Summer on The Splot: Book Flap, 5/22 Edition

Welcome to the first edition of Book Flap, your every-other-week splot for all the hottest happenings in the world of books. All summer long, Fridays on Ink Splot will be chock-full of awesome, so make sure you check back every week: we’ve got more Book Flap alternating with POP-Corn (all the entertainment and celeb news you can sink your teeth into). It's all part of our first Summer on The Splot!

 Percy Jackson is a (Greek) God

On May 5th, The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series by Rick Riordan, came out and quickly shot to the top of the charts, debuting at #1 on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal best sellers lists. Rick Riordan went on tour promoting the book, and you can see photos from his adventures on his blog.

If you were one of those first week fans, don't fret. Although Percy Jackson’s story is over, Rick Riordan has already finished a new book that focuses on some of the other characters at Camp Half-Blood with Percy.

And if you're more of a movie person, Twentieth Century Fox has already begun filming a movie based on The Lightning Thief (the first book in the series). The film will be called Percy Jackson and is set to hit theaters next February. Chris Columbus, who directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as well as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is directing. The movie will star Uma Thurman as Medusa, Pierce Brosnan as Chiron, and Logan Lerman as Percy.

 The World's Gone Vampire-crazy

Let's start with what you've all been waiting for — Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), and Taylor Lautner (Jacob) will be on hand at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards to premiere an exclusive scene from the upcoming New Moon movie (based on the YA book by Stephanie Meyer — duh). You can catch the show live Sunday, May 31, at 9 p.m. The full film will be in theaters nationwide on November 20, 2009.

And come next Valentine's Day, if you've been crushing on that vampire in your class, the perfect gift option will be there for you. Sweethearts brand of candy is releasing a line of candy hearts inspired by the Twilight series called "Forbidden Fruits." Instead of sentiments like "Be Mine," you can present your undead sweetie with a heart that reads, "Bite Me." And if you don't have a vampire of your very own, at least you'll have dazzling candy hearts (yes, they're going to sparkle).

There's also another vampire story you might want to hurry up and read: L. J. Smith's YA series, Vampire Diaries. It was just picked up by the CW to be made into a TV show, which will premiere this fall. Ian Somerhalder (Lost) plays Damon, Paul Wesley (Everwood) plays Stefan, and Nina Dobrev (Degrassi: The Next Generation) plays Elena.

Sequels and Screen Time

 The final book in YA series Pendragon by D. J. MacHale, titled The Soldiers of Halla, came out on May 12th. If you haven't read the series yet, now's your chance to start! The first book in the series, Merchant of Death, is available online for free download until May 24th (that’s this Sunday!).

A way more unexpected sequel to look forward to is Wishing for Tomorrow — sequel to the book A Little Princess, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and originally published in 1905. Hilary McKay (a current-day author) wrote the follow-up, which will be out in January 2010, and she says that the book will answer a question that's been plaguing her since she was a child: what happens to all of Sara's friends at the London boarding school?

If you want baseball and basketball instead of boarding school, you can check out The Kid Who Only Hit Homers and The Basket Counts by Matt Christopher. The movie rights for Christopher’s sports book series have been bought by Larry Meistrick's Nehst Studios, and these are the first two installments scheduled to be made into feature films.

You already know that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters July 15th, but I'm here to tell you that you won't need to wait that long for your Harry fix. On May 31st, a brand-new, never-before-seen clip from the movie will be premiered by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.

And an old favorite is coming to the small screen in the fall of 2010 — The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! will be the first cartoon show based on a Dr. Seuss character. You can catch it on your local PBS station.

And that's all I've got for you today! There'll be more Book Flap right here on June 5th. But make sure you come back next Friday, the 29th, for POP-Corn (our column full of all the latest entertainment and celeb news).

Until then, happy reading!

— Carly H., STACKS Staffer

Comments

[Comment #1]

i love twilight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its amazing you must read twilight!!!!!!!!111111

[Comment #2]

Oh my gosh!!!! New Moon is here!!!! I'm so excited!! My mom is too, she has a crush on Robert Pattison. Wierd,huh.

[Comment #3]

You forgot about THE HUNGER GAMES how can you forget that book!

[Comment #4]

New HBP clip? OMG!!!

[Comment #5]

this is so cool and if u want to be a friend I here and the book is so totly rad let me tell you it is not the first time I see a book this good

[Comment #6]

You must read The Old Wills Place!!!!!It is like such a good (but scary)book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Comment #7]

I think Fantastic Mr. Fox is going to be dumb.

[Comment #8]

Twilight rocks! I think Kristen Stewart(Bella) is so lucky that she gets to play in a movie with Robert Pattinson(Edward) and Taylor Lautner(Jacob).

[Comment #9]

Jacob is cute