a group of longtime employees in 2018. He continued to work there until his death.

Located across from Eastern Market, in a three-floor rowhouse, the bookshop was founded in 1991 by Bill Kerr, a former Jesuit priest who sold classified advertisements for the Washington Post. "Under Adm. Toole, the store grew until books filled nearly every conceivable nook and cranny: Fiction upstairs, nonfiction on the ground level, sports and science-fiction in the basement, where a cautionary warning was posted for customers: 'Lights hang low, are head-smackable,' " the Post wrote. 

"He was the saltiest of dogs," co-owner Kyle Burk said, describing Toole as both a quintessential Navy man--his favorite book was Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History--and a cultural omnivore, fond of bluegrass, the Eurythmics and the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha, as well as the poetry of John Masefield and Sara Teasdale, which he could recite from memory.

"When you walked into the bookstore, to him you were walking onto his ship," Burk said. "The front desk was the conn [conning tower] and he was piloting the store from the conn. When he would leave his ship, he'd say, 'Okay, lad, you take the conn.' If you asked him, 'Hey, Jim, I've got a question,' he'd reply, 'You may fire when ready, Gridley,' which was [George] Dewey's famous command from the Battle of Manila Bay."

Toole's system was "controlled disorganization," but there were certain points of order and decorum: he did not allow backpacks and cellphone conversations were absolutely forbidden. "This is a bookstore, not a phone booth," a sign on the door declared.

"Those who stuck around, joining the staff or informally helping him take the stickers off used books, became members of an extended family in which he served as patriarch and poet laureate," the Post wrote.

"Anytime there was a dinner, anytime someone had a birthday, a special life event, Jim would write a poem in their honor and read it aloud," Burk recalled. "I have a lot of memories of him standing up in the middle of restaurants and loudly reciting poems, to the shock of the other diners around him.... He was just an incredibly generous person. He was always the first person to buy people a round of drinks at the bar, to buy people dinner. You almost had to beg him to stop buying things."

Toole retired from the Navy in 1987, and by the early 1990s, he was frequenting Capitol Hill Books, where Kerr lived on the top floor and ran the shop on the lower level. After Kerr died in 1994, Toole bought the store the next year from Kerr's sister. At 81, he sold the store to four employees, all millennials: Burk, Aaron Beckwith, Shantanu Malkar, and the late Matt Wixon. "It was time to get the old fart out," Toole explained at the time, adding that the store needed "fresh young blood." 

Mystery writer Juneau Black (aka authors Sharon Nagel and Jocelyn Cole) visited Content Bookstore in Northfield, Minn., for an evening of hot cider, cozy treats, and a reading from the Shady Hollow mystery series; the fourth book in the series, Twilight Falls (Vintage), is out now. Pictured: (l.-r.) booksellers Rachel Johnson and Ellie Ray; Jocelyn Cole; bookseller David Wolff; Sharon Nagel; Content Bookstore owner Jessica Peterson White.

"Still feeling all the feels of Candlelight Charm," Flint Hills Books, Council Grove, Kan., posted on Instagram. 

Last Saturday, Flint Hills Books and downtown Main Street in Council Grove "could have been the setting of a Hallmark movie during Candlelight Charm. We even received a surprise visit from Santa!" bookshop owner Jennifer Kassebaum noted. 

"Two new signs this week? I must have had magic hands!" Sandmeyer's Bookstore, Chicago, Ill., posted on Facebook. The sidewalk chalkboard wisdom: "Sweater weather is better with a book"; and "Novembrrr, warm up with a new book!"

At HarperCollins:

Kelly Rudolph is taking over the expanded role of v-p of publicity and integrated marketing strategy, Morrow Group and HarperCollins Children's.

Ann Dye has been appointed executive director of sales operations & trade shows, overseeing the sales operations team for general books, children's, Harlequin, and international sales. In addition, the school, library, and academic marketing teams will now report to her.

Patty Rosati, senior director, school & library marketing, will lead the combined library and school marketing teams.

The Last Love Note by Emma Grey (Zibby Books).

Today:
Fresh Air: Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Robin L. Smith, authors of The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power (Balance, $30, 9781538725139).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Lauren Graham, author of Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don't Want to Forget to Remember (Ballantine, $18, 9780593355442).

Jennifer Hudson Show: José Andrés, co-author of Feeding Dangerously (TKO Studios, $44.99, 9781952203978).

Steve Carell will make his Broadway debut at Lincoln Center Theater in the title role of a revival of Anton Chekhov's classic play Uncle Vanya, directed by Lila Neugebauer from a new translation by Tony nominee Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me), Playbill reported. The production will begin previews April 2, 2024, ahead of an April 24 opening night at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. 

The cast also includes Tony nominee Alison Pill (Three Tall Women, The Lieutenant of Inishmore) as Sonya; Emmy nominee William Jackson Harper (The Good Place, All the Way) as Astrov; Tony winner Jayne Houdyshell as Mama Voinitski, Mia Katigbak as Marina, three-time Tony nominee Alfred Molina (Art, Red) as Alexander Serabryakov, and Tony winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, Or Change) as Yelena.

John Burnside has won the £40,000 (about $48,900) David Cohen Prize for Literature, sponsored by the John S. Cohen Foundation and New Writing North, which recognizes "a living writer from the U.K. or Republic of Ireland for a lifetime's achievement in literature."

Burnside is the author of 14 books of poetry, including Black Cat Bone, which won both the T.S. Eliot and the Forward Prizes in 2011 and, most recently, Ruin, Blossom, which will appear in April 2024. Among his prose works are the novels Glister and  A Summer of Drowning, three memoirs, of which the most recent is  I Put a Spell on You, and The Music of Time, a personal history of 20th century poetry, which was a  Financial Times  Book of the Year in 2019.

Organizers called Burnside "a poet, novelist, story-writer, memoirist, and essayist. He has been writing every imaginable kind of book--and some unimaginable kinds--for at least 35 years. He has an amazing literary range, he pours out a cornucopia of beautiful words, and he has won an array of distinguished prizes before this one. He casts a spell with language of great beauty, power, lyricism and truthfulness. There is much sorrow, pain, terror and violence lurking in his work: he is a strong and powerful writer about the dark places of the human mind--but he’s also funny and deeply humane. He has a resonant Northern quality, with his Scottish language and landscapes and people and ghosts, his strange, wild, dreamlike storytelling and his mysterious adventures in the far North. There's a deeply spiritual side to his work, but he's also in love with ordinary, the everyday, the earthbound. He's a writer who pays attention to the natural world with tenderness and care, even a kind of pagan religious intensity, and who makes us care about the things that matter to him."

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Sarah Bernstein won the C$100,000 (about US$72,465) Scotiabank Giller Prize, which recognizes the "author of the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection published in English," for her novel, Study for Obedience. Each of the remaining finalists receives C$10,000 (about US$7,245). 

The jury said: "The modernist experiment continues to burn incandescently in Sarah Bernstein's slim novel, Study for Obedience. Bernstein asks the indelible question: what does a culture of subjugation, erasure, and dismissal of women produce? In this book, equal parts poisoned and sympathetic, Bernstein's unnamed protagonist goes about exacting, in shockingly twisted ways, the price of all that the world has withheld from her. The prose refracts Javier Marias sometimes, at other times Samuel Beckett. It's an unexpected and fanged book, and its own studied withholdings create a powerful mesmeric effect."

Elana Rabinovitch, executive director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, commented: "Sincere congratulations to Sarah Bernstein on her win tonight. Study for Obedience is a ground-breaking, contemplative novel about victimhood and survival, a story told with unnerving precision by an author at the top of her game."

The winner will be honored with an in-person interview as part of the 2024 San Miguel Writer's Conference & Literary Festival, on February 22, 2024. 

R.W. (Bob) Alley has been illustrating original stories since he was a child growing up in South Carolina and Maryland. With more than 100 titles to his credit, Alley may be best known as the illustrator for all of Michael Bond's Paddington Bear books for nearly 30 years. His books have been on bestseller lists and received many awards, including a Geisel Honor and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Firefighters to the Rescue! (Kane Press/Astra Books for Young Readers) is the first in a series of community-oriented picture books that he has both written and illustrated.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A crew of anthropomorphic firefighters zooms through a dramatic but reassuring introduction to firefighting equipment and procedures, featuring many diagrams and a little ice cream (melted).

On your nightstand now:

Nighttime reading is novel-reading time. Right now, the reading light is clipped to Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Could the social commentary and surprising, fresh language of Dickens's David Copperfield be reborn in the Appalachian Mountains? Indeed, it can.

Also clipped: a well-illustrated biography of Raymond Briggs by Nicolette Jones. Helpfully entitled Raymond Briggs, it is part of the excellent Thames & Hudson Illustrators series. Reading bios of other kid lit creators is a good way not to feel lonely in this sometimes-solitary enterprise.

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Sailor Dog by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams in its original Little Golden Books format. I was slow at understanding words but quick at reading pictures. This book hit the sweet spot. Words used for motivations, pictures for actions and scenes. As I learned to recognize letters as word pictures, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum became a favorite, as did The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It was then I noticed the difference between illustrations that decorate a story and illustrations that drive the storytelling. Ernest Shepard's bright and sharp drawings are integral to Grahame's story; not so W.W. Denslow's decorations depicting Oz.

Your top five authors:

Of course, you mean...

Your top five author/illustrators:

Understanding that five is way too small a number AND that everyone currently making illustrated books are doing their absolute best, most heartfelt work, I will list creators who are no longer with us, but come easily to mind as I glance around my bookshelves:

Jean De Brunhoff, Tove Jansson, Geoffrey Hayes, Edward Ardizzone, Raymond Briggs, William Steig, Richard Scarry.

Book you've faked reading:

Depending on whom I'm trying to impress, these would include almost any book of verse, ancient or modern. Not that I don't try, but the words all seem to get fuzzy and go sideways. Understandably then, I fudge Shakespeare primarily through illustrated scenes and snippets of film. It's shameful really. Although clearly not so shameful that I shy away from admitting it here. Maybe I'm hoping for a support group of the unversed?

Book you're an evangelist for:

I'll offer three answers:

In the world of picture books, an underappreciated set of five books by New Yorker illustrator Charles E. Martin are wonderful. Island Winter (Greenwillow, 1984) began the series set on Monhegan Island in the Gulf of Maine.

In the illustrated long-form genre, The Stray by Betsy James Wyeth, illustrated by Jamie Wyeth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979) reminds me so much of The Wind in the Willows in both plot and pictures.

My adult selection is Raymond Briggs's autobiographical Time for Lights Out (Jonathan Cape, 2019) in which he reviews his life and career.

Book you've bought for the cover:

So many. I'm looking around the room again. Ah... The Barnabus Project by Terry, Eric, and Devin Fan. A picture book that more than lives up to its cover promise.

Book you hid from your parents:

That would be my sketchbooks. Once I got to high school this drawing and writing business was not to be encouraged as serious enterprise. These things were the pursuits of garret-dwelling, thin-broth-slurping, consumptive types who saved newspaper to line their shoes. Certainly not the proper goals of a split-level-living, beef-fed, only child.

Book that changed your life:

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond. When I was asked to audition to illustrate a new suite of Paddington picture books, I read all the novels in order. I felt an instant connection to both bear and author. My enthusiasm continues.

Favorite line from a book:

Circling back to The Sailor Dog, I think the opening few lines are themselves a master class in how to write a picture book text. The book begins: "Born at sea in the teeth of a gale, the sailor was a dog. Scuppers was his name. After that he lived on a farm." What?! And, yet, perfect, because the story is all about Scuppers reclaiming a part of himself that's been lost. The why and how of the loss is not important. No back-story is needed. No villain. No event. Skip all that and get moving forward on Scuppers' quest and resolution.

Five books you'll never part with:

I didn't know you COULD part with a book once you acquired it. You only make more bookshelves, right?

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I would love to be my six-year-old self encountering my favorite Little Golden Books for the first time. Especially BEFORE I could read. That's the thing about reading. Once you learn how to read, you can't not read. Even if you don't know the language, I think you still try to puzzle out the letters for a moment. And in that moment, the primacy of the image is lost. That's why I wish in art museums the labels were well away from the paintings, and in parks the description of all things involving the view was tucked off to the side.

In my adult life, I'd list John Irving's The World According to Garp, Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. Although, since time and place always inform the reading, the experiences would likely be different.

Why make picture books?

I think all children need places to go that they can control in their own time and in their own way. This is the special thing about a book. Especially an illustrated book. If you've ever watched a child holding a book on their lap, their face close to the page, concentrating hard, then you know exactly why making picture books is so important and so rewarding.

The adventures of a mischievous child dressed in a tiger costume make for an adorable comic book for young readers in author Agata Loth-Ignaciuk and illustrator Berenika Kolomycka's Mika and the Gurgler. Much like its predecessor, Mika and the Howler, this title uses minimal text to tell a grand story.

Toddler Mika giggles at the reflection of their foaming mouth in the mirror while brushing their teeth, and performs experiments in the bathroom sink with bubbles. When discovered, Mika cleans up and follows their laundry-toting parent to the closet. There the child encounters a mysterious device with a door set perfectly at Mika height. The toddler crawls in and the machine spins. "HA HA HA!" shrieks the delighted tiny tiger. "Look, Frog! A merry-go-round!" Mika squeals before giving Frog a turn. As the stuffed animal completes dizzying turns, Mika's parent unexpectedly pulls the toddler away, leaving Frog in the merry-go-round. Mika tries to entice Frog--"Jump out, Frog!"--but it's no use. Frog is left behind.

Frog's situation grows more dire when Mika's parent fills the merry-go-round with clothes, shuts the door, and "beep"s some buttons. This is no longer an amusing game--this is a gurgling, whirring, shaking monster. Mika recruits stuffed animal friends Spider and Caterpillar to figure out how to save Frog from the gurgler.

The lack of text in Loth-Ignaciuk's sweet story does not limit its depth. Kolomycka's animated illustrations include striking nuances: delightfully evil expressions adorn the gurgler as it spins the captive Frog; an explosion of colors, symbols, lines, waves, and characters visually narrate the battle between child and machine; and Mika's emotions and determination radiate from the young, tiger-head-framed face. The full wonder of Kolomycka's illustrations demands multiple passes to appreciate everything. Expertly accenting Kolomycka's genius art is lettering by Crank! that shows the auditory clash between Mika and the gurgler. Heavy black "WRRRRR"s and "GRGL"s emphasize the power of the gurgler, while large "AAAAAH"s accompanied by exclamation points drive home the fear Mika feels confronting this strange monster. The trio responsible for this delightful childhood exploit shows a true understanding of how extreme the experiences of daily life can be for a toddler, and have blended their talents seamlessly for an exciting literary triumph. Budding book lovers will want this one in their personal libraries, while the adults charged with reading it will never see their household appliances in the same way. --Jen Forbus, freelancer

Shelf Talker: A toddler goes to battle with the mysterious gurgler in order to save her friend Frog in an endearing comic book for early readers.