Aiming High

The Big Five publishers, American Library Association, and other plaintiffs in the Texas book banning suit Little v. Llano County could soon be making their case to the Supreme Court, after a federal court ruled in May that librarians’ freedom to choose which books to shelve is not constitutionally protected. We’re kicking off our weeklong rollout of our PW Star Watch honorees today, leading up to the unveiling of this year’s Superstar, with a spotlight on Viengsamai Fetters of Erewhon Books. The Bookseller pays a visit to the China Licensing Expo, where blind bags and other retail trends suggest untapped marketing potential for the children’s book business. Agatha Christie’s first published work has been discovered after a decades-long hunt, the Times of London reports. Bloomsbury CEO Nigel Newton says that AI can serve as a powerful creative tool and help combat writer’s block, per the Guardian. To address the literacy crisis, high schoolers need to be made to read whole books again, argue Johanna Winant and Dan Sinykin, authors of Close Reading for the 21st Century, in Slate. The New York Times talks with Philip Pullman about wrapping up his classic YA fantasy saga after 30 years. And we pay tribute to former PW editorial director and editor-in-chief John F. Baker, a pillar of the magazine for more than three decades, who has died at 93.