Staffers recently wrapped up a busy summer at Devaney, Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, where nearby lakes and mountains attract summer residents and vacationers. Owner Kenny Brechner shared news of what he and his staff are busily handselling in the early fall season.

We always have a back-to-school table, featuring books that will help ease the way of kids just starting school. This year, two standouts were Steve, Raised by Wolves by Jared Chapman, a new book about a wild boy adjusting to school, and Edda: A Little Valkyrie’s First Day of School by Adam Auerbach, which was published last year. Both are hilarious first-day-of-school books, and very popular with kids.

In picture books, our biggest seller now is The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi. Without question, the illustrations are jaw-dropping, and the tone is so evocative. There’s a quietness to the storytelling – the author is not trying to impress or trying too hard to tell readers what to think or feel. It’s powerful enough that people get drawn in immediately. We are all about handselling here, and this is such an easy and gratifying handsell.

Another new picture book we’re doing great with is Two Mice by Sergio Ruzzier, which is very clever. It has the feel of a wordless book because it has such a strong visual narrative. In a sense, the storytelling is built around a simple number sequence, so it also works as a counting book, yet so much is left to the reader’s interpretation. An amazing story develops that is funny, intriguing, and warm – this is a book that instantly appeals to anyone.

Interestingly enough, another picture book we’ve recently got in and we’re doing very well with is also number-based. It’s What in the World? Numbers in Nature by Nancy Raines Day, which has glorious illustrations by Kurt Cyrus. The book has a great concept, exploring the way numbers work in the natural world – and the illustrations are killer. It’s a simple concept, amazingly well-executed.

And another picture book we’re handselling is The Night World by Mordicai Gerstein, about a boy and his cat exploring the outdoors after dark. My feeling is that there has been so much written about kids’ anxiety about going to sleep, but this story centers on a boy who stays up and learns what happens in the night world. It’s a nice antidote to more routine bedtime stories.

Among our favorite and top-selling early chapter books are Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon, and its sequel, Dory and the Real True Friend. We can’t keep them in stock, even though I buy in quantities. The stories are built around the wonder and pleasure of imaginative play and the sibling dynamics are great. And the books are sensationally funny. We’ve found that Dory has a broad reach, and even kids who are older than she is like the novels, which is somewhat unusual.

We’re doing extremely well with the new paperback edition of Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairytale, Charles de Lint’s follow-up to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest. These books are beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess, with a great layout and a classic feel. We recommend both to customers whose children are reading above grade level who are looking for books that will delight and challenge them at the same time. The novels are a good fit for many of our customers.

We liked Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates series as soon as it came out, and the newest book, Tom Gates: Everything’s Amazing (Sort Of), rocks. The series has been called a British Wimpy Kid, and it’s beginning to sell well, which we’re happy about. Aside from increasing the middle-grade market, illustrated novels that fall under the Wimpy Kid aegis have made more parents compliant, and helped them realize that if their kids are reading, that’s what counts.

We’re also doing very well with The Golden Specific, the second book in S.E. Grove’s Mapmakers trilogy, which began with The Glass Sentence. These novels are so imaginative and are perfect for kids who are nine or 10 and reading well. The books have the richness and ageless appeal of a Diana Wynne Jones novel – pure imagination and adventure, without the extra stressors found in darker books. And smart kids can really relate to the characters.

At the risk of making a bad pun, I have to say that Sarah Maas has reached critical mass with her Throne of Glass series. It has been steadily climbing the ladder, and is growing in its quality as well. The books are so well written, and we’ve noticed a big jump in sales with the latest book, Queen of Shadows. People are all over it.

One of our store’s all-time bestselling series is Curtis Jobling’s Wereworld series, and we’re very happy that the fifth book, Storm of Sharks, finally came out in paperback this month, even though it was published in hardcover in 2013. I’ve kept the hardcovers of this series at the lowest price possible, because our customers love the books and couldn’t wait for the paperbacks to come out to read them. And the paperback edition of the sixth and final book, War of the Werelords, will be published in January, so it will be great to have the entire series available in paper.