Uncategorized
Top Ten Bookbug Story Time Reads of a Decade
Chronicling (and narrowing down) stand-outs from ten years of shared stories with young people is no small task, but the experience of Story Time at Bookbug is always about more than any book alone. It is about the unique love with which a book is read and received and about the genuine community that ensues. It is our visceral and specific memories of community and camaraderie inspired by each of these books that make them our TOP PICKS of the decade upon the milestone of
STORY TIME’S 10th ANNIVERSARY.
1. Blueberries for Sal
A timeless classic for a reason: its graceful pace, familiar relationship, onomotopoeia, and favorite (Michigan) forage could all be reasons this book tops the list, but it’s Ms. Shirley’s impossibly charming (and welcome) snack surprise of just-picked blueberries in tiny, beautiful buckets that makes this book one of very few (if not only book title) that is reliably present at least once a year– during blue-tiful blueberry season at Bookbug.
Kuplink,
Kuplank,
Kuplunk.
2. Nerdy Babies : Dinosaurs
Shirley’s most-viewed and mentioned virtual storytime during a uniquely-remote summer of 2020 was the one she broadcast from Dinosaur National Monument. Her hat and curiosity about dinosaurs was sincere and kindred to the Cover-Baby and amazing facts and excavations within Nerdy Babies: Dinosaurs.
3. Homemade Love
This book is on this list for one simple, profound reason: its presence at a February Story Time in 2016 prompted a pre-schooler to say upon turn of page “She looks like me!” This recognition and moment of self-affirming representation was not lost on Ms. Shirley who saw it as pivotal (in her own life of embracing and celebrating children’s books) and beautifully/perfectly matter-of-fact in the life of this particular child.
4. Kitten’s First Full Moon
Admittedly this entirely wonderful book about Kitten being certain that a white circle in the sky is bowlful of something dear and familiar is on our list for how it has segued perfectly into one of Shirley’s most-famously loved and reliable songs: ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.
five,
four,
three,
two,
one…
Kitten’s milk bowl is reachable, after all!
5. Potato Pants
Loved [Michigan] author Laurie Keller is a well-known, punny wordsmith and artist who always includes clever discoveries in each illustration. Potato Pants is no exception to this brilliant fun and makes our list [also] because of the dozens of kids and families who (soon after reading it together) absolutely loved helping actual potatoes find their favorite new pair of PANTS–thanks to Ms. Shirley’s steady-stash of fabric scraps and (did you know?) remarkably effictient sewing skill.
6. Julian is a Mermaid
Bookbug’s immediate love for this book, before it was published, helped bring it onto this list, but it is the fact that Julian and Abuela are both simply, naturally, gorgeously, and irresistably full of Love and Pride that we can’t help but to recognize how it offers every child an opportunity to dive into these very things themselves.
7. Very Good Hats
Hat-themed story time has been a hit since Bookbug’s very-earliest days, and this new book from Emma Straub has breathed exhuberantly fresh life into the comfort, necessity, desire, and spirit of donning a covering on one’s head. Hats off (and on) to Very Good Hats for making our list!
8. Penguin Problems
Well before SEL (Social Emotional Learning) became a buzzed acronym in the kids’ book world, great kids books knew that we all have (frustrating, sincere, humorous, kindred) Problems. It’s this true fact alongside the hilarious writing of Penguin Problems that make this longtime favorite book still reached for during Bookbug Story Times. Cold Beaks and (and for) All.
9. Elephant & Piggie
Confusing conundrums, humorous misunderstandings, and disappearance of a third wall (seeing a dear reader) are all best when experienced with a true friend. Nobody knows this better than Elephant and Piggie. They also know that just because new readers prefer brief, sight-word-filled sentences does not mean they do not demand actual JOY–SEE [and replace Dick and Jane] with ELEPHANT & PIGGIE (and, then insert: RUN, PLAY, DRIVE, READ, NAP, PARTY, EAT, RIDE, BE SAD, BE META, and Be just about Everything Important to Young Readers). Also, these two (here below) pictured friends may be simlarly different in many ways to E&P and also have several hiliarious stories (from the past decade) to tell of their own.
10. Crunch, the Shy Dinosaur
Shhh…Crunch is as quiet and well-kept secret of a brilliantly interactive book as the character himself. Kids love being prompted to help bring Crunch out from behind his comfortable hiding spots and to let him know that him being his silly, odd, anxious, hungry self is the very thing they LOVE the most. Plus, Bookbug’s quilted Story Time blanket (made by Shirley’s mother-in-law) is always there to protect and comfort in case hiding spot needed.
Click to reserve any one of these titles from Bookbug Here.
Seven New Books We Love
In passionate voices of discerning booksellers at ‘this is a bookstore‘
Nuclear Family, by Joseph Han
Jacob, a Korean American, leaves his home in Hawaii to teach English in Korea where he finds himself possessed by the ghost of his grandfather. The ghost must return to North Korea to find the family he left upon Korea’s mid-century division and must use his grandson as a vessel across Korea’s (actual and metaphysical) demilitarized zone. Jacob is then caught and taken into custody, and his family (who runs a chain of Korean plate-lunch restaurants in Hawaii) must face the scandal of their son breaching the Korean DMZ.
But these are just touchpoints of the narrative; it is the intergenerational trauma of ongoing Korean diaspora, the devastation of US military occupation in both Korea and Hawaii, and the often hilarious voices of family members, that are the peculiar beating heart of this book. Peculiarity is this book’s strength and compassion. It is a queer, stoner, Korean ghost story with arteries of US military occupation and its poisonous impacts, but it is also a story of loving each other through real and perceived walls, wars, and deaths. I learned so much about Korea in reading this book and about the history of that region and our (US) involvement, but what will continue to haunt, is how the division of that country decimated families who grieve their dispossession and detachment for generations. – Anne
Thistlefoot, by GennaRose Netercott
I am joining a loving chorus of bookstore enthusiasm for this Baba Yaga story about Baba’s two youngest desendents, living in America, who inherit her house on chicken legs. They are being pursued by a mysterious, supernatual being that wants to kill Thistlefoot (the name of the house itself).
We get the perspectives of both siblings — a bother who is notoriously flakey and insecure with a rough past and a flare for illusion, and a sister who is a bit of a stick in the mud, very determined, and has a haunting ability that she struggles to suppress. We also get snippets from the perspective of the house, shedding light on some fun fictional stories, and also some truly tragic backstory.
This book is hightly reminiscent of the ways authors such as Neil Gaiman pull from fables and mythology and mimic vibrant oral storytelling with the written word. What a joy of a read. – Gideon
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell
This eerie historical novel opens with a teenage bride, Lucrezia de Mecidici, realizing her husband is plotting to kill her. From this propulsive start, O’Farrell imagines a rich story filled with palace intrigue, quest for power, and lust during the Italian Renaissance.
As a big fan of Florentine history in the time of the Medici’s, I LOVED this book. O’Farrell paints a vivid picture of life as a woman in the peasant and ruling class. I couldn’t put it down. – Mary
The Last White Man, by Mohsin Hamid
“The way people act around you…it changes WHO you are.” Hamid’s surreal offering in this beautiful novel invites us into the lives of: Anders, a white man who suddenly wakes up with dark brown skin, and Oona, his friend and ex-partner who is white and struggling with the loss of her twin brother. Kafkaesque metamorphosis centers this story, and Hamid’s words are pressing, lyrical, hopeful, and swift. This is a unique and compelling investigation of identity, race, change, and how humans travel through the world. It was a deeply moving and important read. – Karly
Babel: An Arcane History, by R.F. Kuang
R.F. Kuang is an author I trust to delve into the grit, the horrors, the details of history (particularly Chinese history) with a magical lilt. Having loved Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy; a spiraling tragedy that pulls inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese war and is heavy on war, politics, strategy, and the cost of it all–I was eager to read this latest; Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of Oxford Translator’s Revolution. Yes, take in the whole title, Kuang is a PHD student in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale and it shows through her work (there are footnotes in Babel!).
Babel is a dark academia exploration of colonialism (British Imperialism, colonial resistance), racism, identity translation and language (as a tool /weapon), student revolutions, friendship and so much more.
The protagonist is Robin Swift (chosen name) an orphan from Canton, brought to London by Professor Lovell from Oxford, with the intent to train at the translation institute at Oxford. Robin is sheltered at Oxford with a strong cohort, nestled into a seeming fairytale utopia. But of course, this vision does not hold. Robin must confront the division between the bubble of Oxford and the world/culture he came from and untimately chose a side. Following Robin and his cohort through their time at school and beyond will enthrall and devastate you. – Calla
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
I know I don’t have to convince the many avid fans of Tamsyn Muir and this extraordinary series, but I’d love to offer some fast facts about Nona:
— this book, like its predecesors, is tonally unique and more like a warm hug with is lovable characters and narrator, who may be just as confused as the reader.
— despite its gentle tone, it is just as devastating, answering many burning questions and replacing them with more.
— It has the bestest good dog named Noodle, who has 6 legs.
— it was meant to be the first act of the final book, Alecto the Ninth, but Nona grew into her own installment.
— Alecto will be the final book due out fall of next year. – Gideon
A Map For the Missing, by Belinda Huijang Tang
This is a stunning debut novel set in 1990’s China. A young college professor returns to his childhood home from the U.S. following a call from his mother that his elderly father is missing. Flashbacks to the culrual revolution create a beautiful story that reckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives left behind. A spectacular, devastating read! – Mary
Our Booksellers Recommend (September 2021)
Reading is our joy and our purpose. Here are the books that have lifted and inspired us in recent weeks.
Click on active links to reserve copy(ies) in-store now.
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Three friends in their late-twenties, their recent, layered histories and anxieties in-tune to contemporary human life on earth, including: the injustice of our world’s economic model, the destruction of our climate and natural resources, the ease with which one feels disconnected and hopeless, make a stunning discovery– by way of their rich conversations, personal failings, and yes, grippingly graceful and explicit, physical intimacies–of the precise location of actual beauty in this world, that is: within, between and around us, in our honest, vulnerable relationships to one another and to the horrible, beautiful world itself. I cherished so much about this book. – Joanna
TBH I have no reason to read horror a novel. I have never even seen a slasher movie. But Wow. Jones is spectacular at what he does in this book, reversing the troupe of women in the ‘slasher’ narrative by creating a truly badass and compelling female protagonist. This book is insanely scary, a step more violent than Stephen King, and I am highly recommending it as this year’s Halloween go-to book for adults. – Cheryl
Humans are the scariest creatures of all, and Mary Roach is amazing. FUZZ is a detailed account of life in the animal wild and how humans impact and engage with it. Roach travels the world to bring insight to the compatibility and the culpability we share with the other species on our planet, and I now have a new understanding of my role as a member of the animal kingdom thanks to this amazing book. – Cheryl
What if the concept of having everything that the culture you inhabit tells you is desirable: a comfortable apartment in your country’s urban center, a kind (if inattentive) life partner, two miraculously curious and loving children, & access to all items and services that indicate a desired class status–shifts suddenly (though not entirely unexpectedly, much like any actual earthquake on the island of Japan) upon your falling into a new intriguing, authentic, and uplifting relationship? Emily Itami investigates this particular Fault Line with extraordinary grace, intelligence and humility. I loved everything atmospheric and thematic about this book, but it was the keen voice of its narrator that sits with me still. – Joanna
The merging of the world’s largest social media, search engine, and e-commerce tech companies would be an impossible premise to stomach if not for this book’s hilariously crafted scenes and service as profound parable, not to mention its author’s choice in active remedy to our impending digital overload and economic dysfunction by insisting this particular book be encountered only at physical, independent bookstores. I recommend it in all/any of its various, brilliant, beautiful book jacket designs that can (likewise) only be chosen from at your local indie. –Joanna
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch
As per usual, Rivka Galchen does not disappoint: Witty, sly, simultaneously satirical and sincere.
Katharina is a proud, smart, decent woman living in 17th century Germany during a plague. Widowed, she raised three children, one of whom happens to be Johannes Kepler, Imperial Mathematician and early charter of the stars and planets. She’s a good-natured busybody who offers tinctures and poultices for whatever may ail her neighbors, and she adores Chamomile, her cow. And she’s been accused of being a witch.
Based on actual letters and court documents, Galchen’s telling of Katharina’s tale is one of corruption, mob mentality, fearmongering, and governmental incompetence. On the nose, yes, but even so, Katharina is a crackerjack and a charming companion. Highly recommend. – Anne
After being placed in a special-needs class because of her gradual grasp of a second language, 7 year-old Qian teaches herself English by way of numerous ubiquitous American children’s books: Clifford, Shel Silverstien, The Babysitter’s Club among many. Teaching herself English is the precursor to her time in America, full of sacrifice and struggle, and Qian remembers much in detail: the shouting at the dinner table, the uniformed officers at the fancy building, the first gift she was given in the Beautiful Country, the sweatshops, her mothers illness and lack of healthcare, the hot feeling in her stomach each time a friend pulled out money to buy something she couldn’t afford, practicing the phrase over and over again “I was born in this country”. She recounts the hunger she felt in America and the fear to attach herself to anyone or anything. Her account is both honest and harshly critical of the literal Chinese Translation of America as Beautiful Country—Syd
One of my favorite books of the year. The writing made me feel like I was floating serenely through the story, but the emotional ride is nonetheless layered, intense and breathtakingly beautiful. Crying in the H Mart is an ode to human connections–fractured and whole, and to the memory that pieces us each together. A simple and profound life meditation that I simply loved. – Cheryl
After the passing of his grandmother, Michael is ripped from his home in Trinidad and sent to live with his very religious aunt in Canada, surrounded by mostly white families. He longs for the vibrant culture and community of Trinidad as he takes us through each era of his life. The presence of his biological parents is at first distant, then a direct burden. Finally, upon closing the door on them for good, they become a part of how Antonio takes an honest account of his life and his actions.
Throughout the memoir, we come to know several versions of Antonio, each one representing a different musical persona, each one leading him down a path of self-discovery. I loved getting to meet each different version of Antonio, and I greatly related to the idea that each different nickname we have is carried by a different persona that exists within us. The nostalgia that Antonio has for his home in Trinidad leaks through every part of the book, entirely encompassing us in the emotions and tragedies that Antonio takes with him from one place to the next. – Syd
A delicious, pulpy, Hitchcockian slow burn of a novel that had me feeling as if I had entered a neurotic fun house. The portrait of a wealthy socialite with the wheels falling off… though Feito doesn’t play her cards all at once. She methodically picks and pulls at each tiny seam until what is left reflected in the mirror makes you gasp in shocked delight!
Beneath her mint-green gloves, Mrs. March has the familiar, visceral underpinnings of all classic thrillers, but Feito’s delightfully biting prose breathes sylish, provocative life–and sometimes even humor– into a story of psychological unraveling.
For fans of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Hitchcock, Ira Levin, and all that weird jazz 🙂 – Karly
This book has me waiting with impatient excitement for its Book #2. I’m really picky about urban fantasies, especially centering werewolves, and this one was so beautifully complex, queer and intriguing, I couldn’t put it down. There is intricate social commentary on race and police brutality, a plethora of deep queer characters and relationships, and a handful of plot lines that don’t seem related until they begin to converge at the end, in an epic world-expansion moment. I can’t wait to see where this goes next. – Gideon
Five Beautiful New Picture Books (Sept 2021)
Is there anything more essential than a perfect picture book?
Here are five that have made us pause in recognition of their absolute necessity.
Click on active links to reserve your copy(ies) in-store now.
What a lovely book about a guide dog and his very important job. This is such a great read-aloud and a wonderful teaching tool. I absolutely LOVE Vincent. – Juliette
A gorgeous and deeply emotional contemplation on time and all the different things it can be. Each page of this book is chock full of beauty and nostalgia, and I am certain that this story will grow to mean something more with each read. Perfect for grown-ups and children and everyone in-between (and in) us all. – Amy O.
Take a trip to the zoo with the pale and fashion-forward Dracula family as they visit old friends and make new ones! A mischevious penguin and littlest vampire swap places for the day. Will the Draculas discover the switch? This book is great, great quirky fun. – Steph
Caterpillar wants to throw a party, but all his friends are busy. His brilliant solution makes for a hilarious story. It’s absurd – in the best way! A celebration of the imagination, with lots to see on each fabulously illustrated page. Sometimes in life we have to make our own fun. Although, in this case, Noemi Vola has made the fun for us. – Beverly
For any child or caretaker who understands the bond between a young person and their steadiest bedtime (or all-time) companion, this book’s celebration of the simple bearness of Bear and fact that Bear can be both All The Things and the only one thing that matters: “full of love“–is a beautiful, rythmic, bold affirmation for bedtime or–as a perfect gift alongside a cuddly stuffed bear–anytime – Joanna
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and it seems almost unfair to try to fit so many unique cultures, stories, and voices into just one month. Such is the way with any of the many “celebratory months,” I suppose, so it falls on all of us to bring a thoughtful consciousness to whose stories are only celebrated at specific times of year (and whose seem to be omnipresent), and strive to honor as diverse an array of voices as possible, at all times.
This month carrys a particular weight in 2021, a year that has seen the spectre of white supremacy turn increasingly – and violently – on Asian Americans. And so we take a moment, brief though it may be, to uplift a few of our favorite recent books that feature Asian American authors and characters.
For Kids
Watercress by Andrea Wang
A beautiful new picture book about a young girl who feels embarrassed by her family, until she learns a bit more about their history, based on the author’s own childhood.
But as a kid, Wang remembers feeling disconnected from her history — “unmoored.” Her greatest hope for Watercress is that it inspires families to have these difficult conversations.
“I think it’s really important for families to share what they can,” she says. “So that kids know that history and can feel a sense of pride in their culture. No matter where they’re from.”
Samantha Balaban, NPR
Bindu’s Bindis by Supriya Kelkar
Thao by Thao Lam
Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho
Middle Grades / Young Adult
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
I was stopped by the cover and title of this book. San Francisco , Chinatown and North Beach. This is a story broke my heart and re-stitched together and made it whole in an entirely new way. YA first love has never been portrayed finer for me than in these pages. SF in 1954 is not the city I love, McCarthy and fear of different looms as the Hu family pushes against the white norms of the time. The reader will find the parallels within our country today. Beautiful, smart girls fall in love against the back drop of distrust, family, honor and science. It is the story of truth and identity. Simply wonderous.
—Cheryl
Amina’s Song by Hena Khan
Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh
Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi
Non-Fiction
Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner
Likely best known to the public as the singer and guitarist Japanese Breakfast, Zauner spends Crying in H Mart detailing the disorientation that her grief gave rise to, weaving food into her process of mourning… Food is more than an anchor for Zauner as she navigates loss. She also uses it to construct her identity as a biracial woman, one she experienced in fractured terms being raised by a white American father and Korean mother in the States. Grief seems to split this internal crisis open…
Mayuk Sen, The Atlantic
Food can teleport us to a lost moment from the past, a version of the world where we can find those we’ve lost.
Every Day Is a Gift by Tammy Duckworth
Heart of Fire by Mazie K. Hirono
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry by Paula Yoo
Fiction
Gold Diggers
by Sanjena Sathian
This book is an absolute delight! It’s got a bit of everything — teenage insecurity, a wedding expo jewelry heist, and a twist of alchemy. Gold Diggers follows Neil Narayan, a second-generation Indian-American, as he comes of age in Atlanta and later as he pursues (well, grudgingly inches toward) a history PhD in the Bay Area. Sathian explores themes of ambition, family loyalty, guilt, and identity, in this debut novel that is funny and smart, with tinges of sorrow and mysticism.
—Sally
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto
Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen
Swimming Back to Trout River by Linda Rui Feng
This post just barely scratches the surface of brand-new books we love by AAPI authors! Browse more selections on our featured tables: at Bookbug and this is a bookstore
Also, for a collection of audiobooks featuring Asian American and Pacific Islander authors, visit: https://libro.fm/aapi
Bookselling in the Time of Corona
By Sally Read
I went back to the bookstore last week, after three weeks of working exclusively from home. It’s strange, to say the least. Strange to be back among the stacks, the couches, the cafe tables. Strange to glance into the playhouse or climb the squeaky ladder to search through backstock.
The store is in this suspended state – like all of us, I guess. It hangs between beauty and necessity. What makes a bookstore beautiful, what makes it useful to the public, is not always the same thing that makes it useful to the crisis-bookseller. A beautiful bookstore draws you in. It invites browsing – with thoughtfully-written rec cards and impeccably-themed display tables. It inspires new ideas. The beauty of a bookstore is in the emotional connection between people and books, people and coffee, people and people.
The necessities of bookselling-in-the-time-of-coronoa are different. Those beautiful displays? They’ve been stripped, to make space for packing supplies, piles for pickup, bags for local delivery, books sticky-noted with questions for tomorrow’s shift. Our own form of triage. As I move through the partially-lit store, looking for a book someone has ordered online, I imagine this must be something like how it feels to work in one of those big warehouse stores. Take the order form, locate the product, label the product for customer retrieval, repeat. Is this still bookselling?
This is week eight of crisis operations, and it’s mind-boggling to think back on how things have changed, again and again, during that time. My last “regular” shift was Saturday, March 14. This was soon after all of the state universities announced an immediate move to online instruction, and it was clear that things were changing quickly. The next day, the bookstore closed its doors to the public, for the foreseeable future. Like many of you, I read Joanna’s message that Sunday and sobbed. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it felt so wrong to close a place that has been a home, a sanctuary to so many.
That next week was a scramble. We were one of only a few businesses locally that voluntarily closed down, and people still wanted – needed – books. With the library closed and kids home from school, the bookstore suddenly felt like a truly essential business. We fielded an influx of online and phone orders with gratitude and as much organization as we could muster. This meant an immediate, radical shift in operations. In the “before times,” we might get 10 or 12 online orders in a week. Since March 15, we’ve processed almost 3500.
Then, on March 23, the Governor issued a state-wide stay-at-home directive. This meant an end to curbside pickup and another (immediate, radical) shift in operations. Shipping everything – even local orders – meant investing in packing supplies, apologizing to customers who had expected to pick up their books, and developing an intimate relationship with the USPS tracking system. As we have come to see in recent weeks, the (essential, underfunded) USPS has been overwhelmed by the bulk of shipments, nationwide, and delivery times climbed from a week to a month or more, with nothing we at the bookstore could do to help.
April 6 was my last day in the store before returning last week. That was the day a local public safety officer informed the bookstore that we were an “unessential business” and could not continue even the minimal operations we were then conducting. Our already skeletal team was stripped further, and only owners and managers could be onsite. This time the immediate, radical shift meant finding ways to work remotely – continuing to ship books to readers without ever being able to touch those books ourselves. We learned that other independent bookstores were having success shipping directly from their warehouses, which made many orders more efficient, for us and for customers.
And now we’re back – well, “back” – in the store, still on a very limited, socially-distant basis. Most days we have one bookseller working to receive incoming orders from FedEx and scanning them into the system, and another person organizing items for curbside pickup or shipment. Other team members are still working remotely to process online orders, respond to emails, and curate personalized book recommendations or gift baskets. Oh, and there’s the amazing work happening to prepare large orders for organizations that are getting books to children, not to mention the ongoing work of updating our website with new products and events to help keep community members engaged with their favorite bookstore, even while apart.
It’s a lot, and I’m grateful for the part I get to play in it, even through the frequent changes, the (inevitable, inescapable) strangeness. This is still “bookselling,” I think. We’re helping people get great books – and puzzles, socks, games, gifts – even if the experience is different for the shopper and seller alike. As someone who takes real joy in helping a reader find the perfect book, it’s heartbreaking not to be able to be with people, sharing space and ideas. It’s heartbreaking to feel like we’ve let people down, because of a botched order or a missing delivery. It’s heartbreaking to know that we are far from alone in our struggle, and that there are many people facing much worse.
Through everything, the bookstore adapts. Like everyone – parents, teachers, medical professionals, restaurant workers, farmers, small businesses of all kinds – we adapt because we have to. And we’ll keep adapting for as long as we have to. Until it is safe and responsible to reopen our doors, to attempt a return to some kind of normal. We’ll be here, selling books.
Top Ten Blunders ’08-’18
1. Not Knowing who Andrew Clements Was. (2008)
This memory is clear. Week One. A gentleman comes in to browse our fledgling shelves. He inquires pointedly where the Andrew Clements books are. I have not heard of Andrew Clements. He can tell. I am revealed as fraud for thinking myself able to tend a meaningful bookstore. “Clements is important to kids in transition from elementary to middle,” he offers insistently. “Thank you for letting me know about his work. We will likely stock it soon,” I say. This felt to be a big blunder that first week, failing to meet expectation of knowledge and not having the books “everyone” knows we should have. But the true misstep here was my assuming the exchange a loss. To the contrary, it was a part of the key to our promise of knowledge itself. Shockingly, I still don’t know all the authors and books requested by customers, but my response is still (and always will be) the same: “Thank you. Now I know more.”
2. Thinking tweens would like to talk politics in Hunger Games (2009)
We hosted a pizza party/ book discussion in ’09 . The turnout was great because kids were anxious to talk about this book and vote Peeta v. Gale, but why did I keep asking about the “psychology of revolution” and the ways “rhetoric of war and the propaganda of leadership” were clear in the text? Way to make a great story about rad teens caught in a dramatic challenge and emerging love triangle boring, book lady.
Thanks for setting me straight, kids. You did.
3. Making Written Mistakes. (all the time)
We are book people who claim to love words and their rules of operation, so why do we misspell them on a receipt or post a newsletter/social media missive with a typo? Because we are humans prone to making the mistakes that hurt us the most.
4. Carting Books to Car, Loading the Large Hand Truck. Leaving Books on Sidewalk. Driving home. (2011)
When asked what part of the business I’m not good at, I don’t miss a beat: moving and tending all the boxes of books. You’ll see this in action when I load in to any community event or move boxes in store. This is a task I often took on as a strong (not strong) one-woman show for years.
In spring of 2011, I took several heavy boxes of books to an author event downtown. The books didn’t all sell, so I loaded them back on my trusted hand-truck and walked to the car. There I astutely placed the boxes on sidewalk, put the precious, heavy hand-truck into the trunk and drove dreamily away, leaving the books to fend for themselves on the Kalamazoo Mall. (They were gone from the walk in the morning, never to be seen again.)
5. Underestimating the number of people who would come out for Patricia Polacco. (2017)
We’ve hosted Patricia several times in the last 10 years, each time to a large, vibrant, crowd, but nothing quite prepared us (or her) for the endless line of (thousands) that came out to see her this last summer. We didn’t have enough books or space in her remarkable home, but we did have just enough wherewithal to make sure everyone left with compassion and hope.
6. Setting Out Too Many Chairs (2008 – ?)
It’s not as devastating as not being able to serve hungry fans well, but it is demoralizing nonetheless and one of the necessary blunders of hosting free and open events: sometimes far fewer people come than you hope, and the difference between the dream and the reality is there for a grateful small few of us to see.
7. Thinking We Can Be Everything to Everyone.
This one speaks for itself, but is a particular conundrum for brick&mortar retail. In many ways, we are committed to serving every person and every need that comes through the door. It took years to understand that some people entering did not have interest in who we are or what we are offering and could say something hurtful (that should instead be received as matter of fact): “This place doesn’t have anything I like.”
8. Thinking that there are more pressing things to do than read.
Starting the business was more work than ever imagined. Operating and growing it…more so still, everyday.
It often seems responsible to not indulge in what brought us to the business to begin with: reading for pleasure.
You see the blunder here though, no?
9. Introducing the wrong author
I haven’t kept tally on number of authors introduced over the years, but I will always remember the one I did the unforgivable to: read bio aloud (from loved, trusted source), only to discover it was that of another writer who had very same name. I stopped mid-way, aware of the blunder, apologized, and promised to keep his book face-out on the shelf (and my head in the sand) for life.
10. Being married in front of people.
We own a business together and don’t always agree on the details. Here’s one: I like to start large events promptly. He prefers to wait for likely late arrivals. At the start of one such event, we disagreed publicly on the matter. A loving attendee offered “can you tell they are married?”
Yes, we’ve learned to set clear “personal and professional lines, with respect and communication as pillars to both,” but do staff and customers catch glimpses of a private, bickering couple sometimes?
Yes. No. Yes.
Top Ten Memories ’08 – ’18
1. The Promise of the Promise
When asked what it is that brought us to the business of books and to this place, I answer two things: 1. a crazy love; and 2. a groundbreaking promise.
Dismantling the financial barrier of higher ed for all students is the thing we pointed to when asked for proof of place that: cared about books, rallied around community, could survive a plummeting economy, and would work to nurture local investment. The Promise, both its immeasurable spirit and finite goals are forever linked to our store’s mission and practice. Its announcement in 2005 and its immediate and ongoing impact are among our most pivotal memories.
2. Hearing the young Voices of Kalamazoo
If you’ve heard our welcome of RAWK Reads or Justice for our Neighbors events, you’ve heard this before: we host a lot of powerful voices in our space. World renowned authors, activists, poets, and artists–who rock our shelves and our world. Still, nothing holds candle to hearing the voices and written words of children of our community.
3. Being drawn to and by kids
An eight-year old drew our first logo. Since then the words, drawings and messages from kids stand out as most memorable keepsakes and the feedback we take most dramatically to heart.
4. Being mistaken as Michael Pollan during a KCF annual meeting, with Pollan as keynote. (2014)
It was a likely mistake: Derek was standing behind the books without much hair and a welcoming smile. He took it in stride, saying he’d be happy to sign as many books as they’d like.
5. Our midnight release for the next generation. (2016)
Alohomora. It was so great. Thanks for the magic, Kalamazoo.
6. Not Needing to Introduce Amy Goodman because she said ALL THE WORDS herself. (2017)
She took the mic right away and said it all. Here we were in an independent space, talking, listening, and acting. This is Democracy in action. This is what a free and open press looks like. Independent bookstores and independent stakeholders, our time is Now.
7. Roxane Gay describing speed at which she writes and the media (including napkins) on which she places potent messages. (2014)
Process and craft as matter of frantic necessity, relentless practice, and powerful truth. Gay’s was among most candid, specific, and graceful offering of this we recall.
(Lindy West rolling over to her laptop on her couch comes in a close, wonderful second.)
8. Getting help with clean-up from friends
It happens after every event: someone (or two) offers to help put the store back together again, because Kalamazoo is better than all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.
9. Embarrassing Self in most introductions of guests
I can’t help it. Hosting usually means welcoming a hero. This is my chance to say it out loud.
10. Exhausting Family
Our work (to build a meaningful bookstore) is our life–in the healthiest and hardest of ways. Not one of us isn’t pooped out and grateful at end of the day/week/year(s).
We are infinitely better for having each other and you.
Top Ten Customer Moments ’08-’18
We have met many friends, encountered several surprises, and welcomed countless queries between 2008 and 2018. The moments that follow are both unique, single memories and reoccurring wonders, each a stand-out over the last decade as powerful moments we won’t forget.
1. Being told Thank You by a person accustomed to not finding self in books; having instinct to respond “i am sorry.” and instead offering, “you are welcome.” you are.
Much has changed since 2008, when I asked an experienced librarian for children’s books in which non heteronormative relationships were incidental rather than driving force of story, whether there were fresh, fantastic graphic novels featuring characters of color, and where all the new bilingual picture books could be found. I came up scarce on these requests in ’08, and can point to many more hitting these marks well in ’18. Still, we have a long way to go as a store, as an industry, and as a community, to demonstrate authentic welcome, service, and celebration of the fullest, richest human story possible. This intention was a founding principle of our store and remains a guiding force in all we do.
2. Being Told a Reader Was (re) Born.
Every child is born a reader. There is no newborn not intrigued by the rhythms, movements, and scenes of story and no human not driven by its hold. There are, though, many children led to believe reading is not for them: letters on a page are confusing or uncompelling, the act of reaching story via text strange or unwanted, especially in the way–or at the rate–expected. We have always believed that removing such expectations and focusing on what makes receiving story intriguing and joyful is the only matter. This is why we show kids of all ages and reading abilities books overflowing with pictures, with hilarious, interactive, relatable text, books others say are beneath or above them, and then, sometimes we hear the story return that we love most of all: a reader is (re) born.
2 1/2. A toddler giving art direction to an author/illustrator, as needed.
All great illustrators to visit our store have engaged kids in the act of creating character, action, and scene, but there was something about Bob Shea, his jelly bean start to every picture and his full embrace of a resolute toddler that will remain in our hearts forever.
3. Being cautioned by a conference organizer that people may not want books.
In defense of this caution, the most experienced among us have no crystal ball on demand for anything, ever. It’s a truth indistinguishable from others’ in the business of offering goods, but formulas of prediction do reveal themselves in time and in a few marked circumstances. Nerd Camp Michigan is one such instance, and the formula revealed itself immediately in 2014:
joy-driven book passion + genuine friendship + free gathering place + innovative authors + radically compassionate educators = ALL THE BOOKS WILL BE WANTED.
This photo (taken that first year) was our modest, plentiful table upon load-in. Within hours, each book was gone from this table. Every year since, we bring higher broader stacks, and they always fly away on the wings of this formula.
4. Hearing a mother giggle at her toddler in loving insistence that the Girl Power book was not for him.
This is a specific memory, yes, but also a moment reflecting something ubiquitous in our 10 years years: the expressed (or acted upon) assumption that books prominently featuring confidently gendered girls are not (or in some cases, should not be) interesting to boys. It is a quiet, well-intended, devastating form of sexism that we hope to see change dramatically in our next ten years.
5. Offering Presence to a Grieving Loved One.
There are many ways to be present to a dear friend or known acquaintance processing unbearable loss. In the bookstore this experience has taken many sacred shapes: placing loved words into trembling hands, searching unknown stories for small comforts, allowing a kindred reader the distance and dignity of the shelves to self, remembering a detail of the loved-one in store, hugging, crying, being open, being here–it has been a great honor and an amazing grace.
6. Watching an unknown customer weep upon entering a new space.
I didn’t know her. She didn’t know me. We both cried.
7. Being the background to moments
There are many customers who have chosen our store as place to document their own stories: the marking of engagement or marriage, new and grown families posing for photo, a mother&daughter in musical accompaniment. Our shelves are a grateful background to these live, beautiful stories.
8. Being Gifted Unexpected Inspired Art
It is one thing to be caretaker, advocate, and carrier of art, it is another to be recognized and celebrated in it itself. This chair, gifted in surprise to our story time leader is one of the many offerings the store has been gifted in celebration of its very being. Each of these gifts and times of their offering are among our most memorable.
9. Being spotted away from home
One of my fondest early memories is being recognized by a child in the grocery and hearing: “Look Mom, it’s the book lady. What’s she doing here?” Since then, being spotted–and building book community–beyond our walls has grown more intentional and joyful. Waldo’s summer wanderings in Kalamazoo are one way we thank our town for spotting (and appreciating) us away from our home.
10. Being told: “I am surprised you are still open.”
This hasn’t tapered much in 10 years and takes many different forms:
“How can you compete?”
“I thought you were all dead.”
“Do people still read books?”
“You’re still here in this corner?”
And, nevertheless…
this is a bookblog 