The potential social, economic and political utility of Amazon’s newly patented wristbands are obvious. As you may have heard, “Amazon’s proposed technology would emit ultrasonic sound pulses and radio transmissions to track where an employee’s hands were in relation to inventory bins, and provide “haptic feedback” to steer the worker toward the correct bin.” The author of the article suggests that “What may sound like dystopian fiction could become a reality for Amazon warehouse workers around the world.”  Why term it dystopian, though?
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This week we celebrate the publication of the final title in a favorite picture book trilogy: Kobi Yamada’s lovely What Do You Do with a Chance? (Compendium), beautifully illustrated by Mae Besom, whose wistful pencil and watercolor illustrations move from black and white to brilliant watercolor panels as a brave little child tackles the challenges of possibilities, obstacles and uncertainty while facing the future. The two earlier books, What Do You Do with an Idea? (2014) and What Do You Do with a Problem? (2016) are consistent sellers in our store, and we had a list of preorders waiting for this Tuesday’s release.
Personally, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for this book, and as I slipped special order forms inside book jackets on Monday night so that staff could make reminder phone calls to customers, I paged through a display copy on the counter, reflecting on each spread and the short sentences they contain like they were written just to me.
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In less than a week, 18 of the most important awards for children’s and teen’s literature will be announced live via video feed from Denver, at 8 am on Monday, February 12. Tens of thousands of viewers will be riveted as the American Library Association reveals the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Printz, Sibert, Stonewall, Geisel, Wilder, and many other awards. This is our field’s Oscars ceremony, our Olympics, and while the auditorium won’t contain as much glitter (literally speaking) as the Academy Awards or perhaps quite as much muscle tone as the long track, the literary shimmer and tone will be spectacular.
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Unlike my ShelfTalker colleagues who were blogging away from Memphis last week, I had to miss Winter Institute this year. I had planned to go, but had an unexpected conflict arise. I always hate to miss the show because of the education and idea starters I always receive there. One of the sessions I had wanted to attend was the ABC Idea Exchange about training general booksellers to hand-sell children’s books, because this is actually something that’s been on my mind lately. One of the most useful things about the ABA education sessions is that they sometimes come along at just the right time to help nudge a simmering brainstorm into action. But even if you can’t go to the show, simply getting some notes from a colleague can help focus your own thoughts and push an idea forward.
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If there is anything positive to be found in allowing an intimate interface with technology to atrophy our mental and social faculties, I haven’t located it yet. Which is too bad, because the opportunities for atrophy are profound. Directional senses grow flabby from GPS use, deliveries replace excursions, social discourse is shielded from the rigor of physicality, quotes from books are found via Google search rather than hunted down on the page itself.
My belief that all this dependence is liberating our cognitive faculties for use in higher purposes is circumspect. If, as all evidence suggests, this change is a potent means of mental acuity subsumed in ephemeral connections, then what is a children’s bookseller to do by way of staying in shape? To paraphrase Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, “That’s where Indies Introduce Comes in.”
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