Preregister Now for Find Waldo Local 2018

Booksellers can now sign up to participate in the July 2018 celebration of Find Waldo Local, sponsored by Candlewick Press and the American Booksellers Association.

Preregistration opened on Tuesday, January 23, and is capped at 250 ABA member stores. For the past six years, this month-long campaign has been a fun way for small business owners across the country to promote the value of shopping locally to their customers.

“Candlewick’s Find Waldo Local summer initiative has been instrumental in uniting communities and independent businesses in the search for the iconic children’s book character,” said Gen de Botton, manager of the ABC Children’s Group at ABA. “The American Booksellers Association is excited to once again partner with Candlewick in this fun summer program.”

Like every year, Candlewick will provide participating independent bookstores with a toolkit containing everything necessary to stage a Find Waldo Local event in their community, including 25 mini Waldo standees, 25 window clings, 125 prize buttons, eight Waldo prize books, reproducible passports, $1 coupons, party activities, posters, and bag stuffers, as well as a sample pitch letter and press release and social media assets for Facebook and Twitter.

New this year, participants will also search their host bookstore for lost items belonging to five of the series’ traveling characters: Waldo’s key, Woof’s bone, Wenda’s camera, Wizard Whitebeard’s scroll, and Odlaw’s binoculars. A punch-out sheet with the five items will be included in the toolkit.

Also new for 2018, Candlewick has created an 11”x17” red-and-white-striped photo frame with the text “I found Waldo shopping at my local bookstore!” A printed version of the frame will be available in the toolkit or as an editable PDF in a digital toolkit.

ABA member stores have until Thursday, March 1, to sign up for the campaign. Full details and registration requirements are available in the 2018 campaign brochure. Questions should be addressed to [email protected].