Tired of being bullied at school, Marshall Reid decided to do something about his ballooning weight, so he inspired his family to make a commitment to healthier living. Now 36 pounds lighter, Marshall and his mother, Alexandra, chat about their new book, “Portion Size Me: A Kid-Driven Plan to a Healthier Family,” which outlines the Reid family’s journey to fitness.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It’s a Big World, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi was reviewed in the May 1 issue of School Library Journal.

“Accompanied by cheerful illustrations of Poppy happily skating and interacting with her friends from other countries, the book emphasizes the intangible rewards of taking on challenges and learning about the world rather than winning.”

Salt Lake City Library Spokespuppet Earl E. Literacy interviews gold-medal winning Olympic athlete turned children's author Kristi Yamaguchi. They talk about Kristi's Olympic history, review a couple of ice skating outfits that Earl tries on, and where Kristi gets her inspiration to write from.

Check out the interview! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybL8nc8xs8E&;feature=youtu.be

Publishers Weekly praised That Book About Harvard by Eric Kester in this week’s issue, calling the author’s misadventures “hilarious and poignant.”

PW also wrote..."With self-deprecation and clear eyes, he deftly manages to dispel some of the Harvard mythos and his illusions as he learns to not take his achievements or himself so seriously."

You’re invited to the Sourcebooks Summer Reading Twitter Party on May 1 from 8 – 9pm ET! We’re celebrating the book birthdays for six wonderful authors:

Katherine Grace Bond, The Summer of No Regrets (@katherinegbond)

Hélène Boudreau, Real Mermaids Don’t Hold Their Breath (@heleneboudreau)

Zoraida Córdova, The Vicious Deep (@zlikeinzorro)

Stacey Graham, The Girls’ Ghost Hunting Guide (@staceyigraham)

Geoff Herbach, Nothing Special (@geoffherbach)

Karen Schreck, While He Was Away (@karenschreck)

During our #SummerReads Twitter party, @sourcebooksfire and @jabberwockykids will be giving away free swag, free books, and a special prize pack of all 6 books from all of our authors!

Here’s your chance to talk to your favorite authors about their books, their favorite characters, their best beach reads, and more. Have fun, ask questions, and get ready for a summer full of great books! Just make sure you include #SummerReads in your tweet.

Dominique Raccah, Sourcebooks CEO & Publisher, delivered some really exciting news at today's NBAU meeting (Not Business As Usual)!  Here is the official announcement:

(Naperville, IL) April 26, 2012--Sourcebooks is pleased to announce the promotion of Barbara Briel to Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer (COO). Briel joined Sourcebooks in 2004 as Accounting Manager, and in 2007 was promoted to Vice President, Director of Administration and Finance, responsible for overseeing the company’s Accounting, Admin, and Human Resource departments. Ms. Briel becomes Sourcebooks' first Senior Vice President. 

“Barb has done an extraordinary job of helping me to transform Sourcebooks into the company it’s become today,” says Dominique Raccah, CEO and Publisher. “The scope and complexity of Sourcebooks’ operations have increased tremendously as we’ve grown over the past 5 or 6 years. This promotion recognizes the important work that Barb has been doing to further the strategic aims of our organization.”

In her new role, Briel will be responsible for oversight of Sourcebooks’ daily operations, including driving performance measures and strategic planning activities throughout the company.

Prior to joining Sourcebooks, Briel was Vice President/Controller at Hanley-Wood, a leading business-to-business media and information company serving the construction industry.

Sourcebooks is also thrilled to announce the following promotions throughout the organization:

Nick Martinelli started with Sourcebooks more than 7 years ago as an intern. He then took on a full-time role as our Website and Support Administrator. Nick Martinelli has been promoted to the position of Web Development Manager. He is responsible for managing the creation, development, and maintenance of all aspects of the Sourcebooks websites, as well as all website and server security. Nick ensures the delivery of a high quality user experience to our customers utilizing Open Source web development platform technologies.

Danielle Jackson joined Sourcebooks in 2008 as an intern, and over the past few years has shown tremendous leadership, initiative, and commitment to the growth of Sourcebooks Casablanca. Danielle has been promoted to Senior Publicist.  As Senior Publicist, Danielle is responsible for creating high level publicity and marketing campaigns for our top romance books and authors. In the past nine months, Danielle has been the lead publicist on 46 romance titles, and secured a staggering 1,669!! publicity hits for those books, including reviews and/or features in USA Today for Grace Burrowes, Jill Mansell, and Sarah Wendell. In addition to Casablanca, Danielle oversees Beth Pehlke and the publicity efforts of our Landmark titles. She also leads publicity efforts for our themed eBook promotions, is part of the Discover a New Love team, and represents Sourcebooks at key romance conferences and gatherings.

Jessica Zulli started with Sourcebooks in 2010 and has been a part of the company’s eBook division during its most demanding stages of rapid growth. In this time, she has defined herself as one of our most valuable resources through her management of the entire eBook production process. Jessica has been promoted to Ebook Production Coordinator. Her ability to adapt quickly to a constantly changing market while maintaining a forward-thinking mentality is what Sourcebooks thrives on. We are excited to witness her further development in her new role. In this position she will be able to increase her visibility throughout the company by becoming our eBook point person and contribute her expertise to our growing line of eBook products.

Kristin Zelazko has been promoted to Senior Production Editor – Fire and Jabberwocky. Kristin has been with Sourcebooks for 5 years and with content delivery for a little more than 4. She has been with the Jabberwocky and Fire imprints since they were launched and has been instrumental in the creation of books such as Dream Big, Little Pig! and My Name Is Not Isabella, as well as I’m Not Her, If I Tell, and the Horrid Henry series. Kristin gives the utmost care and consideration to every book, and her desire to make the reader experience special for each title and her commitment to these imprints has earned her love and respect from our authors and the rest of the teams she works with.  While she has started working on romance, with this promotion she will refocus her energies back solely on Fire and Jabberwocky and continue to grow her knowledge in these markets.

William Riley has been with Sourcebooks for almost 5 years and has become a point person for production and design. Will has stepped in to help manage the workflow of our interns and standardize and streamline QC processes and procedures. Will has been promoted to Senior Graphic Designer. Some of the titles he’s worked on include: Water Wars, Nothing Special, Alice in Zombieland, Things Your Dog Doesn’t Want You to Know and It’s a Big World, Little Pig!. Will continues to grow as a designer and is a great asset to the cover design/production team. We look forward to what he will create next.

Jodi Welter has been with Sourcebooks for just over 2 years and has become an integral part of the cover production team, closing final files to the printer for over half of the titles last season with a 98 percent accuracy rate. Jodi has been promoted to Graphic Designer. She has done front cover and full cover production on all the Warrior Sheep titles; Baby, Baby, Baby; Play Baby Play; Go, Baby, Go; and all titles in the Pony Whisperer series. Jodi has also become an in-house resource for romance covers, working on design and branding for titles like King of Darkness, the Charming series by Kristine Grayson, and SEALed Forever. We look forward to seeing Jodi continue to grow, and we’re excited to see what she brings to the cover design team in her new role.

Kristi Yamaguchi’s interview with Parade magazine is now posted online. She discusses her new book, It's a Big World, Little Pig!, what it's like to turn 40, and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Portion Size Me, by Alexandra Reid and her son Marshall, will be featured on the front page of the New York Times Dining & Wine section in Wednesday's print edition. The article is posted online.

This week’s issue of Publishers Weekly features two fiction reviews: Just Say Yes by Phillipa Ashley and Lord of the Black Isle by Elaine Coffman, both June releases.

Just Say Yes
Phillipa Ashley. Sourcebooks Landmark, $9.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4022-4143-7
Ashley (Carrie Goes Off the Map) delivers a frothy chick lit commentary on love and spectacle. Lucy Gibson barely knows Nick Laurentis—aside from in the biblical sense—when he proposes in front of 10 million people after winning a British reality TV competition. An overwhelmed Lucy declines, and media hell ensues. Lucy’s closet friend, Fiona, spirits her off to a cabin she owns in a seaside town outside London where Lucy meets Josh Standring, who owns the nearby cabins. To spare Lucy the nightmare of further media exposure, Fiona tells Josh that Lucy is a merchant banker who has suffered a minor meltdown. Josh has a girlfriend and Lucy has just about given up on love, but the two are drawn to each other. Will her real identity scare him off? While the ending is far from unexpected, it will charm Ashley’s existing fans—and new ones. (June)
Reviewed on: 04/23/2012
Permalink: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4022-4143-7

Lord of the Black Isle
Elaine Coffman. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4022-5949-4
Coffman enchants readers with mystical time travel and sweeping, spicy romance in the third installment of her Mackinnon-Douglas series (after The Return of Black Douglas). Dr. Elisabeth Douglas has traveled from 21st-century America to 16th-century Scotland and is prepared to marry her sister’s brother-in-law, Ronan, when the king’s regent orders him to wed another. A distraught Elisabeth focuses on her first love, medicine, and decides to travel to Soutra Aisle to practice medicine among the friars at the largest hospital in Scotland. En route, Elisabeth is captured by Angus MacLean and rescued by Highland laird David Murray. As Elisabeth decides whether to trust David with her secrets, the two are caught up in mutual attraction. Elisabeth’s wit, intelligence, and independence add spark to her interactions with David, who longs for her despite her unwillingness to be properly submissive. Fans of mystical historicals will love this tale of culture clash. (June)
Reviewed on: 04/23/2012
Permalink: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4022-5949-4

Working Mother magazine posted its Q&A with Kristi Yamaguchi on its Celebrity Moms blog on Thursday.

We are pleased to announce that the Sourcebooks has won SIX PubWest Design Awards for 2012!

This year, in addition to four print awards, Sourcebooks received two eBook awards.  The award-winning titles/products are:

• Sally's Bones by MacKenzie Cadenhead—Children's / YA Non-Illustrated, Gold Award

• Dream Big Little Pig by Kristi Yamaguchi—Children's / YA Illustrated, Silver Award

• Song of Slaves in the Desert by Alan Cheuse—Adult Trade Book - Non- Illustrated, Silver Award

• The Fiske Guide to Colleges - Interactive App by Ted Fiske—Book Apps, Silver Award

• Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell—Ebook - Standard, Bronze Award

• Titanic by Stephen W. Hines—Historical / Biographical Book, Bronze Award

The PubWest Design Awards were developed 28 years ago to recognize superior design and outstanding production quality of books.

Congratulations to the fantastic Manufacturing and Content Delivery teams at Sourcebooks, as well as the IT and app development group!

It’s a Big World, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi is back on the New York Times Best Sellers List for the fifth straight week at #10 on the Children’s Picture Book list (reflecting sales for the week ending April 7, 2012)!

Journalist Cokie Roberts reviewed On My Honor by Shannon Henry Kleiber in Sunday’s Washington Post. Roberts called the book “an inspirational how-to manual for current scouts and their leaders… Kleiber’s glimpses of the founder are full of fun.”

It’s a Big World, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi remains on the New York Times Best Sellers List for the fourth consecutive week at #9 on the Children’s Picture Books list.

Olympic gold medalist and New York Times Bestselling Author Kristi Yamaguchi was featured on Yahoo! Shine’s Team Mom Pep Talk this week talking about her new children's picture book, It's a Big World, Little Pig!

Shari Mezrah, author of The Baby Sleeps Tonight spoke with Parents.com to discuss ways to create healthy sleep habits for your baby. She suggests 4 simple methods

Create a calming environment 

Happy tummy = happy sleep 

Limit distractions 

Be consistent

To read more, click here.

After a week-long bracket-style battle of romance novels, we are pleased to present the WINNER of the Sourcebooks eBook Bracket Challenge:

MAKING WAVES BY TAWNA FENSKE

Congratulations to Tawna, for rallying her readers. Thanks to everyone who voted over the last week!

Making Waves will be on sale (eBooks only) for 99¢ April 3-April 9. Enjoy!

And thank you to all of our authors who competed this week:

Tawna Fenske, @TawnaFenske

Elisabeth Naughton, @ElisNaughton

Shana Galen, @ShanaGalen

Catherine Mann, @CatherineMann1

Leanna Renee Hieber, @LeannaRenee

Miranda Kenneally, @MirandaKennealy

Be sure to follow @Sourcebooks, @SourcebooksCasa, @SourcebooksFire, @SBKSLandmark and @JabberwockyKids for regular updates from Sourcebooks, and for more info about fun, interactive promotions like the eBook Bracket Challenge.

The April 15 issue of Library Journal will feature two GREAT reviews for Lessons After Dark by Isabel Cooper and a STARRED Review for Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal by Grace Burrowes!

STARRED REVIEW: Burrowes, Grace. Lady Maggie’s Secret Scandal. Sourcebooks Casablanca. (Duke’s Daughters, Bk. 2). May 2012. c.416p. ISBN 9781402263774. pap. $7.99. HISTORICAL

Thirty, independent, and firmly on the shelf, Lady Magdalene Windham, the adopted illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Moreland, lives a quiet, sedate life. But Maggie is being plagued by her past, and when her reticule goes missing—and with it some letters she is desperate to have back—she goes to her family’s discreet, incredibly observant private investigator, Benjamin Hazlit, the one man who can help her. Although he hides it, Ben quickly realizes that Maggie is not revealing the whole truth; getting her to trust him with her secrets—or her heart—is not going to be easy. VERDICT An intensely caring, honorable heroine determined to do the right thing; a protective hero who will do anything to keep his lady safe; and well-drawn secondary characters (many of whom will be familiar to the Windham series fans) drive the plot of this tantalizing, delectably sexy story that is one of the best yet from an author on the way to the top. Burrowes (The Virtuoso) lives in Maryland.

Cooper, Isabel. Lessons After Dark. Sourcebooks Casablanca. Apr. 2012. c.354p. ISBN 9781402264405. pap. $7.99. PARANORMAL

Dropping fans into the same alternate Victorian world introduced in No Proper Lady, Cooper is in stellar form as she takes Olivia Brightmore, a teacher of magic, and Gareth St. John, a skeptical doctor with a talent for healing, sets them down in a school filled with magically talented children, and adds some strange paranormal happenings. Although wary at first—and Gareth is more than suspicious of Olivia’s “fortune-telling” past—they are strangely attracted to each other. But all is not well at the school and its surroundings, and as the problems escalate, Gareth and Olivia realize they need to get to the bottom of things before they get out of control. VERDICT Funny, sensual, and occasionally dark, this charmer is laced with both humor and danger; another magical romp that fans are sure to enjoy. Cooper lives in Boston.

This is the second starred review for Lady Maggie (among Grace’s multiple starred reviews already)! Lessons After Dark recently received a 4 ½ Star Top Pick rating from RT Book Reviews, so it’s great to continue to see both of these authors receive recognition from the romance/trade community.

It’s a Big World, Little Pig! by Kristi Yamaguchi is at the #8 spot on the New York Times Children’s Picture Books Best Sellers List reflecting sales for the week ending March 24, 2012.

The folloing great reviews of Kiss of the Goblin Prince by Shona Husk and The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresina will both run in the April 15 issue of Booklist. Congrats!

BOOKLIST

April 15, 2012 Issue

Kiss of the Goblin Prince.

Husk, Shona (Author)

May 2012. 352 p. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paperback, $6.99. (9781402262067).

Husk’s rich, well-developed world building makes this dark tale of loyalty, love, and redemption equally appealing to both romance and fantasy readers. Amanda, a widow with a young daughter, Brigit, who is so ill she will most likely not survive childhood, and Dai, a man who appears to be in his twenties but has spent thousands of years living as a goblin in the Shadowlands, meet when Amanda’s sister-in-law marries Dai’s brother. Dai has used his long, torturous life to study magic and healing, and has become a scholar who loves books more than gold. Even though he and his brother Roan have escaped after centuries of enslavement to the Romans who overran their home in Wales, and are now fighting for their lives in the goblin-infested Shadowlands. As he mourns for his companions who did not escape, Dai realizes that a horror he was forced to commit eons ago may be the cause of Brigit’s affliction. Even though Husk’s latest is part of the Shadowlands series, it is enthralling enough on its own.

— Diana Tixier Herald

The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine.

Fresina, Jayne (Author)

Jun 2012. 384 p. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paperback, $6.99. (9781402265976).

Sophie Valentine escaped one engagement by leaping off a balcony. Now, with a large facial scar from that incident, she is stuck in the countryside, firmly on the shelf at age 30. In a desperate attempt to escape her dull life with her brother and his insipid wife, she takes out an ad in a farm paper, stating that she is looking for a husband. Lazarus Kane comes to the town of Sydney Dovedale in pursuit. He has been thinking about Sophie since he witnessed her leap 10 years ago, while he was working in the gardens. Now wealthy, he is ready to claim what he has long wanted. The farm setting and daring heroine make for a unique historical romance, and readers will sympathize with a woman who feels trapped. Lazarus is appealing and their romance gains momentum in Fresina’s pleasingly edgy novel.

— Amy Alessio