It’s my pleasure to welcome you to this special summer issue of GNR. We have a lot going on this week!

First the GNR team will be doing two events at BookExpo America in New York. That’s the annual convention of book trade convention where publishers tout their fall titles. It’s basically one gigantic party celebrating books. Carol is on the Thursday morning panel “Big-Name Authors with Graphic Novels: How Will This Change the Market?” at 9:30. Considering the impact works from the likes of Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer have already made, and with works coming from James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, and Dean Koontz, the topic is one that many publishers have already speculated on --- and I’m curious to see what the panel members will have to say. Later that day, at 2:30, I’ll be moderating the panel “Hot Fall Graphic Novels for Libraries.” I’ll be joined by a panel of great librarians who are all making their picks for what’s going to be of interest to libraries later this year. We'll share their selections with you in the next update.

While the panel I’m moderating is dealing with picks for fall, I myself have been focused on the more immediate future this week --- namely, summer. It’s once again time for our annual compilation of the Hottest Graphic Novels of Summer. Our 2010 list is jam-packed; I can attest to this; I not only put it together, but I had to input every title on the website, and I spent the entire time wishing we had just decided to do the Top 10 Books of Summer or something like that. But we didn’t do that. We went big this time, gathering well over a hundred selections that we think you’ll enjoy this summer, all divided up into appropriate categories (adult, teens, tweens, and kids) to make it easier for you to plan out your reading and your shopping.

And because just doing that list wasn’t quite enough, we’ve also got the next installment of our Core List for booksellers. Last time, we brought you the Core List for Adults. Now we’ve got the Teens covered. That means we delve into the Twilight world and more (like The Books of Magic and Halo and graphic versions of classics like The Hobbit and Tom Sawyer). Our first list has already made an impression, and we’re committed to making this one of the most valuable resources on GNR. If you have comments, good or bad, we welcome them all.

This newsletter does have fewer features than usual. Sharing these afore-mentioned lists felt like enough to digest this update. We’ll be back with a full issue next but for now, since my head is swimming with lists and rankings, we hope you will be making some lists of your own.

Enjoy, and if you happen to be at BEA, please come see one or both of our panels if you can. Or at least stop by and say hello. Until next time, happy reading!

John Hogan (John@bookreporter.com)

Win Prince of Persia: Before the Sandstorm --- A Graphic Novel Anthology

The hit movie is also a fantastic work of graphic fiction! To celebrate the movie release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which hits theaters May 28th, GraphicNovelReporter.com is giving away 40 copies of Before the Sandstorm! Click to enter. The contest will close on May 31st at 11:59PM EST.

What’s your system like for storing graphic novels on your bookshelves? Do you mix prose and graphics, or do you keep them separate? Let us know here.