Community manifests itself in many ways, a point illustrated by two recent occurrences at the store. The first involved DDG’s Deserving Reader Award, which goes to a student selected by a local school who is a big reader but doesn’t have the resources to buy a book of their own. A recent award winner took the nature of the award a step further. In every way deserving of the award simply for her own love of books Mindy, a local fifth grader, volunteered to help a struggling second grade student at her school learn to read. What made Mindy’s recognition even more special to her was that a ShelfTalker reader who had attended a pre-publication event with author Kwame Alexander had Kwame sign a copy of The Playbook to a DDG Deserving Reader. She then mailed that copy to me which we gave to Mindy along with her award and gift certificates. That outreach by our community of readers really meant a lot.
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Like most children’s stores, we rely on regular story times and authorless events to keep our regulars stopping in. Here at 4 Kids, we host an unchanging weekly schedule, as follows:
Mondays: Paint-a-Story
Tuesdays: Stories & Snacks
Thursdays: Silly Songs & Stories
Fridays: Gymboree Art Class
Wednesdays are reserved for private play groups in our party/event room, “special events” and large order deliveries (because I still *believe* that I can direct when pallets will arrive… see me later about the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and my plan to Whole 30 just any day now…)
The most popular of our events is the Monday morning Paint-a-Story session, and I’m posting today just as this event is finishing up. So yes, I do see that there is blue paint in my hair and gluey fingerprints on my skirt, and yes, I meant for my manicure to be green. Thanks for noticing. We didn’t start out planning for this to be such an art-travaganza, but it owns that moniker proudly. Each week, about 30–35 kids attend with their moms, grandmothers (lots more of these lately, that’s another post, I think) and nannies. There’s another dozen or so “pumpkin seaters,” or babies in carriers and strollers, and the occasional dad.
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The three best moments in a children’s bookseller’s life (at least for this bookseller) are:

1. Seeing a child light up with love for a book (often involves book hugging);
2. Seeing a child who used to think of himself or herself as a “non-reader” fall in love with books, usually triggered by one special gateway title or author;
3. Seeing an auditorium full of kids shout and cheer with joy about books, reading, authors, and their own possibilities.

I got to experience all three of those things the other day when Kwame Alexander and his guitarist accompanist, Randy Preston, took the stage at Burlington High School, performing for around 600 kids from 11 area elementary and middle schools.
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One thing I frequently struggle with as a children’s bookseller is naming and arranging sections within the store. The whole purpose of having different sections is to help shoppers find what they’re looking for, yet lately I find myself questioning the usefulness of some of our labels. And by “our” I mean not only Spellbound’s but the industry’s.
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Last week I attended a fantastic, vibrant Children’s Institute in Portland, where I connected with publishers I don’t see very often and shared ideas with booksellers around the country. We were treated to some incredible speeches (Jason Reynolds!), and got a chance to talk with a wide variety of authors about their upcoming and recent releases.
At a dinner hosted by HarperCollins, I was lucky enough to sit next to a fellow Texan whose debut blew me away. Elizabeth Bluemle also highlighted Liara Tamani’s novel Calling My Name in a ShelfTalker post last week, calling it a poignant debut, which it is. It expertly follows a young girl, Taja Brown, through the foundational years of growing up, evolving subtly but powerfully over time to reflect her maturing perspective and desires.
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The Cheerfulness Challenge called upon contestants to craft a cheerful composition containing these 20 cantankerous words.
drenched, socket, furrowed, butchering, searing, blood, damp skin, spoil, boil, winces, clots, scalp, plies, plucking, gutting, stain, spalting, sliced, and shattered.
There were a number of excellent entries but one stood apart. Here is our worthy winner:
At the Foreign Anguish Bar & Grill, by Carol Chittenden
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It’s been a busy week at our store, and the fur and feathers are flying (literally.) On Monday I celebrated a birthday – one of the “speed limit” numbers (think county highway, not school zone) and in our store tradition, donned the first of several dozen birthday hats that I will wear all month. The collection has grown over the years, and now includes an autographed Colts hat, one from our friends at the Naptown Roller Girls, and an impressive group of tiaras (with and without feathers) which were handed down from young customers when they “graduated” princess stage and moved on to earbuds as a permanent fashion accessory. Continue reading →

What’s more fun than a treehouse? A treehouse that holds a limitless number of stories in the form of free books for readers of all ages. This weekend at Spellbound, Australian kidlit sensation Andy Griffiths helped unveil a gorgeous Little Free Library built as an homage to his popular Treehouse books. Andy visited the bookstore on tour for his newest book, The 65-Story Treehouse. Continue reading →

One of my favorite months is upon us. Not only because of the emergence of bluebonnets everywhere (which I love) and copious amounts of sunshine (which we don’t really hurt for in Austin anyway), but because every April we turn over our cafe art wall, where local artists display their pieces throughout the year, to the hundreds of incredible bookmark designs submitted to us through our annual bookmark contest. Our prompt is simply to create “something inspired by your favorite book.” We pick winners in each age group (kindergarten, 1st-2nd grade, 3rd-4th grade, and 5th-6th grade) and have them printed to give away at the store for the rest of the year.
Of course we see a lot of love for book celebrities like Elephant and Piggie or Harry Potter. And I’ve certainly seen a fair few cats in hats. But the really special thing about going through the submissions is that each bookmark expresses something a little different, even the ones that tackle similar themes. Sometimes the images are straightforward homages, some are whimsical fantasies, and some are just plain strange, but none of them is boring. I honestly wish we could print each and every one of them because they not only show off some serious artistic talent, but they reveal so much about what stories are truly resonating with kids around Austin and what elements of those stories are evoking responses.
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Last week, I looked at the calendar realized something. Eight years ago today, on April 6, 2009, I wrote my first post for PW. Alison Morris was leaving the blog, and passed her bedazzled and intimidating baton over to me and the Flying Pig’s then co-owner Josie Leavitt. We became the new children’s bookselling bloggers for PW’s ShelfTalker, which was and is helmed by my editor Diane. I had no idea that, nearly 500 blog posts and almost a decade later, I’d still be at it. Come to think of it, I had no white hair when I started blogging, and now I have two blazing streaks. Diane, I’m looking at you.
I’ve been so grateful for the opportunity to write about topics important to me, from the minute (a plea for series numbers on book spines) to the monumental (diversity in children’s books and in publishing). I still
look back at a 2010 post, The Elephant in the Room, about the overwhelming whiteness of our publishing field. The article featured amazing art created for the piece by Kevan Atteberry, Addie Boswell, Jerry Craft, Katie Davis, Nancy Devard, Elizabeth O. Dulemba, Laura Freeman, Erin Eitter Kono, Grace Lin, Claudia Rueda, Nicole Tadgell, and Sharon Vargo. I look at it and think of what has changed in the seven years since I wrote it (the creation of the We Need Diverse Books movement, the CBC’s Diversity initiative, #OwnVoices and more) and what, shamefully and frustratingly, has not.
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