Shut up and listen, and other bookselling tips from an almost-alum

Friends, you have no idea how much fun I've had blathering at you about kids' books every other week. But two weeks from now, I'll be settling into a new job at The Horn Book. Only a venue for even more blathering about kids' books would get me to leave the Booksmith, where I've learned so much and gotten to know so many people worth knowing. In my parting post, I thought I'd share some advice for current and future booksellers.

Shut up and listen. When I started, I thought "being helpful" meant "letting information pour from my mouth as fast as possible." Sorry, customers who encountered me in my first few months. If I had paused when you said, "I'm looking for a gift for an eight-year-old," you would probably have told me more, whether it was "she loves funny books" or "I don't really know him, but I remember loving poetry around that age, so maybe that would work." We would've arrived at a better gift, and probably faster.

Be ready to switch gears. You might find yourself discussing The Hunger Games and Moo, Baa, La La La! in the same breath. You also might find your day going from sleepy to crazy in the time it takes the door to swing open and the phone to ring (simultaneously, of course).

Language barriers aren't immovable. Most people will get the gist of, and appreciate, a friendly "Finding everything okay?" And here, at least, books are physical objects that you can show people. One thing I've noticed, very anecdotally: "How many years?" makes more sense than "How old is (s)he?" to speakers of a lot of languages.

When in doubt, handsell like Clarissa. This involves jumping up and down, hugging the book, and declaring, "GAAAAH! THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD! SO GOOOOOOOOD!" It works.

Or literally handsell, like Amy. This involves getting a tattoo on your forearm of a quote from the book you'd like to recommend.  (In Amy's case, the book is Where Things Come Back, by John Corey Whaley.) 

Twitter likes puns. The store's social media platform is a great place to mistweet the English language.


Know whom to ask.  You're probably surrounded by experts in every niche of the book industry. Getting to know people's tastes, including but not limited to the sections they run, gives you access to a wealth of information.

Know how to figure it out for yourself. That perfect person to ask won't always be available. Pay attention to what you're ringing up a lot. Pay attention at rep nights. Pay attention to back room conversations. Try to know what the bestsellers are, and know that everything can be Googled, including "If you liked [bestselling title]."

Do not get emotionally involved with the eight-by-eight spinner.  Pouring your heart and soul into the organization of the Barbie, Thomas, Spiderman, Spongebob, Caillou, Clifford, Dora, Disney, Pixar, Batman, Superman, Power Rangers, and Scooby-Doo books will only result in heartbreak.

Wear comfortable clothes on Tuesdays, especially in fall and spring.  There will be new releases. You may find yourself building cardboard displays, destroying old ones, and bringing huge quantities of overstock up and down ladders.

If you attend a store event, hang out until the end of the signing line. A bunch of us got to chat with Rainbow Rowell and David Levithan. We're totes besties now. No biggie.

Don't let fall stress you out. People may be a little on edge as they prepare for The Holiday Season. You may find yourself thinking, "If we're stressed now, what will The Actual Season be like?" But once The Season starts (November), bookselling gets a lot more fun. Oh, it's busy and exhausting. But for the most part, everyone's in a sugar-fueled good mood as they push their favorite books out the door. And if you're lucky, you might even have a boss who hires a masseuse for her aching employees!

Try to eat something besides sugar in November and December.

When award season nears, don't shrink-wrap anything eligible for a Caldecott. If it wins, you'll want to put it up on display, and customers will want to check inside to see if you have a first printing.

Pay attention to the larger book community. You might just get clued into something like the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement or its bookselling-specific baby, the Great Greene Challenge. 

Pay attention to your own community. Local schools play a major role in our kids' section, particularly when summer reading lists come out. If you suddenly get two or three requests for a title that's not normally a bestseller, ask if there's a school reading it or discussing it or putting on a play about it. If there is, get more copies as fast as you can.

Shop local. Dude, you get a discount. 

Always offer help, unless it's July and the customer is searching for Waldo.

Get to know your coworkers. They are awesome.

Stay in touch with departing coworkers. This is more a request than a tip.

Thank you, Booksmith, and thank you, Brookline.

I came in for one thing.

written for last week's Staff Talent Show

The store is stuffed with mounds of merch.

The people come, and oh, they search.

A Scrabble mug. A picture frame.

That book. You know, by what’s-her-name.

They come with varied goals in mind,

exceeded by the things they find.

Who knew how many pins they’d need?

Who knew how much they had to read?

Who knew a ring could tell their mood?

Who knew their mood was “wanting food.

Yes, cookies. Yes, the kind by Tate’s.”

They need a planner, for their dates

are filling fast. They’re busy bees.

They’d best relax. They need some teas

to drink while watching Game of Thrones,

a show that frustrates with unknowns…

unless they cheat and read ahead.

But who has time for weddings red?

They’d better get a magazine.

And just because they’re past eighteen

can’t mean the grownup books are urgent.

Look! John Green! And look! Divergent!

Look! Nostalgia! Goodnight Moon!

Isn’t someone’s kid due soon?

Trees that gave and trains that could.

Those books were their childhood.

Wimpy kids and half-blood gods.

Boston books? What stunning odds!

A spinner sorted, slot by slot.

(I hope and dream. It’s all I’ve got.)

There’s Parenting and Health and Psych

and travel guides by train or bike.

That bargain book may not last long.

To pass it up would just be wrong.

And who could skip the plates and bowls?

Not those with culinary goals

that match the cookbooks perfectly—

the kosher to the gluten-free.

Five months till Christmas! None to waste!

Find books for every reading taste,

though friends can be persnickety.

Who won’t inhale the Picketty?

Knausgaard wrote about his struggle.

Rowling wrote about a muggle.

Stacks of Books We Love, and each

might be useful for the beach.

Almost out, but wait, there’s more!

Stairs reveal another floor.

All the books they’ve meant to read,

used! A worthy deal indeed.

And while they soothe their reader-shame,

they spot a favorite author’s name.

She’s coming on a looming eve!

Yeah, they’ll come back. Or just not leave.

But—sigh—the rest of life awaits.

They must ascend. (And buy more Tate’s.

And mini-books. And chocolate bars.

And bags for schlepping to their cars.)

They think, “I might as well. I’m here.”

Impulsive? Sure. But they are dear

to we who fill the waiting shelves.

They never need explain themselves.

So let your basket overflow.

‘Cause would we ever judge you? NO!

Which kids' or YA bestseller describes your life???

Social media is a hot topic around the store these days, so I thought I'd blatantly steal a format I've seen succeed all over Facebook. Is there anything you'd like to see on our social media? Let us know! Now, on to important matters....

Which setting sounds most appealing?
A. a snowy mountain
B. the popular kids' table
C. an American city whose neighborhoods have their own personalities
D. a European city full of art and tortured artists

Something is bothering you. What do you do?
A. run and hide until you just have to let your feelings out
B. write about it in your diary
C. confront it. Bravery is your defining quality! Your only one! Really!
D. get as much as you can out of today anyway

 What do you like to do with your friends?
A. build a snowman
B. talk about your crushes
C. jump off moving trains
D. track down your favorite authors

Where are you most likely to be found on a Saturday night?
A. Frost Ice Bar. The cold never bothered you anyway.
B. at a party... and then home telling your diary what a disaster it was
C. showing off your bravery and hiding your other traits
D. rereading your favorite book and agonizing over its ending 

Mostly A's: Your life is like Frozen: The Big Golden Book. Congratulations on being yourself, even if it means dancing in the snow in July! 

Mostly B's: Your life is like the Dork Diaries books. Congratulations on being yourself, even if it means you're a dork!

Mostly C's: Your life is like Divergent: Congratulations on being yourself, even if you have to be dauntless to do so!

Mostly D's: Your life is like The Fault in Our Stars (purely in terms of personality, I hope). Congratulations on being loveable enough to make an entire generation cry. 

You must be this tall to read The Fault in Our Stars.

This happened when The Hunger Games hit the big screen, too. When a popular YA novel becomes a

popular movie, kids who maybe aren't quite in the "young adult" age bracket yet start begging to read it. Because their classmates have read it and/or seen the movie, and the ads are everywhere, and come on, Mom! Here at the bookstore, we start getting a lot of questions along the lines of, "What age is this book for?"

Rather than giving a hard number, I usually respond by describing the book and mentioning anything I think parents would want to know about. The Fault in Our Stars is about teens who meet in a cancer support group and fall in love. For some parents, that information is enough to make a decision. Others are apprehensively okay with that, but are absolutely not okay with the presence of a neither graphic nor gratuitous sex scene (and by "not gratuitous," I mean "between two people in an unusual situation who know that waiting isn't much of an option and want to get what they can out of life").

I don't give a hard number because you know better than I what your kids already know, what they've already seen on TV, what they're ready to handle. That's true of the brief and really really not graphic sexual content, but I think it's even truer of the larger themes of terminal illness. This book is entertaining and even very funny in some places, and much of its value is in the big questions its characters consider about what makes a life meaningful. But it's also a book that might be upsetting to some readers - preteen, teen, or adult. As with any book, we'll share what we know about its content as honestly as we can. But you know your family and your family's experiences better than we do. So do your kids (and I've seen great, honest conversations between parents and kids who decided together to wait on a book).

If you or your kids do decide to read TFIOS, we'll be waiting with plenty of happy, escapist recommendations when you're ready to choose your next book.

Ocean's Eleven Meets High School Musical. (In middle school.)

What would you do if your student council election was rigged?

Let me rephrase that: what would you do if your student council election were rigged in favor of someone really spoiled, and you kinda sorta maybe wanted to be more than friends with the person who really deserved to win, and you were Jackson Greene, master caper-puller-offer?

You'd pull off a caper, that's what you'd do.

This book has a great ensemble cast. It's well-plotted. It's funny. And it has fallen into the hands of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement, which has set out to prove that a book with a diverse cast on the cover can sell and that it is in the industry's interest to publish more such books.

We're competing with lots of other independent bookstores in The Great Greene Challenge. Do I especially care if we end up being the store that sells the most copies in the first month? Nah. Do I think it's awesome that we're all motivating each other to help make the book a bestseller? Heck yes.

Know a reader somewhere around middle school age? Have we got a book for you!

Sometimes, I read adult books.

I don't avoid adult books. Really. But the books on my radar, the books I get asked about all the time, the books I get into long conversations about, the ones on most of the blogs I read, the ones I feel the greatest need to keep up-to-date on, are nearly all kids' or YA books. I'm aware of adult titles that customers are constantly asking for, but in my own reading life, I sometimes forget, or run out of time, to discover new adult books.

Enter the Alex Awards. When the Newberys, Caldecotts, and other awards for kids' and YA books are announced, so are ten awards for adult books that are likely to appeal to teens. While I'm making a to-read list out of Printz and Stonewall and Coretta Scott King winners and honors, I add a couple of Alex books. In my case, it's practical as a children's bookseller to know of a few adult books that I can recommend to young adult as well as adult-adult customers. But nefarious ulterior motives or no nefarious ulterior motives, the Alex Awards have helped me discover some great books.
If you've asked me for a light or distracting adult read in the past year or so, I've probably handed you Where'd You Go, Bernadette. It's easy to see why this novel, framed as a preteen's search for her missing mother through emails and other documents, would connect with young readers. But the content of those documents, which reveal a slightly unhinged mother in a Seattle community where everyone is trying to impress everyone else, is hilarious no matter who you are  - quite a few booksellers here have read and loved WYGB. (Disclaimer: I have never been to Seattle and have no opinion as to the accuracy of the book's portrayal.)

Another Alex winner with an obvious connection to young readers is the graphic memoir Relish. Foodie Lucy Knisley tells the story of her life so far through a series of vignettes relating to food at home and around the world. Bring a snack. Trust me on this.

A much darker read, made easier to take and often even funny by its five-year-old narrator, is Room by Emma Donohue. This is what dramatic irony is all about.

If you're a bookstore fan, and I'm guessing you are, don't miss Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Bonus: The cover glows in the dark!

And if (like me) you think you're not a big sci-fi person, try The Lives of Tao, by Wesley Chu. It's the kind of sci-fi that's really about its characters, many of whom are hilarious.

...And now back to my regularly scheduled extended childhood.

More on this one soon...

#WeNeedDiverseBooks. (We have some. We need more.)

I'm writing this before the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign officially begins, and the hashtag is already trending on Twitter. People from all walks of the reading life are posting reasons we need more books for kids and teens that reflect the way our world really looks, and I couldn't be prouder of how it's catching on.

It's a fact of life as a brick-and-mortar store that we exist in one spot, and our demographics reflect that spot. But if you picture Brookline as an area where everyone looks, talks, and thinks alike, I urge you to look and listen to the people around you next time you walk through our doors. This is a place where a recent Chinese immigrant might ask where the bar mitzvah cards are. It's a place where you'll probably hear three or four languages in the course of a day. It's a place where I've seen firsthand that some things, especially some things about kids, are universal: a smile and a "she's so cute!" works across a language barrier, and parents from everywhere know that babies need books safe for chewing. It's also a place where adults use the YA section along with other sections as a resource for LGBT fiction, and where many parents light up when you tell them that a chapter book takes place in "Africa, amazing Africa!" Mommy, Mama, and Me sells here. So does Buenas Noches, Gorila. So does The Snowy Day, to customers of all colors and, for whatever reason, in all seasons. (I'm not complaining.) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is rocking out. So is Out of My Mind. By and large, our customers recognize that there are people of all kinds in the world and welcome opportunities to share that truth with their kids.

A major goal of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is to combat the pervasive belief that "the market" won't support books with more diversity. I'm definitely not pretending that we - that I - don't have room to grow in the literature we read and produce and sell, but I hope we can serve as a small example of how #WeNeedDiverseBooks, because somebody bought the last copy on the shelf and it's time to restock.

There's one thing on all our minds today.

Happy Marathon Monday from the kids' section and from all of us at Booksmith.

Norton Juster is a rock star.

I arrived at the Boston Public Library about an hour early to hear Norton Juster, a children's author best known for a gentle 1961 fantasy called The Phantom Tollbooth. I was seventh in line. I was not the oldest one there, nor was I primarily surrounded by people in the children's book biz (though plenty of them soon joined the line). Several generations of Juster's fans eventually filled the lecture hall, abuzz with twenty-, thirty-, forty-year-old memories of discovering his work and with plans to hand signed copies to children and grandchildren.

Juster, in conversation with Megan Lambert, showed off a sense of humor that echoed a nearly-bygone generation of comedy (think Mel Brooks or Rodney Dangerfield). But amid all the friendly pot-shots at himself was a sense of wonder, of joy in the realization that everything we learn is connected. In particular, he exuded wonder in wordplay (punder, if you will). Much as we all enjoyed Juster's answers to Lambert's questions, he had three pun-laden passages to read from TPT, and until he got those puns out, he cut every tangent short with a "but let's get back to the story."

As often happens in Q&A sessions (am I right, events team?), many of the audience members began their questions with comments. And by "comments," I mean "gushing." Everyone had stories of growing up with Milo or of sharing his adventures with children. One mom said that her seventeen-year-old daughter had read TPT recently and had asked her to share that it had made her less "jaded."

So what is it about this book? I think its core lies in the title of Chapter 9: "It's All in How You Look at Things." Milo sees life as boring until he encounters new ways of looking at words, numbers, sight, sound, height, hunger, rhyme, and reason. Juster looked at The Phantom Tollbooth as a way to put off a more technical writing project. And I look at Norton Juster as a rock star.

Check out the BPL's Lowell Lecture Series here.

Signs that spring has come to the kids' section

There is no snow on the floor. (There is occasional frozen yogurt on the table.)

We have books like this,

 

this,

and this.


There are new releases in bloom.

Loyal young fans flock to the store, asking if the books they've been waiting for are out yet.



Sorry, Selection fans - The One isn't out yet, though we're happy to reserve it for you. When it shows up on May 6, we promise to rush it to the shelves.


We booksellers are bursting to recommend the ones we've read in advance.


You'll know it's April 8 when Amy and I start racing to handsell you John Corey Whaley's latest.

Also! New Mo Willems! April 1! Not a joke! I repeat, this is not a joke!



It's spring, you guys. It's almost reading-outside weather. Come. Get books.

"So my friend/sister/coworker/neighbor/cousin is having a baby..."

One of the most common recommendation requests we get in the kids' section is for new baby gifts (and glad we are that new readers keep arriving in the world). It's also one of the easiest questions we get, because there are so many right answers.

Want to give the baby something to use right away? You basically can't go wrong in the board book section; anything there can be held on a lap and hold up against the baby's little hands, which will get curious and destructive as the months pass. For newborns, I often recommend Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, a sweet, lilting text that you can't help but read soothingly.

In general, very short, simple texts with eye-catching pictures work well: Bonus: If the words are simple enough, older siblings may be able to read the book aloud.

The House in the Night is also a great bedtime book. (Tip: Yes, every child should own Goodnight Moon, but at least one other friend or relative will realize that.)

Don't feel you have to limit yourself to board books, though. You're not just welcoming a new baby; you're welcoming a new child, and if there's a book for older kids that holds fond memories for you, it'll be that much more meaningful.  (Tip: If you're the only Bostonian friend or relative, it may be up to you to get Make Way for Ducklings into the child's hands.)

Imagine the parent saying in a few years, "Uncle So-and-So gave you this when you were born, and I think you're ready for it now."

Really, the possibilities are endless.