I like this book because Claudia’s friends help her when she is sad. –Emerson, age 7, customer at Wishing Tree Books, Spokane, WA Do you look for recommendation cards at bookstores? Did you know they’re called “shelf talkers” in the bookselling world? Whether the recommendations are from a trusted bookseller or another customer, they can …
On Wednesdays, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List is published. Every week, we love to see what books have been most popular in independent bookstores around our region. As we peruse the list, we ponder patterns. Then we present this weekly feature: Thursday Themes. Studies have shown that reading emotionally-transporting fiction can increase empathy in the reader. …
Tupac Shakur’s poetry collection, The Rose that Grew from Concrete, and the safety of a diary were my entries into becoming a writer. For the entirety of middle school and the first half of high school, I was the kid who came into class late while cracking jokes or quips and sat in the back …
This is a book that is uplifting, funny, charming, hopeful, and HELPFUL to tweens! The main character, Yumi, wants to do stand-up comedy. Her parents want her to go to SSAT tutoring to get into a private school and earn a scholarship. But when a bizarre opportunity that just requires some identity theft and a …
What a clever and realistic accounting of how we demonstrate what it looks like to stand up and be a true friend: through sickness and health, through buggers and bullies, swiping pocket change and wiping out on skateboards, first crushes and first kisses. This story is told through ten vignettes of individual kids who are …
Seattle kids’ author Mark Holtzen interviewed Seattle kids’ author Kim Baker about her upcoming middle grade novel, The Water Bears. Where did the idea for The Water Bears come from? What was the original grain of sand that led to this pearl? (If you have better ideas for jokes or puns in questions, I’m all …
In a desert town near Joshua Tree National Park, a man dies in a hit-and-run accident. Thus opens a story of the man and his family and the investigation of his death. Alternately narrated by several different characters, we learn of backstories and side stories and brief flashbacks to Morocco and Iraq and Mexico. And …
Posted in Publishers Weekly Children’s Bookshelf newsletter May 7, 2019 by Emma Nichols, bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA When I first started in bookselling, parents often balked at my comics recommendations. They wanted their kids to read “real books.” Five years later, a lot has changed: I’m still recommending comics and kids …
This piece was originally published on the Island Books blog. Growing up, I loved getting lost in books: It didn’t matter to me if the book was adventurous, dramatic, suspenseful, or fantastical; as long as it transported me somewhere else, I was happy. I’d be so immersed in my book that I’d barely hear my …
Adrian Simcox does not have a horse! Especially not a beautiful horse with a white coat and golden mane and beautiful brown eyes like he likes to tell anyone who would listen. And Chloe will be the first person to tell you that Adrian Simcox absolutely does not have a horse. How could he possibly …
