HarperCollins Publishers Signs Laura Bush and her Daughter Jenna for Book Deal

NEW YORK, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- HarperCollins Publishers today announced that it has acquired world rights to a children's book, as yet untitled, written by Mrs. Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush. Set in a school, the book depicts a mischievous little boy who likes to do everything but read. With the help of his teacher, he finds out that books and their characters can be a lot of fun. The story is loosely based on Mrs. Bush's and Jenna's experiences as teachers. The text will be fully illustrated by Denise Brunkus.

The deal was negotiated by Kate Jackson, SVP/Associate Publisher, Editor- in-Chief of HarperCollins Children's Books with Washington D.C. attorney Robert B. Barnett. The book will be published in both English and Spanish in Spring 2008. The authors' net proceeds and a portion of the publisher's proceeds will go to two national teacher programs: Teach for America and The New Teacher Project.

"We are honored to be publishing this wonderful picture book by the First Lady and Jenna Bush, and we know that their experiences as teachers will contribute in so many ways to this project," said Susan Katz, President and Publisher of HarperCollins Children's Books. "Mrs. Bush's lifelong dedication to children and reading inspires us all, and we are delighted to be able to work with Jenna on another book."

Mrs. Bush noted, "I am delighted to have the opportunity to partner with one of my favorite teachers, my daughter Jenna, to write a children's book-and to have it illustrated by the wonderfully talented artist, Denise Brunkus."

"My mom has been my lifelong inspiration, sharing her love of reading and books with Barbara and me since we were little girls," said Jenna Bush. "I've taken that passion into the classroom. I hope this book will help kids realize the importance and fun that reading can add to their daily lives."

HarperCollins also announced today that it will donate $1,000,000 worth of books for children of all ages to schools and public libraries, to coincide with the publication of the picture book.

Laura Bush is actively involved in issues of national and global concern, with an emphasis on education, health care, and human rights. As Honorary Ambassador for the UN Literacy Decade, she hosted the first-ever White House Conference on Global Literacy in 2006 to encourage international cooperation to build free societies through literacy.

Passionate about reading, she joined with the Library of Congress in 2001 to launch the first National Book Festival in Washington, DC. The sixth Festival drew over 90,000 book-lovers from across America. As First Lady of Texas, Mrs. Bush founded the state-wide Texas Book Festival in 1995, which continues to this day.

Mrs. Bush received her bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and master's degree in library science from the University of Texas at Austin. She taught in Dallas, Houston, and Austin public schools.

Jenna Bush is the daughter of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a degree in English. Jenna's first book, ANA'S STORY, will be published on Sept. 28th, 2007.

Denise Brunkus's career as an artist has been vast and varied, with jobs ranging from copying illuminated manuscripts for a museum to airbrushing art on motorcycles. She's designed stickers, toys and greeting cards, and her illustrations have appeared in national magazines. She has illustrated over 60 books, most notably the bestselling Junie B. Jones series, Charlie Hits It Big, Chocolatina and Groundhog Gets A Say.

About Teach for America

Founded in 1990, Teach For America is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to enlist the nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational inequality. They accomplish this by building a diverse, highly selective national corps of outstanding recent college graduates-of all academic majors and career interests-who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools in the nation's lowest-income communities and become lifelong leaders for expanding educational opportunity. Teach For America places corps members in 26 regions across the country.

About The New Teacher Project

The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the number of outstanding individuals who become public school teachers and to creating environments for all educators that maximize their impact on student achievement. Since 1997, it has partnered with school districts, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and other educational entities to accomplish these goals. To date, TNTP has recruited, prepared or certified approximately 23,000 high-quality teachers, worked with more than 200 school districts and established more than 40 programs in 23 states.

About HarperCollins Publishers

HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation . Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com/.