{"id":28198,"date":"2019-01-11T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-11T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=28198"},"modified":"2019-01-11T08:00:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T13:00:10","slug":"a-glorious-picture-book-free-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=28198","title":{"rendered":"A Glorious Picture Book Free-for-All"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure this isn\u2019t what our publishers partners want to hear, but I\u2019ll admit that once December rolls around I don\u2019t get into a lot of the mail that comes my way. We don\u2019t have the room for any more signage or unplanned displays, and since the bulk of boxes that arrive in December contain samples from the summer lists, it\u2019s not terribly time sensitive. But now that we\u2019re into the new year, I dug into the boxes and piled up all the f&gs I could find into an all-you-can-read picture book free-for-all for our kids\u2019 specialist team meeting today.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>
\nWhen we do these, I tend to hang back a bit and listen as the booksellers discover their own favorites. I will be reading all of these again on my own (often multiple times) and discussing them with my reps before placing my orders and choosing our in-store features. But these meetings let me glimpse the books through other readers\u2019 eyes, enjoy impromptu read-alouds, and see how people respond in real time.
\nWhen I walked in the room, Merrilee was regaling the crowd with a reading of A Piglet Named Mercy<\/em> while Eugenia made appropriately timed oinking and burping sounds. After cheering for the triple-chinned baby porcine wonder, we all debated the correct pronunciation of \u201cporcine\u201d for a few minutes before the internet informed us we were all correct. Then everyone split up the piles to see what they could find.
\nProbably the most enthusiastic reception was for Another<\/em>, Christian Robinson\u2019s debut as an author-illustrator. The reviews came in swiftly: \u201cIt\u2019s perfect!\u201d \u201cA+++!\u201d \u201cNow THIS is a wordless book I can get behind!\u201d And there were many other greetings for new gems from old friends. The King of Kindergarten<\/em>, illustrated by staff favorite Vanessa Brantley-Newton, got raves for sheer personality; You Are Home<\/em>, Evan Turk\u2019s majestic ode to the national parks, was passed from hand to hand (\u201cthe buffalo are amazing!\u201d); and Christopher Myers\u2019s collaboration with Timbaland and Kaa Illustration was deemed a stunner.\u00a0Staci\u00a0also found Mac Barnett’s profile of Margaret Wise Brown unexpectedly riveting, sharing tidbits with the group as she read.
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