More Book of the Year Awards!!!

We had another wonderful surprise in our inbox today; something we accidentally overlooked on Monday! Pendred (Penny) Noyce's Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers has also been selected as a finalist for ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards 2010! It has been selected for the Young Adult Fiction category.  (You'll notice the selection is for the first edition, which was published in October 2010 by Tumblehome Press. The first edition will be out of print come July 1, 2011. The Scarletta edition is available for pre-order, and has a publication date of August 9, 2011.)

View the complete list of Young Adult Fiction competitors here. Winners will be announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference, June 23-28, 2011. **Penny will be signing books at the Publishers Group West booth at ALA.

Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers is a literary fantasy for readers ages 9-12. It tells the story of two cousins, Ivan and Daphne, on a quest to find lost children in a world of words and numbers running wild.

A first-time author, Pendred’s novel has been selected as a recommended read by the Indie Next Kids List Winter 2011. And ForeWord Reviews says it “...breaks new ground in the adventure genre. This rollicking, often tongue-in-cheek novel will appeal to young readers who need a break from their computer games and long to journey into the woods of learning.”

“Lost in Lexicon is a smart romp of a book. Just as 13-year-olds Ivan and Daphne are propelled on a quest through the land of Lexicon so the reader will be pulled through this intriguing story with its puzzles and games. A challenging read and an entertaining adventure rolled into an extremely handsome package with excellent illustrations.” — Mary Logue, co-author of the Bloodwater mystery series

Book of the Year Awards

We had a wonderful surprise in our inbox today. ForeWord's Book of the Year Award finalists for 2010 have been announced! Clicking the link I discovered that Leonard Borman's Our Jewish Robot Future: A Novel About the Garden of Eden and the Cyborgian Transformation of the Human Race has been selected as a finalist in the Fiction - Science Fiction Category.

View the complete list of Science Fiction competitors here. Winners will be announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Conference, June 23-28, 2011.

Our Jewish Robot Future presents a cheeky story that visits the Garden of Eden and questions the absence of an 11th commandment: Thou shall NOT nosh thy brother. Margarita Haralson, a post-menopausal housewife determined to become pregnant in spite of her children’s refusal to give her grandchildren, narrates the story to her newborn child. This is a must read for anyone curious for an alternative, comedic take on human existence and Jewish family relations.

“A strange adventure with even stranger concepts … a highly entertaining and very highly recommended read." — The Midwest Book Review, November 2010

Too Much Good News?? No such thing!

There was already no doubt about it... Lost in Lexicon is a hit. But just because we can... Here's some more great reviews and interviews! Check 'em out!

Elle Strauss interviews Pendred Noyce
http://ellestraussbooks.blogspot.com/2011/02/self-publishing-success-story.html

Andrea from Online With Andrea interviews and reviews
http://andreasonlineblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/lost-in-lexicon-by-pendred-noyce.html
...and then it went global...

Scarletta goes big time...

Claire Kirch wrote a nice little article in Publisher's Weekly about Scarletta's new line: children's books.

Scarletta Press, a small press in Minneapolis best known for its nonfiction, including an annual Writer’s Handbook, is launching a children’s fiction line this summer. The first title in the new line will be Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Pictures by Pendred Noyce, illustrated by Joan Charles. Continue reading...

Thanks PW! Way to go Scarletta!

Choosing Lexicon

Check out these links for reviews and fun stuff about Lexicon in the news:

An article about Penny and Lost in Lexicon by Carolyn Ellis in the Wellesley Weston Magazine
http://wellesleywestonmagazine.com/spring11/dept_books.htm

Reviews for mathematics and writing on a gifted child website
http://www.icanbeanything.ca/Site/Book_Selections.html

Laurie Hertzel mentions Scarletta's contract with Penny
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/115219944.html

Hassie hits the news...

According to a Publisher's Weekly review, "Nostalgia takes it on the chin in Cory's over-dramatic but atmospherically pleasing debut, the beginning of a projected trilogy about Hassie Calhoun, a 17-year-old Texas rose who arrives in 1960s Las Vegas with a big dream of becoming the next Peggy Lee..."

Well we're pretty excited about this nice, short but sweet, review and you should be too! You should also be excited to read the novel when it hits shelves this June 1 because "Cory's alternately gritty and sudsy depiction of early '60s Sin City transports the reader back to a time when the Rat Pack ethos ruled..." You're gonna love it!

Read the rest of the review here.

Scarletta Press launches new children’s line with "Lost in Lexicon" by Pendred Noyce

Minneapolis-based Scarletta Press announces that it will launch a new children’s book line by acquiring Lost in Lexicon: an Adventure in Words and Numbers by Pendred Noyce. A self-published literary fantasy for readers ages 9-12, "Lost in Lexicon" tells the story of two cousins, Ivan and Daphne, on a quest to find lost children in a world of words and numbers running wild. “It’s just the combination of braininess, humor, and adventure we were looking for to start our new line,” says Ian Graham Leask, Scarletta’s publisher.

Look for this cover AUGUST 2011

 With four books planned, the Lexicon series will serve as cornerstone of Scarletta’s new line of intellectually stimulating books for strong and thoughtful readers. “We want to publish fiction that ‘writes up’ to kids, treating them as young intellectuals who enjoy thinking,” says Leask. "Our books will be fun, adventurous, and suspenseful, but their vocabulary and storylines will be designed to challenge young readers in the right way.”

Founded in 2005, Scarletta Press has gained a reputation as a publisher of high quality literary fiction and non-fiction. Its adult books have won or been nominated for a number of literary awards.

Pendred Noyce, author of "Lost in Lexicon," is a Massachusetts physician, education reformer, and mother of five. She is active in educational philanthropy as a trustee of the Noyce Foundation, where she takes a special interest in mathematics and science education. Serving on the boards of multiple math and science-based education non-profits, she also chairs the board of the Libra Foundation in Maine and the Rennie Center for Education Policy Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Noyce wrote "Lost in Lexicon," her first book for children, as a gift for her son Damian’s ninth birthday. “I wanted to see if I could make middle school math and language concepts come alive in characters and villages. I had a lot of fun writing the book, but when my agent took it out to large publishers, they considered it too didactic and old-fashioned for today’s kids.” Convinced that the publishers were wrong, Noyce formed her own company, Tumblehome Press, and assembled her own editorial and artistic team. Illustrations by Joan Charles, a California artist, brought a sense of playful magic to the text.