Summer Reading Rocks!

Summer reading programs are awesome, because reading is already awesome, and getting prizes for doing something that is already awesome is awesome squared. Is that too many awesomes? NO! Impossible. That is how awesome summer reading programs are.

Why should you care? Because we have one this year! Finally! Yay! Here's how our summer reading program works:

1. Come in, sign up (just give a name and e-mail, no money or long questionnaire-answering or microchipping of your children required) and you'll get a reading log to keep track of the books your child reads, a lanyard on which to keep said reading log, a button that says some variation of "Summer Reading Rock Star," and a coupon for 20% off an entire book purchase. Then y'all set about filling that reading log up. You do not have to only write down books you've bought from us. Library books and books you have at home are a-okay. We just want to make it easier to stock up on new lit with those coupons.

2. When the kids have read five whole books (read-alouds are okay, especially for the Pre-K set) come back in and show us the reading log, and they can choose from a bin of prizes scientifically designed to drive elementary schoolers wild—silly bandz, erasers shaped like sushi, tiny slinkies, those giant pink bouncy balls (and honestly, we could all use a giant bouncy ball). They also get another button, and y'all get another coupon.

3. After ten books, kids get a big button that says "I Rocked Summer Reading at University Book Store," and they get to pick out a FREE book from our selection behind the Kids Desk. And hey, what's this, another coupon? These things'll be saving you money till September.

4. If any industrious readers want to go on from there, they can get another reading log and start over, and keep getting those fabulous prizes. At the end of the summer, we'll have a drawing for all the folks who've signed up, and someone from each participating branch will win a backpack full of school supplies! (All the school supply-loving children like me say, Yeeeeeaah! All the other kids'll groan, I know. How can you not love the smell of fresh binders and pencils, huh? It's the best.)

5. We're also encouraging readers to write and turn in Young Reader's Review cards, because we put those up on the shelf to help recommend books that you liked to other kids. And also because it's really fun to talk and write about the books you love. (And also because we do a monthly drawing of those cards and the winner gets a gift card to the store.)

And that's it. You're welcome. We are loving this program. So many people have signed up already we can hardly believe it. It's super exciting. And if you want some book recommendations from our professional book recommenders in the Kids Department, head over to the Summer Reading page on our website. Three cheers!


--Anna,  Kids

Against the Odds

Against the Odds
by Marjolijn Hof

Sometimes from the outside small children appear all precious and tender and in need of protection from the terrible corrupting world. They're actually pretty complex and dark little creatures, and books that write authentically from a child's perspective about darkness often freak out adults. We forget how early and how directly kids have to face pain, and how creatively they try to rationalize painful experiences. In kids fiction, the treatment of tragedy can easily fall too far on one side of either overly sensational or too careful. But every once in awhile, (think Bridge to Terabithia, Olive's Ocean, Silent to the Bone, Missing May) a book for young readers about fear, grief, or tragedy can leave even adult readers breathless. Against the Odds is that kind of book, and it's one that will definitely creep some people out. But the way it honors the protagonist's confusing fight to regain some sense of control in her life is spot on, and will resonate with kids who have been or are in the same state of suffering.

Translated from the Dutch and coming in at a tiny 124 pages, this masterfully written middle grade novel is about Kiki and her missing father. It opens like this:

My father was on his way to a war. His suitcase was packed. He just had to say goodbye.
Every now and then he went off to a war. At least once a year. You're heading the wrong way when you go off to a war. It's better to stay as far away from wars as you can. But my father is a doctor, and they need doctors in a war. My father likes to be needed.

Within a few chapters, her father stops calling, and Kiki and her mother are thrown into the uniquely horrible chaos that comes along with uncertainty. Even before her father is officially missing, Kiki is obsessed with death. Her mother tries to calm her down by explaining the concept of "odds," meaning that the odds of her father not coming home are small. But Kiki misinterprets the explanation, thinking that if other bad things happen the odds are even better that the one thing she's really afraid of won't. She gets a pet mouse with the possible intention of killing it or letting it die (although she can't actually bring herself to treat Squeaky with anything but love), then goes back to the pet store and gets a runty, sick mouse, who does perish. She also vividly imagines her farty old dog's demise. These moments are dark and weird and will probably turn off some adult readers. But the eventual conversation she has with her mother about what we think about when we're scared or stressed, and the difference between the things we think or imagine and the things we actually do, is a marvelous thing and totally worth the ick factor. This is a dark book with plenty of humor and a consistently impressive voice, and it deserves as much recognition as the previously mentioned classic sad books.

-Anna, Kids Books

Authors (and Illustrators) In Love, Kids Book Edition

Um, have I mentioned how much the Kids Department loves themed displays? Well, the above photo is the sign for the display we've got up on the wall right now, and I'm mighty proud of it. Every year for Valentine's Day we make a display of the requisite heart-covered red and pink books, and every year we want to do something a little different. We also have a young adult fiction display of love stories and not-so-love-stories: breakup/tragedy/unrequited/singleton tales. One year there was a full display for each kind of love story (happy and sad, I mean). But we've always figured there has to be a slightly more unique take.

This year we've finally done it up right! The following pictures are from our first ever display of authors and illustrators of kids books who are also couples. Some of them (Peter Dickinson & Robin McKinley, Helen Oxenbury & John Burningham) totally blew my mind; some are pretty well-known as couples (hey Scott & Justine!). In any event, we hope you enjoy them.

There were actually way more than we originally thought.


Scott and Justine, sittin' in a tree...

Awwwwww.


Like I said, this one blows my mind. Too much talent in one household, come on!


Somebody loves YOU, Mrs. Spinelli! (And it's Mr. Spinelli, of course. And we love both of you.)

Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) & Lisa Brown

Kevin Henkes & Laura Dronzek: Their joint effort, Birds, is one of my favorite picture books of all time.


Arnold Adoff's Black is Brown is Tan is actually a poem about his and Virginia Hamilton's multiracial family (their marriage was illegal in half the country when they married), written and published in the 1970s.
"this is the way it is for us
this is the way we are"
and
"kiss big woman
hug big man
black is brown is tan"
are quotes from the book. Please come take a look at it; it makes me tear up every time.

Also included in the display: the married author/illustrator team behind Curious George (Margret and Hans Rey, who, I am not kidding, escaped Nazi-occupied Paris on bicycles with the manuscript for Curious George tucked away), The Dillons (who have been married for over 50 years!), this year's married Caldecott winners the Steads, collaborative graphic novellers Shannon and Dean Hale, the Pinkwaters, the Pinkneys, Donald Crews and Ann Jonas (and their author daughter Nina Crews), local couple Steven and Carmela D'Amico, Sarah Stewart and David Small (squeal!!!), and one couple who book world gossip says has broken up and who shall remain unnamed. Probably not an exhaustive list, but definitely long enough to remind us all that books are the best way to get a date for Valentine's Day, whether you're reading them or writing them (or illustrating them). So I guess what I'm saying is, come in and see if it works for you.

-Anna, Kids Books

Picture Book Valentines

It's February, which means it's time for displays of books covered in hearts, lace, foil, and every shade of pink and red (and sometimes purple, and occasionally, somehow, a pale yellow). It's also Black History Month, and more blogging will be done about that, but for the moment let's take a look at this valentine business.

People often stand on one side of a love/hate line when it comes to Valentine's Day, which I genuinely don't understand. There's something that irks people about either the commerciality of it, or the sort of forced-display-of-affection thing. For other people it's a super important day and you'd better propose via ring-in-food or something, or at least have hand-strewn rose petals all over the apartment. Neither of these stances is at all appealing to me. I think the idea of the holiday is dumb and fun and an excuse to make candy-heart poems in school, get crafty with tissue paper, buy yourself flowers, or just have a really excellent dinner. I have no real emotional investment in the holiday, but like to celebrate it goofily because, well, why not? The best valentine I've gotten in my life (other than my mom's sweet handmade ones) was a big stack of boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios. There's something to be said for a present that says, "I know you."

Because of where I work, my favorite valentine to give is a good picture book, because if you're going to shell out $3 on a factory card or $5 on a handmade one, why not push it to $6-$8 and get a 32-page paperback? And if you're actually into gifts, just get a hardcover. They're lovely. Here are my favorite valentines:

I Like You, by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, comes as both a mini hardcover and part of Houghton Mifflin's new "Send a Story" series, where they package little paperbacks in a way that they can be sent directly through the mail. I Like You is illustrated by Jacqueline Chwast with black and white ink sketches that move just right and make me smile. It contains things like this:

...I like you because
If we go away together
And if we are in Grand Central Station
And if I get lost
Then you are the one that is yelling for me

Hey where are you
Here I am

And I like you because
When I am feeling sad
You don't always cheer me up right away

Sometimes it is better to be sad
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute
You want to think about things

It takes time

Well, yes. Exactly.

Leo Lionni's A Color of his Own is a favorite of mine for storytimes as well as giving to grown up friends. A little chameleon feels lonely and different because he changes colors wherever he goes, while all the other animals have a color of their own. He tries to find a solution by staying in one place, but the leaf he's on changes colors and falls. When he meets another chameleon, older and wiser, he asks, "Won't we ever have a color of our own?" and the other fellow says sadly, no, but "why don't we stay together? We will still change color wherever we go, but you and I will always be alike."

And so they remained side by side. They were green together, and purple, and yellow, and red with white polka dots. And they lived happily ever after.

Awwww. Lionni's paintings are always top shelf, but giving a chameleon such an expressive smile is one of those picture book feats that really deserves some praise.

Tiny books make great valentines, and Maurice Sendak's Nutshell Library is probably the best collection of tiny books ever. One a day for the few days before the 14th, perhaps? I've written about these before. The sturdy little box contains Sendak's Alligators All Around, Chicken Soup with Rice, One Was Johnny, and the inimitable Pierre, all in tiny hardcover. Wanna be the best valentiner ever? Get 'em in french.

Not romantic, not about love, but a little charmer we've loved all winter is The Quiet Book, by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Renata Liwska. Here are some kinds of quiet that there are:

Jelly side down quiet

Car ride at night quiet

Swimming underwater quiet

Last one to get picked up from school quiet

Top of the roller coaster quiet

Best friends don't need to talk quiet

Right before you yell "SURPRISE!" quiet

And there are more, of course. The illustrations are exactly right, that's all I can say. You really need to take a minute to sit with it, to look at each moment and find all the little details that are going to win your heart. It's a bit of a valentine because of the way the friends throughout the story spend quality quiet time together, throwing stones and reading books and hiding behind furniture. And it's on the small side for a picture book, so it feels just right in your hands as a little token of affection.

-Anna, Kids Books

Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year my Martin Luther King Day post did not come together in time to go up here, which is my fault (January is a big deal in the Kids Department because of the ALA awards, which we will blog about later). What I was trying to do was give some examples of kids books that speak to his legacy as opposed to just another list of King biographies. The man was working for something a lot more complex than just specific civil rights legislation, and I sometimes wish his holiday wasn't spent mostly talking about the man himself. Since it's February now and Black History Month, it seems this post is worth putting up here anyway. If exploring King's legacy isn't a fitting way to honor the month, I don't know what would be. I think kids are best served by studying historical figures in context (as opposed to a bulleted list of biographical information), and the following resources are a great place to start.

If you want something about Dr. King, pick up KING for Kids and let him speak for himself. It's an audio CD that pieces together a couple of hours worth of speeches and sermons by Dr. King, meant to give kids and families a clear, concise introduction to the man's way with language and his core beliefs (not just his most famous quotes). For a contemplative car trip or a rainy afternoon, this sounds like a dream for a family of social justice-minded folks.

For something about the civil rights movement, try Elizabeth Partridge's Marching For Freedom: Walk Together Children, and Don't You Grow Weary. If you're looking for a book to breathe fresh air into the topic, this is a spectacular choice. Focusing mostly on the first half of 1965 in Selma, this tells in clear language, much of it quotations from interviews, the individual stories of (mostly pretty young) people who were involved in the marches and protests at the time. The book grabbed me from sentence one: "The first time Joanne Blackmon was arrested, she was just ten years old." And the facing set of four photographs are captioned: "Samuel Newall stands alone in front of the Dallas County Courthouse with his protest sign, July 8, 1964. Deputies arrested him." Two pictures show him standing, warily but proudly, with his sign. One picture shows a wall of khaki-wearing deputies ambling up the sidewalk as he watches them. The last one shows them surrounding him and taking his sign. He looks about ten years old. The book works so well both because of these great photographs, and because of its tight focus on a few individuals, following them through events as they unfold so you get an incredibly up-close view.

Another fresh civil rights nonfiction title you can grab is something I've recommended here before: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (now out in paperback). Did you know Claudette sat down in the front of a bus almost a year before Rosa did? She just didn't get as much political support, seemingly because her story was a little too complex to make for a poster child. If you want to read about an inspiring young activist who you've probably never heard of before, here you go. (Whet your appetite for her story with this New York Times piece on the book and Ms. Colvin.)

This is a nonfiction book I love but never put on display, because the cover features a photograph of two men who have been lynched, and it's just not quite face-out appropriate in the kids section. It would be pretty upsetting to come upon next to the stickers and coloring books. But that doesn't mean it's not deserving of a lot attention. The title is Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America, and this is the kind of kids' nonfiction that I love for taking a weirdly specific-yet-general concept or topic and then laying out a lot of great information in a relatively short page count. This mostly covers specific historical instances of intolerance, ranging from Mary Dyer, who was hung for being a Quaker in Boston in 1660, to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, to the 1984 murder of Charlie Howard, a 23-year-old gay man in Bangor, Maine. With black and white photographs throughout, it's chilling in just the way a study of American intolerance should be.

And to move forward with hope, and put King's words into practice, there are two books from one of my favorite children's publishers, Free Spirit press: The Kids Guide to Social Action: How to Solve the Social Problems You Choose and Turn Creative Thinking Into Positive Action and the similar-sounding but different The Kids Guide to Service Projects: Over 500 Service Ideas for Kids Who Want to Make a Difference (sorry, y'all, I love a good long subtitle). Perfect for a family, classroom, girl scout troop, or whatever, these are the kinds of how-to books that I find a lot more interesting than how to build a birdhouse or make your own paper clock (no offense, how-to books! I just like activism more than crafts. It's not your fault, really). Headings contained in The Kid's Guide to Social Action: "How a Bill Becomes a Law," "Five Ways to Fundraise," "How to Write a News Release," "Parading, Picketing and Protesting: When All Else Fails." Inside The Kid's Guide to Service Projects: "Help Get Out the Vote," "Adopt a Grandfriend," "Help People Who Are Out of Work," "Grow a School Garden," Try Tutoring."

Now get to work, young ones. You're the future, remember?

-Anna, Kids Books

The Christmas Magic

I have to say I don't exactly love most children's Christmas books. As I've already mentioned, my go-to Christmas book is by Dylan Thomas, and while it has humor and good cheer, it's not exactly about bounding reindeer and unique snowflakes and the power of hugs and all that. Mostly, kids Christmas books are just too... gooey. I don't want golden-hued colored pencil drawings, or computer-illustrated, weirdly-shaped people. It needs to be juuuust right- not too cute, not didactic, the art has to be good, the story has to be unique enough that I would want to read it aloud over and over. Perhaps I'm being too picky, but I can pass by table after table of red and green books and not feel one inkling of Christmas spirit. I'm not Grinchy, either. So every year, I keep a lookout for something that has that Goldilocks just-right feeling. And every once in awhile, I find a keeper. My most recent favorite is from last year, and I want you to come look at it.

The Christmas Magic, as a title, sounds bad. Like, suuuper cheesy. I wouldn't have picked it up if it weren't by Lauren Thompson and illustrated by total watercolor superhero Jon Muth (I would wallpaper my house with that man's illustrations). It's about Santa getting ready for the big day, and it just contains so much charm and small detail (reindeer eating parsnips, Santa's whiskers tingling) that it sets itself apart from all the faux-jolliness. He trims his whiskers, darns his socks, polishes the sleigh. It's the kind of this-is-how-we-go-about-our-day story that kids from two or three on up (and me) just loooove. And then he waits for the magic that apparently comes every year, and when it's time, and he's standing in his sleigh looking up at the stars, "the night begins to thrum with magic, the kind of magic that makes reindeer fly." THANK YOU FOR THRUM. What a superb word. Something about this particular Santa's elfin stature (he's a "jolly old elf," remember?), his pointy mustache that's wider than his face, his little reindeer's goofy smile. It all makes me feel a little, well, Christmas-y.

-Anna, Kids Books

P.S. Apparently, Scholastic has a book trailer for it, but I don't really have time to check it out (there's so much to do around here this time of year I feel like our previously mentioned elf friend) so you'll have to let me know if it makes the book seem lame. I promise it's lovely. Book trailer here.

October Kids Book Sale

I thought about doing a blog post regarding the Kids Book Sale going on downstairs, and then I thought better of it, because maybe it would seem too advertise-y and like I was just a shill. But then I actually looked at the books down there, and WHOAH. I would be remiss as both a (kids) bookseller and a blogger to ignore the awesomeness that is taking place down there. I think it's at about five tables now, and they are jampacked with some of the finest kids and young adult books I can think of. Seriously—from books that have celebrated multiple fanfared anniversaries to books that might still be eligible for certain prizes this year, tiny 1-inch books and giant read-aloud editions, from paperback to hardcover and all the board/bath/touch/flap in between... aaaaugh! It's so intense! I mean immense! Whatever!

I'll tell you up front: you have to actually come into the store to buy them; there's no online version of this sale. But I promise it's worth it, and we validate your parking so that's no excuse. This is possibly the best kids sale ever, and I bet I can convince you in five easy steps:

1) There is a whole Maurice Sendak shelf. It is beautiful. Remember the Nutshell Libary? Four tiny hardcovers in a tiny slipcase, adorable on the outside and slightly insane on the inside? It's $7.98 (instead of $16.95). If you'd rather get the stories separately, they're in (larger) paperbacks for $2.98 apiece. And one of them is Pierre, a story about a boy who won't say anything but "I don't care!" It looks like this inside:

And then it goes like this (after night begins to fall, and a hungry lion pays a call):

"I can eat you,
don't you see?"
"I don't care!"
"And you will be
inside of me."
"I don't care!"
"then you'll never
have to bother—"
"I don't care!"
"With a mother
and a father."
"I don't care!"

The Sendak bargain books include ones that he only illustrated, like the spectacular A Hole Is To Dig: A Book of First Definitions by Ruth Krauss ("The world is so you have something to stand on," "Oo! A rock is when you trip on it you should have watched where you were going" and "Hunh! Rugs are so dogs have napkins" are all definitions it contains).

(This clearly got out of hand, so I've put the rest of the post behind a jump. Click below to read reasons 2-5, which really just ends up being a list of totally awesome kids books. They are on hot hot sale right now, though... Just saying.)

Banned Books Week: Monday

So it's Banned Books Week again. It's one of my favorite bookstore holidays by far (second only to Women's History Month, when we always tear it up with awesome displays and blog posts). We have a particular fondness for the fight against censorship here in the Kids Department, because books for kids and teens get banned and challenged with a particularly alarming frequency and fervor.

Not everyone is familiar with the fact that books are removed from libraries all across the country every year due to complaints and challenges. I know this because we try to put books on prominent display when we hear they've been challenged somewhere, and customers are often surprised to hear that book-banning is alive and well.

And this year, there's been a shocking number of really fantastic books getting picked on. It doesn't matter if we like a book: if it gets banned somewhere, it deserves support from people passionate about intellectual freedom. As a bookstore, we want to celebrate people's right to read. And it particularly burns when a book you love, a book that you know is spectacular, gets banned or challenged. Especially when it seems like a particularly important book, a book that you know has had an impact on teenagers all over the country. Winning an award won't save a book from being challenged or banned. Knockout writing won't either. And even when a book confronts a difficult topic with the clear intent to help kids and teens deal with that topic in reality, in their own lives, it still gets attacked for even bringing up the subject.

Rape, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, racism, homosexuality. Writing about these topics can be dangerous for young adult authors, even though teens want desperately to read books about exactly those things. Sometimes just for the thrill of it (which is just fine!), but I would say more often than not because they're touched by all of those things and they want to read about other kids like them. All it takes is listening to the authors of books for teens talk about their fan mail to get a feel for how powerful it can be for teens to read books that reflect their lives. And this week, we're going to shine a spotlight on a few really great books that have been challenged or thrown out of libraries and bookstores. Stay tuned.

-Anna, Kids Books

P.S. Can we all agree that banning Fahrenheit 451 is pretty hilarious? Banning a book about book banning always sounds like a punch line to me.

MOCKINGJAY!

Hey y'all... the release date of the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy is nearly upon us. So are you ready for the book release party of the season? Because it's happening tonight at the U District branch, and it's going to be rad. Doors open at 11pm and the book goes on sale at midnight. There will be a Hunger Games-style survive-at-your-own-peril game arena on the second floor of the books department (no actual physical peril involved, sorry/you're welcome). There will be Hunger Games trivia (it's really hard!). You can enter to win actually awesome prizes (not like, a sticker- really good stuff). Some of us will be so excited that we will be dystopian-futuristically-costumed (um, anyone have any Matrix-y looking tunics I can borrow?). And best of all, at midnight, you can take home your very own copy of Mockingjay. The event itself is free, and Mockingjay is 20% off the cover price. Anyway, we really hope you come, because the only thing that makes waiting for the next book in your favorite series to come out easier is waiting for it while playing games with other fans (in costume is even better). Okay, gotta go dig my boots out of storage and frantically re-read the first two books so I can be fully prepared. Feel free to call us with questions at (206) 634-3400 (ask for the Kids Department). Woohooooo!

P.S. Both the Bellevue and Mill Creek stores will have their own versions of this game at their release parties tomorrow, when the book goes on sale for normal non-midnight-release folks. See the events listings here (scroll down a little).

Reading Outside the Comfort Zone

I almost exclusively read books that are in my department. If only because of the piles and piles of new things that come in every season, and the zillions of books that came before them, I feel like I have to read that way to keep up with the section. I do feel a responsibility to be well-versed in the area in which customers and coworkers rely on my expertise. And because reading for work is pretty much the same as reading for pleasure, and I long ago stopped reading things just to impress other people (oh the liberation that brought!), I'm perfectly happy to be well-read in just one area.

But because I work in the Kids Department, that means I pretty much don't read what we affectionately refer to as “Grown-Up Books.” I'm okay with it; as I said I even consider myself fairly well-read. Until I have an embarrassing interaction: I tell someone I work in a bookstore, and they ask what I think of the hip new book that everyone and their mother is reading. I have never, ever read that book. I haven't read Steig Larsson's Dragon Tattoo trilogy, or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, or Let the Great World Spin. I mean, that's okay, right? I've read most of the hip new books that every twelve-year-old is reading, and most of the big children's book award-winners of the last five years. I do read a lot, and within the realm of children's books I read across genre- biography, history, science , fantasy, romance, mystery, literary fiction, coming of age. And as I've written here before, you can learn an awful lot from children's books. But sometimes, that doesn't feel like enough.

Due to Seija's hearty recommendation of William Styron and especially Sophie's Choice, I decided to break free of the under-18 crowd and read a big kid book for once. Seija politely reminded me that if you read a lot of young adult fiction, you might forget how much effort you as a reader are expected to expend to get into the characters and situations in a novel like this. I laughed and said I would be just fine, thank you very much. But it was quite a different experience, and she was right in a big way. Not to say that young adult novels do not require emotional heavy lifting; I would even say some can be more taxing. But after a week of diving into SC, I felt like I had extra roommates. I was taking Sophie, Nathan, and Stingo's opinions of things into account in my daily life, as if they were hanging around and might be offering up a comment on my lunch menu or musical choices any minute. Finishing it took me probably two weeks, whereas I can plow through an average middle grade novel in a lunch break plus a good evening on the couch.

The whole thing got me thinking about what I like and don't about the two respective kinds of fiction: books specifically aimed at young folks, and books aimed at the general reading public. I've read books for kids on a wide variety of intense topics- being an immigrant kid while surviving abuse at home, surviving a self-inflicted gunshot wound and the resulting recovery process, day-to-day life in a concentration camp, a community of runaway slaves in Canada, stories of losing important people in a myriad of ways. The language in kids and young adult fiction, both descriptively and emotionally, is often quite a bit more direct. There's less worming around trying to figure out how to feel, trying to weigh every option all the time, less constant analysis. It's a story about something, always moving forward. Sometimes when I read adult novels I actually find myself annoyed by their Hamlet-y indecisiveness. Just decide whether to be or not be, and quit whining already. Okay, so you had an affair/someone died/she doesn't love you back. Deal with it! Sometimes my angsty teenagers seem more emotionally mature than older protagonists.

But this is all just to say that it can be an interesting exercise to read outside your comfort zone. I highly recommend it. Whether it expands your horizons or just reinforces why you love what you love, it can't be a waste to push it every once in awhile.

-Anna, Kids Books

The Antlion!!!

Did anyone else out there read and love the zaniest children's series of all (I know there's some competition there, so I won't say it's the undisputed champion)- Tove Jansson's Moomintroll books? If you never did, you should. My favorite, I think, is Finn Family Moomintroll. The character names hint at just how wack (and awesome!) the stories are: the Moomin family, Moomintroll's love interest Snork Maiden, Thingumy and Bob... ahh, the intense weirdness of children's literature (see full, hilarious character list here).

But the character that made a big impression on me, especially due to Jansson's illustration of it (which I can't find a free image of, but you can see here), was the Antlion. I hope you can forgive me for assuming that he was an entirely made up character, since the rest of it was so fanciful. But much to my surprise, I have just discovered that antlions are totally real (my spellcheck doesn't know that, either). They are real things that dig sand pits and wait for prey to fall into their open jaws. Creeeeepy! I found this information out doing a completely different search, when I stumbled upon a website devoted entirely to antlions- antlion science, antlion stories in legend and popular culture, etc. It's called the Antlion Pit. Apparently, antlions show up with some frequency in literature. Tom Sawyer, Steinbeck's The Pearl, and The Silence of the Lambs all have antlion references.

So, I know this is weird, I just had to share. There's a connection to books, right? I'm not just blogging about weird insects, right? But wow. It's like finding out that the Grinch is real, and he actually does occasionally steal Christmas. Watch out for sand pits!

--Anna, kids books

A Peek Into our Story Time

Yesterday Les Gamins de Paris, a French immersion pre-school, stopped by our main branch to listen to Caitlin read the best in Kids picture books.  Caitlin livened up a Tuesday morning with transportation noises from Roadwork!, growls and songs from The Story of Growl, alternating train and shark sounds from Shark vs. Train and rhyming tongue-twisters from Bubble Trouble.

Did you know that we host a story time every week? More than that, actually. At our Main branch, we invite young'ns to read with us on Tuesday and Saturday. And at our Bellevue and Mill Creek stores, experienced story-time readers gather their best books and share them aloud with little ones every Thursday.

Come join the fun and bring your best train sounds!

And You Thought Your Childhood Was Messed Up...

We were talking about lists today, and the kids section’s funny habit of making lots and lots of lists. Books on a theme, like WWII or moving, or books set in Seattle, or books with Native American characters, and on and on. Notebooks of them clutter our desk. We mentioned in passing to a coworker that a favorite list was of books where the main character gets eaten, and she was amused. I’m not sure if she believed that we really had the list, but we were soon pulling out picture book after picture book with the same tragic plot development. As she requested, we have provided the list below. Enjoy!

Picture Books Where the (or a) Main Character(s) Get Eaten:

Rotten and Rascal: Two Terrible Pterosaur Twins by Paul Geraghty
Ugly Fish by Kara LaReau, illustrated by Scott Magoon
Tadpole’s Promise by Jean Willis, illustrated by Tony Ross
Wolves by Emily Gravett
I’m The Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry
Pierre: A Cautionary Tale by Maurice Sendak
Beware of the Frog by William Bee

Not included were:
Mr. Maxwell’s Mouse by Frank Asch– because, our notes say, of a “last minute reprieve”
I’d Really Like to Eat a Child by Sylviane Donnio, illustrated by Dorothee De Monfried– because, though not for lack of trying, no child is actually eaten
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag– because while “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats…[eat] each other all up,” they’re not main characters. And three other older titles that are either out of print or we no longer carry…

Phew. Now, can you name any we’ve forgotten? Put ‘em in comments. And stay tuned for lists like “gender comedy in picture books” and “books where a duck adopts an alligator or vice versa” (we can name three right now, but won’t).

--Anna M.

Books I Never Want to Return

I have to say, I hate pulling for returns. We can’t keep every book forever, so we go through the shelves every once in awhile and check to see what just isn’t selling anymore. In the Kids department, we get a little attached and we often end up buying books out of the return pile just to give them a good home. Some almost-returned books become Staff Favorites and go on to live a long, happy, constantly-selling life. The completely charming Emily’s Balloon is one of those.

Some books are more devastating than others to return. Another unremarkable dinosaur book? Goodbye! A young adult novel that has more brand names per page than a glossy magazine? See ya! But it is agony to see a great nonfiction title, about some underrepresented but intriguing topic, just sit there, month after month, years even, quietly waiting to find an owner. Something as simple as pulling for returns in the sports section gets me all worked up when I leave with a pile of biographies of women in sports that have sat untouched for too long. (Just what exactly are you buying your sporty daughters, nieces, and granddaughters these days? Wii Sports? Give these books a try!)

So without further ado, here are a few of my favorite sorta niche-y nonfiction titles that I need to see walking out the door on a regular basis. They’re not in any immediate danger, I just don’t ever want to return any of these guys, okay?

Extraordinary Ordinary People: Five American Masters of Traditional Arts by Alan Govenar
Profiles five creative Americans: a Beijing Opera Performer in New York City, a woman in Oregon who makes paper flowers and coronas for quinceañeras, an Iowan rug weaver, a Mardi Gras Indian, and a boat builder in Maine.

Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America by Karen Blumenthal
This is really well-put-together, with lots of photos, interviews, and old cartoons from decades when women playing sports was so ridiculous it was an automatic laugh. Joke’s on you now, dudes. Seriously, though, tons of girls have no idea what Title IX is. Educate ‘em.

Gay America: Struggle for Equality by Linas Alsenas
Aren’t we the 2nd gayest city in the country? This is a great book for political high schoolers (and everyone else, really) that covers parts of the gay rights movement and gay history that, unless you’re a scholar, you probably don’t already know.

Sophisticated Ladies: The Great Women of Jazz by Leslie Gourse, illustrated by Martin French
These ladies are so rad. Just come read about them.





No Choirboy: Murder, Violence and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
This is harrowing and not for the younger set, but a compelling and worthwhile read. A high school library necessity, and great for reluctant readers.




--Anna M.