September 26, 2018

Interactive Wimpy Kid Tour: Author Jeff Kinney is taking a road trip along the East Coast to promote his newest Wimpy Kid release: The Meltdown (Amulet Books), out on October 30. He’ll make 12 stops along the way, winding up in Winnipeg, Canada. What’s new and different about this tour? It’ll feature an interactive stage experience. Kinney says he’s excited about the trip because it offers a “whole new way” to connect with fans. The tour begins on October 30 in Boston, MA.

Banned Books Week: The ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has released this list of the top banned books from 2017 in an effort to shed light on the subject of censorship.

Publisher Penguin Random House is also speaking up during Banned Book Week, posting quotes from books that have been challenegd or banned. Check out their Insta account: @PenguinRandomHouse Instagram account If you repost PRH’s posts or tag other users and comment with the hashtags #BannedBooksWeek and #Sweepstakes, you’ll get an entry into a sweepstake. For every entry up to the 5,000th, PRH will donate a book to We Need Diverse Books.

Heather Murphy Capps

Heather Murphy Capps has always had a deep appreciation for comfort and elegance. She and Claudia would have run out of money quickly together but would absolutely have been on the same page about taxis and nice restaurants. And of course, solving mysteries about beautiful art. That said, Heather also appreciates Jamie’s love of complication, which is why she spent several years living in rural Kenya and then became a television news reporter, which involved standing for hours in the middle of hurricanes and political battles. Now she’s raising middle-grade readers and writing for them. She loves to read and write books with lots of great science, magic, mystery, and adventure. Heather is the communications coordinator for Mixed-Up Files, as well as creator/curator for our We Need Diverse MG series. She is committed to creating more diversity in publishing.