November 10, 2018

Celebrating Bookstores: It’s here! The #loveyourbookstore campaign, spearheaded by Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks has begun. The challenge: Between November 10-16, go to your favorite bookstore, take a picture inside the store of your favorite book — or bookseller! Post on social media using the hashtag #loveyourbookstore. You can add a quote too! When you post, you’ll be entered to win some fabulous bookish prizes. Feel free to tag us when you do, so all of us at MUF can share tips on our favorite places to shop for great books.

The Benefits of Books: Not like we didn’t already know this, but new research supports the theory that children who grow up with books surrounding them at home grow up to be more literate adults The study is called Scholarly Culture: How Books in Adolescence Enhance Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Technology Skills in 31 Societies. Researchers analyzed data from 160,000 adults in 31 different countries and concluded that: “Growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in these areas beyond the benefits accrued from parental education or own educational or occupational attainment.” The study, spearheaded by Dr. Joanna Sikora of Australian National University, showed that even adults who didn’t receive a university education but did grow up with a home library of at least 80 books showed on par literacy levels with those who went to university but didn’t grow up with books.

Heather Murphy Capps

Heather Murphy Capps has always had a deep appreciation for comfort and elegance. She and Claudia would have run out of money quickly together but would absolutely have been on the same page about taxis and nice restaurants. And of course, solving mysteries about beautiful art. That said, Heather also appreciates Jamie’s love of complication, which is why she spent several years living in rural Kenya and then became a television news reporter, which involved standing for hours in the middle of hurricanes and political battles. Now she’s raising middle-grade readers and writing for them. She loves to read and write books with lots of great science, magic, mystery, and adventure. Heather is the communications coordinator for Mixed-Up Files, as well as creator/curator for our We Need Diverse MG series. She is committed to creating more diversity in publishing.