Sue Cowing for Mixed-Up Files: What an interesting idea: a bookstore devoted half to kid’s books and half to adult! We are talking today with Valerie Koehler, Owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston.
MUF: I assume your shop gets its name from Blue Willow, the award-winning novel by Doris Gates? Sounds like you’ve had children’s books in mind from the beginning.
Valerie: I was not aware of the lovely book by Doris Gates when I named the shop. But just 
like in her novel, the shop is named after Blue Willow china. When I bought the shop, I wanted to offer books for the entire family. so now it’s half and half. Our top two selling categories are adult fiction and children’s picture books.
school visit
MUF:You’ve been open twenty years now and you survived the downturn several years ago when many bookstores closed. What has contributed to your success? What kind of atmosphere do you try to create for customers at Blue Willow Books?
Valerie: We never saw the downturn as we plowed ahead with new ideas, new partnerships, and lots of events. I feel our success is due to our open minds to new opportunities. We want everyone to feel welcome and we want to continue to spread our love of books through the city. We venture far beyond our walls with school visits and our three yearly festivals.
MUF:Tell us more about your monthly book club, “Another Shade of Blue” for middle-grade girls. What have been some of their favorite books, and what will they be reading in June? 
Valerie:It’s been a slow start to this club and we are retooling it as I write this. It’s so hard to get critical mass when the kids are overbooked. They loved The Green Glass House By Kate Milford. In June, they are reading Beyond The Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk.
MUF: How do you choose which books to carry in your shop?
Valerie: I read advance copies, I look at reviews, I look at trends and past sales. It’s an art and a science (and a crap shoot!).
MUF: How do you help kids find their next best book? As middle-grade authors, we’d love to know what titles, old or new, fiction or nonfiction, you find yourself recommending most often these days to readers between eight and twelve?
Valerie We tend to recommend stand-alone novels as the kids already know the series. All of us like different books! This past year, we all loved PAX by Sara Pennypacker. But each kid deserves to be different so we help them one at a time.
Tweens Read Festival
Gene Luen Yang & Fan at Tweens Read Festival
MUF: Do you have any events coming up that would be of special interest to middle-graders?
Valerie: We are retooling the bookclub so stay tuned. Also, put October 21st on the calendar for our 8th annual Tweens Read Festival. The authors will be announced very soon. Last year we hosted over 3000 kids.
MUF: If a family from out of town visited your shop, would there be family-friendly places in the neighborhood where they could get a snack or meal after shopping? And if they could stay longer, are there some unique sites and activities in the area they shouldn’t miss?
Valerie: We have a great patisserie in our center which is kid friendly. Just down the street is Hungry’s which has food for the whole family. For longer visits I like to recommend visiting www.houstonfamilymagazine.com for great Houston ideas.
Thanks, Valerie, for talking with us about Blue Willow Books, and congratulations on your continuing success! Readers, have any of you had the pleasure of visiting this shop? Putting it on your list?
Nicole Porter said, “I would LOVE to see everyone reading Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan this summer! It has universal themes that many middle-grade readers encounter such as shifting friendships, balancing family expectations with personal inclinations, and grappling with self-doubt. Readers will relate to sixth grader Pakistani American Amina’s engagement in these issues as well as see a mirror into their own diverse experiences and the world around them.”
gs this year. Who doesn’t remember relying on an imaginary friend for comfort and companionship? Crenshaw happens to be a gigantic cat who just may be real in so many ways and only comes when the need is the greatest. My final book is The Poet’s Dog by Patricia MacLachlan, a master storyteller and weaver of words. I haven’t read anything by her in recent years, but picked this up and loved the tale of loss and newfound hope. The dog loses his beloved poet master, but finds two children in need of rescue in a snowstorm. The dog’s musings about his past life, while based on fantasy as the story of an anthropomorphized dog would be, ring so very true to the heart. We can experience loss, but find life in our beloved memories.
to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida “gives them a very personal look at the internment experience and helps them on the road to becoming world-minded.” Book 3 of Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain is “such a well-written fantasy, with wondering characters, but can be too slow-starting for some kids. Here’s hoping they plow ahead to the terrific rest!” And finally, The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall is “an oldie but goodie. It’s a fantasy about the tiny Minnipin folk in the Slipper-on-the-Water, a nonconforming few of whom rise up as heroes to defend their village against an invading threat. It offers humor, wonderful characters and true courage and also celebrates independent thinking and a willingness to do the right thing in the face of authoritarian opposition.”
Minamoto Yoshitsune, which “documents the true story of the legendary samurai who was raised in the household of the enemies who killed his father before being sent to live in a monastery where, against the odds, he learned and perfected his fighting skills.” Deborah Ellis’s, The Cat at the Wall, which centers on the Israeli Palestine conflict as told by a talking cat. “A cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house on the West Bank that has been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards. Should she help him? After all, she’s just a cat. Or is she? She was once a regular North American girl, but that was before she died and came back to life as a cat.” Caitlin Alifirenka’s, I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives, which is the true story of an all-American girl and a boy from Zimbabwe and the letter that changed both of their lives forever. Andrea Davis Pinkney’s, The Red Pencil, which is a Battle of the Books selection. “After her tribal village is attacked by militants, Amira, a young Sudanese girl, must flee to safety at a refugee camp, where she finds hope and the chance to pursue an education in the form of a single red pencil and the friendship and encouragement of a wise elder.” Andrea Gonzales’s Girl Code. 
“The teenage phenoms behind viral video game Tampon Run share the story of their experience at Girls Who Code and their rise to fame, plus a savvy look at starts-ups, women in tech, and the power of coding. Dustin Hansen’s Game On! Video Game History, which covers video Game History From Pong and Pac-man to Mario, Minecraft, and More. Jazz Jennings’ Being Jazz. Teen activist and trailblazer Jazz Jennings–named one of The 25 most influential teens of the year by Time–shares her very public transgender journey, as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths. And finally, Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk and the Quest for A Fantastic Future, which is an authorized portrait of one of Silicon Valley’s most dynamic entrepreneurs evaluates his role in the successes of such innovations as Tesla and Space X while evaluating America’s technological competitiveness.”
Man Who Invented the Wild West by Candace Fleming, Isaac the Alchemist: secrets of Isaac Newton, reveal’d by Mary Losure, Elon musk and the quest for a fantastic future: young readers’ edition by Ashley Vance, Women in science: 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world by Rachel Ignotofsky, No better friend: young readers edition: a man, a dog, and their incredible true story of friendship and survival in World War II by Robert Weintraub and The Boy who harnessed the wind by William Kamkwamba.
She would also love for kids to pick up “books with unusual structures, to stretch their minds and their concepts of what constitutes a ‘story.’ Unusual structures also help the reader become more involved because they have to have a greater role in assembling and comprehending the story themselves.” She suggests, The 
Inquisitor’s tale, one story told in many sometimes contradictory voices by Adam Gidwitz, Booked a novel in verse by Kwame Alexander, Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer an epistolary novel by Kelly Jones and the documentary novels, Regarding the… by the Klise sisters.
Moon by Kelly Barnhill, The Glass Sentence and sequels by S.E. Grove, When the Sea Turned to Silver and prequels by Grace Lin, Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, Anything by Robin McKinley or Frances Hardinge, The Naming and sequels by Alison Croggon, Sabriel and sequels by Garth Nix.”