On the fifth day of Christmas, Overlook Press gave to me …

Welcome back book lovers! You’ve probably already heard by now, but Overlook is ringing in the holiday season this year with twelve days of literary gift giving. We’re putting on our Santa caps every Monday through Friday until December 23^rd, carefully selecting themed book sets to give away to our dedicated fans and readers. Perfect gifts for the oncoming snowy days of winter and the inevitable hours of holiday travel, this week’s giveaways have included books by Charles Portis, designers Milton Glaser and Eva Zeisel, a collection of white knuckle historical mysteries and true crime thrillers, and newsy reads for the journalism buff. Naughty or nice, everyone is eligible to win. Thanks to all who have helped spread the word through comments and tweets, and congratulations to yesterday’s lucky winner, @wrikent3500.

Here at Overlook, there’s something about the winter holidays that brings out our collective inner child. Maybe we’ve just watched too many animated Christmas specials, but December makes us yearn for the simple pleasures of childhood. For today’s giveaway, we’re going to indulge our juvenile sides, and celebrate some of the best children’s books and young adult literature in the Overlook library. Although they make perfect gifts for the kids on your holiday shopping list, if you’re anything like us you’ll want to save these picture books and YA reads for yourself.

Let’s Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes, written by Robert Forbes and illustrated by Ronald Searle combines mischievous rhymes and delightful illustrations, making it a great gift for poetry lovers of all ages. With over thirty delicious poems and zany illustrations featuring critters large and small (plus an original poster!), this madcap menagerie is sure to satisfy readers aged seven to seventy.

Are you a friend of Freddy? Freddy the Pig is one of history’s most iconic characters in children’s literature, and Freddy the Detective is a classic example of Freddy at his best. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, Freddy and his partner Mrs. Wiggins the Cow team up to investigate a series of disappearances on the Bean farm. Walter Brooks is the author of more than twenty-five books in the Freddy series, and teamed with Caldecott and Newbery winning illustrator Kurt Wiese, this hilarious misadventure is the perfect introduction to the classic series for a new generation of readers.

True Grit returns to the Overlook Christmas giveaway list, today as the perfect gift for the adventure-seeking YA reader. Charles Portis’s story of fourteen year old Mattie Ross’s overpowering effort to avenge the murder of her father is a contemporary classic that's sure to resonate deeply with fans of To Kill a Mockinbird and the novels of Mark Twain.

To enter, simply:

1. Comment on this post

2. Tweet at us using the hashtag #OverlookChristmas

3. Leave a comment on our Facebook page

You can enter once in each area until 8 AM tomorrow morning, and we will be announcing a winner in tomorrow’s post. After all entries are received, we choose a winner using random.org. Please leave an email address when entering so we can contact you if you’ve won.

On the tenth day of Christmas, Overlook Press gave to me...

...a signed copy of LET'S HAVE A BITE!

We're excited to tell you more about this delightful Overlook title for young readers, but first, winner-winner-chicken-dinner time. We have LOTS of winners to announce today! (Disclosure: we selected our winners by listing all entrants from the blog, Twitter, and Facebook and using Random.org.)

First up, our TRUE GRIT bonanza winner, who will receive a a copy of the new movie tie-in edition of the book, a copy of our limited edition throwback version, a poster from the new TRUE GRIT movie and a pair of passes to an AMC theatre that we hope you'll use to see TRUE GRIT--is WORDLILY from the blog comments! We hope you and your father-in-law enjoy this movie as much as we did.

Our FIVE winners for copies of our new movie tie-in edition are
- PsychTLC on our blog
- Brian F. on our blog
- Hannah N. on Facebook
- @KKollef on Twitter
- @JarrettRush on Twitter

Congrats, all!

Due to the overwhelmingly great response, we have THREE P.G. Wodehouse winners. Congrats to EXILE BIBLIOPHILE on the blog, @GilionDumas on Twitter and Shayne B. on Facebook! We'll be doing more Wodehouse giveaways in the future, so make sure to follow our blog, Twitter, and Facebook!

All of the above--email kgales at overlookny dot com with your mailing addresses to claim your prizes!

And now onto today's main event...we're giving away THREE SIGNED COPIES of LET'S HAVE A BITE: A BANQUET OF BEASTLY FEASTS, by one of Overlook's favorite authors, Robert L. Forbes. It's illustrated by legendary artist Ronald Searle, and the whimsical drawings make Mr. Forbes' delightful rhymes come to life. One lucky winner will also receive a signed poster!

Here's an example of one of our favorite poems.

Flick the fly
Is no nice guy,
A huge but tiny pest.
He'll buzz my head
Until he's fed —
Never giving me a rest.

And one of our favorite illustrations (not with that poem!)

This book is geared towards children ages 4-8, but the rhymes and drawings can be appreciated by anyone young at heart!

TO WIN: Leave a blog comment, Tweet this contest, or leave a comment on our Facebook page. You can enter once in every area and we'll announce the winners tomorrow morning as we announce what you can look forward to for the tenth day of Overlook Christmas!

Two more days of giveaways to go!

Previously:
Nonesuch Dickens Christmas Books
Autographed Bliss, Remembered
Penny Vincenzi novels
Autographed Drawing is Thinking
True Grit, True Grit, TRUE GRIT! (ongoing)
The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera
Freddy the Pig in paperback
Street Knowledge
P.G. Wodehouse

Books make GREAT gifts for kids!

And kid of all ages are absolutely delighted by the mischievous rhymes and delightful illustrations of LET'S HAVE A BITE: A BANQUET OF BEASTLY FEASTS, by Robert L. Forbes (illustrated by Ronald Searle).

And a wonderful way to make the gift of a book a lifetime keepsake is to have it signed (or personalized!) by the author. If you're lucky enough to be in Palm Beach, Santa Barbara or Montecito over the next few weeks, you have a great chance to get Mr. Forbes to inscribe a personal message in this beautiful book.

Check out Mr. Forbes' web site or Facebook page to stay up to date on all of the latest happenings with this wonderfully whimsical book. A few to mark on your calendars...

December 7: Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens 3rd Annual Literacy Day
During their Annual Festival of the Trees, I will be reading here.
253 Barcelona Road
West Palm Beach, FL
From 10AM

December 8: The Channel City Club in Santa Barbara, CA

I will do a reading at their annual Holiday Luncheon, 12:30-2, including a book signing.
2:30 A reading at the Story Teller Children’s Center, Santa Barbara

December 9: The Crane Country Day School, Montecito, CA
2:15-3 A reading to students.

December 15: Palm Beach Book Store, PB, FL
5:30 Book signing until 7pm

2011 Lots of events in the works, such as a reading at the Princeton Club in New York, a Southern swing , a return engagement with the Creative Writing classes at Boca Raton’s Spanish River High School, a reading in Rome, more schools, and Easter Day with many kids in Palm Beach at the annual egg hunt. Stay tuned!

And don't forget that Monday kicks off our 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AT OVERLOOK, with twelve days of giveaways that include autographed books, sets, swag related to the forthcoming TRUE GRIT film adaptation, and for those of you shopping with kids, just-in-time-for-the-holidays copies of LET'S HAVE A BITE! Check back Monday for more.

A Toast to Robert L. Forbes!

Robert L. Forbes, author of LET'S HAVE A BITE! A BANQUET OF BEASTLY FEASTS, hosted a party last night to celebrate the launch of his book. A wonderful time was had by all as guests dined on snacks featuring the mischievous creatures from his whimsical books.

Here are a few photos of the author himself and the wonderful decorations--lifesize blowups of the delightful Ronald Searle drawings that accompany his poems. Start your Christmas shopping early with LET'S HAVE A BITE!

A glimpse into the life of Robert L. Forbes

Check out this fantastic article in the Wall Street Journal profiling Robert L. Forbes, author of our wonderfully whimsical children's book LET'S HAVE A BITE! A BANQUET OF BEASTLY FEASTS. It's always fun for us to read author profiles instead of traditional reviews--especially when they lead lives as interesting as this. Go here to read the full article, but here's an excerpt you might enjoy! You can also keep up-to-date on the life and times of Robert Forbes and events surrounding the publication of Let's Have a Bite! on Facebook and by following @robertlforbes on Twitter.

As happy and well adjusted an adult as Mr. Forbes seems on the surface, I can't help but believe his latest book, published this week, "Let's Have A Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes," with drawings by the New Yorker cartoonist Ronald Searle, isn't the result of night terrors.

"The Giant Panda at the zoo just sits and chomps on fresh bamboo," goes one poem. "His belly is like a cooking pot, Which happens when you eat a lot. He's content to do not much but chew. Which is all he seems to do (That and poo!)"

People often take a stab at children's books after reading "Goodnight Moon" to their own kids and becoming convinced they can do better. But Mr. Forbes hasn't read to his son Miguel in decades. Miguel is in his thirties. Miguel is Forbes's president of television and licensing.

It seems Mr. Forbes simply has crazy rhymes going through his head. He'll wake up in the middle of the night, don his special Edward Beiner reading glasses with built-in reading lights, write for a couple of hours, roll over and go back to sleep.

"I write to amuse me," he said. "I write stuff I'd like to read." Such as, apparently, "A chicken-stewing cat named Shauna slipped on her sweat in the sauna. She moaned on the floor, 'I must reach the door, Or I'll be a fricasseed goner.' "

Mr. Forbes said he contacted Mr. Searle, who lives in the south of France, and whose work he collects, out of the blue, fully prepared to be rejected, but figuring it couldn't hurt to ask. But Mr. Searle said yes. "I'll write a couple of lines about the poem," Mr. Forbes said of their collaborative process, "and a month or two later back this package comes with all these illustrations. It's like a little boy opening a Christmas present."

This is actually Mr. Forbes' second book of poems and critters. The first, "Beastly Feasts," also illustrated by Mr. Searle, was published in 2007. And Mr. Forbes shot the photography for "A Year of Dancing Dangerously," about his wife Lydia Raurell's successful quest to be crowned newcomer of the year on the pro-am ballroom dance circuit, though partnered with Brian Nelson, her professional dance partner.

Mr. Forbes divides his time between Manhattan, where he lives in Forbes Magazine worker housing, Palm Beach where his wife and Lamborghini reside, and the road, having just returned from dance competitions in Irvine, Calif., Las Vegas and Phoenix. "She's three to four hours a day practicing with a coach," he said of his wife. "She takes it very seriously."

However, she'll still condescend to dance with her husband. "Happily," he said, "she lets me lead."

And the poems keep coming. The drawings too. Last month the 90-year-old Mr. Searle delivered five more. "I've got at least two more books done by him," Mr. Forbes said. "I have no idea whether my publisher will do it—but I don't care."

LET'S HAVE A BITE reviews are starting to arrive!

While Robert L. Forbes' delightful book of children's poetry LET'S HAVE A BITE! doesn't officially hit shelves until Sept. 16, a few lucky bloggers and media people have already gotten copies. Glad to see they're enjoying the fun rhymes and wonderful drawings by Ronald Searle as much as we are!

Naida at The Bookworm has one of our first reviews for this title, which she read with her 10-year-old daughter.

With rhymes like Hugh the Emu, The Rhino's Wine, The Inchworm Sprint and Flick the Fly, coupled with great illustrations to match, Let's Have A Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes makes for a fun book to read to the kiddies in your life.

... I really liked this funky collection, and my daughter(10) and I read them together. This one would make a great gift as well, especially if you're looking for something a little different than your everyday children's nursery rhymes.

Thanks, Naida! Check out her full post here, and hope that those of you with kids will get a chance to sit down and read something fun and whimsical as you gear up for the school year to start!

The Overlook Press with Robert Forbes at ALA Annual 2010!

The Overlook Press was excited to be a first-time exhibitor at this year's ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. 13,000 librarians in a huge conference center in our nation's capital--what's not to love?

We were excited to have Robert L. Forbes, author of Let's Have a Bite! A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes there with us, signing copies of his new book for the show's resident rock stars--children's librarians.

If you follow us on Twitter (@overlookpress!) you've already seen lots of our pictures from ALA, but here are a few for you to enjoy that are slightly higher quality than those taken on a BlackBerry.

Thanks again, ALA, for a fantastic event!

Our display of Beastly Feasts!, Let's Have a Bite!, and a menagerie of classic and modern animal crackers.

The other side of the booth. Animal crackers welcome, but not required.

Some of Robert Forbes' librarian friends from Palm Beach, FL--they were instrumental in getting us to the conference and helping us prepare for it.

Signing a copy of Let's Have a Bite! for an elementary school teacher from Maryland.