A short post to say this: as a busy, busy bookseller writing both a blog and a book, I find it increasingly difficult to find enough time for (of all things) reading! It is painful for me to realize how far behind I'm falling as the piles of galleys and finished books mount up on my bedside table, on my bookshelves, on my desk, on every flat surface in sight.

It is therefore with GREAT, GREAT enthusiasm that I look forward to an upcoming trip to New York, New York. It will be great to spend a couple days visiting friends, seeing sights, and savoring a brief dose of that hustle and bustle. Mostly, though, I am overjoyed at the thought of the train ride to and from the city, which translates (in my world) to EIGHT HOURS of uninterrupted reading! What a joy! What a relief! What a nerd!

And what a struggle to decide which books to take with me. Do I choose the books that are getting rave reviews from so many trusted sources and colleagues that I feel like the last person on the planet who has not yet read them? Do I read the books that no one is talking about and that therefore "need my help" a bit more than those others? Since the last book I read (Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney) was a wonderfully funny example of middle grade fiction for boys, should I now move on to serious young adult fiction for girls? First chapter books with equal gender appeal? Nonfiction that will appeal mostly to me? Adult books that make good cross-over titles? Do I read older books I could be selling now or forthcoming books that I can't sell to customers for several months? How do I begin to choose??

There was a time when I thought the logistics of travel and lodgings were vacation planning's biggest hurdles. Oh, for those carefree days when I did not yet know the pains of book packing!

If there is one thing I tend to be good at, it's making connections — between things, between people, between seemingly disparate events. I love when something makes me look at the world in a completely different way or prompts me to link two ideas or facts that I previously might never have included in the same sentence.

It's for the same reason that I love the weekly radio program "This American Life," produced by Chicago Public Radio. Even for a perpetual connector of dots like me, TAL is the ultimate ear candy. Each week Ira Glass and his staff of documentarians choose a theme, find stories to fit that theme, then splice them together into an hour-long broadcast that is always insightful, often surprising, and frequently very, very funny, at least in parts. I have had more "ah-ha!" moments listening to TAL than I could begin to count, and the best part is that even when I listen to the same broadcast multiple times (and, yes, I sometimes do this), I experience those moments all over again.

What does this have to do with children's books? A couple of months ago TAL did a program with the theme "My Brilliant Plan," in which each of the stories was about someone who had had a brilliant plan of one sort or another that (as you might guess) didn't turn out exactly the way they had hoped.

Such was the case for Ronald Mallett, as explained in Act II of "My Brilliant Plan," called "Tragedy Minus Time Equals Happily Ever After." When Ron was ten years old, his father died suddenly of a heart attack. A year later Ron's life was markedly changed when he read the Classics Illustrated comic book edition of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Ron became obsessed with the idea of building a time machine that would enable him to travel back to the 1950's, so that he could warn his (then young) father that he needed to take better care of himself or he would die at an early age.

When Ron's initial attempt to build a time machine failed, he didn't assume that his overall plan was flawed or that time travel was impossible. He assumed that because he'd read an abridged version of Wells' classic story, he must be lacking some key details. So he read the original, unexpurgated version of The Time Machine and tried again. And again. And again. And again. For more than fifty years.

Today Ron Mallett is a well-respected physicist whose field of expertise is (yes) time travel. He's even written a book about his career path — the one that began with his reading what we in the children's book business frequently refer to as "the right book at the right time."

It's the idea of "the right book at the right time" that makes it such a joy to put books in the hands of children and young adults. I love knowing that the potential exists for them to take the ideas and stories on these pages and build entire futures out of them — perhaps not on a scale as wide-reaching as that of Ron Mallett, but certainly on one that lasts as long. Take me, for example.  I think of Nancy Drew every time I switch on a flashlight. I think of Bill and Pete every time I buy a toothbrush.

And I think of "This American Life" every time I sell a copy of The Borrowers. After you've listened to Ron Mallett's story, do yourself the favor of listening to Act Four, "Age of Enchantment" from TAL episode 106, originally broadcast on Father's Day, 1998. In it you will feel the pain of a father confessing how he wrote letters to his young daughter, pretending to be the member of a family living within their basement walls. His on-air conversation with his daughter is one you will never forget.

I also recommend listening to yesterday's radio treat, delivered not by the Easter Bunny but by "Studio 360" (another insightful program on public radio). The entire episode was devoted to The Great Gatsby and the entire episode was GREAT.

In honor of both Passover and Easter, I thought I'd recommend two religious picture books that transcend the boundaries of belief, focused as they are on the ethics of kindness and generosity. My observation is that these books seem to speak to anyone with a heart, regardless of affiliation.

Bagels from Benny
by Aubrey Davis, illustrated by Dusan Petricic (Kids Can, 4-up)

In this wonderful, wonderful picture book, Benny is told that he has God to thank for the beautiful bagels that emerge daily from the oven in his grandfather's bakery. Believing that he should somehow return the favor, Benny begins a secret ritual on Fridays of leaving bagels in the synogogue's Holy Ark. Each Saturday he sees that the bagels have disappeared and believes God must be eating them. The truth behind their disappearance results in a meaningful lesson for Benny and a memorable read for you. This is a clever adaptation of a classic Jewish folk tale, perfectly captured by Petricic's cross-hatched watercolor illustrations.

The Golden Rule
by Ilene Cooper, illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska (4-up)

This striking new book is as complex and beautiful as the details in its cover illustration would suggest. That might be why it's our store's second bestselling picture book so far this year. In Cooper's story, a boy and his grandfather (an unintentional theme of these reviews) discuss how different the world would be if more people (and nations) would practice the Golden Rule. Swiatkowska's stunning illustrations swirl with images culled from various religious traditions, emphasizing the grandfather's words about the universality of the Rule and its overall importance. This is a book for readers of all ages to read, savor, and contemplate.

(For those of you wondering, the picture book that's currently outselling The Golden Rule at our store is Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser.)

It’s been a busy week for me at the store, what with our having had an Educators’ Open House last Thursday plus a WONDERFUL event with Richard Peck at the Wellesley Free Library last Saturday. (Be sure to read his new book On the Wings of Heroes.) For the past couple days I’ve been attempting to fill several school orders; finalize the details of upcoming events with Mo Willems, Jacqueline Davies and Rick Riordan; and shelve, shelve, shelve the plethora of new books arriving at the store daily and begging for face-out space.

As I was doing the latter I was reminded of a few of my publishing pet peeves, which seemed like an excellent topic to explore in this blog entry. I can see a few of you publishers shifting nervously in your seats, but you needn’t worry too much. Most of you aren’t doing these annoying things, and those of you who are aren’t doing them with any consistency. Nevertheless, if you’re doing them at all this is where you’ll find me asking you politely to STOP DOING THEM. Please.

In no particular order, here are 3 of my publishing pet peeves:

1. Absence of a plot summary anywhere on the book’s cover or dust jacket.
Just because a new book is by, say, Laurie Halse Anderson does not mean every customer knows Laurie Halse Anderson’s name. And even if a customer does know Laurie Halse Anderson’s name, that does not mean they’ll absolutely positively want to read her new book without knowing a lick of what it’s about. Not to mention the fact that less-well-informed booksellers and librarians who sell or circulate a book like Twisted won’t have any clue as to the content of the book they are putting in their customers’/patrons’ hands, which puts them in a very tricky position. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, give the people selling and buying your books the opportunity to know what it is they are selling and buying. Printing “EVERYBODY TOLD ME TO BE A MAN. NOBODY TOLD ME HOW,” on the inside jacket flap is not enough. Nor are quotes that espouse the book’s virtues without telling us what happens in the plot. Give us a plot summary. Please. Thank you.

2. Half jackets and die-cut covers.
Sometimes when publishers feel a whole lot of excitement about a new book, they decide to put half a dust jacket around it, believing that this looks somehow different and original enough to entice an extra cadre of readers. NEWSFLASH: it results in damaged book covers. Always. Period. Let’s suppose for a moment that you’ve just published a book called Atherton #1: The House of Power by, say… Patrick Carman. You think it will draw more readers to wrap half a jacket around the book, so you do. Trouble is, when customers handle that book roughly (which they will), that jacket will rip. I guarantee it. And the bookseller carrying that book will get frustrated and return those books to you as damaged. They might choose to replace those returned copies with new, undamaged copies or they might say, “To heck with it!” and never put the book on the shelf again.

The same thing can happen when you cut cleverly shaped holes in the covers of your paperback books. Frustrated booksellers will find themselves regretfully returning otherwise great books like Love Among the Walnuts by Jean Ferris, on which the chicken-shaped die-cut never fails to rip in multiple places, making new copies of the book look anything but.

Once upon a time my boyfriend came home from a meeting at Candlewick Press in which the creative-powers-that-be discussed putting a half jacket around their beautiful, beautiful new edition of his Beowulf graphic novel. These same intelligent powers-that-be later decided (perhaps swayed in part by the objections of a certain girlfriend, but perhaps not) to do a full jacket that has the appearance of a half jacket, for which I suspect booksellers, librarians, and Beowulf readers are much better off.

3. Lack of publication dates on the covers of Advance Reading Copies.
Believe it or not, some of us booksellers pay close attention to the publication dates printed on our galleys, in part because we receive so very, VERY many of them every season and we have to weed our galley shelves on a regular basis in order to make room for the newest arrivals. Some of you are printing the publication dates of your books on the inside pages of your ARCs. This is not in booksellers’ best interest, as it creates more work for us. It’s not in your best interest, as it makes us annoyed with you. A few wonderful, thoughtful, generous publishers have adopted the practice of printing publication dates on the spines of their ARCs, and to them I say, “Bless you.” To the rest of you I say, “PLEASE print the publication dates of your books on the spines of your ARCs.” The booksellers of the world will thank you.

I’m slightly late helping to spread the news, but as the Chair of the 2007 E. B. White Read Aloud Awards committee, I am THRILLED to share with you the winners of the 2007 E. B. White Read Aloud Awards, announced on Monday by the Association of Booksellers for Children.

The winner of the 2007 E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Picture Books is Houndsley and Catina by James Howe, illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Candlewick).

The winner of the 2007 E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers is: Alabama Moon by Watt Key (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

The books selected for this award are granted the honor of a shiny gold seal sporting the Charlotte-esque expression “TERRIFIC BOOK.” (I happen to think it’s about the coolest-looking seal a book could ever hope to wear.) The winners will officially receive their awards at the ABC Annual Secret Garden Silent Auction & Evening with Children’s Booksellers on Friday, June 1st during BEA.

If you’re not already familiar with these awards, then read on as I quote from our official press release:

The Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), founded in 1984, is a national organization made up of independent children’s booksellers and other individuals that support independent bookselling. The E. B. White Read Aloud Award, established in 2004, honors a book that reflects the universal read aloud standards that were established by the work of the beloved author E. B. White in his classic books for children: Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan. Each year members nominate a list of new books that they believe most embody this ideal, and a committee of booksellers determines the winner. The award is announced annually on the first Monday in April. In 2006, in recognition of the fact that reading aloud is a pleasure to be enjoyed by readers of all ages, the award was expanded to include two categories, The E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Picture Books, and the E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Older Readers. ABC members chose books for distinction based on their universal appeal as a “terrific” book to read aloud.

Previous Winners of the E. B. White Read Aloud Award:
2004: Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner
2005: Wild About Books by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Marc Brown
2006: Picture Book: If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
Older Readers: Each Little Bird That Sings by DeborahWiles

This year’s awards committee was comprised of booksellers from three independent bookstores in three different regions of the country: Ellen Richmond of The Children’s Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine; Margaret Poppe of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida; Kimberly Diehm of The Neverending Story in Las Vegas, Nevada. As the Chair of the committee, I was more than ably assisted by fellow ABC Board member Linda Higham of The Storyteller in Lafayette, California. Linda and I helped facilitate and lead the lively discussion of this year’s winners, with wonderful results! And, no, I did not try to steer the committee in the direction of my favorite books (which I mention for the benefit of those of you who’ve read my blog entry about Alabama Moon). It is true that I am tremendously fond of both books selected for this year’s awards, but so are the members of this year’s awards committee. So are most of the booksellers I’ve spoken with. And so I hope are you! Find a child (or book-loving adult) to read aloud to and give these (award-winning!) books a try.