Robot Limericks

There once was a robot and a dog

They went together, like the gears of a cog.

The dog went away

He's gone to this day

While the robot must continue the daily slog. 

This is one of my favorite books that we have published.  Ever. 

JOANN SFAR documentary screening in NY

Hear ye! Here's the first chance to see the new documentary by Sam Ball, about the excellent and prolific and deliriously talented Joann Sfar!

Check out this preview first:

 

Joann Sfar Draws From Memory, director Sam Ball’s documentary portrait of the French comics artist and filmmaker (Dungeon, The Rabbi’s Cat, Little Vampire) will receive its world-premiere screening at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater in New York City.

The film follows Sfar to his favorite neighborhood spots and muses about his artistic process and the influence of his Algerian and Eastern European heritage. Tickets are still available for the screening, which also includes the U.S. premiere of The Silent Historian and a Q&A with Ball and executive producer Valerie Joseph.

 

Flatiron Snacks: Le Pain Quotidien

(photo ganked from here)

We've got a Le Pain Quotidien down the block from us (actually looking at the 'coming soon' signs down the street, it looks like there may be another within reasonable walking distance in the very near future), and they are an excellent thing.

(When you order hot chocolate at Le Pain Quotidien, you get a bown of steamed milk and a pitcher of chocolate syrup.  To make hot chocolate, combine.  It is like fun interactive activity + breakfast!)

The best part of breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien is the bread.  You can order a basket, and they'll give you multiple kinds -- plus jams and chocolate spread and hazelnut spread to put on top of them.  This clearly rates among the top breakfasts to ever exist. 

World War II Limericks

There were three siblings who lived in France

In the days of World War II, they had no chance

To live without strife

So all of their life

Was lived out from a defensive stance. 

This book won a Sidney Taylor Honor for Jewish Literature.  So it is officially very good!

Flatiron Snacks: Laut Thai

(photo ganked from here)

Laut Thai is a (relatively) new Thai-Malaysian restaurant down on 18th Street.  The last time I went there it was the middle of a snowstorm and my friend and I both ended up soaked and very grateful for their delicious hot soup.

However!  As we have already established, delicious hot soup does not make a good snack, so instead I will discuss Laut's ginger tea.

You know those chewy ginger candies that you find in NYC corner grocery stores, presumably because they are sweet and spicy and delicious and also some sort of palate cleanser? 

Well.  This tea is like that, except it is a tea.  That makes it excellent. 

Book Give-Away: Friends With Boys

While you're catching up with Friends With Boys over the holidays, you can also enter to win a copy of your very own over on GoodReads, where we're doing a give-away.  We just got books in the office, and they look wonderful and lovely and you all should have copies of your very own!

(Probably in February, when the book actually comes out, but until then you can be excited!)

Catch Up with Friends With Boys

It is now officially the nondenominational winter holidays, and we have some time off, so hopefully you do, too!

We recommend that you use this time to catch up on one of our favorite webcomics, Faith Erin Hicks' Friends With Boys.  Not only is it a delightful saga of ghosts and siblings and high school, we are going to be publishing it as a book at the end of February!  Which is a thing we are excited about. 

When tor.com, io9, and Wired all agree that something is good, you know it's worth checking out!

Ethel & Ernest

You all may remember a picture book (later turned into an animated short) called The Snowman -- written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs.  It's a lovely and wonderful thing, and if you're in your twenties, you probably know it well (and may be re-reading or re-watching it for the holidays).

While thus enjoying yourself, you might also check out one of Briggs' other books: his biography of his parents, Ethel & Ernest.  It's a quiet, lovely story about two people spending their lives together as the twentieth century unrolls itself around them.  We recommend it. 

Consequences Limericks

These were some boys who went to war

It was not at all what they were looking for.

They wanted to know

To learn and to grow;

There are fewer choices when you grow up poor. 

This is a really lovely and thought-provoking book; you should check it out. 

Happy Holidays!

(photo from the National Archive of Norway.  Thanks, Norway)

As we pack up our office for our non-denominational-winter-holiday-break, I just wanted to take a minute to say happy holidays to all of you who are reading our blog. 

2011 is First Second's fifth anniversary year, and we've had a lovely year, with four New York Times Best-Sellers, a book on The Colbert Report, a book featured on Oprah.com, and a number of our books have received all sorts of year-end recognition -- all signaling that we seem to be publishing pretty great stuff (which, admittedly, we had suspected previously). 

But we couldn't have done any of it without you guys -- our readers.  Publishing can't survive in a vacuum, and it's because all of you read our books and invest in what we publish -- and the authors that we believe in -- that First Second can grow and thrive and exist to celebrate this fifth anniversary with all of you. 

Thank you!  And happy holidays.