Publisher Partners to Help Celebrate Book Sense @ 5 at BEA

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To show their support for Book Sense @ 5, the fifth birthday of the Book Sense program, publisher partners exhibiting at BookExpo America (BEA) have planned celebratory events ranging from ice cream giveaways to wine and cheese parties to cheering for a horse trying to overcome the odds. Their events will be part of the Book Sense @ 5 Birthday Bash, which will be held at 5:00 p.m. sharp on June 5 on the BEA trade show floor. Join the kickoff celebration to be held at the Ingram booth (#2048), or at any of the participating publishers' booths.

To celebrate the winning combination of independent booksellers and Book Sense, along with the exciting Belmont Stakes, Houghton Mifflin is sponsoring a "Smarty Party." The race is slated to begin at 5:38 p.m., and Houghton will feature a live broadcast on a 42-inch plasma screen at booth #2112. If he wins, Smarty Jones will be the first horse in 26 years to capture the elusive Triple Crown. The story of Smarty Jones echoes that of the first five years of Book Sense and member bookstores: the local favorite overcoming many obstacles to thrive and succeed with grit and integrity.

Aged to perfection on the shelf, a special vintage wine featuring a custom-created Book Sense Birthday label will be served by Trafalgar Square on Saturday to mark Book Sense @ 5 with panache and good cheer. Stop by the Trafalgar Square booth, #1013, after 5:00 p.m.

To celebrate Book Sense's fifth birthday, in booth #2570, Pendragon will be serving Galena Cellars wine and gourmet delights from Galena's Canning Company's own Chef Ivo. Pendragon's creative center and fulfillment facilities are located in Galena, Illinois.

Every five-year-old loves a birthday party with ice cream, so from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Emmis Books booth, #1816, Shannon Jackson Arnold, author of Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America's Favorite Treat, will be handing out ice cream samples (while they last) from Chicagoland's own Capannari's Ice Cream.

In honor of Book Sense @ 5, HarperCollins, at booth #1601, will be drawing names from a list of all Book Sense stores to award signed copies of adult and children's books -- including those from writers Christopher Moore, Jamie Lee Curtis (with a special T-shirt and poster for her upcoming book, It's Hard to be Five), Gregory Maguire, Jennifer Haigh, Lisa Scottoline, and Coleman Barks.

Diamond Book Distributors, at booth #1967, is offering drawings for free graphic novels and other merchandise, including toys and action figures, during the birthday celebration.

The now annual MacAdam/Cage cocktail bar, with free drinks, will be dedicated to Book Sense, starting at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday at booth #3633.

National Book Network is celebrating with wine and cheese in booth #1246, open to everyone, and Random House will help Book Sense celebrate with sweets in its booth, #2231. For more sugar, Algonquin invites booksellers to celebrate with a sweet candy fix at booth #2441 (the event is reprise of a 2:30 p.m. Friday event, which author Steve Almond [Candyfreak] will attend). St. Martin's Press is joining in at 5:00 with cookies and soda at booth #1525. And Wiley and Scholastic will be feting Book Sense with a champagne toast in their respective booths: Join Wiley at booth #2238 and Scholastic at booth #302.

As of press time, other publisher partners firming up plans to celebrate Book Sense @ 5 are Consortium (booth #3715), Dearborn (#1945), Innovative Kids (#1701), Perseus (#1837), and Rodale (#1616). Look for more publisher partner celebrations of Book Sense @ 5 at BEA.