How Many Shopping Days Left?

First, a few links of interest:

- In BusinessWeek, a look at the convergence of online and physical retail environments (Len Riggio of B&N is quoted.)
- Wordsmiths Bookstore in Decatur, Georgia, is coming to the end of its first year. In honor of the event, founder Zach Steele published his "state of the union" address.
- The Washington Post's Short Stack has two interesting lists this week: sci-fi for non-fans (with more than 200 comments so far) and "books that I wanted to throw across the room".

Age-appropriate reading?
Sarah Miller, Alix Flinn, and A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy are all discussing the question of what kind of books a child with "advanced" reading skills should be given.

My feelings on this one are mixed -- I'm never in favor of pushing kids to do things they don't enjoy, but when I was eight years old, I read (and loved) Gone With the Wind, Scarlett, and Nicholas and Alexandra. At the same time, I also devoured Babysitters Club, Cherry Ames, and Sweet Valley Twins books (and tried to sneak in some Sweet Valley High against parental orders -- I wasn't often in trouble, so that incident was pretty memorable).

I'll admit that I didn't get everything in the adult books at the time (the glorification of slavery, for one, along with the phrase "barroom brawl" -- instead of breaking it into "bar room," I put the accent on the second syllable and treated it as a mystery adjective -- and Alexandra Ripley's love scenes went completely over my head).

But I was pretty clear on the plots and characters, and I went around quoting my favorite lines for weeks. A lot of that quoting went into the journal I had to keep for school, so I've always wondered what my third-grade teacher thought of that.

As many librarians and booksellers on the other blogs have noted, this is an issue in recommending and handselling to both the parent and the child. How have you dealt with it in your stores?

Posted at 03:41PM Dec 21, 2007 by Sarah Rettger in General  |  Comments[3]