BTW News Briefs

Scholastic Offers Downloadable "Harry Potter Birthday Kit"

Scholastic has created a "Harry Potter Birthday Kit Event Planner" available for download for stores wishing to mark the event on July 31. The event planner includes a reproducible invitation and announcement; reproducible puzzles and word finds; suggestions for decorations, refreshments, and more.

Entrekin Named Recipient of NAIBA Legacy Award

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association has named Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic, as the recipient of its 2008 Legacy Award.

Calling Entrekin "the embodiment of true spirit of independent bookselling," NAIBAhood News noted: "In an age dominated by media hype, quick celebrity bios, and fluff volumes driven by popular culture, Morgan has been an individual that has placed purposeful meaning about money, and quality content ahead of all other considerations. And not unlike those independent booksellers in the community that he has so passionately served, Morgan Entrekin has taken risks, suffered setbacks, cherished the power of the printed word, valued the reader, and soldiered onward. The world of literature is a much brighter, richer, and varied place because of his presence."

NAIBA will salute Entrekin at its Fall Conference awards banquet, on the evening of Sunday, September 21, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

NYC Indies Roll Into NJ

The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) is coordinating a bus to take New York City booksellers to the NAIBA Fall Conference in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The bus will have two pick-up points, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan, and will depart in the early evening of Saturday, September 20, to get booksellers to the Crowne Plaza hotel in time for NAIBA's Early Bird Supper. The bus will leave the hotel on Monday, September 22, at 4:00 p.m.

Booksellers interested in participating should contact NAIBA at (516) 333-0681 by August 1, so regional staff can determine the size and number of buses needed. Pick up points will be determined based on ridership.

Applications for NEIBA Grants Now Being Accepted

The New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) is offering grants (up to $2,500) to developing or established Independent Business Alliances (IBAs) that include its members bookstores.

NEIBA's Strategic Plan calls for the regional to assist booksellers' efforts in their own communities to shift consumer culture towards supporting locally owned businesses. In the past year, NEIBA has provided over $16,000 in grants to seven New England IBAs. The deadline for this round of applications is October 2008.

New York City Booksellers Name Alliance

The owners, managers, and staff representing 20 independent bookstores in New York City, which have banded together to form an alliance, adopted the name the Independent Booksellers of New York City (IBNYC) at the group's second meeting, on June 26.

IBNYC facilitator Kelly Amabile, events and marketing manager for Book Culture, said the group has identified several priority projects, including establishing a web presence, creating a logo, and developing a map that includes all the independent bookstores of NYC's five boroughs. Committees will be working on these projects through the summer, with plans for more formal announcements to mainstream media and consumers in the fall.

Individual bookstores have agreed to make founding contributions to the IBNYC, which will provide important seed money for these initial projects. Bookstores interested in learning more about how they can make a contribution and/or join a committee should contact the IBNYC at [email protected]

2008 SIBA Book Award Winners Announced

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) recently announced the 2008 SIBA Book Award winners, recognizing great books of Southern origin as voted by hundreds of booksellers across the South. This year's winners are:

• Fiction: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (Bantam)
• Poetry: The House on Boulevard Street by David Kirby (LSU Press)
• Cookbook: A Love Affair With Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson (William Morrow)
• Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
• Children's: Deep in the Swamp by Donna Bateman, illustrated by Brian Lies (Charlesbridge)

Beginning in 2008, the SIBA Book Awards Ceremony will be held as part of the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day Weekend in Decatur, Georgia. The festival, which attracts upwards of 60,000 attendees each year, is open to the public and promises to garner increased exposure for the awards and the award-winning books and authors. SIBA is inviting winners and finalists to the event. More information about the SIBA Book Awards and the Decatur Book Festival is available at www.sibaweb.com.

The 2008 Children's Africana Book Award Winners

The Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) recently announced the winners of the 2008 Children's Africana Book Awards. ASA's Outreach Council annually salutes the authors and illustrators of outstanding books about Africa published in the U.S. for young children and older readers. This year's awards were announced on the International Day of the African Child -- June 16 -- in Washington D.C. The winners will receive their awards November 15 in Chicago during the annual meeting of the African Studies Association.

The winners are:

• Best Book for Older Readers: Aya by Marguerite Abouet; illustrated by Clement Oubrerie (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Best Book for Young Children: Ikenna Goes to Nigeria by Ifeoma Onyefulu (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
• Honor Book for Older Readers: The Rise of the Golden Cobra by Henry Aubin (Annick Press)
• Honor Book for Older Readers: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah (FSG)
• Honor Book for Young Children: Wiil Waal: A Somali Folktale by Kathleen Moriarty; Illustrated by Amin Amir (St. Paul, Minnesota Humanities Center/Somali Bilingual Book Project)