I spent last night performing stand-up comedy at the women’s prison in Vermont. And I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun performing, ever. The performance was arranged to get the women energized about the stand-up comedy class I’m teaching in the winter. I was touched by the women’s stories and intelligence. Several women came up to me to thank me for making them laugh.
This got me thinking about the power of laughter, not just for prisoners but for all of us. I was helping a 13-year-old young man try to find a book today and all he wanted was something funny. He mentioned that with Thanksgiving week, “I actually have time to read what I want to read.” And he wanted to laugh. I am hearing this more and more. Kids want books that are funny because, well, they’re fun. That’s not to say there’s no room for the fabulous dystopian novel or dark realistic fiction, but I think kids want to laugh more. He happily took Going Bovine and An Abundance of Katherines. I felt good knowing that this week, a young man was just going to laugh over some books.
Every Thanksgiving I laugh. I laugh at the memories of disastrous meals in the past and why I always have to call my mom to remember how to long to cook a turkey. One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is reading David Sedaris holiday stories. I’ve read them dozens of times and I still laugh every time.
So, here’s wishing all of you out there a fabulous holiday full of love and laughter. And if the turkey burns, or a political fight breaks out, see the funny side of it and have a good laugh or two.
 

Yesterday we celebrated our 15th anniversary, and what a day it was. The party ran from 12-4 and a grand time was had by all.
We had cake, not just a cake, but a stunning one.  The great logo of a pig reading on a cake was designed by illustrator Kevan Atteberry and was  a HUGE hit with all. Luckily, there was exactly one piece left, and as the person who worked alone yesterday, I felt no guilt enjoying it.
The store was actually so busy that I wasn’t able to take many photos. Elizabeth and I were quite busy saying hi to the many folks who came in just to wish us well. I was very moved by this outpouring of love for the store. I think folks, now more than ever, have really come to view us as a wonderful part of their community. The fragility of independent bookstores is not lost on our customers and they seem ever more grateful and appreciative that we are here.
Our staff, all five of them were working together in the afternoon, and that was just as much as the cake and the party. I was reminded anew how much I love working with these people. Yes, we’re all a little crazy, but somehow it just works. And as we gear up for the holidays, a day where we all had fun is a great thing.
The party was slamming busy. Lots of folks taking advantage of our one-day holiday sale. We were wrapping (which is not easy to do with a massive cake on the back counter), we were recommending, we were having Prosecco at two in the afternoon (a tradition I can totally get behind) and laughing.
I stood with Elizabeth in the back room during all the festivities and took it all in. Fifteen years is a long time and it’s been great fun to build the store with her. Here’s hoping we have a great holiday season and another fifteen years.
I think this picture sums up why we do this.  Three best friends all reading the same book amid the hubbub. They didn’t care about the cake, they cared about the Wimpy Kid book and they took a moment to enjoy it.
It’s thousands of moments like that make this job a delight.

I have been following with great interest Ann Patchett’s desire to bring an independent bookstore back to Nashville.  As we approach our 15th anniversary this weekend, I can’t help but notice the differences and similarities.
– We opened a store because there wasn’t a bookstore nearby, just as Ann was aggrieved that Nashville was lacking an indie. We opened in Charlotte, Vt., population 3,500. Nashville’s population is just over 600,000. What’s scary to me is that a city of over half a million couldn’t keep a bookstore going. Here’s hoping Ann’s store can buck the trend.
– Ann had her idea in the spring and the bookstore appears to be a few days from opening. We had our idea to open when the building (the only commercial building on what amounts to Main Street) was up for rent. We signed the lease on September, 1 1996, and opened on November 23, 1996, roughly 10 weeks from idea to opening day. Ann took six months, probably a much more sane amount of time, and invested $300,000. We had $65,000 to start with.
– Ann did not know anything about retail bookstores when she had this idea. Ann got a partner who did.
– We did not know anything about retail bookstores when we had the idea for our store. We learned on the fly and while this was fun, it was probably not the best business model.
– We started as a kids’-only store and quickly realized that we needed to have adult books, so we expanded our store to be a general bookstore with a great kids’ section. Our kids’ section is fully half the store and that works for us. To have the kids “as far away from the front door as possible”, as Ann was advised, could be a mistake (read the whole New York Times article here). If people can’t find the kids’ section they won’t shop in it.
– This is not part of the list, but I want to share this tidbit with Ann: Here’s the great thing about the kids’ section: adults may not buy books for themselves when times are tough, but they’re still going to get their kids birthday presents and holiday presents. For the most part, this is the part of the store that hasn’t yet been taken over by the e-book.  This is borne out by our second bestselling section: hardcover picture books.
– Ann is famous.
– We were not. In fact we had just moved to Vermont in June 1996 and outside of our neighbors, who were our very first customers, no one knew us when we opened our store.
– Ann’s bookstore will always have signed Ann Patchett books. I have never had a signed Ann Patchett book. I’ve requested Ann for an author visit five years in a row, and have been told no by the publisher every year.
– We both love books and want to live a town where an indie bookstore is a vital part of the community. I wish Ann and her partner the best of luck and here’s hoping we’re both still open 15 years from now.

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is next week. It was 60 degrees in Vermont yesterday. That’s unbelievable. Warm weather does not inspire holiday shopping. It’s actually kind of freaky here: some mums are still blooming, the mosquitoes (a late crop from Hurricane Irene) are still buzzing in people’s ears, and yet, Thanksgiving is a week away. This means that there are just over five weeks until Christmas and Hanukkah. I cannot believe it. And while I may be disbelieving, I still have to prepare for the holiday shopping onslaught, so I made a guide for bookstores to not just survive the holiday season, but thrive.
– The first thing to remember is: it should still be fun. There needs to be a sense of fun for every day of the holiday season. It’s too easy to succumb to the panic that can surround working in retail during the holiday. Wear a silly hat or elf shoes and it’ll be amazing how much silliness this can bring to any transaction that might be difficult. Also, there is nothing more disarming than someone trying to help a customer while wearing elf ears. It just takes the edge off potential anger.
– Be prepared. Nothing can be more frustrating than running out simple things like bags, gift wrap and gift cards. These staples are vital for a smooth flowing holiday season. Without them at best you run the risk of looking foolish, and at worst, you can anger customers.
– Keep your store really well stocked. I know it can be a guessing game as to what customers will want, but not having some of the big books of the season is foolish.
– If you haven’t ordered stocking stuffers, get them in as soon as you can. People are buying presents now and having cute add-ons for the stocking, or the fourth night of Hanukkah, can only help your sales.
– Keep your displays looking fresh and change them every week. This is a great way to keep the store look vital and appealing.
– Every morning look over what you actually have on the shelves. There’s nothing more frustrating for customers than having a bookstore staffer enthusiastically recommend a book only to discover it’s not in the store and needs to be ordered.
– Do something charitable for the holidays that customers can participate in. Giving something back to your community is a lovely thing to do and it’s a win-win if customers buy books to help the charity.
– Be kind to your staff. Treats or coffee can do a lot to brighten the day of someone who is working extremely hard.
– Find ways to remind folks to continue to shop locally after the holidays. Oftentimes the holidays brings new or very occasional customers to the store. Make them feel welcome, but also try to find out why they don’t shop at your store all the time.
– Make every customer interaction a positive one. Nothing will get customers coming back more than having a great time at your store.
– Lastly, have books from every section you are passionate about. Nothing helps sway a tentative shopper more than your conviction and belief in a book.

Every year I have to balance between the need to stock the National Book Award winners and not being able to get them because there’s a rush on the winner’s books. It’s important to have them as people come in after the awards are announced wanting the winners. And not having them in a timely way diminishes the store in some way.
I have given up trying to guess which books might win and bringing in five copies of the books I think will win only to have to return them because I’ve guessed wrong.  I usually stock at least one copy of the shortlisted books, but I always need more. And I never ever guess right.
My W.W. Norton rep just emailed this afternoon about placing an order for the winners. Luckily for Norton, they have two books in serious contention and it’s likely they’ll win. Here’s the beauty of this plan: the books will only ship if they’ve won. There’s a five-book minimum which was easy to meet with The Swerve  and Tonight No Poetry Will Serve.
This is a brilliant and simple idea. No risk for the bookstore and it makes me look prescient for having stock of the winners. I wish all the publishers would do this for award winners.

The last event of our 15th anniversary celebration was on Saturday — and what a glorious way to end. We were graced with Paul O. Zelinsky and Emily Jenkins, who presented the very lovely Toys Come Home: Being The Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-new Something Called Plastic. 
Our event room was full of adoring fans, many of whom could recite the first two books word for word.  We don’t usually have dual-author events (save for the Patersons, last week), so I was very curious to see how the artist and the writer would work together. It was bliss.
First off, it’s clear these two get along quite well. Paul said he got Emily’s story and was only worried about ruining it with the art, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. The art and the story are so perfectly melded, I can’t imagine the book working without each person’s contribution. Emily writes with heart. You believe these stuffed animals having an active inner life and Paul brings them to life in a totally believable way.
As soon as Paul started to draw, half the kids fled their seats to sit dead center right up front so they could see exactly what Paul was doing. Adults were leaning forward and marveling how, in a few strokes of his charcoal pencil, he created a real buffalo and then showed how he softened it to be a toy. The real excitement of the event happened when Emily read a short chapter and Paul drew it. It was as if he was animating the chapter. To have an artist of Paul’s caliber draw along to a story was pure magic.
I loved Emily’s telling how she came to write the story. It seems her beloved squirrel toy went missing after a flight to see her dad when she was a child. She was crying about it and her dad told her to imagine the adventures the squirrel was going on rather than being sad for him. And it worked. She stopped crying and somewhere a seed was planted for a story to emerge years later.
The Q&A portion of the event was equally entertaining. One person asked Emily if she could make the noise that Spark makes. And she did. It was part grunt, part deep woof.  The child was satisfied. An adult posed a question to Paul and said, “Paul, this is for you…” Immediately after he answered that question, a boy about five years old shot his hand up in the air. Emily called on him and he said, “Paul, this is for you, I like your work very much.” We all about died of cuteness.
One thing Emily said that really resonated with all attendees under the age of 15 was,”Don’t you ever notice how your stuffed animals are never quite in the position they were in when you left in the morning?” Kids were nodding their heads in agreement.
I must admit, I went home and looked around at the few stuffed animals I have, and sure enough…
***
[Elizabeth is now hijacking this post to add one more irresistible tidbit: that Paul is an unrepentant carnivore, even when it comes to the animals in this book. Earlier in his tour with Emily, he ate bison. (Poor Lumphy.) On Friday, we went to a restaurant only to find — I kid you not — skate on the menu. Yep, poor little Sting Ray right there under the salmon. What are the chances?! It had to be the only restaurant in all of Vermont serving skate, and that’s where I took Paul Zelinsky.

So of course Paul ordered it. And of course I took a picture. And of course Paul, being an artist, couldn’t resist putting a little something extra on it:

I have to say, we have the best jobs in the world.]
 

It was a gloomy day yesterday and I consoled myself by looking at picture books, which always leads me to wondering who’s going to win the Caldecott this year.

I think a lot of folks are saying Wonderstruck will repeat the success of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and as much as I love this book, I don’t think so.  I just think Hugo broke the ground on this style of book and Wonderstruck‘s format is too similar.

It’s no surprise just how much I love Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson, but will it win? There’s a lot of text and that might make it not win the Caldecott, but I have a sneaking feeling it’s going to win some bling. Several other non-fiction books also seem likely to win.
A book that I adore is Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell. A seemingly simple book, this book really captures the mind of a young Jane Goodall in a way that will appeal to most children.  The book A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston is chock full of info about butterflies and is absolutely stunning.
Will You Be My Friend? by Peter Brown strikes all the right notes for child enjoyment, and the art is wonderful and accessible.
So, what are you guessing will win come January?
Please comment below and when it’s time for the announcements, I’ll post who got the most correct titles and they’ll win the annual PW ShelfTalker Bow of Gratitude. Remember, points are given for number of correct titles in the correct order: winner, honor, etc. Guesses accepted until 6am the morning of the announcements.

Every November, around 45 children’s book authors and illustrators converge on Rochester, N.Y., prepared to greet 3,000-5,000 children and parents, teachers and librarians at an all-day festival. The Rochester Children’s Book Festival, now in its 15th year, is held at Monroe Community College, and it’s a miracle of solid planning and seamless execution.
The festival takes over rooms on two floors of the college. Downstairs is a craft room, where volunteers guide kids through all kinds of creative activities based on the books of the authors and illustrators upstairs. The festival’s second floor has several spaces: the main room with tables piled high with books set up for all of the visiting artists, next to a smaller room where the Lift Bridge Book Shop, which handles all of the sales for the festival, showcases additional merchandise like bookmarks, toys, light-up pens and other book-related temptations for young readers. There are also rooms for presentations and readings throughout the day.

The atmosphere is bright and cheery and fun all day long, as attendees pour in through the front entrance and make their way around the aisles, stopping by the tables to explore all of the books. Three giant screens high on the walls show a loop of the visiting authors and illustrators and announce upcoming readings and lectures; between those screens and the excellent program guide (created by Herm and MJ Auch, who also design and maintain the festival’s website and manage the info for every author and illustrator), visitors are in no danger of missing out on anything.

The Festival’s directors, children’s book authors Elizabeth “Sibby” Falk and Kathleen Blasi, volunteer their time — which amounts to an unimaginable number of hours each year. What a labor of love! The volunteer coordinator, writer Barbara Underhill, directs 105 helpful folks, who do everything from unpack and set up books to shepherd authors to their presentations and readings and bring them coffee, water, snacks and anything else they need at their tables (staplers, tape) throughout the day. There’s an entire private section dedicated to lunch and snacks for the authors and illustrators, who sneak away for quick breaks during the day.
Some of this year’s line-up included Betsy and Ted Lewin, Jane Yolen, James Howe, Bruce Coville, Mary Downing Hahn, Cynthia DeFelice, Tedd Arnold, Ellen Wittlinger, and many, many other fine, famous, and fun folks. A full list (along with their individual websites) can be found here.

The Lift Bridge Book Shop gets a huge nod of appreciation for its amazing handling of the book sales. You booksellers know how complex offsite sales can be, and they have it down to a science. They have forms for participants who have brought extra copies of their books to sell. They note down what time a particular title of an author’s sells out. They have printouts of which titles and what quantity of stock left over at the end of the day, if any, they’d like you to autograph. It’s frankly the most impressive piece of offsite bookselling organization I’ve seen, and it’s wowed me three years in a row. (I have to say, I’m always delighted to be sitting on the author’s side of the table instead of the bookseller’s, at this event. We are treated so well, and have the easiest job of all: meeting and reading to kids and adult book lovers and signing their books.)
One of the most heartwarming things about the festival is its broad reach. Author Vivian Vande Velde, who founded the Rochester Children’s Book Festival 15 years ago, heads up an impressive program started by Carol Johmann called “Festival to Go,” which brings authors and illustrators into city schools. Sibby Falk explains: “There’s a volunteer group in our area called Altrusa. They buy books of the authors who go into the schools and donate those copies to the school’s library. With budget cuts, many or most of the city schools don’t get author visits and this brings them to the schools for free – again, all volunteer.”
I think it’s the volunteer spirit that makes this festival feel so special. A fly on the wall at the author gatherings on Friday and Saturday nights would have heard again and again how much we all love this festival, how special an ambiance it has, how full of joy and the love of books everyone is, from the tiniest wide-eyed toddler clutching a new book to the hardest-working bookstore staffer packing up after a long day.

A postscript – after we all got home, we received wonderful news from Sibby and Kathy, who thanked us all so graciously for being part of the weekend, and then added, “We wanted to share with you that a community literary center in Rochester, Writers & Books, recently awarded the Rochester Children’s Book Festival their Writers & Books Big Pencil Award, which is presented to ‘individuals and organizations that have impacted the appreciation of literature and contributed significantly in the advancement, creation, and understanding of literature in the Rochester community.’ ” There was a collective email whoop of celebration from all of us, who had witnessed firsthand what this event means to its community.
The book – the physical book – is alive and well (and selling) in upstate New York. May all cities create children’s book festivals as full of spirit and the lively love of reading as Rochester.

Yesterday, I spent pretty much the entire day receiving doo-dads and trinkets. Boxes and boxes of them piled high in the back room needed to be entered in the computer, priced, and organized. The beauty of my job is that I have a partner who loves to set up these sidelines, so I just get them ready.
Sidelines have become a bigger part of the store’s inventory since we moved to our new location five years ago and finally had space for them. Every year we carry just a few more than we did the year before. The margin for these continues to best that of books and lately, there have been specials to help offset shipping which can be exorbitant.
This year, I’ve noticed that people have already begun buying holiday presents, including stocking stuffers. This amazes me. It’s barely November and some folks are already done with their Christmas shopping. If I bought a stocking now, there would be no way I’d remember where I’d hidden it come Christmas Eve. More power to the folks who plan that far ahead.
We’ve never had our doo-dads out this early, and it feels good. As I was putting them on the table and pricing them, co-workers came over and started playing with them. The best way to sell something is to be enthusiastic about it yourself. And literally within moments, someone had purchased a stocking stuffer.
While we’ll always be a bookstore, there is something really fun about carrying sidelines. They increase our sales margin, they can make the store seem more lively. and, more importantly, they’re fun.
We sell a parrot pen that’s a voice recorder. Ask my staff how many times between now and Christmas they’ll hear me sing, “Happy holidays” into the pen to demonstrate how much fun they are and they’ll say about a hundred. But just about every time I do that, someone buys a pen, and that makes for a very happy holiday.

This past Saturday we welcomed Vermont legend Katherine Paterson and her esteemed husband, John, for a lively event about their new book, The Flint Heart, their adaptation of Eden Phillpotts’s fantasy story from 1910. The Patersons were thrilled to be talking about their latest collaboration. They loved the story right away and together they edited it.
One of the questions that Katherine anticipated and included in her part of the presentation was, “What was it like to writing with your husband?” Katherine paused and said,”It’s a lot more fun writing with him than wallpapering with him.” This comment drew chortles from the crowd.
John explained how Margaret Mahy was instrumental in their writing the book. She choose The Flint Heart as a book that should be treasured for the next hundred years, when John posed that question to her. The Patersons then investigated the original work and together they made it the easy-flowing, great read-aloud that is. One thing John said was the original had chapter upon chapter of fairy listings and a detailed description of the flora and fauna, which he excised from the text to make it flow better. Katherine then worked to make sure the whole story hung together.
After their presentation we were all in for a glorious treat. Katherine read a chapter to us. We’ve had lots of folks read their works before, but never with such conviction, joi de vivre and grand fun. The audience was rapt. Kids leaned cozily against parents, adults just tipped forward in their seats. Really, it was a memory in the making.
Katherine spoke about her other new book — honestly, how many authors go on tour for two books simultaneously — Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures, which was just named one of the top 10 illustrated books of the year by the New York Times. Katherine told a fascinating story about this book and a big chain store, which she gave me permission to retell here (I’ll always love her a little more for this). 
It seems the buyer “thought the art was too sophisticated” so they passed on the book entirely. Really? Does a buyer ever just pass on anything written by Katherine Paterson? So, since the release date of June, the book has not been in any of the chain’s stores. Until Thursday. Apparently, being chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated gets you a direct line to the store shelves. Katherine thought the whole thing was amusing, especially now since they’ve ordered hundreds.
Katherine let me take a moment and explain to the attendees what this scenario points out. Chain stores are not bad. What’s bad is one person is making decisions for hundreds of stores. So one buyer, as Katherine tells it, didn’t like the book, so no one who shopped at a that chain would be able to buy it because of that one person’s opinion. That’s a really powerful set-up.
The independents have more eyes looking at things and are not making decisions for the entire country, therefore they can take more chances on books. Each indie knows its market and can decide for itself whether or not to carry a book. The real problem arises when chain stores are essentially controlling editorial content: change the title, change the cover, put more photographs of real kids on every YA novel, etc. Anyway, Katherine was gracious about me and my soapbox and all but one of our copies of Brother Sun, Sister Moon sold at the event.
As customers browsed among all Katherine’s books, I was struck not only by the breadth of her writing, but the reaction people have when they regard her titles. Moms were touching Bridge to Terabithia  and then their hearts, as if relieving the book again. A young man of 10 or so had a stack of five books; they ranged from a picture book to a chapter book, a middle grade novel and a young adult novel. His mom made him focus on one book, and he choose the one that he had been clutching the hardest, The Flint Heart. And then the mom made a quick secret list of what he’d been holding and thrust it at me to set aside. All in all, a good day.