Book Lists

Indie Spotlight: BookEnds, Kailua, Hawaii

By on January 30, 2015   /   Book Lists, Indie Spotlight  

Today we’re talking with Pat Banning, owner and manager  of BookEnds , the only independent general interest bookstore on Honolulu’s island of Oahu.  Kailua, a short trip through a mountain tunnel from Honolulu, is noted for its great BookEnds front #2beaches, but also for its charming local shops, of which BookEnds (www.facebook.com/pages/BookEnds) is one.Bookends is  crammed full of new and used books—a playful place for all ages, with a special interest in children’s books.

MUF: Pat, please describe the unique atmosphere you have created at BookEnds.
Pat: We really like the shop to be a welcoming, casual, non-frightening place; to keep kids ever-alert for new things and creatures who might have joined the store- even before you can read, a space with interesting things inside.BookEnds Desk critterBookEnds drawing

MUF: Years ago when Borders opened a branch in nearby Kaneohe, many people said oh dear, what’s going to become of BookEnds? But now Border’s is nowhere to be found. And then there’s the whole electronic book thing.   What’s your survival secret?
Pat: I think the secret MAY be in staying just-big-enough to have a reasonable inventory, small enough to be quick on our feet, to make changes that we see meets the demands of our VERY discerning customers in Kailua….our biggest strength is our very very loyal customer-base.

Hanging out at BookEnds

Hanging out at BookEnds

Pat & Friends

Pat and friends

MUF: On an urban island with a population of just under a million yours is THE independent general interest bookstore. Ever consider cloning yourself? Expanding?
Pat: We’d love to expand; we never have enough space to keep our books reined in! And we’ve got some fun ideas for a BIGGER kid’s section, but….. even thought about another branch, but the thinner you spread your flavor, the less taste there is! So, no cloning, but we’re happy to give helpful hints to others…..

MUF: It’s obvious you folks love children’s books. How do you chose what to carry in your store?BookEnds Books
Pat: We try to carry stuff we love, we try to read as much early material as we can get, and we take the really good advice of the sales reps who sell us publisher’s lists. A well-written children’s book should be just as entertaining for a grown-up as for a child, so if we like it, chances are a lot of kids will like it too.

MUF: As middle-grade authors (and readers) we have to ask: what favorite titles, new and old, fiction and nonfiction, are you recommending to middle graders these days?Pegasus Origins
Pat: We love the Percy Jackson series, the Pegasus series, the Copper Dark is RisingSeptimus Heap series, the Susan Cooper books, the Sisters Grimm, the Series of Unfortunate events…there are really so so many great things coming out right now, that it’s hard to keep up…..Harry Potter started a huge demand for Sisters Grimm Mirrorsfantasy, but there is still a lot of reality-based fiction that is excellent……I have to admit that I don’t get a lot of NON-fiction coming Heap Magykthrough the door these days , for middle-readers, anyway.

MUF: Since you carry used books along with new, chances of finding an old favorite in your shop are pretty good. Can you think of some rare children’s titles or editions you have in stock that we might have trouble finding anywhere else?
Pat: We’ve got a really nice cache of Raggedy Anns that you don’t see often, some of the old Ant and Bee books, a few early Nancy Drews, a very old Little Black Sambo.BookEnds Raggedy Ann & Andy

MUF: Tell us a little about your Kailua neighborhood. If a family made a day trip to BookEnds, would there be family-friendly places nearby to get a snack or meal after browsing? What other family activities and attractions would be available nearby?
Pat: Well,  there’s the park, and the beach really close, Book Ends Beachthe community pool and tennis courts, lots of shopping, and Kailua has the gamut of restaurants, from Macdonalds and Subway, pizza of all types, to Indian and Mexican foods and lots of healthy salads. And of course, coffee for mom and dad….and we’re all waiting to see what Target, opening soon! is going to mean for us here.

Readers, have any of you been to this shop?   If not, and if you’re planning a visit to Honolulu, do include that trip over the Pali to Kailua for a book-lover’s holiday.  If you live on Oahu  already, why not un-chain yourself and drive to the windward side to experience a real bookstore!

 

Sue Cowing is the author of the middle-grade puppet-and-boy novel, You Will Call Me Drog (Carolrhoda 2011, Usborne UK 2012, HarperCollinsUK, 2013).

 

 

 

 

 

BookEnds drawing

 

Back to Top

Five Books for Middle-Grade Music Lovers

By on January 28, 2015   /   Book Lists  

If you like music and you like middle-grade books, what should you do? Well, the following five books would be a good place to start:

Hiding Out at the Pancake PalaceHiding Out at the Pancake Palace by Nan Marino

Eleven-year-old Elvis Ruby was a musical prodigy expected to be crowned the next winner of Tween Star. Then he froze on national TV. Now, he’s in hiding.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

Ten-year-old Zoe Elias dreams of having a baby grand piano and playing in Carnegie Hall. What she gets is a Perfectone D-60 that comes with free organ lessons and a golden oldies songbook.

The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

Thirteen-year-old Moxie Roosevelt Kipper is tired of being ordinary, and she views her arrival at boarding school as the perfect opportunity to reinvent herself, trying to hide her piano-playing talent in the process.

The Brilliant World of Tom GatesThe Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon

When a fifth grader has his own band called Dog Zombies, you know you’re in for some laughs. (A great book for Diary of a Wimpy Kid lovers.)

Guitar Notes by Mary Amato

Okay. I confess. This book falls into the YA category. But I liked it too much not to include it. Straight-A classical cellist has to share a school music room with trouble-making guitarist. Told through a blend of narrative, notes, songs, and texts.

Have you read a good middle-grade with a harmonica-playing grandpa or a trumpet-toting 10-year-old? A young girl with the voice of an angel? Some other connection to the world of music? Feel free to post the title of a music-based middle-grade that fits with this list!

T. P. Jagger The 3-Minute Writing TeacherAlong with his MUF posts, T. P. Jagger can be found at www.tpjagger.com, where he provides brief how-to writing-tip videos as The 3-Minute Writing Teacher plus original readers’ theatre scripts for middle-grade teachers. He also has a 10-lesson, video-based creative writing course available at Curious.com.

Back to Top

Let your Mouse do the Walking

By on January 26, 2015   /   Book Lists  

While working on my latest book, I spent many hours wandering around the Library of Congress. Well, not literally, but I did spend a lot of time here.

Maybe I’m showing my age with that old Yellow Pages slogan “Let your fingers do the walking,” but the concept is the same. Nothing beats in-person research, but it may not be possible, depending on your work or family responsibilities, financial situation, or another reason.

Research is important, and it’s easy to do it from your home, with the help of the Internet. Whether you are writing nonfiction or fiction, you need to do your research for a thorough knowledge of your subject matter, to get the details right, or even for inspiration.

Who can look at this photograph taken by Dorothea Lange and not be moved?
Lange

Digital archives lets you travel back in time

wright brothers

Digital archives take you to places you’ve never been.

grand canyon

Sometimes digital archives collect the photos and documents you need and put them into a special collection. Sometimes, they assemble primary sources into lesson plans for teachers.

Bus suggestions

As more and more states, communities, and organizations digitize their collections, it is becoming easier and easier to lose yourself in them. Luckily, many are searchable, and handwritten documents are being transcribed by volunteers so they will be more easily searched.

I urge you to check out the archives associated with the place or time you are studying, teaching, or writing  about. Some of my favorite archives (aside from the Library of Congress) include The Smithsonian Institution and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, which collected information on outside agitators activists in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement.

Other sources I like to use for research include Open Culture, a collection of public domain books, movies, classes, and more; Project Gutenberg, a collection of public domain ebooks that are searchable (useful when you need to find a particular passage from Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Doctor Dolittle or Alice in Wonderland);  and of course Google Maps, whose street view feature lets you walk through any town in the world. For example, here’s an image of the apartment building where my husband and I lived in France. It’s not exactly like visiting there in person, but it’s a lot cheaper.

Villeurbanne

Then there are the archives that are a little more esoteric.

Restaurant menus

UFO sightings

Historic children’s literature

Mormon missionary diaries

Postcards from North Carolina

All things medical

Historic advertisements

Radio Shack catalogs going back to 1939

Historic European newspapers

Broadway Playbills

This site describes some fascinating digital library collections.

To get started, here is a listing of hundreds of digital archives, organized by state, as well as directories to help you get lost in find even more.

What are your favorite digital sources and how do you use them? Share in the comments.

 

Jacqueline Houtman is the author of the award-winning middle-grade novel The Reinvention of Edison Thomas (Boyds Mills Press 2010) and coauthor of Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist, a biography for young (and not so young) readers (Quaker Press 2014). 

Back to Top