Scholastic to Launch New Book Series by Author R.L. Stine

Scholastic will publish an all-new series from R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps(R) series-featuring Stine's hallmark combination of humor and horror. Goosebumps HorrorLand(TM), an original twelve-book series, is scheduled to launch with two books in April 2008 and a $500,000 marketing campaign for the series. The deal to extend Scholastic's Goosebumps franchise was negotiated by Lisa Holton, President of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs, and Joan Waricha, CEO & Chairman, Parachute Publishing.

Since the Goosebumps books debuted as a monthly series in 1992, more than 300 million copies have been sold worldwide in 32 languages-selling at the phenomenal rate of four million books per month in the mid-1990s. In 2003, Scholastic acquired from Parachute Publishing the Goosebumps trademark and all related rights on a worldwide basis in all media. The Goosebumps series continues to sell millions of copies worldwide each year.

Website: http://www.scholastic.com/goosebumps

Simon & Schuster to Publish Book Series for CG-Animated Film Igor

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division announced today a major publishing agreement for Exodus Film Group's upcoming CG-animated feature film "Igor." The Simon Scribbles and Simon Spotlight imprints will publish seven books in a wide variety of formats.

"Igor" is a playfully irreverent comedy that brings a new twist to the classic monster genre and tells the story of an evil scientist's hunchbacked lab assistant with big dreams of becoming a scientist himself and winning the annual Evil Science Fair.

Author Lorenzo Carcaterra Teams Up with Atari, Inc. on Alone in the Dark

Video game publisher Atari, Inc. has hired New York Times best-selling author Lorenzo Carcaterra as script writer on Alone in the Dark. Alone in the Dark will deliver blockbuster-action on a cataclysmic scale set in New York City's iconic Central Park. Alone in the Dark is being developed by Eden Games for Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system and Windows platform.

With more than twenty years of writing experience, Carcaterra lends his creative pen to provide the most authentic NYC experience yet in a video game. Born and raised in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, Carcaterra has covered the city in both fact and fiction, beginning as a reporter for the NY Daily News in 1976, becoming a successful television consultant and writer for shows including Law and Order and achieving success as the best selling author of such books as Apaches, Gangster and Sleepers, the latter of which became the hit film starring Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt.

"Alone in the Dark was a challenge which allowed me to bring a realistic feel to an apocalyptic situation facing New York City and really dig into the Central Park conspiracy idea," said Lorenzo Carcaterra. "It also allowed me to write for hard-edged characters, some good, some bad, all forced to confront a force whose power they could never imagine. The story never stalls, always moves in overdrive and the characters zoom right along at warp speed, stopping long enough along the way to say a few lines that keep driving the plot forward. The end result is, I hope, a roller-coaster of a thrill ride that should be tons of fun to play."

H2O Motion Pictures Acquires Rights to Anna Politkovskaya's Books

H2O Motion Pictures, a London and Los Angeles based independent production and distribution company, has acquired the rights to three books by Anna Politkovskaya, the award-winning Russian journalist who was shot to death in a suspected contract killing in Moscow on Saturday, the 7th of October 2006. Alexander Litvinenko the former KGB/FSB officer who four weeks later become a rare victim of lethal polonium-210 radiation poisoning under highly suspicious circumstances, accused Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the assassination of Politkovskaya. H2O will develop a feature film about Anna Politkovskaya, Russia's leading radical journalist, and a bold and steadfast critic of Vladimir Putin's presidency.

Alfred A. Knopf Canada to publish Jean Chrétien's memoirs

Alfred A. Knopf Canada and Editions du Boréal will be publishing the memoirs of former prime minister Jean Chrétien. A PASSION FOR POLITICS will be published simultaneously in English and French and will arrive in bookstores in October 2007. A PASSION FOR POLITICS is Jean Chrétien's own account, told from the heart, of his ten years as Canada's prime minister.

Atlantic Books Acquires Book By Andy Hobsbawm

A major book about the impact of the Internet on business and living, by one of the interactive industry's pioneers, Andy Hobsbawm, has been acquired by Atlantic Books.

His book is about describing this shift in the balance of power and centre of gravity in the modern world from the monolithic, the hierarchical and the centralized, towards the miniature, the networked and the distributed.

To mark the announcement of the book, the publisher, Toby Mundy (who acquired the rights for Atlantic Books Ltd) and Andy Hobsbawm are releasing a draft introduction on Hobsbawm's blog, http://www.small-big.com.

Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint Sign Book Deal With Thomas Nelson

In communities across the country, Bill Cosby has publicly drawn attention in the last three years to the dire crises in black America: more young men in prison than in college, 50 percent high-school drop-out rates, too many children born to teen-aged parents, children whose parents are ill-equipped and disinterested in parenting. These problems have been fermenting for years, but few have called them out with as much force, determination, passion, and credibility as has Dr. Cosby.

Now Cosby, and Alvin F. Poussaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a civil rights veteran, lay out their message of hope and empowerment in a new book with Nashville-based publisher Thomas Nelson, entitled "Come on, People! On the Path from Victims to Victors," scheduled for publication in fall 2007.

"Come on People!" is built around the themes of Cosby's popular call-out sessions, in which he has challenged people in towns and cities across America to reclaim and restore their families and communities.