As an active member of the New England Children’s Booksellers Advisory Council, I can tell you we’ve had a many a meeting in which the topic of conversation has come around to author events: how to attract the big ones, how to get on publicists’ radars, how to remind the book world that there are (believe it or not) a LOT of active bookstores in New England that could draw a sizeable crowd to children’s or YA author events.

For a long time our little corner of the country has been bypassed by many publishers when drawing up touring grids for their children’s and YA authors and illustrators. When they do send these folks north, they typically send them just to the Boston area (which is why our store doesn’t suffer from a lack of big-name visitors like others who are farther flung generally do). The fact is there are a LOT of stores in New England that are hungry to host events, and they’re in closer proximity to each another than they would be in almost any other part of the country, simply because New England isn’t all that big. A situation like this should make our region a touring dream, so why is it so often bypassed?

Over the years we’ve tried to come up with a map we could send to publicists that would show where stores are located, some point of contact at that store, maybe even some sense of what types of events a store can, will, and does host. Doing this on paper, though, always got too complicated. A paper map would have to be updated and re-sent too often. A paper map would get filed away and potentially lost to the frequent changes of staff in publicity departments. 

Hello, Modern Age! In more recent conversations it’s become clear that putting such a map online would eliminate all of the aforementioned problems. The information on the map could easily be changed or updated or added to. The map could provide direct links to stores’ contact information and homepages. The map would be accessible to anyone who could find it online — no more papers to keep track of! What a handy resource!

And now, what a handy REALITY! Kenny Brechner of Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, with the help of Carol Chittenden of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Mass., have put together NECBA’s Interactive Author Touring Map! They’s also written a very funny FAQ that tells you a bit about this resource and explains how additional stores can be added.

Finally some great bookstores are on the map! Authors, start your engines.

One of the great pleasures and/or advantages to working in a bookstore is getting to see the New York Times Book Review a week early. This particular week that pleasure was doubled for me, though, as I was SO truly, TRULY pleased with the selections for the New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008!! Many of them are books I’ve been raving about for months and it’s so gratifying to see them receive this level of recognition.

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
illustrated by Melissa Sweet, written by Jen Bryant (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers)
You regular ShelfTalker readers have already heard me state my opinions on the stunning illustrations Melissa Sweet created for this book. The more times I read this book, the more I appreciate its bright pictures, its playful sensibility, its richness of content and color.

The Black Book of Colors
illustrated by Rosana Faría, written by Menena Cottin (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press)
I’ve been book-talking this title to teachers on every possible occasion because I think it’s so original, so striking, and so wonderfully primed to prompt interesting discussions on everything from descriptive language to physical disabilities. Spot lamination has never served so useful a purpose as it does here.

A Is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet
written and illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson (Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman)
Like his book Alphabet City, this new book of Johnson’s entices readers to start noticing the "accidental" letterforms that can be found in our everyday world, if we only think to go looking for them. This book, though, does double-duty — it also introduces its audience to bold and surprising artists and art forms.

Wabi Sabi
illustrated by Ed Young, written by Mark Reibstein (Little, Brown)
The range of of Ed Young’s talents seems to be neverending. He seems to be capable of evoking all range of emotions with just the flick of a brush or the right scrap of paper. The cut and torn paper effects he achieves in this particular book are both startling and beautiful — two things I’ve come to expect from his work.

We Are the Ship
written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)
For years I wondered why Kadir Nelson was getting passed over for major awards and it’s been so gratifying to see that tide turning in the past few years. Look back at his illustrations for Ellington Was Not a Street (2004) or The Village That Vanished (2002) or Big Jabe (2000). His talents were overwhelmingly evident even then — I think it took entirely too long for the book world at large to notice. Just look at how the light hits one of the beautifully modeled biceps in this book or illuminates the folds of a jersey. Now notice the emotion that flows from this man’s paintings. Nothing short of remarkable.

Ghosts in the House!
written and illustrated by Kasuno Kohara (Roaring Brook)
Fresh and fun, the illustrations in this book are perfectly suited to an audience of preschoolers. You wouldn’t think a black, orange, and white palette would work this well, but such visual simplicity allows these ghosts to float right off the page — in only the friendliest of fashions.

Wave
written and illustrated by Suzy Lee (Chronicle)
I adore this picture book and think it’s one of the best wordless ones I’ve seen. Playful, joyful, surprising and fun — it captures all the cheekiness and joy of a small child coming face to face with the incoming tide. The only flaw I see in this book is is a design one — FAR too much of the art is lost in the book’s gutter! (Bad, bad, bad!!)

The Little Yellow Leaf
written and illustrated by Carin Berger (Greenwillow)
From the time I first received the f&g for this book (sometime last spring) I’ve been carting around my copy, toying with the idea of framing any one of its pages, wishing I could own one of Berger’s original pieces of art, which on these pages forms the best possible example of "elegant simplicity." Clean, crisp, and bold — the pictures on this book feel very much like autumn does.

Pale Male
illustrated by Meilo So, written by Janet Schulman (Knopf)
Bless Meilo So. I was so surprised to see that she’d never won this award before, as her watercolors are always so bright and light and airy — making them the perfect style with which to capture a bird’s soaring flight over a busy city. Her splashes of color against an urban gray showcase the city’s startling touches of beauty.

Skim
illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, written by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books/House of Anansi)
When my rep first showed me a sample page from this book, months ago, I immediately fired off an e-mail to Gareth with a link to Jillian Tamaki’s website, knowing the artist in him would be just as awed by her brushwork as I am. Art-wise this book is easily one of the most beautiful graphic novels I’ve seen.

And with those short observations, I tip my hat to the panel of judges for this year’s NYT Best Illustrated Awards AND to the illustrators of these fine, fine books, which we’re all so fortunate to have on our shelves this year.

Earlier this year the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association asked author Jonathan Evison to write a short bookstore-themed fictional piece for their October newsletter, Footnotes. Jonathan is the author of the novel All About Lulu (Soft Skull Press, July 2008) and the founder and moderator of the Fiction Files, an online forum for literary discussion. 

With Jonathan’s permission I’m reprinting the piece he wrote for the PNBA here, because I know it’ll resonate with a lot of you booksellers (and librarians). Read it yourself below or click here to listen as Jonathan reads it to you.

Call Me Ishmael, or Tom Jones
Original Short Fiction by Jonathan Evison

For thirteen years I’ve been stocking the shelves at The Book Cathedral, and it is my love story.

You will probably not remember me by my name, but call me Ishmael. Or Tom Jones, or Tom Sawyer, or Elmer Gantry, or McTeague, or The Idiot, if you like. You may not remember me for my wispy hair, or brick-shaped loafers, nor for the wealth of cat hair clinging to the seat of my faded dockers. I distinguish myself by my love of books, and by never using the search function–I’ve no need of it.

Ask me who’s between Allende and Sherwood Anderson, and I shall tell you without pause, Martin Amis, between Sarte and Schulberg, Saunders, and at the end of the line, you’ll find Zusak, unless of course we’re out, in which case you’ll find Zafon. Blindfold me and spin me around in circles, then set me straight and run my fingers down the spines, and I’ll tell you when we get to Proust, or the shorter novels of Melville. Ask me where to find Silas Wegg and I shall point you to Dickens. Ask me where is Oskar and I’ll tell you he’s banging his tin drum between Golding and Graves. And if it’s Sancho Panza you’re after, you’ll find him chasing windmills with Quixote just to the left of Chaucer.

Ask me All About Lulu. Ask me For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ask me where A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, or What Makes Sammy Run, and I shall tell you without hesitation, that the answer to the universe is 42. Or that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood. Or that A Good Man is Hard to Find. Or that The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Or that You Can’t Go Home Again. I will show you the beating heart of Ragtime, drag you kicking through Hard Times, In Our Time, to Places I’ve Done Time. Through The Age of Innocence, The Age of Reason, to The Winter of Our Discontent. You’ll meet The Sleeping Father, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Bigamist’s Daughter, and Wittgenstein’s Mistress. I’ll lead you to the Shining City, beneath The Sheltering Sky, past Lions and Shadows, to The Dark Side of Guy de Maupassant-and if it pleases you, to the very Heart of Darkness, itself. I will tell you The History of Love, The Brief History of the Dead.

I will tell you The Secret Life of Bees. I’ll tell you A Tale of Two Cities that will make All the Pretty Horses whiny and All the King’s Men weep. I will explain The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, How the Dead Dream, and The Way of the Pilgrim, I will talk Of Mice and Men, Of Time and the River, of Leaves of Grass, until finally, at the end of night, when The Moon Is Down, the sun will also rise, and everything will be illuminated.

Now, ask yourself: are you going to get this kind of service on Amazon?

After yesterday’s momentous election, we’ve got a new President heading into office. If you could give Barack Obama ONE BOOK to read before he takes the helm, what would it be?

Think carefully. Choose wisely. Comment here.

Since everyone has (or should have) politics on the brain today (VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!) I thought I’d go the completely opposite route, topic-wise, and serve up some short, sweet humor, in the form of one really silly sentence that will remain silly no matter who’s in the White House. 

This silly sentence comes from the delightfully ridiculous chapter book Sensible Hare and the Case of Carrots (Putnam, February 2008) by Daren King, who also authored the delightfully ridiculous chapter book Mouse Noses on Toast. Both ought to draw giggles and occasional snorts of laughter from the silliest set (say, first to third grade and/or overtired booksellers).

I’m reprinting two sentences from Sensible Hare below. The wonderfully silly sentence is (in my opinion) the second one. The Ottoman mentioned below is an otter who lives in a cupboard at the back of Sensible Hare’s office.

Ottoman shared the cupboard with a spiderweb and a thimble that he had decorated with a price ticket and two dabs of paint. He had named the thimble Thimble, after his grandma, Thimble Otter, who had been named after a thimble.

On that ridiculous note, go vote.

In an August post I asked what character you’d most like to see in the White House. While I was visiting Tenacre Country Day School recently, and admiring the students’ book-inspired pumpkins, I had the pleasure of seeing which book characters the school’s fifth graders would most like to send to Washington. Wonderfully creative school librarian Esther Frazee had had the students in fifth grade nominate a character who they thought would make a good President "based on personal qualities" and record their reasons for why. Later each student gave a three-minute speech to their classmates in which they articulated their character’s strengths. After the speeches, an election was held in which students were each given a ballot and voted for their top two choices.

I learned about all this from a fantastic display Esther put together in the school library, showcasing the students’ nominations. I thought the fifth graders’ arguments were so creative that I had to share some of them here and (as usual) I’ve included lots of photos! Click on each one to view it larger.

The year’s race was a very close one, with Freddy the Pig, nominated by Patrick Henderson, winning by just two votes (see photo at the start of this post)! Patrick’s very persuasive arguments in Freddy’s favor are as follows: "Freddy the Pig makes all of his stories have happy endings so why would you want anyone else? He has experience in being a leader. He has his own bank, he writes great poems, he owns his own newspaper and he has his own detective agency. If you want happy endings then you want Freddy. If you want a smart and bold person then you want Freddy. If you want the fiction world to work right then you want Freddy. Remember this is not a non-fiction world or a science fiction world this is a fiction world where miracles can happen. If you want happy endings then Freddy is the person that can have that happen. So stand up and vote for Freddy and get one step closer to happy endings." (Pasted below is a photo of Patrick’s actual nomination card.)

And just who will be accompanying Freddy to the White House? Esther explains: "Patrick asked if he could address the class and at that time he asked Sophie Cloherty and her candidate, Percy Jackson, if she would like to be his vice-president. Percy had come in second in the voting."

And just what qualifies Percy for this position? Sophie’s arguments appear on the card below. (WARNING: SPOILER!!) My favorite bit (AGAIN, SPOILER!) is this: "Percy is half human and half god and he has the power to control water because his dad is the god Poseidon which would be useful if the country is ever under attack from the water. He could also stop hurricanes and other disastrous water related things." All very persuasive points!

I love, love, love reading the reasons that each student printed on their nomination cards. What follows are a few other nominations, as I think you’ll enjoy reading them too.

Balto, real-life dog celebrated in several non-fiction books, nominated by Annie: "I think Balto would make a great president because he is really smart and even if he doesn’t want to do something he will still do it."

Bartimaeus of Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy, nominated by Isaac: "I would like to nominate Bartimaeus, a demon, for his courage and experience (5,000 years of it)."

Clarice Bean, star of picture books and chapters books by Lauren Child, nominated by Madison: First note the slogan "With Clarice Bean there’s no be’n mean." (Love it.) "She has the concentration of a fly but that hasn’t stopped her so don’t let it stop you!"

Mary Anne, the steam shovel half of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, nominated by Sean: "I am nominating Marry Anne [sic] because it is nice of her to dig holes for people. Marry Anne also puts lots of perseverance into her work."

Odysseus (duh), nominated by Graham: "When things go really bad he makes a promise not to let anybody be left behind or Die. [I] also think he should be president because he is really creative. Once he thought up the trick of hiding an army in a wooden horse to sneak into a city."

Skiff Beaman, protagonist of Rodman Philbrick’s The Young Man and the Sea, nominated by Carley: "Skiff is really smart and is good at making money because when he and his dad were poor he went out in a boat caught a tuna and sold it for five thousand dollars. Skiff could easily raise money for our country."

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to photograph ALL of the students’ cards or record the details of their nominations, but I can at least list a few of the other candidates who were in the fifth grade mix:
Eloise
Curious George
The Little Engine That Could
Roy of Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Mullet Fingers of Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Calvin of "Calvin and Hobbes"
Miss Rumphius
Horton of Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
Mr. Fox of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox
Harry Potter
Susan of The Chronicles of Narnia

Here’s a photo of the full display as it appeared
in
the library on the day I was there:

Didn’t these students do a fantastic job?

Anyone else there holding such elections in your schools/libraries/bookstores? If so I’d love to hear the results!

When I was a child I was easily frightened by things that went bump in the night. Ghost stories filled me with panic. Horror movies were completely out of the question. When I was 8 years old I watched the movie Poltergeist on television, in broad daylight, at my best friend Anne Yackee’s house, with my fingers stuck in my ears and my eyes squinting at the television screen. My mother heaved a sigh of relief when she finally calmed me down enough to get me into bed that night, but was awoken a short time later by my literally screaming in my sleep. This was around the same time that my father attempted to take me to see Ghostbusters on the big screen and I was so freaked out by the first few scenes that I crawled onto the floor and cried until he took me home.

My friend Anne, meanwhile, suffered none of these same terrors. In the constant back and forth between our neighboring houses, we spent a lot of time admiring and/or reading one anothers’ books, which in her case included such titles as IT by Stephen King and The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. Curious and determined to overcome my scaredy-cat status, I recall reading about 5 pages of IT on one occasion, and several short sections of The Amityville Horror on another. Those few minutes with each book seem to have etched permanent images into my brain, as I can still vividly recall the content of those pages.

When it came to gore and horror I was (and sometimes think I still am) a complete wuss. But if you removed most of the references to blood and guts and gave me a spooky thriller, I was in seventh heaven. I read all of John Bellairs‘s books and throughly enjoyed their spine-tingling thrills. Each book found its hapless child victim (Johnny Dixon or Lewis Barnavelt or Anthony Monday or Rose Rita) at the mercy of some blackly magical doings, but they were decidedly more suspense than gore, more mystery than horror. THESE were books that scared me in a way that I actually enjoyed.

Halloween often makes me think about my childhood experiences with scary stories — both those I liked AND those I didn’t. What about you? What books or tales did you LOVE to be scared by, and which were just too Halloween-like to handle?

Today Alexa Crowe, our gift buyer here at Wellesley Booksmith, received a very exciting e-mail saying that our store had been selected for the 2008 Best of Wellesley Award in the Used & Rare Books category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA). The message went on to explain the following:

In recognition of your achievement, a 2008 Best of Wellesley Award plaque has been designed for display at your place of business. You may arrange to have your award sent directly to Wellesley Booksmith by following the simple steps on the 2008 Best of Wellesley Award order form. Simply copy and paste this link into your browser to access the order form: (link removed).

The USLBA "Best of Local Business" Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Wow. Isn’t it so nice to be recognized for our hard work BY AN ORGANIZATION THAT DOESN’T EXIST?!? Yes, if my title didn’t already give it away or you hadn’t already smelled a rat here, the fact is that the U.S. Local Business Association does not actually exist, and this faux award is a ploy to get us to buy a very expensive plaque announcing our achievement. We are just one of who-knows-how-many small businesses to receive this very same e-mail, as it evidenced by Googling the USLBA or reading the comments on a related post about such "vanity scams" on the blog at ResponsibleMarketing.com.

Fortunately our store is not so desperate for "faux plaques," seeing as how we’ve earned a few real ones and (more importantly) we get a lot of kudos from our customers and our larger community. But, man. Isn’t it just a slap in the face to think that businesses out there might be falling for scams like this? Or that individuals might actually be paying to be members of Who’s Who? And, just as interestingly, to wonder if a store’s customers are impressed by the awards they see decorating a store’s walls, even if they aren’t familiar with the organizations that (supposedly) awarded them.

This last bit is the part that really interests me, because, of COURSE I’ve unwittingly put stock in the awards I’ve seen displayed in a business, even when they were given by trade groups of which I have no knowledge. This does not mean that seeing those awards has been enough to sway my choice of whether or not to give someone my business, but it’s true that seeing someone recognized for doing good work can make you think better of them or do a tiny bit to tip those business scales. Why else do publishers put blurbs by other authors on the covers of books, or list the awards a book has won? Do you think your average customer in Massachusetts has any familiarity with the Texas Bluebonnet Award? No. They probably don’t. Nevertheless, if they see that a book won that award, they might be just a teensy bit more inclined to buy it.

This does NOT mean that I approve of "vanity scams" like this one. But perhaps any businesses that DO fall for it will wind up with a plaque that isn’t entirely worthless? Whether or not that’s the case, I’d like to find the creators of this so-called "USLBA" and send them a plaque for this award: "BIGGEST LOSER." (Or perhaps something a bit more colorful.)

Still haven’t figured out what costume to put together for all those parties (or trick-or-treat outings) you’ll be attending this weekend? I thought not. I have therefore put together a motley assortment of book-related costumes from which you might take some inspiration. While a lot of my examples feature children clothed as characters, I see no reason why you couldn’t make adult-sized adaptations of these costumes!

First, a costume of sky-scraping proportions. Last year a blog called Children’s Literature Book Club recounted the fact that William Joyce takes off the entire month of October to decorate for Halloween. He then throws a huge Halloween party to which guests have been known to come dressed like this, as characters from his book Meet the Robinsons. Love it.

Two years ago Librarian Avenger dug up some (ahem) VERY accurate librarian costumes that I’m sure you’ll all be wishing you could get your hands on by this Friday. Be sure to check out both example one and example two. Both feature skirts that are… shorter, it would seem, than Mrs. Robinson’s skirt above.

I turned to Etsy in search of inspiration and found a few things there worth sharing. First, there’s this fabulous Little Red Riding Hood Cape made by ILikeYouWorld.

Also in the same color scheme, there’s the Ladybug costume by BoutiqueSophia (pictured below). Frankly, anyone putting on a ladybug costume nowadays can’t help but resemble the lead character in Ladybug Girl. Unless that person is a man, I suppose.

Katesy is selling a (oh how I love this!) Max costume inspired by Where the Wild Things Are! If only this came in adult sizes…

A parent at coolest-homemade-costumes.com explains how she made her own Max costume for her child. The results look like this:

Katesy on Etsy also has a Little Gnome costume which makes me think of all those hours I spent as a kid pouring over the pages of Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet.

Nursery rhymes can be a good source of inspiration, as Bumbleebaby has discovered. This shop is selling a Hickory Dickory Dock costume, which wins points for originality.

Heidi was a childhood favorite of mine, but it never occurred to me to pattern a Heidi costume after it. Luckily MasqueradeMercantile saw its potential for me.

Okay, maybe he’s not from any one book, specifically, but I LOVE, LOVE this Jack Frost costume which appears on coolest-homemade-costumes.com. Also featured on this website are Asterix and Obelix costumes and several versions of Mary Poppins.

Gun-shy parents might want to edit out some details of this costume, but what a great idea to dress your child as Peter of Peter and the Wolf!

Lots of schools now host days in which kids go to school dressed as book characters, making their websites good sources for inspiration. Take some ideas from the students at Perse Prep in Cambridge, U.K., for example, who wore great costumes for World Book Day last March.

I thoroughly enjoyed stumbling across a wonderful family blog called The Derringdos: Ideas for Everyday Family Adventures, in which Nettie (the Drringdo daughter) models her Egyptologist costume, complete with copy of what book? Egyptology, of course. (I recommend that Nettie also read Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R. L. Lafevers to round out her studies.)

And then there’s Gareth and me, who were pretty much out of inspiration last Saturday as we wandered the aisles of CVS looking for fake mustaches to wear to a party that evening. (I figured wearing a fake mustache was better and funnier than showing up completely unembellished and feeling 100% lame.) When there were no fake mustaches to be found we came up with a new last-minute idea: balloon hats. Yep, for $3.99 and we were able to buy a pack of long balloons and a little air pump, with which we constructed some pretty impressive balloon hats, if I do say so myself. We introduced ourselves as "air heads," which generally got a laugh. More importantly, though, I felt like I was getting still MORE good mileage out of the event our store hosted EIGHT years ago with Addi Somekh of Balloon Hat and the Inflatable Crown Balloon Hat Kit! (And publishers wonder if touring authors is worth it… ha!)

(Note that I’m crouching above because I had no idea what the self-timer shot was going to capture AND that I don’t usually make bug-eyes at the camera… Not one of my finer moments, for sure, but that’s what we got.)