A post by contributor Kim Allen-Niesen, co-founder of Bookstore People
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The Magic Treehouse
Many families are saving money by sharply curtailing their vacation budget, but that shouldn’t mean a summer without adventure. We spent a summer at home discovering our city through the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. Each book stars Jack and Annie, a sibling duo, who find a tree house that spins them to a new location and time with each book. Throughout the summer, we planned an excursion or activity that matched the subject of the book. When Jack and Annie traveled to the Cretaceous period, we went to a Natural History Museum. They met ninjas in ancient Japan; we ate sushi at a Japanese restaurant. The kids flew to old England to help Shakespeare stage a play; we attended an outdoor Shakespeare production. Revolutionary War on Wednesday perfectly compliments 4th of July celebrations.
As a bookseller, make the most of this series while helping financially strapped families enjoy local attractions. Take a moment to create a list of local excursions that could pair up with a book. Consider local museums and cultural festivals many of which offer kids programs in the summer. What better way to encourage “buy local” than to recommend a book and a family excursion in your hometown? The family will love you for helping plan the summer, the merchant will love you for recommending her venue, and you’re doing what booksellers thrive on—creating community.
No location for a theme, the Magic Tree House website has suggestions for every book, plus computer activities, perfect for the harried parent, just pass along the information. In any event, it isn’t necessary to plan something for every book, just enough to give families the idea that reading can be the source of fun for everyone. Here are some suggestions:
Dinosaurs Before Dark – Natural History Museum
Mummies in the Morning – Egyptian art in a museum
Night of the Ninjas – Shinto Temple, Japanese restaurant, Japanese grocery store
Afternoon on the Amazon – Conservatory or jungle type garden, zoo
Sunset of the Sabertooth – Natural History Museum with fossilized bones, zoo
Midnight on the Moon – any space exhibit
Dolphins at Daybreak – beach, aquarium, aquatic park
Ghost Town at Sundown – hoe down, square dancing, hay ride
Lions at Lunch Time – zoo
Polar Bears past Bedtime – zoo or aquatic park
Day of the Dragon King - Chinatown, Chinese restaurant or grocery store or cooking a Chinese recipe together
Tigers at Twilight – zoo
Revolutionary War on Wednesday – 4th of July celebrations
Stage Fright on a Summer Night – kid’s theatre production, Shakespeare production
Good Morning, Gorillas – zoo
High Tide in Hawaii – Gidget movie
Once kids start the series, they are addicted and read all 28 books. These are designed for beginning independent readers; just the age to enjoy reading alone and discovering the benefit of reading go beyond the book. The series is truly gender neutral, both boys and girls enjoy it. The books don’t have to be read in order, but there is a background story of Jack and Annie helping Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s sister, create a library of books found throughout history. Some of the stories have accompanying Research Guides, so if a young customer loves a subject, direct her to the non-fiction companion.
Helping kids get hooked on the Magic Tree House series will sell books, encourage emerging readers by showing them that reading is more than the book, and gain the appreciation of the parents who you’ve helped to plan the summer.
Kim Allen-Niesen is co-founder of Bookstore People, a blog that reviews independent bookstores to encourage people to visit them and shop. In addition, books and various literary topics are discussed.
In the used book business it’s easy to get into a rut, especially in
buying. Like with a lot of things, if you stick with a system you’ve
developed, it often starts to seem like it’s being proved right.
For example: When we opened 6 or so years ago we tried just about every
fiction genre in the shop and online. Romance, thriller, literary,
classics, crime, etc. etc. I should add the caveat that both of us (my
brother and I run the store) have, as the Irish put it, “notions”, so we
were hardly married to the romance and thriller end of the spectrum.
After a few months the Tom Clancys, Danielle Steeles, John Grishams, and
Nora Roberts weren’t exactly running out the door, so we bagged ‘em and
concentrated on books that we knew something about.
Time passed and we were proven right! We didn’t sell any of that stuff
(though we kept a stash of a dozen or so hyper popular authors boxed in
the basement for emergencies). What’s nice about these broad decisions is
that they save a lot of time - you can stop looking at broad swathes of
categories and just put them out of your mind completely. This is
reassuring but not always any more useful than “company policy” is at a
more traditional business.
Last year we moved our shop across town (Boston is a small town so the
move amounted to a longish walk) and the new location had slightly
different tastes, so when people brought in piles of books, I was more
likely to take a longer look. So, in that mode, when a woman brought in a
few bags of vampire books - mostly what they are calling paranormal
romance - I was more inclined to look. Obviously we’ve paid some measure
of attention to Anne Rice (as she’s slowly become impossible to sell) and
the Twilight books have moved rapidly in and back out of the shop, but I
was completely unprepared for how this phenomenon still has legs. We
purchased maybe 50 of these and they have flown out the door.
Now, this phenomenon was ably profiled in this
very space, but I think it may have understated the breadth of this
category - more than just a spiking of vampire popularity, it’s staking
claim to wide swathes of romance territory. Hundreds of novels that were
once romance fiction, romance suspense, romance historical fiction, are
being absorbed under the (increasingly broad) paranormal romance category.
As near as I can tell, there are two types as represented by two general
cover designs.
The super sexualized Goth cover:
and the charmingly cartoonish:
Sometimes the publisher even has a change of heart (focus groups being
what they are) and one is swapped out for the other:
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The cartoon Lynsay Sands covers are generally out of print now. Perhaps
bound to become collector’s items (I’m kidding of course, there must be
100,000 of them out there)? There’s not a big difference in saleability
as far as I can tell, just two different targeted market segments. What’s
most remarkable about these is how they sell though - online, in the
store, and even though they are often 5 years old (which is usually ages
with this sort of thing). It just goes to show that even though you might
think you know what’s going on (I’m down with Twilight, watched the True
Blood mash-up of James Lee Burke and Vampires), you can still be missing
everything beneath the surface. Some of the series just go on and on -
the Laurel Hamilton one is approaching 20 in the series.
So I’ve vowed to be more vigilant, less opinionated, but also to peer more
intently at the horizon. For I’m sure some of you are on top of this
already and have shrugged at my revelatory tone. So you count yourself
ready for the continued love affair with vampires, but are you prepared
for the next wave? What will follow Vampires in a world where Jane Austen
and Zombies is a bestseller with a movie deal?
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Amorous were-wolves (it’s been done - here’s a
whole subsection of Werewolf and “Shifter” stories)? Naughty nymphs?
Lascivious Satyrs? I wouldn’t even want speculate on the narrative
possibilities of centaurs or harpies. Zombies are a tough sell,
romantically, but how about Mummies (you could just un-mummy the mummies
like the movie franchise did so famously. This worked in Twilight - what
if Vampires could go out in the daytime? What if they were unbothered by
crosses, garlic, running water, etc. What if they were exactly like
normal people only much more attractive and awesomer? Sold!). Demon
lovers are as old as the hills, and Patrick Swayze sort of put a stake (so
to speak) in ghosts, but how about lovable poltergeists or revenants.
The list could go on (goblins, golems, ginger-bread men) but whatever
happens, I’ll be ready the next time.
–
Pazzo Books
1898a Centre St.
West Roxbury, MA 02131
617-323-2919
web: pazzobooks.com
blog: pazzobooks.com/blog.htm
twitter: twitter.com/pazzobooks
From Shelf Awareness:
The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown’s long-anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, will be published September 15 by Knopf Doubleday. A first printing of five million copies is planned for the book. The New York Times noted that “fans and the publisher have been waiting a long time for Mr. Brown to finish the new book. It was originally scheduled for a 2005 delivery. The Lost Symbol will again feature Robert Langdon, the protagonist of The Da Vinci Code.
We’ve been waiting quite a long time for this book and I fear that with such high expectations combined with such a long wait (see: when is Dan Brown’s new book coming out? from Jan. 2008) this book is a prime candidate for a let-down. I love the langdon series and am very much looking forward to it’s release. It’s hard to imagine how Langdon’s exploits can match the last two books without him turning into a Bondesque charicature. While Dan Brown may not have the prettiest prose he sure can deliver a story.
