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 What led you to create Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle?

It all happened quite accidentally. One day at the library I came across a book of photographs from 1907. It was so captivating I couldn't put it down.  Looking through the book at home I was stopped in my tracks by a photograph of Mrs. Dixon in her victorian dress and hat out riding hundreds of feet up in the air on a crazy looking dirigible!  The surreal effect of this photo was the spark that started me down the long road to the book Cromwell Dixon's Sky-Cycle.

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Spent by Geoffrey Miller (Viking, 5/18)

Why do we buy what we buy? Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior, by leading evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, is a bold and revelatory book that illuminates the unseen logic behind the chaos of consumerism and suggests new ways we can become happier consumers and more responsible citizens.

Evolutionary psychology—the compelling science of human nature—has clarified the prehistoric origins of human behavior and influenced many fields, ranging from economics to personal relationships. In Spent, Miller applies this revolutionary science’s principles to a new domain: the sensual wonderland of marketing and status seeking that we call American consumer culture. Starting with the basic notion that the goods and services we buy unconsciously advertise our biological potential as mates and friends, Miller examines the hidden factors that dictate our choices in everything from lipstick to cars, from the magazines we read to the music we listen to. With humor and insight, Miller analyzes an array of product choices and deciphers what our decisions’ say about us, giving us access to a new way of understanding—and improving—our behaviors. Spent has already been featured in Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Discover Magazine, as well as Library Journal, who said, “…reading this book should be considered time well spent”. Geoffrey Miller’s latest goes on-sale next week, coverage in John Tierney's column in the New York Times Science Section, as well as features in Seed, Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, Allure, and many more.
 

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New on the Penguin Website

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street by Kate Kelly is the definitive account of a once-great firm's demise, and the human folly that led to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Read an excerpt here.

In this week’s Penguin Podcast, children’s author Barbara Joosse, illustrator Jan Jutte and editor Patty Gauch discuss how their collaboration on the new picture book ROAWR! came about, and why it’s okay for little boys to be a little bearish at times.

Also, listen as Barbara Josse reads the full story in this special podcast reading of Roawr!.

Next week, Ira Rosofsky will discuss his book based on his experiences working in the eldercare industry, his coming of old-age story, Nasty, Brutish, and Long.

Read Ira’s recent blog posts here.

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Teachers Wild about Penguin Books and Authors at 2009 IRA Conference 

The International Reading Association (IRA) North Central Conference was held last week in Minneapolis, MN. The Penguin Young Readers Group booth was constantly flooded with enthusiastic and energetic educators, curriculum directors, principals and reading specialists who were excited to learn more about Penguin Young Readers books and to pick up the many freebies offered for giveaway. Thousands of attendees took home galleys and f&gs of summer and fall titles and were buzzing in particular about Skippyjon Jones Lost in Space by Judy Schachner, January’s Sparrow by Patricia Polacco, Otis by Loren Long, A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck, Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko, Hold Still by Nina LaCour, and Fire by Kristin Cashore. Other popular items distributed were a free teacher’s edition bind-up of Richard Peck’s Newbery Honor-winning A Long Way from Chicago and Newbery Medal-winning A Year Down Yonder and classroom guides to books by Mike Lupica and the Ranger’s Apprentice series.

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Penguin Young Readers' Lauren Myracle Wins Children’s Choice Book Award for Thirteen

Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of the popular tween books, Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, won the CBC Children’s Choice Book Award in the Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade category for Thirteen (Dutton/Puffin). The Children’s Choice Book Awards were announced live at the awards gala held Tuesday, May 12th in New York as part of Children’s Book Week (May 11-17, 2009), the oldest national literacy event in the United States. Award winners were determined this year by over 220,000 online votes by kids across the country. The awards ceremony was hosted by Viking Children's author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jon Scieszka who presented the Impact Award to Whoopi Goldberg in recognition of her vast contribution to the promotion of literacy and the love of reading among young people. Other award recipients included Stephanie Meyer, Mo Willems, Dinah Williams and Jon J Muth. Lauren Myracle's new YA book, Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks (Dutton), is a novel about teen sisters growing up (and apart) in suburban Atlanta and goes on sale today. For more about Lauren Myracle, check out her website.

Watch the book trailer for Peace, Love and Baby Ducks.
 

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Penguin Group (USA) Achieves Five Simultaneous #1 New York Times Bestsellers

Penguin Group (USA) bests its previous achievement of four simultaneous #1 bestsellers, by capturing five of the available eleven #1 slots on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of May 24th – nearly 50%! With seven new debuts, and 27 bestsellers on the list overall, Penguin has another stellar performance on the list. Read more about the highlights below.
 

Three Editions of Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea Are #1 on the New York Times Bestseller Lists Simultaneously - An Unprecedented Accomplishment 

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Greg Mortenson reaches unprecedented heights for the week of May 24th, when three different editions of Three Cups of Tea hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller lists simultaneously. Three Cups of Tea (Penguin) tops the paperback nonfiction bestseller list in its 119th week, Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and “Three Cups of Tea” (Dial) is #1 on the children’s picture book bestseller list in its 16th week, and Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition (Puffin) is #1 on the children's paperback bestseller list, also in its 16th week. For one author to achieve this triple #1 New York Times bestseller list feat is unprecedented.

The three editions of Three Cups of Tea continue to sell strongly with stores promoting them alongside Pennies for Peace boxes, and school districts incorporating it into their curricula. The success of the books is also being driven by local bookstores, schools and libraries spreading the word to their communities and rallying behind Pennies for Peace initiatives. One example: Page & Palette in Fairhope, Alabama has been working diligently with their local school district and just got word that the Young Reader’s edition of Three Cups of Tea will be part of the required reading for elementary school students county-wide.