When you’ve owned a bookstore for what Dr. Phibes would have termed “some considerable time,” you have the mixed blessing of hiring many new booksellers along the way. I say mixed because it is often as Legolas described. “For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream.” You see Farmington is a college town, being home to a small branch of the University of Maine, and I have had many great students work here for a time and then move on. Recently I had the pleasure of hiring someone who is a book person to her core, the delightful Clare Fournier! No need to take my word on that; here she is to answer a few questions for us.
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There was a brisk discussion among some retail colleagues online yesterday about merchandise returns at our stores. One shopkeeper inquired about other businesses’ refund and exchange policies, and after a back and forth of standard policies copied from everyone’s receipt printer, the conversation evolved, as it often does, into a “craziest customer returns” contest of anecdotes. As a distraction from a dreary midwestern spring in which sales are weak, freezing rain is a daily occurrence,  and a sense of humor essential, I’m going to do a quick roundup of the best of these for your entertainment. (Please note that only the customer quotes were uttered out loud. The italicized responses are strictly from my flippant imagination, and were not actually verbalized.)

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Readers outside the publishing world may not know that Tuesday is almost always the official release day for most traditionally published books. It’s the perfect day to release new books, because booksellers have one last chance (Monday) to order from our overnight distributors any great new releases that have slipped past our radar up to that point. It also allows any lagging shipments one extra day in the new week to catch up.
Since today’s book release news will be entirely focused on James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty, I’d like to take this opportunity to trumpet the children’s books born today that may not hit news channels quite as notoriously.
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We got up our annual bookmark contest on our cafe art wall last week, which is one of my favorite times of year. The prompt encourages kids grades K-6 to create a bookmark inspired by their favorite book. And what we get back are hundreds of colorful, hand-drawn tributes to books that when viewed together generate an entirely kid-driven buzz list. Of course you get a fair few cats in hats, boy wizards, and elephant-piggie pairs every year. It’s definitely interesting to track trends up and down, which tells us that Pokemon is on the rise and that Dog Man is catching up to Captain Underpants. Those trends are no big surprise, but it’s still fun to see what kids are buzzing about. You also get a few entries that have clearly been done by friends sitting together and collaborating on similar designs.
You can see the influence of community events too. Last year’s musical in the park was devoted to The Wizard of Oz, and lots of schools around town coordinated with performances of their own, so it’s no surprise to see a surge in representation there. But even among odes to the trendiest of characters, some artists manage to stand out with interpretations that offer just a little something extra, whether that’s personality or humor or good old artistic talent. Take a look at the joyful energy in this elephant and piggie as they go for a drive, the valor of this Dog Man, the charisma of a particularly well-drawn Harry Potter, or the hopefulness of this Tin Man (dreaming of his heart perhaps?). Sometimes it’s the composition itself that catches our eye. Can you feel the danger lurking along Little Red Riding Hood’s journey through the woods as she glimpses the safety of Grandmother’s house ahead? Continue reading →

A dark epiphany has occurred! What to do if we are suddenly made aware that the allotted time in the sun of an exceptional book, published a few seasons ago, is ending in an untimely fashion, without its quality and value having been recognized? Three years after publication one has suddenly discovered that routine wholesaler backorders of our beloved book are not being filled. Its discount has been marked down to an ignominious 30%. No paperback is scheduled. The book has been all but abandoned as an enterprise, left to be swept into darkness, unmarked, hidden amidst the other literary detritus accompanying it into oblivion.
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Oh, how I love the geeky girl books. Not the books that are geeky, but those with female main characters who are just different. Those interesting, quirky, smarter-than-the-average-bear girls who say what they think, and think about everything. They are my favorite characters in each genre, from Matilda to Calpurnia to Emika to Rosalind*, an eclectic sisterhood of smart and edgy and sometimes awkward young women, lovable yet often isolated by intellect and left alone by peers of their own age. They stand out at every level, but perhaps never more so than in middle grade fiction, especially those titles set in middle school, that Hunger Games of the American education system,  when fitting in and keeping your head down may equate directly to survival.
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This weekend, we had the cutest parade of little kids. Each was more adorable than the next, wobbling in with their flyaway hair and haphazard winter-into-spring clothing layers. And they were fabulously well-behaved at the bookstore, at least, until Mom and Dad stepped over the invisible toddler patience line and lingered too long, chatting and browsing. Then would come the tot meltdowns, which are also sort of heartbreakingly adorable, at least when they are skillfully and relatively quickly managed by parents. (I mean, who doesn’t feel like crying with outsized, totally inappropriate rage and exhaustion while running errands? But as adults, we’re supposed to have stopped doing that.)
I feel for parents who bring their toddlers shopping. We booksellers try, when we have a moment, to entertain and distract little ones long enough for the grownups to browse for a few minutes, but those bouts of peace are generally short-lived. One mom came in with twin two-year-olds and a six-year-old, looking for Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop, and she looked so frazzled I wanted to wave a magic wand and give her a three-hour nap. “I long for the time when my body is my own again,” she said. “Someone is always hanging on me.” She immediately looked guilty for saying it, and I had to reassure her. “I hear a version of that sentiment at least once I week,” I said. In fact, I hear it so often that I once wrote a parody of Hop on Pop in honor of all the moms we know. It’s called Glom on Mom: Or, What Dr. Seuss Should Have Told Expectant Mothers About Life with Toddlers.  Continue reading →

I wrote a while back about the literacy program I have been participating in at my son’s school. Basically, I stop by every week to read with two second grade readers who could use a little extra one-on-one time. Each reader joins me in the hall for 15 minutes. The first reader brings out a book from his or her backpack and reads it to me for about 6 minutes before we chat about it. Then I read from a book I’ve brought for about 6 minutes and discuss. Then the kids switch and I do it again.
It’s been an interesting process for me. Obviously as booksellers we recommend books all the time for reluctant readers or their parents. But this is a completely different setting—one that has proven both tricky and rewarding as a handselling test. I bring a handful of books each time, but the truth is that I don’t always get it exactly right. Of the two kids, one is a far harder sell than the other. He’s very sweet, but he’s not always in the reading mood and just isn’t grabbed by every story. This experience has been a great reminder that while we give tons of tips and tricks to parents who want to engage their reluctant readers at home, that one-on-one work can still be hard even with a pile of terrific books at the ready. At the end of the day, though, the willingness to keep showing up to try something new goes a long way.

“Why are these two covers so drastically different?” You see, I had asked one of our customers for her opinion on the hardcover versus the paperback edition of Gertie’s Leap to Greatness and got a question in return.

It was a good question. Another related question is why had I asked for her opinion in the first place? Fair enough. When I first saw the new cover that was to be used for the paperback edition of Gertie I had a visceral reaction. Why was this happening was my first thought. Gertie is a wonderful book and a store favorite featuring a strong-minded character, completely immersed in her own persona. She has no artifice to speak of, no degree of identity separation. Impulsive, creative, with a warm heart and feelings that run hot, she is deeply likable but also trouble for herself. It is a story with a terrific lesson about mistakes not being the end of the world, and the enduring value of truth to self. Gertie is also immensely relatable to her audience of 7 to 11 year old readers.
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“Have you heard that Toys R Us is closing?  You must be so glad!” is the greeting from dozens of customers over the last few weeks.  “Yes, I heard that,” I reply.  “Did you guys come in to visit me today—or is there something I can wrap for you?  I am unpacking new books… would you like to see?”
“So how’s business?  Are you guys OK?” is usually the follow-up query, delivered either sotto voce with a sympathetic look from a parent, or in the appraising raised eyebrow glance of the grandparent—that look that causes you to check your shirt for dribbles of donut frosting and a stray sprinkle or two. “We’re just great—how are YOU guys?  Wow, the kids get bigger every time I see them—my goodness, you’ll be taller than me in a week or so! Did you get an April calendar of activities? There’s a great author event tomorrow!”
And so we smile and tap dance and book talk and gift wrap and dazzle them with service, avoiding the hundredth or so conversation about another chain closing, another retail demise, another conversation about how “everyone buys online, now, you know.”
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