Dale Peck: The New Beatrix Potter?

Dale Peck, Alice Hoffman, and Carl Hiaasen. What do they have in common?  All three have new children's books in the works, and Publishers Weekly is predicting those books, among others, will be "hot" at the upcoming Book Expo (June 3-5), in New York. Listen, I'd never heard of Book Expo, either, until I started hanging out with librarians. It's massive (Jacob Javits Center massive), and it's not for us regular peeps, darn it. May I quote the huge warning on the site?  "BookExpo America is for the book publishing trade only and is not a public event. Be prepared to provide business card or company invoice." Okay, okay.

And, yes, it's that Dale Peck, the author of Hatchet Jobs: Writings on Contemporary Fiction and the one who called Rick Moody "the worst novelist of his generation."