{"id":7979,"date":"2012-05-25T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=7979"},"modified":"2012-05-25T06:00:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-25T10:00:12","slug":"crisis-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=7979","title":{"rendered":"Crisis Reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the ship hits the rocks, what do you want to read? Lately, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, as friends and loved ones have been ricocheting through big changes of all kinds. What I’ve found, over the years, is that in times of trouble people of all ages return to beloved books from childhood. (They also, notably, turn to poetry. But that’s another post.)
\nWhen 9\/11 happened, once people’s equilibrium had returned enough to focus on books, our sales of “comfort books” skyrocketed. We’re talking Ramona the Pest<\/em>, Betsy-Tacy<\/em>, The Great Brain<\/em>, Superfudge<\/em>, Strawberry Girl<\/em>, The Moffats<\/em>, Half Magic<\/em>, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, The Dragon of Lonely Island, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, The Borrowers, The Enchanted Castle<\/em>, Anne of Green Gables<\/em>, the Casson family books, the Moomintrolls — these were the top choices of 12-year-olds. We always sell these kinds of books steadily, but the sheer NEED for them after 9\/11 was remarkable. Adults sought the same kind of comfort, and found pickings a bit slimmer: My Family and Other Animals<\/em> by Gerald Durrell, Parnassus on Wheels<\/em> by Christopher Morley, and 84 Charing Cross Road<\/em> by Helene Hanff are a few of our favorite recommendations to folks traveling through tough times.
\nWhen houses burn down, pets die, friends move away, parents divorce — kids want happy books, escape, a return to safe, comfortable, orderly worlds with humor, gentle adventure, loving family and friends, and the kind of suspense that doesn’t make your heart beat in the same tense rhythm of dread that has been preoccupying real life.
\nJosie and I have a dear friend, a wonderful poet and former formidable Manhattan English teacher, who is 85 and suddenly shifting into hospice care. Her 18-year-old grandson is visiting from Oregon, and today we saw him for the first time in many years when we dropped by. He greeted us with a beautiful open smile and a hug. “The first book I ever read,” he told us, “came from your bookstore.” It was The Invention of Hugo Cabret<\/em>, and we remembered helping our friend find just the right book for her somewhat struggling young reader, 10 years ago. The book was a turning point for him; he felt it to be his first major reading success, the one that gave him confidence to embark on what has become a love affair with books.
\n“What are you reading these days?” we asked him, expecting to hear Insurgent<\/em> (he’d loved Divergent<\/em>) or another high-octane dystopian fantasy.
\n“The Wind in the Willows<\/em>,” he replied, with that beautiful smile.
\nOf course.
\nReaders, what are your favorite books, and your children’s favorite books, when your hearts need soothing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the ship hits the rocks, what do you want to read? Lately, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, as friends and loved ones have been ricocheting through big changes of all kinds. What I’ve found, over the years, is that in times of trouble people of all ages return to beloved books from childhood. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}