AP Newsbreak: Suzanne Collins/James Proimos Picture Book Coming Out In 2013.

“The Hunger Games” novelist Suzanne Collins has a new book coming out next year.
The multimillion-selling children’s author has completed an autobiographical picture story scheduled for Sept. 10, 2013, Scholastic Inc. announced Thursday. The 40-page book will be called “Year of the Jungle,” based on the time in Vietnam served by Collins’ father, a career Air Force officer.

“Year of the Jungle” is her first book since 2010’s “Mockingjay,” the last of “The Hunger Games” trilogy that made Collins an international sensation. More than 50 million copies of the “Hunger Games” books are in print and the first of four planned movies has grossed more than $600 million worldwide since being released out in March.

Collins’ next project will be intended for ages 4 and up, a younger audience than those who have read, and re-read, her dystopian stories about young people forced to hunt and kill each other. But “Year of the Jungle” will continue, in a gentler way, the author’s exploration of war. James Proimos, an old friend from her days as a television writer who helped persuade Collins to become a children’s author, illustrated the book.

“For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Vietnam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those. It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book,” Collins, 50, said in a statement released by Scholastic.

“Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, ‘That sounds fantastic.’ I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art. It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, ‘Do you want to do it?’ Fortunately he said ‘Yes.’”

“How could I refuse?” Proimos said in a statement. “The idea she laid out over burritos and ice tea during our lunch was brilliant and not quite like any picture book I had ever come across. The writing is moving and personal. What Suzanne does so well here is convey complicated emotions through the eyes of a child.”

According to Scholastic, “Year of the Jungle” will tell of a little girl named Suzy and her fears after her father leaves for war. She wonders when he’ll come back and “feels more and more distant” as he misses family gatherings. He does return, but he has changed and his daughter must learn that “he still loves her just the same.”

Collins has said before that she wanted to write a book about her father. In a 2010 interview with The Associated Press, she explained that her father was a trained historian who made a point of discussing war with his family.

“I believe he felt a great responsibility and urgency about educating his children about war,” she said. “He would take us frequently to places like battlefields and war monuments. It would start back with whatever had precipitated the war and moved up through the battlefield you were standing in and through that and after that. It was a very comprehensive tour guide experience. So throughout our lives we basically heard about war.”

Scholastic also announced Thursday that “Catching Fire,” the second “Hunger Games” book and originally released in 2009, is coming out in June as a paperback. The paperback edition usually comes within a year of the hardcover, but “Catching Fire” had been selling so well that Scholastic waited. “Mockingjay” has yet to be released as a paperback.

Next summer, Collins’ five-volume “The Underland Chronicles,” published before “The Hunger Games,” will be reissued with new covers.

“’The Underland Chronicles,’ with its fantasy world and 11-year old protagonist, Gregor, was designed for middle readers,” Collins said in a statement. “The ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy features a teen narrator, Katniss Everdeen, and a stark dystopian backdrop for the YA (young adult) audience. ‘Year of the Jungle’ attempts to reach the picture book readers by delving into my own experience as a first grader with a father deployed in Vietnam.

The Knuckle And Potty Eraser Kit.

From Elizabeth Bird's School Library Journal blog:

THE BEST BIKE RIDE EVER
by James Proimos
Illustrated by Johanna Wright

Review of the Day: One thing I love about the picture book world is the random collaborations that spring seemingly out of nowhere.  Take The Best Bike Ride Ever as today’s example.  I like James Proimos (Todd’s TV).  I like Johanna Wright (The Secret Circus).  Put ‘em both together and what do you have?  An endearing and engaging tale of a girl who learns to ride her bike before she learns that there’s such a thing out there as “brakes”.  Awesome.

A recently published rant from Proimos.

Click here to read it.

From Suzanne Collins' website:

At present, Suzanne is at work on a picture book with James Proimos.

From Kirkus Review:

KNUCKLE AND POTTY DESTROY HAPPY WORLD
by James Proimos

Two cutesy-poo picture-book characters seek (and find) a way to toughen up their images.

Chafing at the roles forced on them in previous bestsellers with titles like Tiger and Bear Are Cute and Tiger and Bear Are Wholesome, Knuckle Tiggerelli and Potty Polarberg seek help to escape their upcoming outing, Tiger and Bear Go to Happy World. Appeals to their author (who turns out to be not the TV celebrity named on their title pages, but a ghost writer named Gregory) and illustrator get only hostile responses. Knuckle and Potty (respectively, small pink and green outline figures with oversized eyes and lashes) arm themselves with erasers and mount a direct assault on Happy World’s trees and flowers. Alas, these turn out to be less defenseless than their sappy smiles imply. Proimos cranks up the general air of chaos by mixing narrative text with loosely drawn framed and unframed cartoon scenes and trots in other stars of page and screen. Such lights as Winkie the Pug and the rhyme-spouting Chicken in the Beret lend aid and advice.

A knee-slapper for recent early-reader grads who like their metafiction on the droll side.

From Colleen Mondor, a Bookslut columnist and reviewer for Booklist and Eclectica Magazine:

12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU CRASH AND BURN by James Proimos


Proimos manages to make the most of every word in the 128 pages of 12 Things to Do. In the opening, we learn that sixteen-year-old Hercules has lost his self-help guru father in a plane crash and is being sent for two weeks to his uncle's home so his mother can deal with the aftermath. ("Herc" is a bit of a mouthy handful and she would like a break in the post-funeral period.) As it turns out, while Dad was very good at telling the world how they should live their lives (and making a pretty penny at it), he was not good at being a father. Herc makes his opinion clear at the funeral when he uses his moment in front of the congregation to say, "He was an ass. My father was a complete and total ass." It makes sense why his mother would need a break.

Uncle Anthony is a hard worker who has a decent relationship with his nephew and decides to challenge him in an unorthodox manner. Rather than allow him to wallow around the house during his visit, he gives Herc a list of twelve tasks (cue the Greek gods reference) that must be completed before he leaves. They include "Choose a mission," "Muck the stalls at Riverbend Farm," "Go on seven job interviews," and "Find the best pizza joint in town." Herc's knee-jerk reaction is to rebel, but Uncle Anthony is undaunted; the boy will do what he needs to do. So, because he really has no choice, Herc sets out (in a huff) and finds himself accomplishing the pizza joint task. From there many other things fall into place and suddenly the list becomes a lifeline not only to filling his days but also facing his long held frustrations with his father and, most importantly of all, figuring out just what kind of man he wants to be. The list gives Herc perspective, it gives him goals, it gives him hope. It turns out Uncle Anthony is a bit of a genius, or at the very least knows a lot more about manhood than you expect. His honest advice, Herc's believable adventures, and Proimos's outstanding style make 12 Things to Do Before You Crash and Burn one of the quickest and best reads I've had in ages. I highly recommend giving it to any teenager. It's outstanding.

From School Library Journal:

12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU CRASH AND BURN by James Proimos


Hercules Martino, 16, sits in a room full of his famous father’s admirers listening to mourners shower the closed coffin with gushing eulogies. Hercules, however, can’t quite make himself say anything nice about the man. After the funeral, his mother sends him to finish out the summer with his bachelor uncle. On the train ride to Baltimore, the teen sits next to a “Strange Beautiful Unattainable Woman” and thinks he must have her. When she gets off, she leaves her book behind. From that point on, she becomes a much-needed distraction for Hercules, as well as part of the 12 tasks his uncle assigns him to complete during his two-week stay. His first task is to choose a mission. He opts to find the Strange Beautiful Unattainable Woman and return her book. As Hercules halfheartedly completes the tasks, he finds small moments of everyday magic and discovers new aspects of himself, his family, and life. In a minimum of pages, Hercules charms readers with humor and honesty, often in raw language, and his story will appeal to those who have admired the passing Strange Beautiful Unattainable person, including reluctant readers.

From Publishers Weekly:

Starred Review

12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU CRASH AND BURN by James Proimos

Time and again, picture-book creator Proimos has demonstrated a rock-solid sense of humor and outside-the-box thinking. His first book for teens is no different, opening a promising new chapter in his career. Sixteen-year-old James Martino, nicknamed Hercules, is spending the summer in Baltimore with his Uncle Anthony, who has given him a list of 12 tasks to accomplish (one even involves cleaning a stable). It’s meant to stave off boredom and maybe help Hercules deal with the recent death of his father, a beloved self-help author and talk-show host. Beloved by all but Hercules, that is, who eulogizes his father thusly: “He was an ass.” In chapters lasting just a page or so, Hercules gives a blunt and blisteringly funny account of his misadventures (“Horses are running everywhere. We are in the jeep. Chasing them. Through streets. Through other people’s farms. Through hell and high water, really”), which revolve around his efforts to reconnect with a “Strange Beautiful Unattainable Woman” from the train to Baltimore. Proimos fully inhabits the mind and voice of his hero, whose almost mythic journey offers moments hilarious, heartbreaking, and triumphant. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)

From Kirkus Review:

12 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU CRASH AND BURN by James Proimos

Homeless dudes, hot pizza girls, tanning salons and horse-stable make-out sessions punctuate a summer in Baltimore...hilarious...told in short, near-poetic vignettes...packed with plenty of small details and genuine moments of ridiculous humor...readers will relish Hercules’ smart-alecky, slacker sense of humor and his dogged determination to get the girl...an all-too-brief madcap summer adventure of longing, lust, confusion and clarity.

From Booklist:

SWIM! SWIM! by Lerch

Lerch the goldfish wants a friend, which is difficult since he's the only fish in his tank. Undaunted, he swims around his tank, talking to the gravel, the plastic undersea diver, and the bubbles, though sadly none of them answer him. Just when he thinks he's as lonely as a fish can be (in a wonderfully empty two-page spread), a cat arrives outside the tank and talks to Lerch. But, uh-oh, he calls him Lunch. Fear not, though, as young readers and storytime audiences will be greatly relieved by the final, friendly twist to the story. Though Lerch gets the credit for this picture book, James Proimos is responsible for the art and story. He uses the comic-book format, with panels and word balloons, to great effect here; Lerch's repeated “Swim! Swim!” can be a nice storytime chant. The bright colors and clear art match the simple story and will attract the youngest read-to-me set.

From School Library Journal:

Starred Review

TODD'S TV by James Proimos

PreSchool-Grade 2—With broad strokes and witty slapdashery, Proimos's light cartoon art and plotline carry some weighty themes. Readers are introduced to diminutive, cheerful Todd, his too-busy-for-quality-time parents, and his increasingly nurturing television set. "Todd loved his parents. But he had grown much closer to his TV." Only a few pages in, some adult readers will be shifting uncomfortably. The spread featuring Todd, his eyes unnaturally large and glazed over on one side, and the huge TV facing him on the other, won't ease their discomfort a whit. At this point, the author jumps into a hilariously exaggerated focal plot that manages to ease the tension and intensify the message. It all starts when neither parent is available to attend Todd's parent-teacher conference—and the TV volunteers. Amusing cartoon drawings in shades of gray, black, and persimmony-red against a white background and a satiric twist at the story's end further enhance this funny-scary cautionary tale. It's a hoot.

From Elizabeth Bird's Review of the Day:

TODD'S TV by James Proimos

You ever have that moment when you find your presumptions so upended that you just want to crawl into a corner somewhere and assume the fetal position? That’s a bit extreme, but it’s not far off from my relationship to the work of James Proimos. About five minutes prior to writing this review, if you had asked me to name his children’s books I would have said something along the lines of, “Oh! He just did Patricia Von Pleasantsquirrel and then Paulie Pastrami Achieves World Peace, right?” Wrong. Wrongdy wrongdy wrong wrong wronggers. James Proimos is a man of range. A man with style. A man who has been illustrating children’s books AT LEAST since 2001 when I was a mere slip of a girl, and he has not stopped since. His latest, Todd’s TV is perhaps my favorite of the batch. It sort of takes the notion of parental controls on television viewing to the logical extreme. I think we may have just found our first book for the holiday now known as TV Turn Off Week. I think we’ve also found an author/illustrator who’s going to become a household name real soon.

Todd loves his TV. What kid doesn’t? And Todd’s parents love the TV too. Anytime they’re busy with work or the phone or the day-to-day business of life, they can just turn on the old telly and Todd is taken care of. But one day, when both parents are too busy to take Todd to a parent/teacher conference, the television opts to take Todd instead. At first, the parents are elated. The TV drives Todd to school, goes on vacations with him, even tucks him into bed at night Yet when they hear the television confessing to Todd that it’s going to try to adopt him legally, that’s when the folks realize that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Fortunately, for every TV, there is a plug. Now if they could only figure out what to do about Todd’s new computer . . .

I work in a fairly large children’s room and one day, while cleaning some file somewhere, I stumbled across an old Walt Kelly pamphlet from the 1950s. In it, various characters from Kelly’s Pogo comic strip showed the downside of constant television watching. It was a clever little piece, eschewing the mindless didacticism of most “TV is evil!” publications out there. Todd’s TV appears to be the natural successor to that old Pogo piece too. For all that it promotes the idea of unplugging one’s television rather than allow it to raise your children, Proimos is a master of tone. In fact, he’s a genius at it. The story is light and humorous and jovial. There isn’t an ounce of finger wagging or loud obnoxious tsking. You get the point without the author feeling inclined to hammer it into your skull. Amusingly, the TV isn’t that bad a substitute parent. In fact, this television is able to be as good a parent, or better, than the ones in Todd’s life. Yet it’s clear that when all is said and done, kids prefer their real parents to electronic substitutes. That’s probably the real moral behind this story. If you absolutely have to have a moral, that is.

Proimos has been compared to James Marshall in terms of his simple storylines and even simpler artistic style. I’d say that, at least with books like Todd’s TV (as opposed to, say, Johnny Mutton) Proimos reminds me more of a Meghan McCarthy without her thick paints. Speaking of paints, boy is this title an interesting limited palette of colors. You’ve got your black, your white, your gray, and then that single bright hue that crops up in the book. You can see it in the title and in Todd’s hair. I’m hard pressed to give it a name. It seems to straddle both orange and red equally. Most interesting is the fact that Proimos has chosen to use this odd in-between color to fill in his speech balloons. Comfortable with the graphic format, Proimos makes his cartoonish speech its own color with black words inside. In the picture book world I cannot think of an equivalent to this. Normally when an illustrator works in black and white with just a spot of color, the color always ends up highlighting the most important element in any given scene. Proimos seemingly upsets this balance because the television, with only a few minor exceptions, is always illustrated in black and white. The color instead belongs to Todd’s father’s socks or the soft inner ears of a juggled rhino. And cute as those are, they’re not the point of one scene or another. That’s when I decided that the key to the book was the colored speech bubbles. If the whole point of this story is to turn off your TV once in a while, maybe you could go a little further and point out that the thing Proimos is highlighting over and over again in this book isn’t the technology, but the words upon the page. It’s the words that are colorful and important. Nothing, to my mind, could be clearer.

Now, the only way Todd’s TV works is if the television in question is old-fashioned. I suppose Proimos could have made the television a flat screen, 3-D, plasma doodad, but aside from the fact that such TVs date within seconds, how would it get around? This television is the kind that’s set into a thick wooden frame. It has legs and a screen the size of a goalie net. And thanks to those legs it’s able to walk around a bit, drive a car, and do a bit of surfing on the side. It’s certainly the most dated element of the book (the laptop at the end appears to be quite new and Mom wears a pretty cool pair of contemporary pants with cowboy boots) but that’s not a problem. Kid’ll just go with the flow.

All in all, this is a great introduction to the world of Proimos. I know that other folks are huge Paulie Pastrami fans, but gimme a sentient cable box over a deliciously named protagonist any day of the week. And while certainly his most recent books have been getting a little more attention, Proimos is a man with a sturdy children’s literature background. This is a good thing. It means that when you fall in love with his books, just as I have fallen in love with Todd’s TV you’re going to have a whole backlist of his titles to discover and read and enjoy. Hail to the Proimos! And hail to future books of his.