ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog   

In a word, NO. At least, not if you trust the opinions of the kids John Oliver read aloud to in a hilarious clip featured Wednesday on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. Watch it and weep (with laughter, that is) as these youngsters announce several things they would RATHER do than have to listen to Mr. Oliver read any more pages of Going Rogue which, as it turns out, is no Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Thanks to my friend Tim Scarlett for the link! The read-aloud section begins about three minutes into this clip.

The holiday season is upon us. While this means increased sales and traffic, it also means seasonal displays must be created. I have to confess that if it were up to me, we'd have the same displays we had in 1996 when we opened. Thankfully, I'm blessed with staff who are not only good at displays, but they actually like them.

Over the years I've learned a few things about displays. Good displays are eye-catching, but also make people stop and actually look the books in the display. The holidays give you a great chance to make things look appealing. Two staffers spent part of the weekend putting gorgeous sliver and gold bows on gift books. The effect of this is two-fold. First, books that are already visually arresting now are even more so, and second, by ha...Read More

As the holidays get closer, the number of special orders we take rises exponentially. I thought I'd take a moment and trace how a special order goes from your list to our store.

1. Customers come in with a title, usually somewhat wrong, that they are looking for and whoever answers the phone at the store, helps them find it. I should say that is the hardest part of the special order process. Deciphering a title is a real skill. See the blog post When Titles Go Bad to understand the challenges we face.

2. The title gets placed on our latest purchase order (this is the form we use to order from). We rotate our orders with the three distributors we work with. Baker & Taylor and Ingram each have noon order deadlines. Bookazine has a three p.m. deadline. O...Read More

Esther Hautzig wrote one of the most beautiful, unique contributions to WWII children's literature—The Endless Steppe. It was a story based on her own childhood, banished with her family from Poland to Siberia because her father was denounced as a capitalist. When she passed away earlier this month, one of my bookselling colleagues, Rondi Brower from Blackwood & Brouwer Booksellers in Kinderhook, N.Y., shared a personal tribute to Ms. Hautzig, and I've asked if we might share it with ShelfTalker readers.

Because ShelfTalker is a booksellers' forum, we like to share the platform with guest columnists when...Read More

I didn't expect to share my recent flight home from Nebraska with any book illustrators other than my husband, but by chance three of them were sharing the friendly skies with me -- at least in a manner of speaking. As I slid the November 2009 issue of United's Hemispheres magazine out of the seat pocket in front of me, I found myself looking at a clever, colorful illustration that could only be the work of the incredibly talented John Hendrix, whose illustrations for Deborah Hopkinson's Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall, Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend) helped land it on my ...Read More

What on earth are you going can you give your reader friends who need something OTHER than books? Etsy to the rescue! Once again I've pulled together an assortment of book-related suggestions for you.

A short Etsy tutorial for those of you not yet familiar with the website: If the item you've clicked on is "SOLD OUT" by the time you get to it, fear not! Click on the "store" link beneath the seller's profile (on the right-hand side of the screen) to get to their main store page. You may find another (newer) listing for that same item elsewhere in their shop, and/or info. on how you can contact the seller to ask about an item's availability.

Don't see anything below...Read More

It's time to start selling books hand over fist! The holidays are descending on us far sooner than we think. Forget that it was 55 degrees in Vermont today, sooner or later there will be snow on the ground and folks will come in with lists. Lists of people who need presents. It's our job as booksellers to make sure no one on any list goes without a great book, or two (or three) this holiday season. Just how we do that is the fun of being a bookseller. I love the challenge of the holidays. I try to open the store early, by 8:30 if I can, to get the parents after they drop the kids off, and I go all day. Holiday shoppers are like a captive audience of folks needing recommendations. It's fun, it's challenging and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Being a great handseller is about listening and sharing. You listen to what the customer says they want, or who they're lo...Read More

Here's the updated list of starred reviews for 2009 children's books. For book covers and more information, I've created the 2009 Stars Library on LibraryThing.com.

This month saw two books join the 5-star list: Frances Hardinge's fantasy, THE LOST CONSPIRACY (Harper), and Elizabeth Partridge's MARCHING FOR FREEDOM: WALK TOGETHER, CHILDREN, AND DON'T YOU GROW WEARY (Viking). Two more books hopped up to the 4-star level: BAD NEWS FOR OUTLAWS: THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF BASS REEVES, DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson; illus. by R. Gregory Christie (Carolrhoda), and JOHN BROWN: HIS FIGHT FOR FREEDOM by John Hendrix (Abrams).  Several books joined the 1-, 2-, and 3-star list...Read More

Let's launch a children's book illustration career right here, today, on this very blog, shall we? The other day, while preparing a post to help you with your holiday shopping, I stumbled across the work of an immensely talented young woman who has a shop on Etsy. Her name? Brigette Barrager.

Because she is reportedly tired of hearing how much her illustrations resemble some of the work by the late great Mary Blair, I will instead point out the fact that Brigette's illustrations feel fresh, hip, and playful. I love her use of color, and ...Read More

We had a great author event on Saturday with Grace Lin, whose latest book is The Mountain Meets the Moon. The event drew a diverse crowd of happy children and parents. (One child had actually made a card for Grace, which was awfully sweet.) Three things contributed to the success of this event.

The first was our promotion. The event was listed on our website, our entire email list got an invitation to the event on Thursday morning, and we had our event posters up all over town. I saw some new faces at the event and asked how they heard of it. This leads to item number two: author websites.

Grace's website is fabulous. It's chock full of information without being overwhelming, and it's very easy to navigate. Sometimes authors get really cutesy with their websites and it can be infuriating. As much as I loved the Harry Potter books, I grew to h...Read More

I'm curious what everyone is reading right now. Currently I'm reading two books: The Maze Runner and The Demon's Lexicon. I don't normally read this much fantasy, especially concurrently, but both of these are extremely compelling and I can't bear not to read a little of each every night; they speak to different audiences who I think will enjoy them as much as I am. My current challenge is to not leap ahead into the spring 2010 galleys, although they look very yummy. I'm trying to get ready for the holidays by reading some gems that I might have missed.

As we are approach the heart of the fourth quarter, I find myself eyeing my shelves thinking about what I can actively sell to all the various gift purchasers shopping in my store. I know what my favorites are: Wintergirls, The Lion & the Mouse, School of Fear, Once Was...Read More

The season for charitable giving (and giving) is upon us. I have been keeping track of the number of times this fall I've been asked to make a donation. Every day someone has come in or called at least once a day for the last forty days. Really, every day someone has asked the store for something: a gift card, a book, several books, a whole gift basket, etc., and all for very good causes. 

As a small business owner in a small community, it's hard to say no to anyone who walks in with a simple request. But as some point you have to say no. Or do you?

I give gift cards almost exclusively. I like the gift card because the auction winner has to come back to the store to redee...Read More