Father’s Day was celebrated with an out-of-this world party at the Flying Pig with six Star Wars characters from the celebrated 501st Legion, a national organization that volunteers authentic role players to groups who fundraise for worthy causes.
A truly gorgeous day saw almost 200 people come to the Shelburne Town Gym (we wisely decided to hold this event offsite) to meet two Storm Troopers, a Biker Scout, a Snow Trooper, a Clone Trooper, and Darth Vader (complete with movie-authentic breathing; eek!).

Many of the children were in costume. Some kids were ready to meet their heroes without fear, while for others, bravado quickly turned to hiding behind daddy’s leg when the full-sized characters arrived. Little Darth Vaders came in several sizes.
The members of the 501st dress in authentic Star Wars uniforms, to the delight of hordes of fans both young and grown up. They appear at movie premieres, TV news and entertainment shows, and for groups looking to do a little celebrating for a good cause. Our event was a literacy fund raiser for the Stern Center for Language and Learning in Burlington, VT.


While the kids waited for the characters to sweep magnificently into the gym, they did mazes and word searches and other fun activities from DK’s great event kit. We held trivia quizzes and gave out prizes (also from DK’s kit), including keychains, stickers, pins, posters, and magnets. Needless to say, the children were ecstatic with their prizes.
Apparently, all the Troopers are readers, as well. Darth Vader was a careful shopper as were the other Troopers. Seeing the characters read was giggle-inducing every time. Later, they told us they love emphasizing reading to kids, and try to do that at every event where books are present.
How can we indie booksellers not love seeing movie characters avidly reading books?
The 501st Regiment did a wonderful job and the event was a smashing success.

Here they are after the event looking a little tired, but happy. Andrew Liptak, fourth from left, was our coordinator. He helped us book the event and did his best to get more members of the New England Garrison to come with him to the Flying Pig. These folks never got out of costume once during the two hours. They worked hard, were friendly and fun with the kids (and the adults), and had a great time. We couldn’t have been more thrilled, and we can’t recommend the 501st highly enough.
(Note: Josie wrote this post, and then Elizabeth added some pictures and text. So if this sounds like both of us, that’s why. If you don’t like something here, blame it on the other one. Thanks.)

If you’re reading this, you’re online — and quite possibly procrastinating. No judgment here; I’m the Internet version of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie mouse, roaming from one tidbit to the next, from email to Google Maps to Google Earth to some new article about a space discovery to an audio clip of sounds from the stratosphere to the new David Cook single to—whoops, have I said too much?
Writers are particularly susceptible to the temptations of the Internet, since so many of us work on our laptops and do research online. What might start off as perfectly productive research session can quickly morph into “just a few minutes” on Facebook, YouTube, or any number of blogs, articles, or fun opportunities to noodle around creatively. I discovered a program called Freedom, which allows one to block access to the Internet for whatever amount of time you specify. The only problem is that there’s an easy workaround: a simple reboot. Still, it’s like any simple lock: it keeps honest people honest. As long as you really WANT to stay offline, Freedom might be just enough of a deterrent to keep you working.
At a recent writing retreat, I polled a group of authors about their tactics for keeping themselves away from the Internet when it’s time to work. Their responses were so varied that I opened the question to more children’s book authors and artists. Here, for your entertainment and enlightenment, are their get-down-to-work strategies:
Paul Acampora (Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face, Roaring Brook, August 2011)
My dollar store composition notebook, a pack of post-it notes and a pocketful of cheap pens generally keep me Internet-free and productive during my writing time. If I could get the notebook to sync with my Dropbox account, it would be perfect!
Franny Billingsley (Chime, Dial)
[Elizabeth’s note: I have misplaced the slip of paper where I noted my breakfast companions’ responses, but I do remember this one because it is so self-disciplined!] Franny is soon moving to an apartment WITHOUT INTERNET. Enough said.
Cinda Chima (The Gray Wolf Throne, Hyperion, August 2011)
I have several strategies:
1. I put off online stuff until afternoon, after I have several hours of writing completed. There just aren’t that many writing/promotion emergencies that can’t wait a few hours. I mean, this isn’t the urgent-care helpline. If I get online first thing, the morning is shot.
2. I move to a different place to write. I used to go to a cafe that didn’t have Internet access, but now they almost all do. Still, there’s something about relocating that tells me, You’re at work, now! You can’t be getting online.
3. Most of my online stuff is writing-related, and that can be more dangerous than playing games, etc, because you can tell yourself you’re working. I set daily word goals, and my online posts/comments DON’T count.
4. I try to resist jumping online to research something in the midst of a writing session–say, brands of electric guitars. I just use a place-holder and move on. For example, NAME OF GUITAR, knowing I can go back and research that later.
Now I better get offline and back to revisions.
Sue Corbett (The Last Newspaper Boy in America, Puffin)
Signing off FB right now. Thanks for the nudge.
Karen Day (A Million Miles from Boston, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House)
When I’m trying to write and avoid the Internet, I play games with myself. I must not look at the Internet for 15 minutes! Or 20 minutes! And then I reward myself by checking Facebook and/or e-mail. I do the same thing to avoid eating!! Just 20 more minutes and then I can raid the refrigerator. I also get up early to write (5:30). I am the least distracted at this time of the day. I also know that it’s so early that I haven’t missed much online!
Elizabeth O. Dulemba (Soap, Soap, Soap / Jabon, Jabon, Jabon, Raven Tree)
What? What? Did you say something? Can’t talk… too busy working… : )
Michelle Edwards (A Knitter’s Home Companion, Stewart, Tabori, & Chang)
I have two computers in my studio. I write on my laptop with Internet button off and my back to my desktop’s screen. I never write with music on, and usually I wear earplugs. Someday, I try to stay off entirely, then there’s always a sweet calmness that sets in midday–an oasis of calm.
Gail Gauthier (A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers, Putnam)
We have a laptop in our bedroom, and I sometimes take a flash drive with a WIP on it up there because we don’t have Internet access in our bedroom. Unfortunately, there are some games on that laptop. And our son set us up with wireless access, bless his heart, so now that laptop can access the Internet. Right now I don’t know how to do it, so I still have that. But I don’t know how long that will last.
Deborah Heiligman (Fun Dog, Sun Dog, Marshall Cavendish)
hysterical laughter.
……..
I thought I was going to give you a great and reasoned response… but I imagine others have. Can’t wait to read the article and get some tips…
Marcia Thornton Jones (Ratfink, Dutton)
I schedule online distractions throughout the day (before starting work; mid-session break; lunch; post-lunch mid-session break; after work break). I’m not always perfect, but by logging off and closing search tabs I can more easily focus on forward writing progress.
On the other hand, I’ve found that when my writing is stalled, online distractions actually offer a much-needed break. While my conscious mind surfs, my subconscious mulls over whatever has me blocked.
On days when I’m not really blocked, but I’m just feeling lazy and undisciplined, I set small goals with online time as a reward.
And when all else fails…I nap!
JD Lester (Grandma Calls Me Gigglepie, Robin Corey Books/Random House)
how do i keep myself off the Internet? like anyone else, i suppose. duct tape, gorilla glue, booby traps and the like. none of it works, though.
Sarah Darer Littman (Want to Go Private? Scholastic, August 2011)
I make sure to turn off my Twitter and Email client programs. Also, I make a highlighted (INSERT GOOGLEABLE THING HERE) note and scribble (hopefully legibly) on a notepad a list of things I need to look up on the Internet later instead of stopping to start research that one particular small thing, which will prove so incredibly fascinating that I have to go to the next web page to research some more and then the next and *SQUIRREL!!!*
Kate Messner (Marty McGuire, Scholastic)
We build a “writing room” in the back of the house last summer. You can’t get to it without stepping outside first, which was intentional. And…it has no wireless. Which wasn’t intentional but is really kind of wonderful. When I’m writing and think “Oh, I’ll just pop online and look up one quick detail…” I have to decide if I really need to check right that second, which means going back into the main house and upstairs…or if I could make a note, keep writing, and check later. I’m sure it saves me lots of time – because who ever really checks “just that one thing” without then drifting into email and Twitter and whatnot? I end up writing without interruption during my writing time and then looking things up all at once later on.
Wendie Old (The Halloween Book of Facts and Fun, Albert Whitman)
I move to a different spot for serious writing.
Upstairs is my desktop computer which I use for everything — writing, email, Internet, games, whathaveyou.
I have a comfy chair in the living room with a small table in front of it where the laptop is stationed. It’s my alternate office. My laptop computer is for writing. There I do no email, the Internet is for research only, and I write. Until my body rebels and I have to change position, again (get a snack, pay bills, do something else and not write). The living room also holds my husband’s desk and computer and my granddaughter’s desk and computer. The family that computes together….)
I bounce between the two computers. The change of scene (from my office to the living room) also prevents me from getting bored with the writing project that I HAVE TO get done. All my work is in Dropbox, so the only thing I have to remember to do is to close what I’m working on before I move to the other computer.
Traveling is a whole ‘nother ball game….
Cynthia Jaynes-Omololu (Dirty Little Secrets, Walker/Bloomsbury)
Word count. It’s a numbers game. I tell myself that if I finish 1,000 new words then I get to mess around on the Internet for half an hour. If I don’t put any limits on myself, I can waste an entire day refreshing email, Tweeting, Facebooking, Stat Countering, on the Verla Kay Blueboards and then starting all over again in a punishing loop.
Ammi-Joan Paquette (Nowhere Girl, Walker, September 2011)
I know that Internet distractions aren’t something I can cut out altogether, but it’s also a habit that can very easily grow out of control. Early on, I made some decisions about which sites or hotspots were most important to me to keep up on—whether for personal or work-related reasons—and which ones were less relevant. I then saved my essential two or three sites into shortcuts (by dragging the link onto my toolbar), so they’re easily accessed with one click. The others are all stored deep in subfolders of my Favorites menu. This makes it easy to keep up with the sites that are truly important to me, giving me that sense of connectedness that I need, while stowing the others out of everyday use, for days when I have longer to spend or want to reward myself with some heavy-duty web immersion.
Rosanne Parry (Second Fiddle, Random House)
The benefit to living on the west coast is that if my editor or agent has something they want from me, it’s in my inbox by 7am. So first thing in the morning is my time to deal with email–an added bonus, my teenagers are happy to have me distracted and not mothering them on the way out the door in the morning.
Once the email is done I just turn the airport off while I work. If my kid’s teachers have something I need to see, they’ve usually gotten in touch by noon, so I take a look at email again while I eat lunch. If I’ve found a detail I need to research in the morning writing I’ll leave the airport on in the afternoon to look up what I need.
Once my kids are home from school, I’m busy taking them from place to place and often waiting in a room with no Internet, so it’s back to distraction free writing in the late afternoon. If I’ve had a productive writing day (and sometimes even if I haven’t) I indulge in blog reading in the evening. That’s also when I update my website, add to my Goodreads page, and write posts for the Mixed Up Files of Middle Grade Authors blog.
Leda Schubert (Reading to Peanut, Holiday House, August 2011)
1. I play no games at all, ever. Not even solitaire.
2. I limit Facebook time to 10 minutes a day, and I don’t allow any of those whatever-they-ares that require you to release info (apps? I have no idea). I de-activated the chat feature as well. (And I remind myself that I don’t want corporations to own any more of me.)
3. I don’t have a cell phone. The main reason is we don’t get reception, but it helps not to have one at all, anywhere.
4. Our connection, even though it’s broadband, is so slow that I can’t watch Youtube unless I have infinite patience, which I don’t.
5. I constantly remind myself of what’s really important to me. On my deathbed, will I be happy that I spent so much time online? Doubtful. Seriously doubtful.
6. Still, I do a lot of research for this and that. I’m not pure and good. If I’m really writing hard, I disconnect, which I can do with one click (and no program necessary).
Curious to hear what others do! We all need help.
Janni Lee Simner (Faerie Winter, Random House)
I’ve never found any way to keep myself offline except by brute force. I’ve downloaded various programs to block Internet access for a set length of time, but I’m just enough of a geek that within a few hours I figure out how to circumvent them. Better to forgo that distracting intellectual challenge and simply to force myself to hit the “off” switch on my wifi–ideally early in the day, before I even have a chance to start web surfing.
Jennifer J. Stewart (The Twelve Days of Christmas in Arizona, illustrated by Lynne Avril, Sterling)
A mother lode of guilt is working for me. No one thousand words equals no email/Internet. Not signing on until later in the day means I focus better on what I’m writing.
Pamela C. Swallow (Groundhog Gets a Say, Putnam and Puffin)
I have a few strategies to keep myself on task and off the Internet:
1) I set a minute timer for 45 or 60 minutes and promise myself to keep my seat in my seat until the bell goes off. No Internet allowed during that time.
2) I unwrap a Tootsie Pop and swear to myself that I will stay in my chair working on my manuscript until the Tootsie Pop is finished — the rule is that I may not bite into it–only lick until the very end. This can take approximately 30 minutes.
3) I use a laptop to work on my books. I do not connect it to the Internet. In order to look at the Internet or get email, I have to go to a different computer.
Chris Tebbetts (Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, with James Patterson; illustrated by Laura Park, Little, Brown)
Having tried your own suggestion — Freedom software — and finding it too easy to foil (with a simple re-boot of the computer), I now send my ethernet cable off to work with my husband on most days. It’s both highly effective, and a kind of sad commentary on my own lack of will power, Internet-wise. The interesting side effect, though, is that when I get the cable back at the end of the day, I find my usual “need” for surfing the net and checking email is much less pronounced than it might be during my workday. In any case, I’ve found that my best bet is to completely remove the temptation from the house.
Deborah Underwood (The Loud Book, Houghton Mifflin)
I sometimes resort to Freedom, which disconnects you from the Internet for a given period of time. (You can get around it, but only if you reboot your computer.) Or I look for a cafe without wireless. I wish I were strong enough to stay offline on my own; alas!
Carrie G. Watson (Quad, Razorbill/Penguin)
Loved this question you posed on FB about how authors bribe themselves to stay off the Internet. Does that really happen? Jeez, when I’m writing I actually have to be bribed to get up and do things like laundry and, y’know, go to work. I do check my email and FB once in a while as I’m writing, but my writing time seems to correspond to when most of my peeps are working, so FB is usually pretty quiet and not a distraction. Does this make me an anomaly? Do most of your writer-peeps have to make secret, backroom deals with themselves to get off of FB and outline that plot? I had no idea this was going on!
Elizabeth Winthrop (Counting on Grace, Random House)
I have two desks. At one, I do all business work, at the other creative work. As long as I start the morning (often before breakfast), at the creative desk and stick to my rule of no email or web on writing mornings, then the writing happens…I can have coffee, chocolate, I’m allowed to knit while I stare at the screen, I can walk around, I can eat, I can even answer my landline (which rarely rings anymore) but I MAY not check email or troll the web. The book I’m working on requires research (they all do, even the picture books) so on those mornings I make an old-fashioned list with a pen and paper and do that research later, once the writing is done. I’ve found I can last about 2 and 1/2 hours before I cave in. The Internet has become for many people, myself included, not just a distraction, but an addiction.
Anne Ylvisaker (The Luck of the Buttons, Candlewick)
This is a great subject. I can’t wait to get tips from others. The Internet is such a time sapper. My last resort measure (when I’m really self-discipline-impaired) is go to my auto-office: I drive to the parking lot at the ocean, where there is no chance of picking up a wireless signal, and work on my laptop in my car with the windows down.
Jane Yolen (The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye, illustrated by Jim LaMarche, Random House)
I use the Internet, FB, Boggle as the carrot. Write another chapter and you can play–that’s my sort of thing.

Yesterday the New England Children’s Bookselling Advisory Council had a wonderful educational session about how best to work with publicists. What made this session so informative were the three publicists who came to Storrs, Conn., to share what they look for when selecting stores for stops on author tours. Many New England stores, especially those of north of Boston, sometimes feel that authors don’t come our way because of travel time, but I learned yesterday that there are many factors that go into designing a tour.
We were joined by Lara Phan who does account marketing for Random House; Marisa Russell, who does publicity for HarperCollins; and Elyse Marshall, associate director of publicity at Penguin. The panel was moderated by Suzanna Hermans who began the session by asking what publishers like to see in an event proposal. Most publishers use event grids as a way for all stores to request touring authors. The grid is a massive Excel spreadsheet that needs to be filled out in with lots of  in-depth detail about what you can do for the event: how many books will you order, what size crowd do you expect, what is your marketing plan for the event, etc.  Generally, booksellers do not like the grids, but after hearing from the panelists, I understand better why they’re good for the publishers: it allows them to compare apples to apples, not different emails written different ways about how a store will handle an event. Honestly, the grids can only help us. And one very exciting innovation that Random House is spearheading is the use of Edelweiss as a way to request authors. This had the room fairly abuzz, as it can literally save hours of work.
The publicists all stressed a lot of the same things, and I’ve made a list of them:
– The number one thing is enthusiasm for the author. All three women said that excitement about the author and a love of that person’s work will go far to distinguish one proposal from another.
– Cross-promotion: who can you work with to make your event richer than just a reading and a Q&A? Can you work with the knitting store down the street? Are you going to bring to people to the signing who might not otherwise come to a bookstore?
– Can you make your event special? Will you rent a costume to make the event seem more fun? All of these things are important to making your event stand out from the hundred or so requests the publisher gets for each author on tour. With so many stores competing for the very limited number of events, the more your store can do to really make an event sound fresh, energetic and fun can really only help your store’s chances of getting some authors.
– Share with the publishers a map of your area. Google Maps lets you create a map that you save as a link and include in all your emails. No one knows your state better than you, and it’s in your best interest to let the publicists know how many other stores an author can visit while in your area.
– Suzanna shared with us her remarkable Author Event Confirmation letter, which all the publicists said they LOVED. What they loved about it was the thoroughness of it. Suzanna went beyond confirming date and time, she included media contacts with their addresses for review copies, a very nicely worded paragraph suggesting that visiting authors include a link to the store or to add Indiebound.com to their author page. This is brilliant. It’s a nice way of reminding authors to support indies on their websites.
– Try to get media attention for all your events. All the publicists said their dream media attention was morning TV, a large newspaper article, and then a radio interview. Several of us just started laughing as we don’t have local morning news programs. So, helping the publishers get the media that exists in your market is really important. Have a good media list. Smaller markets often have lots of little newspapers and it’s hard for an outsider to know which one is the most effective, and any good info is always welcome.
– Give the publicity team as much info up front as possible so they don’t have to hunt for it. Just like we like a complete press pack for all events, it works the same way for the publishers. Know where an author can stay and what those places generally cost.
– Remember that the event guidelines often come from the authors themselves. There’s a reason we’re told where to put the post-its with the name of the person the book is being signed to. If the post-it is where the author looks, the signing line will go faster and more smoothly. Guidelines exist for a reason; adhere to them and things will go well.
Each house has a different view of author tours. Random House is only touring five authors nationally, Lara said Random House wants bigger events rather than smaller regional tours. While they only tour five authors, those five authors go more places and have a longer tour than other houses. Both Harper and Penguin have 20 national tours this fall. All the women spoke of “author care” as a major component of their jobs. Honestly, I’d never thought of this, but it makes sense. Authors need tending, especially when they’re on tour for weeks. Personal preferences for airlines, number of connections they’re willing to make to get from A to B (there are authors who refuse to make connections, thereby they’ve pretty much eliminating much of New England and many smaller markets) and a host of other personal preferences can make planning a tour very complicated.
Lara, Marisa, and Elyse all said that there is a fine balance between book sales, author happiness, store happiness, event quality and media coverage. All stated that it’s not always the 500-person event that touches an author. Elyse said it best: they are looking to create moments. Sometimes, great events are with 20 people who love the author. Obviously, a 20-person event is a disappointment, but it can also be a really meaningful event that will have a sell-through of signed books that lasts months beyond the event. But secretly we all want to have the “knock your socks off, hundreds of people attending” events.
The last thing I took away from this was to follow-up after events. I’m usually so happy that the event is behind me that I never remember to send an email about the event. All the panelists agreed that this was what they craved: a simple email that states how many people attended, number of books sold, and Elyse suggested writing up a “moment” from the event that was particularly moving. Also, they all said if we had a photo or two to send along, that would be great as well.
So, while I wait to hear about the many author requests I’ve made for the fall, so for I’ve only gotten one confirmed (which I’m thrilled about) I will be patient and follow up in three weeks and I’ll remember not to take it personally when an author can’t make it, this time. And honestly, I’d much rather be hosting events than planning them because that seems far harder and you don’t get the joy of the event, instead their work doesn’t stop until the author is home from the tour.

I love the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. They always reward enduring literary quality, and, because of their unusual, off-cycle consideration schedule (books published between June of the preceding year and May of the current year), they often “catch” gems that went unrewarded during the big January announcements. I was eternally grateful, for example, for their recognition of the superb Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart by Vera B. Williams, in 2002.
This year’s selections add up to a sumptuous feast for readers and art lovers! Here’s the list, along with a few of my own thoughts about the ones I’ve read.
FICTION
Winner: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick) Joy! Heraldry! I love this book, and blogged about it and its author a while back here. Not only is this young-adult novel imaginative, with memorable characters and strong voices, but it’s structurally complex and accomplished. One of his all-time bests, in a career full of bests.
Honor: Chime by Franny Billingsley (Dial) O frabjous day! Caloo, calay! she chortled in her joy. I love THIS book, too, and blogged about it here. The language alone — its gorgeousness and evocative quality, its beautifully controlled lushness — reminds me what writing and storytelling can be, even (and especially) for young people.
Honor: Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke (Kane Miller) How did I miss this one?! I haven’t read it yet, but am going to knock over folks to get to it now. Anna Hibiscus received a starred review from Kirkus, and is part of a series of chapter books about a young girl in Nigeria, all of which look exceptionally charming. And if the BG-HB Awards say it is, then it is!
NONFICTION
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook) I had the great good pleasure of sitting with Steve Sheinkin on a panel last year, and was immediately impressed by his lively command of history, sense of humor, and ability to make the past seem like the freshest kind of adventure treat for kids to dig their teeth into. That is no small feat, and I’m glad Sheinkin’s excellent writing has been noticed and rewarded. I loved this book and his earlier works, too. (Teachers and librarians take note: this is a guy you want talking to kids about history. Book him if you can!)
Honor: Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty (Candlewick) This is one of those addictive books kids pore over. Biesty’s mesmerizing, detailed cross-sections illustrate a wide variety of great voyages throughout history (in addition to the more traditional latitudinal explorations of land and sea are some vertical ascents and descents: Tenzing Norgay and Edmind Hillary’s historic summit of Everest, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s trip to the moon, Jacques Piccard’s undersea voyage to the Marianas Trench).
Honor: Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White (Candlewick) I haven’t read this yet, but it looks quite handsome and worthy, received four starred reviews (PW, HB, Kirkus, and SLJ), and is billed as providing hope along with the realities of endangered species. AND, it’s by the author/illustrator team behind Ape, which I loved.
PICTURE BOOKS:
Winner: Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes by Salley Mavor (Houghton) This is an extraordinary artistic achievement by fabric artist Salley Mavor. Carol B. Chittenden of Eight Cousins alerted fellow booksellers to this one, and during the New England Children’s Booksellers Association’s “Best of the Best” roundup last fall, added this: “Pocketful of Posies…is so beautiful, so perfect for ages 0-4…. What a good feeling it is to offer customers something of obvious value far beyond its cover price.” She also mentioned that one of the big chains didn’t pick it up — another example of indie booksellers discovering and championing true gems!
Honor: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen (Houghton) I’m a sucker for Sidman’s clear, lyrical poetry, which is here beautifully matched by Allen’s prints, done in a twilight and nighttime palette. Not a single teacher (or poetry-loving parent) I’ve shown this to has passed it up. A beautiful, useful book.
Honor: Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Putnam) Jacqueline Woodson sure can write, and Sophie Blackall sure can draw irresistible characters! This story about an older sibling reacting to a new baby — “I’m so sick of that ding-dang baby!” — is one of those lovely, cozy family stories that makes you want to curl up with your loved ones, some hot chocolate and, yes, a big slice of pecan pie.
****
Congratulations to the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards committee for a terrific slate of winners and honorees this year!
Readers, how do you feel about the awards? Surprises? Delights? Is there anything from 2010 that you feel slipped under the radar from all the awards committees and should have been recognized?

It’s officially summer. The calendar doesn’t say so yet, but the publishing houses have sure jumped the season. There is an annual tradition among publishing companies to close up shop by one in the afternoon. I tried to call or email five different publishers on Friday, and was told by each one’s voice mail message or return email: they were closed early for Friday in the summer. Now, before I get hopped on by folks who work in publishing, I realize there is supposed to be a protocol that requires that these Friday off-hours get made up during the week. But still.
So, let me get one thing straight, the publishing companies just close once a week four to five hours early, just ‘cuz. Is it too hot to work on books? Does the A/C in all the buildings cease to function after noon? I’m not aware of any other business that closes early for an entire season. I think it’s a pretty cool idea, as the folks I know who work in publishing seem to be hard workers. And if I worked in publishing, I’d be dancing out the door every Friday at one, too.
I guess I don’t understand how a whole industry can just stop working. I can’t get events confirmed, I can’t talk to someone who literally just called me because they’ve gone for the day. I’m on the East Coast, I can only imagine how frustrating it is for West Coast stores who must finish all their Friday business by 10 in the morning. That’s not a schedule I’d like.
So, while the bookstores actually ramp up their business, those lucky few get a really great weekend for three months. I just hope that some of the publishing staffers frequent the indies wherever they have their summer shares.

I might be a week or two ahead of the calendar, but it sure feels like summer here in Vermont. And thus, the ritual of summer has begun: the dreaded summer reading lists are out.
I might have said this in a previous post, but I didn’t have massive amounts of homework to do during the summer when I was a kid. We didn’t have Internet, or cable TV, and honestly, during the summer we often got bored. I loved it. There were two camp options, sleep away or day camp. Neither held any appeal for me, so I stayed home, and read.
Yes, I had a summer reading list. It was simple, pick any three books you want to read and read them. That’s what I took home. Pick three and read ’em. There were times I felt oppressed by this because I went to a Quaker school and I knew there was no way they were going accept a book report on a Judith Krantz novel, or even some of the Peter Straub books I loved, but I read them anyway.
I asked this last year, and I’m going to do it again now: if you were creating the perfect summer reading list for middle graders and young adults, what four books would you choose?
I’ll get the ball rolling by listing a few of the books I tend to recommend to kids to read in the summer:
– Feed by M.T. Anderson
– Shug by Jenny Han
– Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
– The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
What books would you put on the summer reading list?

There is a customer who comes to my store who everyone on staff just adores. Ki is lovely, exuberant and passionate about books on CD. In fact, she is the reason we continue to stock books on CD. She refuses to download them, she thinks it’s silly; Ki just wants to hear a book from a CD as she drives back and forth to the Cape on a regular basis. She’ll listen to anything as long as it’s well written. Her tastes range from Christopher Moore, her absolute favorite, to young adult authors.
This past winter and spring, Ki was listening her way through Catherine Gilbert Murdock’s delightful Dairy Queen series. Ki was game when I told her about the book, and she raved about it when she ordered the second book in the series, The Off Season, which she loved as well. A problem arose with the third book, Front and Center.
It seems this book was not on CD. Ki bought the paperback to tide her over until the CD came. The problem was, there is no CD of this book that’s available to bookstores. I told Ki the sad news, and she took matters into her own hands. She wrote a letter to Catherine Murdock to ask when the book would be coming out on CD. Wow! She just wrote the author about her not having a book on CD. I was impressed, but really didn’t think anything would come of it because I just didn’t think there was a CD to be had. I didn’t want to dampen Ki’s enthusiasm, so I said nothing.
Well, last week I was proven wrong in a wonderfully surprising way. Ki emailed to tell that Catherine Murdock responded to her email by telling her the audio was done for libraries but she had some at her house. She mailed Ki a copy. Not only that, but she gave Ki a few copies for the store. Wow, again. Catherine came to the store once and she was delightful, so I’m not surprised at her actions. What surprises me is the connection that these two women made.
I forget sometimes that access to authors is something I alternately take for granted and still revere. I love that Ki took it in her own hands to find one of the few copies of the CD she could. It makes me smile to think of someone writing an author and having such an exchange. And through all this, Ki could have downloaded a copy of the book months ago, but her old-fashioned love of CDs got her to actually write a letter.
Ki will bring our CDs the next time she comes in. I will listen to it, on CD, just the way Ki does, and I’ll smile the whole time.

A day in the life of a bookseller, especially one at a small store, finds me wearing many hats. We’ve gotten in several shipments of toys this week. Usually, receiving toys is Elizabeth’s domain. I don’t have the patience for it. But, she’s out of town, so I had to tackle them. You know, putting a display together is not rocket science, but there are times when it sure feels like it.
It seems each toy came with a display that needed to get set up. The first was a seemingly simple rotating four-sided block that displayed bookmarks that have motion when you move them. Adorable yes, but infuriating. There were four tabs on each side to fit the bookmark in. You would think this was neurosurgery for how long it took me to get those bookmarks in the block. It was as if my hands grew to ten times their normal size; bumbling fingers twice almost broke the tabs on the block. So, what should have taken five minutes took me twenty frustrating minutes.
The next batch of toys all had their own displays. Oh, joy, I thought, six displays to set up. The first four went great. Easy, sensible, didn’t need the instructions I didn’t have. Setting up a hanging display for pouches of toys should have come with instructions. It’s always a bad sign when I’m done putting all the pieces together and there’s a part left. The sad part comes in when I can’t figure out why I needed that part. So, I saved the part in the drawer and hope it comes in handy later. Things were going well, though, and all that was left was the header.
Putting in the header, usually a piece of cardboard that fits in on top of the display, is self-explanatory, unless you’re me. The header seemed to not only not fit, but where it is was supposed to go was so wobbly it kept sliding out. I looked and looked, and could see no way for anything to fit any better, so I resorted to a classic Vermont fix: duct tape.
Everything looks great, until it spins.

This weekend the Internet, specifically Twitter and Facebook, have been seriously abuzz about an article in the Wall Street Journal Saturday written by Meghan Cox Gurdon. In the article “Darkness Too Visible,” the writer has focused on a few admittedly dark novels and classified the whole genre as bleak and fairly unredemptive.
As a bookseller, I was struck immediately by the first two paragraphs:
Amy Freeman, a 46-year-old mother of three, stood recently in the young-adult section of her local Barnes & Noble, in Bethesda, Md., feeling thwarted and disheartened.

She had popped into the bookstore to pick up a welcome-home gift for her 13-year-old, who had been away. Hundreds of lurid and dramatic covers stood on the racks before her, and there was, she felt, “nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff.” She left the store empty-handed.
Well, if Amy Freeman had shopped at an independent bookstore someone would have asked her if she needed help. The staffer would have offered help and most likely, the indie would have been well stocked in other types of YA, say Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, or David Levithan, to name just a few.  There is never a reason for someone to leave a bookstore empty-handed, especially when they’re on a mission as broad as wanting a book for a 13-year-old.
On one hand, I agree with one point the author is making: there is a glut of gory, dark and somewhat gloomy YA literature out there. But, to some extent it reflects the times we’re in. Teens are committing suicide because of bullying, eating disorders are common, even kids in “nice” neighborhoods have drug problems, and kids sometimes get pregnant. And sadly, some kids grow up in abused households with alcoholic parents. Reading about kids with alcoholic parents can make a kid feel better. Kids reading about cutting will not make them cutters. It might, however, make them recognize when one of their friends is cutting and could use help.
“Issue” books have always been popular with teens. They’re popular because they discuss things kids feel or talk about. While I didn’t have a drug problem and was not a runaway, I loved Go Ask Alice. And if I were a teen now, I’d be reading Crank, Wintergirls, and Empress of the World. Teens seek out issues that are applicable to their lives or just to learn more. When I sell these books, I tell the parent, or the teen, what the book is about and how honestly it deals with its topic. Wintergirls is a tough read, but oh so powerful. I understood anorexia so much better for having read it. Imagine how a teen would feel reading it if they had a friend they were worried about, or they were worried about themselves. To read someone else’s intense struggle with an eating disorder, and the redemptive ending, can give someone hope.
There’s a Twitter group right now called #YASaves and its focus is on the good that young adult books can do. They can save lives by exposing kids to things. We had a young man walk six miles round trip to our store once a week several summers ago. Why was he walking to our store? Because he felt safe at our store, and he was exploring his sexuality through our book recommendations. We suggested some Alex Sanchez books, and suddenly this kid didn’t feel so alone, so hopeless. Several years later his mother called us and tearfully told us that we had saved his life because he was feeling suicidal until he started reading those books. We didn’t save his life; reading about other gay teens saved his life.
The article ends with this: The book business exists to sell books; parents exist to rear children, and oughtn’t be daunted by cries of censorship. No family is obliged to acquiesce when publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free-expression principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their children’s lives.
Where are the booksellers, the librarians in this woman’s argument? Experts exist for a reason. If parents, or teens for that matter (who actually do a pretty damn good job of self-selecting what they’re comfortable reading), are feeling besieged by what they think are the only books out there, then talk to a bookseller about what you feel is appropriate for your child to be reading. Any bookseller or librarian worth his or her salt can recommend a list of books as long as your arm to counter the gloom that can be found in the YA section, that both parent and teen will be happy to read. The author spoke scathingly of Lauren Myracle’s Shine, a tough book to be sure about gay bashing, but hardly fitting for the 13-year-old whose mom wanted to get her a book. Why not get her Myracle’s other YA book, Peace, Love and Baby Ducks, instead? There is balance to everything, and it’s just so unfortunate that Meghan Cox Gurdon’s article had none.

In college, I made a friend, a writing buddy who’s been my good pal for almost — holy cow! — thirty years. We both headed to L.A. after college, where our families lived, and got entry-level jobs in “the business” (the entertainment industry, that is). We’d hang out at a pub at the Beverly Center on La Cienega Boulevard, and fiddle around trying to co-write a screenplay, or at least come up with an idea for one. We didn’t get a lot of writing done, but we were amusing enough that the manager sent us over free drinks. Good times.
Gregg stayed on in L.A., continued with his screenwriting dream, and made it happen. He even found a writing partner who actually WROTE! Imagine. Fast forward to January 2011, when I hear from my pal that he is working on the DVD extras for the Mr. Popper’s Penguins movie, based on the Newbery Honor book by Richard and Florence Atwater. Gregg is currently a producer and a writer, and does a variety of all things movie, including scripting DVD extras for Hollywood films. What’s great about Gregg, among other things, is that he’s a reader and a dad, and appreciates children’s literature to a degree that can be unusual in his field. He proposed (and received approval for) a segment for the DVD that celebrates the book and its authors, shares the history of the book’s creation and legacy, and includes interviews with the Atwater estate and children’s book experts.
As his resident children’s book professional friend, Gregg contacted me to see if I would be interviewed for the DVD. As much as I *love* the idea of The Flying Pig being represented on a gajillion DVD watchers, I knew that really, he needed to speak with a true expert on children’s book history, and so I hooked him up with the legendary Anita Silvey.
Yesterday, two of my worlds collided when I drove to Boston to Anita’s house on the tail end of the film crew and Gregg interviewing her. What a pleasure to see the fruitful endeavors of two wonderful people from different parts of my life! (The only downside was that, because of rights issues, some of Anita’s marvelous children’s book art had to be removed from the background before they could film her.)
I have no idea how the movie’s release will affect book sales. While the movie itself bears almost no relationship to the book upon which it was based (that’s a topic for another post; sigh), at least there will be some representation of the original creation on the DVD. Happily, the movie tie-in paperback is still the original story — which is one of the most charming, delightful children’s novels ever written (and illustrated by the marvelous Robert Lawson, too).
Apparently the movie is also charming in its own right; I just wish that it were clearer to families that it was inspired by the book, not a mirror of it, and that kids will still want to read the book after seeing the movie.
My suggestion to all of us — booksellers, authors, teachers, librarians, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. — is to grab a copy of Mr. Popper’s Penguins before the movie’s release on June 24, and let a new generation of children fall in love with it all over again. Then, when they see the movie, you can have some great conversations about the differences. And then make sure to watch that DVD when it’s released, and think of my friend and Anita and the Atwater family helping to make sure that the book lives on!