Are you a fan of Mordicai Gerstein’s The Man Who Walked Between the Towers? If not, what’s your problem?? (Just kidding.) (Sort of.) If so, find a local theatre showing the new documentary Man on Wire and see it on the big screen. I promise you the dizzying photographs and footage of Phillippe Petit making his highwire walk between the World Trade Towers are well worth seeing on something larger than your own television. And this film is more than worth the cost of box office admission. Like Gerstein’s Caldecott Medal-winning book about Petit, it is an artful example of understatement. Director James Marsh doesn’t flood the script with facts or lengthy explanations or extraneous footage. He tells the audience what we need to know about the when’s, the where’s, the how’s of Petit’s grandest artistic coup and leaves us to ponder both the WHY (which is, Petit says, the thing Americans always want to know) and the WHAT — as in, what did Petit’s feat accomplish, and what did it to and/or for his relationships with those who helped him achieve his dream. The latter is the part that I can’t stop thinking about…

In all, I’d describe Man on Wire as engrossing, fascinating, thought-provoking, and beautiful. And I’m not the only one who thinks so, judging from the 100% (!!) this movie is currently being given by Rotten Tomatoes, a site that collects critical reviews from a variety of sources and averages them into a single score. (At last check, their score for Man on Wire was based on 88 reviews.) I particularly love this quote from Aaron Hills of the Village Voice: "Exhilarating… a crowd-pleaser in such witty, poetic ways that even an art-house curmudgeon couldn’t deny its tidy vigor."

You can watch the trailer for Man on Wire below.

Yesterday my post featured an "Atticus Finch President 2008" t-shirt, which happens to be just one of the many items currently available for the presidential (or other) campaigns of authors and book characters. You could also pledge your support for, say, Mark Twain (who was dead the last time I checked) or two of his characters, Huck Funn and Tom Sawyer.

Or you could throw your support behind… Nellie Olsen?? Of the Little House on the Prairie television series?? (I love that there’s a tribute site to Alison Arngrin, who portrayed Nellie, that refers to her as a "Prairie Bitch.")

Hitchiker fans might be happy to see this button (from Media Tees on Café Press).

And Star Wars fans have an entire Zazzle shop at their disposal, featuring campaign buttons and shirts for all their favorite characters, with images like these:

You knew Harry would have to get someone‘s vote:

But are you surprised about Steinbeck?

I love the slogan for Holmes and Watson‘s campaign:

Gee, do you suppose the media can dig up any dirt on these two?

If you’re wishing Bill Clinton could return to take the reins but not sure you want to advertise, try flying under the radar with this t-shirt supporting Jack Stanton, the fictional character thought to have been based on Bill Clinton in Joe Klein’s novel Primary Colors.

And then there are these bumper stickers from SimplyBitten’s shop on Etsy. Don’t tell me if Bella wins this campaign, because I haven’t started Breaking Dawn yet. Or Eclipse, for that matter. Clearly I’ve got some catching up to do!

Let’s escape reality for a moment, shall we, and envision a fictional future country with fictional prosperity for all, at the helm of which would be… a fictional book character. In my fictional dream that character would probably be Atticus Finch, as it would perhaps for the person who created this t-shirt at right on Café Press.

As election fervor is heating up, some stores are asking kids to cast votes in the "Send a Character to Washington" vein, among them Hicklebee’s in San Jose, Calif., whose ballot features quite an interesting mix of Character Candidates! Each of the candidates or a representative for them recently spoke at Hicklebee’s about their qualifications for the post of President and I’ve linked to their (brief) now-on-YouTube speeches here:

Miss Rumphius of Miss Rumphius
Sweetness of Saving Sweetness
Dex of Dex: The Heart of a Hero
Seth Sorenson of Fablehaven
Kate Wetherall of The Mysterious Benedict Society
Will Knight of Storm: The Infinity Code
Ella of Ella Enchanted
Violet of A Series of Unfortunate Events
Mercy Watson of Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride
Commander Toad of Commander Toad
Stanley of Flat Stanley
Clementine of Clementine
Annie of The Magic Tree House series
Liza Lou of Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp
Martha of George and Martha
Minnie of the Minnie & Moo series
The Pigeon of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Chester of Chester
Horton of Horton Hears a Who

You can also watch the candidates engage in a group debate and head to Hicklebee’s on August 14th to cast your final vote.

Not close enough to San Jose to make such a trip, or not interested in these particular candidates? No matter. Make a pitch HERE for the fictional book character you’d most like to see leading our nation!

Yep. The teens who traipsed through our store last Friday at midnight and in the days since may have sported a myriad of Twilight t-shirts and buttons, but I didn’t hear about even one of them sporting Twilight SHOES! They must not yet have spotted these fashionable kicks on Zazzle where you can, YES, design your own Keds, for goodness sake!

Keen to walk the streets in either of these? Each photo is linked to its Zazzle store page.

Last weekend I once again had the delight of visiting Melissa Sweet’s home and studio in Rockport, Maine. This time my friend Jenn Dowell and I made the trip up on the occasion of Melissa’s wonderful (and wonderfully inexpensive – everything $100 or less!) studio sale. In addition to coming home with some lovely pieces of art for myself and others, I came home with photos of a bench that was well worth blogging about.

First, here’s a shot of the studio sale tents decked out in bright, Sweet fashion. (I took the photo below at the end of the day, when the crowd was a LOT thinner than it had been at the start!)

Next to Rockport is the town of Camden, Maine, where Jenn and I headed for some lunch then took a stroll up to the Camden Public Library. The library is perched on a corner with the town’s picturesque main drag on one side, and a harbor-facing park on the other. Behind it is the BEAUTIFUL outdoor Ampitheatre, in which (by complete, crazy coincidence!) illustrator Noah Z. Jones‘ sister was about to start her wedding when Jenn and I happened to be walking by! (We didn’t know that’s whose wedding we were seeing until we mentioned the wedding to Melissa later and she gave us the scoop. I had planned to call Noah to see if we could cross paths but now I see he wouldn’t have been free anyway!)

To the left of what you see above, between the library’s lower, side entrance and the Ampitheatre is a small, circular space filled with beautiful plantings that comprise the library’s Children’s Garden. Bordering that space is a fantastic bench with supports cut in the shape of books "whose titles represent contributions Maine authors and illustrators have made to literature."

Here’s how the garden and bench appear as you first spot them from the harbor-facing street or as you exit the library’s lower level, which is home to the majority of its collection and fun children’s space, complete with child-sized lighthouse and child-sized dinghy.

The shot below was taken looking the opposite way, while standing in the middle of the garden. See the lovely curve of that bench?

Here it wends its way beneath the library’s windows.

And here are a few of the books above which you can perch and admire the passing pedestrians, the beautiful native flowers like lupine (made famous by Miss Rumphius), and the bench itself! I’m assuming the title-less books that precede E.B. White’s tomes were left blank so that there’s room for future authors’ names to be added…?

There is one "non-book" item that also has a place in the bench’s carvings: a cat who sleeps (I hope!) atop The Cat Who Went to Heaven.

I can’t think of many more lovely sleeping spots than in this seaside library garden!

Normally the trains of my attention span travel on several simultaneous tracks, but when it comes to reading novels or lengthy non-fiction I generally have a very straightforward forcus: I will only read ONE BOOK AT A TIME.

Exceptions to this rule are books of poetry, graphic novels, and audio books. I can and do stop these midstream and go back to them again without feeling they interfere with the "other book" I’m currently reading. But woe be to any printed book written in prose form if I happen to put it down and start another book of the same type, as the odds of my ever returning to the original are painfully, unaccountably small.

I can’t tell you why this is, because I don’t actually understand it. For whatever reason, though, when it comes to reading I am a Serial Monogamist. Which I know many of you reading this are NOT!

So… what type of reader ARE you?

To get you thinking about this, I’ve listed a few of the different types of readers I’ve observed.

1. The Whimsical Polygamist: you dip in and out of multiple books at once — whichever strikes your fancy or fits your whim anytime, anyplace.

2. The Placebound Polygamist: you read multiple books simultaneously but each in its own locale — say, you’ve always got one book you’re reading at home, one you reserve for your workplace lunch break, and another that’s the sole domain of your subway ride.

3. The Noncompetitive Polygamist: at any one time you are reading one fiction book and one non-fiction book, or some similar combination of multiple books that does not involve reading two books of the same type at the same time.

Any of these fit the bill? Know of other types I haven’t listed here? Please tell!

I can be a sentimental sap. It’s true. I tear up when things make me deeply sad. I tear up when things make me deeply happy. I am moved by pain and beauty. And, on slightly rarer occasions, I am sometimes moved by the very sight of a book, when it’s one that was created (meaning written, illustrated or possibly even edited) by someone I know personally.

Today our first copies of A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams (Eerdmans, August 2008) written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet arrived at the store. I never saw an f&g for this book but ordered several copies on spec, having seen some of its illustrations-in-progress when I visited Melissa’s studio last year. Having already been a fan of  Melissa’s illustrations, Jen’s writing, and this book’s subject, I expected great things from this book. What I didn’t expect was to find myself actually CRYING over it. But I did. And then I had to ask myself WHY. Yes, this is a great book. An interesting story, well-told, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. But why did that make me cry?

What I’ve come up with is this: it moves me, deeply, to see someone I care about accomplish or create something that truly wows me — that outdoes their previous work or reveals some new piece of their talents to me. The pieces Melissa created for this book just blow me away. I love the way she’s incorporated the pages, spines, and covers of old books into the illustrations. I love the way the bright colors of her palette stand out against their deep browns, dusty reds, and goldy yellows. I’ve always loved Melissa’s collage illustrations, and I love the way she’s used mixed media elements here. Mostly, though, I think I love knowing that Melissa, this wonderfully kind and fun-loving person, created the artwork for this beautiful book. I know she worked hard on it. And WOW! Look at what she did!

I’ve had this "my friends amaze me to the point of tears" experience a few times before. I can readily recall, for example, listening to NPR during my drive to work one morning in fall 2006 catching their report on the previous night’s National Book Awards ceremony. When I heard the familiar tones of my friend M.T. Anderson’s voice filling the car as he spoke his acceptance for the Young People’s prize, I cried with happiness for him, just as I’d cried with happiness for him when I first read the book (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Volume I, The Pox Party) that earned him a National Book Award. (Of course I also cried because the book was just so darn heartbreaking, but that’s another story…) Clearly the more people I befriend in this business, the more tears I’m likely to shed — for all the right reasons.

I suppose what I really want to acknowledge here is the fact that we work in an industry that is filled with truly REMARKABLE talents and (just as important for the enjoyment of our jobs) truly WONDERFUL people. In the best of cases, the two overlap. Having the opportunity to get to know great people who create incredible things – magnificent stories, awe-inspiring illustrations – is an aspect of my job that I couldn’t value more highly. I love that I’m often just as interested in hanging out with the creative souls I meet as I am in seeing whatever it is they create next. And when I come to really, really like one of them, watch them work hard at something, then feel wowed by the results, well…? I feel weepy. I feel honored to know them. And the added bonus? I feel doubly inclined to handsell their books too.

Anyone else feel this swell of joy and pride (with or without the tears) when they’ve read something/seen something created by a beloved friend or admired colleague? If so, could you make me look a little less sappy by admitting so? Thank you, thank you.

While meeting with my PGW rep recently, I read Kathryn Otoshi’s forthcoming picture book One (September 2008, KO Kids Books). While the topic of bullying is ages old, it is rare for me to read a picture book on the subject that doesn’t feel dated. Or unoriginal. Or preachy, or too tidy, or specific only to one type of bullying or specific incident.

One, though, doesn’t fall into any of these traps. It’s simple enough to use with young children, but thought-provoking enough that I think it’d make a great read-aloud for older students too. (Middle school teachers, I’m talking to you!) The simple illustrations, comprised of splotches of color and (later) large brushstroked numbers, depict two concepts in clean, bold fashion: one person can make a difference, and everyone counts.

In One, a big red splotch of color named Red is bullying a smaller blotch, Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple (other blotches — can you guess what colors they are?) see what’s happening but are too afraid to stand up to Red. Soon Red starts bullying them too. Growing larger, Red now towers over the other splotches, who cower in Red’s presence. Then One arrives (a grey 1), his sharp lines enabling him stand tall in in the face of Red. One stands up to Red, who backs down. Let me give you a taste of the text, to show you what happens next.

One turned to the colors and said,
"If someone is mean and picks on me,
I for One, stand up and say, No."

Then Yellow felt brave and said, "Me, TWO!" (illustration: the yellow splotch is now a yellow 2)

Green agreed and said, "Me THREE!" (illustration: the green splotch is now a green 3)

Then Orange became FOUR. (you get the idea, right?)

And Purple became FIVE.

Feeling emboldened by the others’ example, Blue stands up for himself too, becoming (yep) SIX. Furious, Red attempts to roll over Blue (now a blue 6), but all the numbers line up together and say "NO!"

Defeated, Red grows smaller and smaller and begins rolling away until Blue calls out a hesitant invitation for him to join their ranks. One tells Red that "[He] can count too."

Red rocked and rolled and turned into… SEVEN!

All the numbers then announce, "Everyone counts!"

Then Red laughed and joined the fun.

Sometimes it takes just One.

I love the power of this book’s simplicity, and its originality too.

ONE more reason to love this book — Otoshi’s dedication, which appears at the back: "To indy booksellers, my librarian friends, and loyal readers. You keep my spirit alive."

I don’t know if you’ve discovered the entertainment available to you at someecards.com, but if not? Today’s your day for enlightenment. Here are two "reading"-theme cards available on their site, which is chock-full of cheeky and tongue-in-cheek greetings. Click on either one to be whisked away to the very place from which you can send them to others!

I’m really not quite sure what to make of this idea…. In 2007 the U.K.-based TankBooks published a series of classic books in small form – cigarette pack-sized form, to be exact – and packaged them in, essentially, cigarette packages. They called this series "Books to Take Your Breath Away." Here’s how TankBooks describes the venture on their website:

As one habit dies hard, another takes hold.
 
The ban on smoking in public places comes into operation in the UK on July 1, 2007. Tank is launching a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane. 

TankBooks pay homage to this monumentally successful piece of packaging design by employing it in the service of great literature. Cigarette packs are iconic objects, familiar, tried and tested, and over time TankBooks will become iconic objects in their own right. The launch titles are by authors of great stature – classic stories presented in classic packaging; objects desirable for both their literary merit and their unique design.
 
TankBooks are for people on the move, lovers of literature and connoisseurs of design. Try one and you’ll be hooked.

Um… okaaaaay.

I’m not exactly sold on the idea that these books will actually get people reading, though I do admire the cleverness of their packaging, and I definitely enjoy the humorous images this cigarette-to-book metaphor brings to mind…. Just think of all those literate people out there trying desperately to quit – to break the habit of reading. How long have publishers known the effects that books’ content would have on their readers? And why do we sit idly by as they target their products to our youth??

All joking aside, the TankBooks venture has apparently been a bit TOO successful, at least in the design regard. An January 2007 article in the Guardian explains that the publisher is being sued by British American Tobacco (BAT) who claims that the pack containing Ernest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Undefeated bears too close a resemblance to their own Lucky Strike pack. BAT is concerned that the public might mistakenly believe they’ve endorsed or sponsored the Hemingway stories, "which can dilute the goodwill in the Lucky Strike brand."

Sounds to me like someone at B.A.T. needs to be sent a certain t-shirt…