In the News...

• The awesome Susan Patron defends the Newbery in the Los Angeles Times in response to Valerie Strauss's claim in the Washington Post last month that "the literary world is debating the Newbery's value, asking whether the books that have won recently are so complicated and inaccessible to most children that they are effectively turning off kids to reading."
• Publishers Lunch reports: "Running Press president and publisher Jon Anderson will join Simon & Schuster as evp and publisher of their children's division on January 21."
• PW Children's Bookshelf reports on holdiday sales: "Children’s books proved to be one of the most recession-resistant segments of the book business this holiday season, with the Twilight series and the latest from J.K. Rowling leading the pack."