Children’s Bookselling

Readers looking for signed, personalized copies of Lemony Snicket books from Hachette this summer can order titles exclusively from Titcomb’s Bookshop.

Livia Blackburne is the author of Midnight Thief (Disney-Hyperion), a Summer/Fall New Voices pick for young adults, which Emily Ring of Inklings Bookshop called “tightly written, with a perfect mix of romance, peril, and mystery.”

In an e-mail this week to members of the ABC Children’s Group, ABA announced the date and location for its third institute developed specifically for children’s booksellers.

The ABC Children's Group at ABA has revealed the art to be featured on the cover of the 2014 ABC Best Books for Children Catalog, scheduled to land in stores in early October.

Fifty students have each been awarded a $100 gift certificate to be used to purchase books at an ABA member bookstore as part of author James Patterson’s Winter Book Bucks program.

The Teaching for Change Bookstore in Washington, D.C., was called racist and bigoted by Rush Limbaugh on his radio show for not carrying copies of his children’s books, but the store is receiving words of support from across the country.

The Family-to-Family poverty relief organization is inviting booksellers nationwide to become involved in its One Book At A Time literacy project, which links book donors with children in need.

Two auctions of children’s book art held in conjunction with this year’s BookExpo America have raised more than $56,000 to help the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression defend the free speech rights of kids.

With just over half of the funds distributed thus far in author James Patterson’s $1 million campaign to help independent bookstores, booksellers are making local news from coast to coast with stories about how they are putting the grants to use.  

Jennifer Mathieu is the author of The Truth About Alice, a Summer/Fall 2014 Indies Introduce New Voices pick for young adults and a top 10 title on the Summer 2014 Kids’ Indie Next List.

BISG Annual Industry Awards open; Florida school cancels summer reading assignment over content dispute; South Carolina budget proposal called academic interference; AAUP releases Books for Understanding: Brazil

Expert panelists gathered last month at BookExpo America to discuss both how the Common Core State Standards will affect booksellers, librarians, and publishers and what opportunities this change presents for the book industry.

UPS survey shows support for shopping local; BEA releases preliminary attendance figures; Children’s Book Council offers summer reading lists; Lambda Literary Awards winners announced; Jack Covert retires from 800-CEO-READ; Penguin Random House reveals new branding; De Gruyter to distribute Princeton University Press; Bookmasters to distribute h.f.ullmann

The recent call for an increase in the number of children’s literature titles that feature diverse, non-majority narratives is not a new one for booksellers.

Once again this year, booksellers from ABC Children’s Group member stores took advantage of the unique opportunity to tour children’s illustrators’ studios in Manhattan and Brooklyn during BookExpo America.