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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Mao-s Last Dancer, Most Recent at Top [Help]
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1. Identity of Secret Indie Bookseller Revealed!
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By: Mary Hershey, on 5/23/2008
Blog: Shrinking Violet Promotions (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  National Independent Bookseller Month, contest winners, Clark Kepler, Kepler's, Add a tag




So just who is our Mystery Indie Man? Meet Clark Kepler, President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of KEPLER'S BOOKS in Menlo Park, California.

A resounding high-five out to Amy Rea who cracked the case in record time. Amy has a $25.00 Books Sense gift certificate winging its way to her now. And, hats off to our runners up to TadMack,  Thalia Chaltas and Jennifer Bertman. Man, you guys are good! I thought I might have you stumped for a few days! I can see I'm going to have to pull out my dusty 17-pound manual of Really Brutal Contest Challenges. You've driven me to this.

If "Kepler's" sounds familiar, they should, because they were just awarded the Lucile Micheels Pannell Award for BEST FAMILY BOOKSTORE-- in the nation! Very impressive. And, our mystery man, Clark Kepler, was awarded Bookseller of the Year by Publisher's Weekly in 1994.

After spending some time on their website touring their many events, photos, community projects, charitable donations, author interviews, books clubs, staff picks, I can see why this bookstore gets such stellar marks.  This is a veritable hub of literacy, outreach, and rich tradition.

Here is a photo of authors Shannon Hale and Libba Bray cavorting at a Kepler's sponsored event--






And where else but Kepler's might one buy a Jane Austen Action Figure?? I don't have one of those yet!
Not to be missed-
Kepler's
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park CA,
94025
(650) 324-4321

Til tomorrow, friends--

8-] {(:-]
Mary & Robin

2 Comments on Identity of Secret Indie Bookseller Revealed!, last added: 5/24/2008
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2. The Peasant Prince
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By: Aline Pereira, on 12/5/2007
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Children's Books, Young Adult Books, Anne Spudvilas, Li Cunxin, Mao-s Last Dancer, The Peasant Prince, Picture Books, Illustrators, Authors, ballet, Graeme Base, Elise Hurst, Add a tag

The Peasant PrinceThe Peasant Prince

, just published in Australia, tells the inspiring and now beloved story of author Li Cunxin in a picture book format. From a childhood of near starvation in the Chinese countryside to stardom in the highest echelons on classical ballet, Li told his story first in the 2003 adult memoir Mao’s Last Dancer, now in development as a film with director Bruce Beresford.

Encouraged by his friend, children’s book illustrator Graeme Base, Li pitched the memoir to Penguin and was enthusiastically encouraged first to write more, then to write in more detail, and eventually to cut some of the many hundred thousand words he had delivered. The finished book, an immediate success, soon came out in a young readers’ edition. The former dancer, by then a stockbroker, began doing book tours, where parents and schools urged him to do a picture book.

Li had read books illustrated by Anne Spudvilas to his own children and had loved them, so when she was suggested as illustrator for the picture book, he knew immediately that she would be “fantastic.” Anne got a grant from the Australia China Council to accompany him on a trip he was making to China, where she met his family, dance teachers, and ballet school friends. “She soaked it all up,” he said in a recent radio interview, and even decided to study Chinese painting. “Her first batch of illustrations took my breath away,” he said. He was especially impressed with how Anne had captured his family members.

“It’s been a great experience,” Anne emailed me recently, after we met at the book launch party for Elise Hurst. Li agrees. The illustrations really help tell the story. “Kids today are so privileged,” he said on the radio. “I think the picture of our family table when I was young, with just a tiny bit of food on it, might help them see how different my life was. Even my own kids seem to appreciate my story more since the books came out.”

The Peasant Prince is coming out soon in the U.S. as Dancing to Freedom. More on Anne’s adventures in China coming soon…


1 Comments on The Peasant Prince, last added: 12/12/2007
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