Lynn Smith will join Ruckus Mobile Media in the newly created position of director of business development, effective May 23. Previously she was director of licensed publishing at Scholastic.
Jessica Sindler has been promoted to editor at Gotham, where she has worked since 2003.
Allison McLean has been promoted to publicity director for Portfolio, Sentinel and Current.
Brigantine Media will launch two new imprints, with Voyage devoted to Vermont fiction and Compass specializing in education books, beginning in Fall 2011.
The Children’s Choice Book Awards honored Rick Riordan as author of the year and David Wiesner (Art and Max) as illustrator of the year, based on votes from over 500,000 kids. Riordan also won in the fifth to sixth grade category for THE RED PYRAMID. The Children’s Book Council decided not to present their Impact prize to Three Cups of Tea co-author Greg Mortenson, however, “in the face of so many unanswered questions.” Other winners:
Kindergarten to second grade
Little Pink Pup, by Johanna Kerby
Third to fourth grade
Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown, by Jarrett Krosoczka
Teen
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan
The University of Chicago Press and the Field Museum have worked with Touch Press to produce a Gems and Jewels app for the iPad, an adaptation of the printed book Gems and Gemstones: Timeless Natural Beauty of the Mineral World.
iTunes
Bill Kohler, founder of Vantage Sales and Marketing, died on April 30. He retired from publishing in 2001 and served as a consultant to several publishers until earlier this year. A funeral service will take place on May 5 at the Godfrey Funeral Home, 809 Central Avenue, Ocean City, N.J. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested contributions be made in his name to the American Legion Morvay-Miley Post 524, P.O. Box 363 Ocean City, N.J. 08226