There's always this confusion when a youngster is confronted with my question, "Do you want fiction or non-fiction?" It's baffling to little minds (and some bigger ones too).
Non-fiction is not fiction. It is a true account of a person, place, thing or event. Fiction =fake. Non-fiction= Not fake. That's how I learned to remember it as kid.
I love to read non-fiction because I like learning new things or even just learning more about something I am interested in (like history). Luckily for me we've gotten a lot of new non-fiction (not-fake) books in here in the Childrens' Room. There is the
True Stories series which includes The Story Behind Oil and The Story Behind Chocolate (yum!). There's the Community Connections
How Did That Get To My House series which has different volumes on mail, telephone, internet, etc.. There's the
Disaster Survivor series that explains the science of weather and natural disasters (cool!). There's
Slim Goodbody's Life Skills that deals with bullying and social relationships. The subjects are endless and age ranges from young readers up through middle school.
But my favorite new series is titled
Amazing Decades in Photos. (Ironically the catalog doesn't show the cover art photos
so here it is on the publisher's website.) These volumes start with the 1900's and proceed decade through decade to 2000's. What I like most about them is that they cover a vast amount of events in 20th century history in a clear and concise way. Bonnie and Clyde. The Dust Bowl. Comic Books. It also has tons of amazing photographs!
Visit our new book display to see more of the many exciting non-fiction (not fake) books you have yet to discover!
-Posted by Nadine
Over the last few weeks we have been doing some housekeeping here in the Children's Room. We are going through the shelves and making room for new books, organizing our books, making repairs, and getting reaquainted with our collection, among other things. While doing this, a fellow librarian (Amy) made a unique discovery. Books on the bottom shelves just are not going out much. This is not surprising, since it requires one to bend down to the floor to browse. Only our smallest patrons could do that with ease... and they are probably the ones who still can't read!
This prompted our first ever "Books From the Bottom Shelf" display. With so many wonderful authors in the simply unlucky position of being stuck on the bottom shelf, we decided to create an eye-level display just for them. Here are few you no longer have to bend down to enjoy:
Lizzy and Skunk by Marie Louise Fitzpatrick : Lizzy and her puppet Skunk have lots of adventures all while Lizzy faces her fears.
Utterly Otterly Day by Mary Casanova: Little Otter likes to play and thinks he's big enough to take care of himself. He learns that it's always good to have someone you love looking out for you (no matter how big you are).
Seamore, The Very Forgetful Porpoise by Darcie Edgemon: Seamore can't remember a thing. This is a huge problem for him, especially when he runs into a killer whale! What will Seamore do?
-Posted by Nadine
Bookstore Shelving
Bookstore shelving can be one of the more difficult decisions for a new shop owner to make. The look and feel of his shop will obviously be affected quite a bit as will his budget. Our bookstore has been open for three and a half years now, long enough to see how our shelving choice has stood up. For the reasons mention above we decided to skip custom shelving and go with Ikea. The look of their black-brown veneer shleving has been commented on by a majority of our visitors all in the positive.
We also need to consider the practicality of building or having somebody build your shelves. All the cutting, measuring (twice of course!) and especially staining and finishing is quite time consuming. If you are paying a contractor to do this it will get expensive fast.You will also most likely be forced to keep the shelves where they are. What I really like about the Ikea shelves is that not only were they a breeze to construct, taking about ten minutes per unit, but if you ever decide to modify the layout of the shop you can easily move the shelves around. We have actually done this three times already.
Calculating the cost is simple enough, just calculate the wall space, or floor space that you need to cover, jump onto the Ikea web site to see the sizes they offer and do some simple math. You will quickly see what your costs will be. Now find a contractor and ask for an estimate. Keep in mind the overruns in cost (often over 25%), add in the dust/noise/inconvenience/smell of varnish and time chewed up and you should have a fairly clear view of which choice to make.
One other quick word about color choice if you decide to go with the Ikea shleves. We chose the black-brown option and are quite happy with it. You would think that a darker color may not be the best choice for hiding dust but it works fine. The shelves are easy to maintain and the dust that does accumulate does not really show.
Another bonus with this system is that all but the middle shelf are replaceable. If you have some shelves that become bowed over time it’s very easy to buy a replacement shelf. This has not happened to us yet.
So to finalize we went with Ikea’s Billy system, black-brown veneer finish for our bookstore shelving and are quite happy with the results.
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