The latest issue of Quill & Quire hits the streets this week. Our cover star is picture book author/ illustrator Melanie Watt, and the Children’s and Educational Special Report also includes profiles of Cary Fagan and sister team Jane Drake and Ann Love, as well as a look at the Golden Compass controversy and at the promised $120-million school library funding boost in Ontario.

Also found in January/February are the Spring Previews, spotlighting the season’s hottest upcoming books, a look at the pricing crisis, a review of Budge Wilson’s Anne of Green Gables prequel, and more. The full table of contents is after the jump.

In the January/February 2008 issue of Q&Q:

Mélanie Watt’s flying squirrel
Is her cartoon critter Kids Can’s next Franklin?
Plus more kidlit close-ups: Cary Fagan, and Jane Drake and Ann Love
Also in the Children’s and Educational Special Report: School libraries and book bans, Indigo and the library funding boost, and more

Spring previews
Your bird’s-eye view of the season’s hottest upcoming books, in fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, and international titles

Inside the pricing crisis
What does the loonie’s rise mean for the future of the business?

FRONTMATTER

• First-time author Susan Pinker courts controversy
• Cover to Cover: Literary pulp fiction
• Snapshot: Vancouver Island bookseller Amber Rider
• Deals Corner: Jessica Grant, Ray Robertson, and more
• Watch Your Language: Talking politics
• Quill at Large: BookNet’s holiday bash
• Local Buzz: That Place by Tantramar

NEWS AND FEATURES

• Parting the curtain on book sales stats
• Audiobooks go digital
• Highlights from Q&Q Omni

SPECIAL REPORT: CHILDREN’S AND EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING

• The school library giveaway
• The case of The Golden Compass
• S.W.A.T. team: Authors connect with kids in class
• Anne is in the air: Penguin plans major Green Gables campaign

REVIEWS

• The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan
• Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner
• In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté
• Plus more fiction, non-fiction, and poetry

BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

• Mattland by Hazel Hutchins, Gail Herbert, and Dusan Petricic
• Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
• One Hen by Katie Smith Milway and Eugenie Fernandes
• Plus more fiction, non-fiction, and picture books

BESTSELLERS
Presented by Q&Q and BookNet Canada

THE LAST WORD
Sympathy for the author: Former publisher Hugh Brewster starts writing – and finds that “difficult author” is a relative concept