Book Sense

For 20 years, owners Rose Joseph and Iris Yipp have found new ways to ensure that Magic Tree Bookstore meets the needs of their neighborhood in Oak Park, Illinois. With a section devoted to biracial and alternative families, adoption, and special needs children, the bookstore has maintained its standing as a vital community resource. On August 27, the store's longevity and sense of community were celebrated at a grand-scale anniversary event.

Below is a preview of the titles on the October 2004 Book Sense Picks flier, being mailed to bookstores in the September Red Box. Watch next week's BTW for the list of October's "We Also Recommend" titles, which will be available as a PDF flier for in-store distribution.

Very many thanks to all the booksellers whose participation made the compilation of this very strong list possible.

Looking ahead, September 3 is the deadline for both the November Book Sense Picks and for the 2004 Fall History Top Ten.

Hardcover History, the partnership of Book Sense and The History Channel promoting programming and reading combinations, is returning after a short hiatus.

In the July White Box, bookstores with Book Sense were sent promotional materials for "The Best Books of the First Five Years of Book Sense" and were encouraged to create a "Best Books" summer display.

After surviving the stock market crash of 1929, World War II, a couple of recessions, and a four-alarm fire, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this August. What started out as a furniture and used-book store has evolved into a four-floor, 40,000-square-foot institution with six miles of bookshelves and approximately one million titles.

For the four-week period ending August 22, 2004, and based on sales reporting by hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

This week, Book Sense is announcing the Autumn 2004 Children's Book Sense Picks, based on the nominations of independent booksellers nationwide. The mailing of printed fliers to stores with Book Sense will begin on September 1.

The list features a wealth of wonderful titles for children of all ages and interests. While only one bookseller's quote accompanies each title listing, every nomination was critically important in formulating this list.

The August White Box is one of the richest so far this year! Just some of the "goodies" in store for you:

Galleys, ARCs and finished books:

According to the calculations of Cheryl and Thomas Upchurch, a life of bookselling has aged them ... about five years more than their contemporaries. Putting in yeoman's hours at their Montgomery, Alabama, bookstore, Capitol Book & News Company, has meant that "for the past 25 years we've both worked a six day week (and actually, for the first couple of years we owned the store, a seven day week!). That means 52 Saturdays a year, and after 25 years that comes to 1,300 days we worked that most folks did not.

While the holiday season may still seem far off, the time for booksellers to begin preparing gift card orders for the biggest shopping time of the year is now. The Book Sense Gift Card Program, just completing its first year of operation, has already helped more than 200 bookstores dramatically increase their sales.

Facing Athens: Encounters With the Modern City (North Point Press) is a book George Sarrinikolaou, a New York environmental-policy worker and former journalist, had been wanting to write for years.

The August Book Sense Red Box Marketing Kit includes:

Hobbit Hall's owner Kim Dickie certainly doesn't sound new to bookselling -- the children's bookstore in Roswell, Georgia, has over 30,000 titles; five storytimes a week; over a dozen weeklong sessions of summer day camp; book fairs; sidewalk sales; and events for every holiday -- but she's only been a bookseller since March 2003.

For the four-week period ending August 8, 2004, and based on sales reporting by hundreds of independent bookstores across the U.S.

Past Category Bestseller lists are available at www.bookweb.org/read/5677.

Attention Media: Please contact Meg Smith at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Here is a preview of the September Book Sense Picks. Independent booksellers in the Book Sense program will receive the Picks fliers in the August Red Box.