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WONDLA Mentioned in PW

March 5, 2010

S&S to Launch New DiTerlizzi Series

Spiderwick Chronicles author launches new middle-grade project

By John Sellers — Publishers Weekly, 3/4/2010 4:52:00 PM

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers has just announced a new middle-grade series by Tony DiTerlizzi. The Search for WondLa, about a 12-year-old girl—raised underground by a robot—and her search for other humans. The first volume in the series will be published on September 21 with a 300,000-copy first printing. The book will feature two-color artwork throughout and will incorporate “augmented reality” in several places, a first for the publisher. S&S plans to promote the book with a $350,000 marketing campaign.

DiTerlizzi has published several books with S&S, including the Spiderwick Chronicles (with Holly Black), Kenny & the Dragon, and the Adventure of Meno series (with his wife, Angela). “I’m thrilled to mark a decade of making books with Simon & Schuster with the launch of my newest novel,” said DiTerlizzi in a statement. “When I first conceived of The Spiderwick Chronicles, I imagined a story from the past coming forward to the present. In The Search for WondLa I am bringing a story back in time from the future. My vision is to create a 21st century fairy tale.”

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Never Abandon Imagination Tony DiTerlizzi: Never abandon imagination.

Imagination is a world of possibility that exists within each of us. It is what makes us uniquely human. It is our creative fingerprint that touches and influences the world around us. Imagination is essential to art and science; to innovation and prosperity. It gives us hope, calls us to action and leads to change.

Whether it’s fairies, dragons, robots or aliens, all of my children’s book characters are siblings born of my imagination – an imagination strengthened through years of encouragement from family, teachers and friends. While so many others abandoned it during their transition from childhood to adulthood, I fiercely held onto mine, hoping for a day when I could share it to inspire the next generation of dreamers. Innovators. World changers.

Imagination empowers us to envision and create a reality of what could be. We must hold it dear, foster it and never abandon it.