Book Sense

Finalists for the Book Sense Book of the Year were announced on February 13. Detailed below are the finalists in the two Children's categories -- Children’s Literature and Children’s Illustrated.

A substantial majority of independent bookstores participating in the Book Sense national marketing program saw sales increases in 2001 over 2000, according to a recent ABA survey. Among those stores in the Book Sense program responding to the survey, 63 percent reported sales increases for the year. Over half of the stores noted increases of more than five percent. For the 2001 holiday season, 66 percent of the bookstores reported increases over a strong 2000 holiday season.

Booksellers are reminded that by now they should have received by mail from ABA ballots for both the 2002 ABA Officers/Board of Directors and the Book Sense Book of the Year Awards.

Appearing on the ballot for members’ ratification is the slate of officers elected by the ABA Board at its January meeting. The Board chose:

Book Sense, as well as individual Book Sense 76 picks, will be spotlighted in several advertisements in upcoming issues of The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.

The March 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly will feature Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown (Knopf, 0375411968) in a black-and-white Book Sense ad.

George P. Pelecanos, the crime-fiction author whose Hell to Pay (Little, Brown) is a Book Sense 76 pick for March/April, started laying the groundwork for a writing career when he was still a youngster -- although he didn't know it then.

Driving down Highway 2 in Leavenworth, Washington, tourists might pull off the road, thinking their eyes are playing tricks on them. Nestled in the majestic North Cascade Mountains is a small village that belongs in southern Germany.

For Get Caught Reading Month in May, Book Sense is supplying numerous ideas for booksellers. This month, expect the information about a "Community Wish List" program to help stores work with local groups in need of books.

ABA has announced the lineup for the 2002 Book Sense Reading Room, to be held at BookExpo America on Saturday, May 4, from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The annual event, long a bookseller favorite, features four talented writers reading in a relaxed, intimate setting. In the past, such authors as Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Alice McDermott, and Ann Patchett have appeared at the Reading Room. There is no charge for the Reading Room, and the event is open to all badged attendees.

A three-year-old girl falls off a second-floor balcony, lands on her head and breaks her skull. Three days later, she's playing in the snow, fully recovered -- an astounding medical success. But what if this accident had occurred in a remote village in the Indian Himalayas with an American woman doctor performing the surgery for the first time while carefully consulting the medical textbook open in front of her? In this experience, you not only have a chapter from Craig Joseph Danner's self-published novel, Himalayan Dhaba, but also a page from his life.

This April, booksellers can celebrate National Poetry Month with a custom poetry CD (which was exclusively produced for participating Book Sense stores, by Sourcebooks, publisher of the book and CD set, Poetry Speaks) and a poetry writing contest for high school students. Stores can use the offerings -- from "Poets Speak Back, A Poetry Writing Contest," sponsored by Sourcebooks and Book Sense -- as the basis of their National Poetry Month events or as a complement to planned readings and activities.

Imagine you have arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, with your 12 sled dogs, ready to ride the rugged 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail to Nome. Even under the best of conditions, you might be traveling for almost a month; the nights are very long, and you cannot fit a human companion on your sled. Question: What are you going to bring to read?

The power of song can champion world problems in a manner that few mediums can match. Now, Deborah Pardes, a San Francisco singer/songwriter who in 2000 founded the San Francisco-based Songs Inspired by Literature (SIBL) Project, thinks music can help literacy programs -- especially if she gets a little help from her friends, independent booksellers.

The number of consumers redeeming Book Sense gift certificates grew at a prodigious rate in 2001, and that trend continued into the first month of January 2002 -- with a record number of consumers redeeming gift certificates at independent bookstores around the country. This is according to recent Book Sense figures charting store-to-store gift certificate redemptions (the figures do not include gift certificates that were purchased and redeemed in the same store).

Thanks to a great outpouring of booksellers’ recommendations, we were able to compile a fantastic Poetry 76 Top Ten. The flier will go on press this week; the pad of fliers will go into the March "white box," and they'll get to you in time for April poetry displays.

At the site of the venerable Chatterton’s Bookshop, closed in 1994 after the death of its owner, is Los Angeles's five-year-old Skylight Books, the result of great production, directing, casting, and location.