{"id":22979,"date":"2017-09-19T07:30:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T11:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=22979"},"modified":"2017-09-19T07:30:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T11:30:41","slug":"a-whole-lotta-book-love-in-one-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=22979","title":{"rendered":"A Bounty of Book Love in One Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Flanked by fab illustrators, Salina Alko and Sean Qualls, library guru Bina Williams and I bask in the glow of their brilliance.<\/p><\/div>
\nToday’s post is about pretty much the *opposite* of horror, but I\u00a0must begin\u00a0by sending\u00a0thanks to all of the people who answered last week’s post, “Oh, the Horror!<\/a>,” with\u00a0recommendations of favorite recent spooky-to-terrifying books (and memories of some long-ago favorites, as well). So many great titles! Thank you.
\nAnd now I will be quick because I’m at the New England Booksellers Association trade show in Providence, Rhode Island, it’s already 11 pm, and tomorrow starts early! But what I wanted to say is that a regional bookselling trade show is just about the most book-loving environment you can imagine\u00a0for grown-ups. Filled with booksellers, publishers, editors, sales reps, publicists, authors, illustrators, and many other bookish folks, every single room you find yourself in radiates a passion for books.
\nIt\u00a0might be a keynote address, like the conversation on Monday between legendary former bookseller Linda Ramsdell, and award-winning environmental activist-author Bill McKibben, whose new, very funny novel, Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance<\/strong><\/em> (Nov. 7, Blue Rider Press), took even him by surprise. (Cannot WAIT to read this!!! Update 9\/22: Devoured\u00a0it in two gulps, cackling and chuckling throughout. This is be my top pick for\u00a0handselling to adults this fall!!)
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Bill McKibben speaks with Linda Ramsdell (who was blocked from my vantage point by a bookseller’s head, so I couldn’t photograph them both).<\/p><\/div>
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\nOr the room might be a workshop on some aspect of bookselling that brings out the book love. One author, new to the regional trade shows, asked\u00a0about our\u00a0educational sessions. “What kinds of things do you learn about?” he asked. “Oh, you know,” I answered breezily, “maximizing backlist sales, looking line by line at financial statements, all the fun stuff.” He laughed, but he could tell that we booksellers actually do enjoy nerding out about our jobs and\u00a0gathering great ideas from each other.
\nThe passion for books is definitely felt at the author reception, where booksellers get\u00a0in touch with their inner fangirls and fanboys and get books autographed:
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One of two reception areas filled with author tables. Not my best shot, admittedly, but you get the idea.<\/p><\/div>
\nAnd the overwhelming book love is definitely in evidence at publisher dinners. I had the pleasure of dining with Scholastic on Monday evening and hearing about beautiful new books from a host of fabulous seasoned and debut authors:\u00a0Salina Alko, Kheryn Callender, Billy Merrell, Sarah Moon, Sean Qualls, Peter S\u00eds, and Francisco X. Stork. It was an evening of passion for books and the life-saving\u00a0qualities of stories and bookstores.
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\nI couldn’t get good photos of the authors and artists at dinner, since the venue was dinner-dark and flash photos would have been distracting, so I will instead provide snippets of each of the featured new titles to whet your appetites.
\n
\nSalina Alko & Sean Qualls’ WHY AM I ME?, written by Britt Paige, is a lyrical, lovely picture book that raises a question many children have (or will\u00a0be inspired to ponder!):<\/p>\n

Why am I me …
\n… and not you?
\nWhy are you, you …
\n… and not me?
\nWhy is everyone who they are …
\n…and not someone else entirely?<\/p>\n

The vibrant, beautifully populated city subway and park settings\u00a0are\u00a0perfect places to think about what it means to be in the skin we’re in, and the result is one of my favorite picture books of the year. It’s a lovely, lovely book that celebrates people and communities, perfect for homes and great for classrooms.(Extra bonus brownie points for the endpapers prominently featuring a community bookstore!) Sean Qualls and Salina Alko\u00a0create the brightest, most inviting, personality-filled artwork together\u2014I want to know what that process looks like! Co-illustrating is fascinating, and I’m sure is different for every team, so I’m hoping Scholastic will do a video podcast with these two and have them show us a little bit of how it works in their studio. Hint hint.
\nWHY AM I ME? is already out, so if you don’t already have it on your shelves, zip on out and take a look! And maybe pick up an extra for your child’s school while you’re at it.
\n**
\n
\nKheryn Callender’s gorgeous HURRICANE CHILD (March 2018) is a book I’m so excited to read!\u00a0Publisher David Levithan called Kheryn [pronoun ‘they’] an author to watch, likening\u00a0their abilities with language and versatile storytelling to Jacqueline Woodson\u2014high praise indeed. With that kind of introduction, and after hearing Kheryn speak, I couldn’t resist dipping into the book\u00a0while walking home from dinner. The first paragraph hooked me\u00a0immediately (quoted from the ARC, not the finished book):<\/p>\n

My ma’s voice is rough and low. When she speaks to strangers on the telephone, they call her “sir.” I guess it must be surprising to some people, the way her voice sounds, because she’s so beautiful\u2014just about the prettiest woman you’ve ever seen\u2014but I think it suits her just fine. I love the way her rough voice vibrates through the air like a beat on a drum. She sings around the house. Under her breath, since people say her voice is so ugly all the time.
\nWhy you wanna fly, Blackbird?
\n<\/em>That’s the song that’s stuck in my head now.
\nYou ain’t ever gonna fly<\/em><\/p>\n

[Back to me, Elizabeth.] Bet you’re hooked now, too, yes?<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Billy Merrell\u00a0described VANILLA as the story of what we do to sustain love when we have it. Most often, he said,\u00a0books explore how couples meet, but it’s what comes after that he wanted to write about. The story is one that his young gay self would have loved to read, a verse novel about two boys who have been\u00a0dating since middle school, but now they’re teens and sex might start to enter the picture for them, and navigating a long-term relationship can be tricky. Here’s the opening page:<\/p>\n

WHAT IT’S LIKE WITH HUNTER<\/p>\n

He calls me Vanilla
\nand presses his warm nose to my neck.
\nI don’t know what to do but laugh
\nand let him.<\/p>\n

He sniffs and smiles and tells me
\nI smell like myself.
\nSays it like an inside joke
\nuntil it becomes one.<\/p>\n

I feel him there, his touch
\nsettling against my skin.
\nHis gentle arms
\ncircling my shoulders.<\/p>\n

It’s as if a part of me has come loose,
\nbut instead of spinning off into space
\nit turns back and stares at me
\nso sweetly.<\/p>\n

“Vanilla,” he says, and I press my smile to his.<\/p>\n

He could say anything after,
\nand it would seem a compliment.<\/p>\n

Like a backward sigh,
\nhe draws me in. Holds his breath.<\/p>\n

[Back to me, Elizabeth.] I asked Billy to sign my copy for the questioning kid in me that would have loved to read this book as a teenager, too.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It turns out that Scholastic has an Emerging Leaders group of around 80 younger folks from all areas of the company, and for every publishing season, they’re invited to choose\u00a0a book from the season’s list that they absolutely love, and they make a huge presentation about\u00a0the book to the whole rest of the company\u2014and this season, Sarah Moon’s SPARROW was\u00a0that\u00a0book.<\/p>\n

Sarah\u00a0divulged to us that she wrote the\u00a0novel in response to her then-girlfriend, now wife, who had asked why Sarah hadn’t written a poem about her, as she had for former girlfriends. Sarah realized that her girlfriend couldn’t be contained in a poem, and she set out to write her first novel. (Awwww! Love that!!) Here’s the opening of SPARROW:<\/p>\n

White room. White walls. White ceiling. White sheets. White gown. Clear tube dripping who knows what into my arm. Whatever it is, it’s making me stupid. I feel like I’ve been asleep for a week. Maybe I have been. In the hall, a white doctor in a white coat is talking to Mom in a hushed, cold voice.
\n“Do you have any idea what might have caused the attempt. Ms. Cooke?”
\n“It wasn’t an attempt,” I croak. It barely comes out as a whisper. My mouth tastes like cotton and sandpaper. It’s just as well. It’s not like I could explain what I\u00a0was<\/em> attempting to do.<\/p>\n

[Back to me, Elizabeth.] Found on the edge of the roof at school, everyone assumes Sparrow meant to jump. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s a rave review blurb on the back of the (gorgeous!) book cover from Alaya Dawn Johnson (The Summer Prince<\/em>): “Sparrow is a gift, although I didn’t know I needed her. For fellow black girl nerds, future rock stars, writers, readers with big dreams and family problems and social anxiety who want to force the world to hear us\u2014just take it, read it, and feel that almost terrifying recognition of at last glimpsing yourself in a mirror.”<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Oh, that Peter S\u00eds!\u00a0His books range from deceptively simple (like Ship Ahoy<\/em>) to incredibly complex (Tree of Life<\/em>, The Wall<\/em>, and many others). This book is in between, visually speaking, and it was touching to hear that the story comes from an incident in Peter’s childhood where he was cruelly teased by schoolmates for having a homemade costume (Robinson Crusoe)\u00a0instead of a glossy, store-bought\u00a0pirate costume\u00a0like the ones they wore. Peter caught some kind of cold on his way home that gave him fever-filled dreams of being, like Crusoe, alone on an island. (And if that isn’t a metaphor for shame, what is?!) Once there, he builds a home for himself with the company of some animals he befriends. He is happy on his dream island, but then some pirates come to visit.\u00a0Is he in danger, or is there a way to safely and happily (re)connect with the pirates? I suspect you can guess the answer.<\/p>\n

The book is perfectly S\u00eds\u2014unique and engrossing. His books draw you\u00a0deeply into the pictures, and here in Robinson are magical worlds of adventure. Kids will spend HOURS in some of these spreads. You know how there are books that haunt you in a good way from childhood, books you couldn’t get enough of, books whose images stay with you so strongly for a lifetime? This will be a book like that for many, many children.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

ROBINSON begins:<\/p>\n

My friends and I love adventure.
\nWe play pirates all the time. Together, we rule the high seas!
\nSo when the school costume party is announced, of course we know we will go as pirates.
\nMy mom has a different idea. “Peter, if you love adventure, why don’t you go as Robinson Crusoe?”<\/p>\n

[Back to me, Elizabeth.] Oh, those moms\u00a0with their well-intentioned gaffes\u00a0that get us in trouble!<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And finally, alphabetically speaking, last\u2014but most definitely not least\u2014is the new book from one of my heart-favorite authors, Francisco X. Stork\u00a0(Marcelo in the Real World<\/em>, Last Summer of the Death Warriors<\/em>, etc.). His new novel was sparked by two things: the painful feeling of anti-Mexican sentiment from our current administration, and a memory Francisco carried for years: stories of women and girls who disappeared from Ju\u00e0rez, Mexico, victims of sex trafficking and violence from criminals. His new novel, DISAPPEARED, is the story of\u00a0a girl in search of her best friend,\u00a0missing for months, and her brother,\u00a0enamored with a wealthy girl whose family\u00a0tries to draw him in to their dangerous life. It’s a story of\u00a0a desperate journey toward the United States, fleeing everything they know and love. It sounds (and reads, from my stolen bits of peeking) like a thriller and a family story, both. Here’s the opening:<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0On the morning of November 14, the day she was kidnapped, Linda Fuentes opened the door to my hours and walked into the kitchen, where my family was having breakfast. As usual, I wasn’t ready. Linda and I had an ongoing argument: She said I was always late, and I said she got to my house early to bask in the adoration of my younger brother, Emiliano. But we had been best friends for fourteen years, so we could forgive each other anything. I heard her laughing and chatting with my mother and Emiliano until I was ready to go.
\n[…]
\nLinda always waited with me until my bus arrived. We stayed together as much as possible, partly because most abductions of women in Ju\u00e0rez occur downtown, and partly as protection against the comments of men driving or walking by. Every time a man said something offensive, Linda and I would whisper “puchi” to each other and laugh. I found an empty bus seat that morning\u2014a small miracle\u2014and when I looked out the window, I saw Linda jump up and down in excitement over my good luck. As the bus pulled away, she stuck her tongue out at me.<\/p>\n

That was the last time I saw my best friend.<\/p>\n

[Back to me, Elizabeth.] After just a few paragraphs, I’m already invested in their friendship and worried about Linda. Although I’m\u00a0pessimistic\u00a0about her fate, I want to read this book, and I trust the great Francisco X. Stork to take me on a worthwhile, soul-enlarging journey.<\/p>\n

And that’s what book love is all about.<\/p>\n

What books are you passionate about this fall?<\/p>\n

P.S. I know I said I would be quick. Apparently, I lied. But\u2014you got some great book suggestions out of it, so I don’t feel too terrible about going on so long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New England booksellers enjoy the enchantment of authors and books in Providence.<\/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-22979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}