A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
978-0152060077
Ages 8-12; $16.00; Hardcover
Harcourt, October 2007

A humorous and poignant novel about finding one's talent and accepting one's family-in places you'd never expect!

Ten-year-old Zoe has perfect piano dreams. She can practically feel the keys under her flying fingers; she can hear the audience's applause. All she needs is a baby grand so she can start her lessons, and then she'll be well on her way to Carnegie Hall. But when Dad brings home a wheezy organ instead of a piano, Zoe's dreams hit a sour note until she enters the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition. There she finds that perfection may be even better when it's just a little off center. Fun and offbeat!

Linda Urban, the former marketing director at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California, now writes children's books full-time. A Crooked Kind of Perfect is her first novel. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont.

The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh
978-1423106890
Ages: 10+; $17.99; Hardcover
Hyperion, September 2007

A fast-paced adventure story that re-magines the Orpehus myth in the secret underground of New York.

Jack Perdu, a smart and introverted ninth grade classics prodigy lives with father on the YaleUniversity campus. But when Jack suffers a near fatal accident, his father sends him to a mysterious doctor in New York City. At Grand Central Jack meets Euri, a young girl who offers to show him the secrets of New York's Underworld, a place where those who died in New York reside until they are ready to move on. But as secrets about Euri's past are revealed, so are the true reasons for Jack's visit to the Underworld.

Katherine Marsh is the deputy editor at The New Republic magazine in Washington, D.C., where she edits stories and essays on politics and culture. Her writing has appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times magazines. She lives in Washington, DC.

Disguised: A Wartime Memoirby Rita la Fontaine de Clercq Zubli
978-0763633295
Ages: 14+; $17.99; Hardcover
Candlewick, September 2007

The true story of a daring girl who posed as a boy during World War II -- and dared to speak up for her fellow prisoners of war.

With the Japanese army poised to invade their Indonesian island in 1942, Rita la Fontaine's family knew that they and the other residents would soon become prisoners of war. Fearing that twelve-year-old Rita would be forced to act as a "comfort woman" for Japanese soldiers, the family turned Rita into "Rick," cutting her hair short and dressing her in boy's clothes. For the next three years she played a dangerous game of disguise while advocating against poor conditions, injustice, and torture. Sixty-five years later, Rita describes a war experience like no other - a remarkable tale of integrity, fortitude, and honor.

Rita la Fontaine de Clercq Zubli grew up in Indonesia, where she and her family endured three an a half years in Japanese POW camps. After the war, Rita resumed her life as a young woman and married a Dutch rubber planter. They have four grown children and live in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Okay, I am about to be blasphemous. Are you ready?

Being independent doesn't necessarily make you better.

Being independent CAN give you the competitive edge in a number of ways and THAT can make you better, but only if you understand why and truly take advantage of it.

Most of you know already why you can be better. Things like more breadth in your selection, better customer service, special programming, creative merchandising, unique atmosphere, hidden gems, community outreach, and a clean bathroom (usually).  

We also all know what kind of pressures we are under as independent retailers. This is a very difficult business, and we are encountering new market forces all the time that are squeezing our margins, eroding our profits, and making us question our sanity for loving this business in the first place. Sometimes it seems impossible.

However, it is vitally important that although you carry a very heavy weight on your shoulders, you do not transfer even the slightest bit of it onto that most sensitive of creatures-your customer.

This can be very hard. We have all had a moment when we want to take a customer by the shoulders and shake them after an exchange like this:

Customer: I was in here six months ago, and over there on that table you had a book with a blue cover, and I think it had something to do with history.

Bookseller [warming up fingers over keyboard]: Can you tell me anything else about it?

(Bookseller spends fifteen minutes with customer, and after umpteen searches, finally determines title and author of book, which has become a surprise bestseller following an NPR interview and temporarily OS but due in at any moment.)

Bookseller: Would you like me to order it for you?

Customer: No, that's okay. I'll just order it online.

This is when you want to sit the customer down and treat them to a brief but impassioned primer about the history and economics of the publishing industry.

But here's the thing: a big part of successfully capitalizing on your edge as an independent retailer comes from moving beyond the strictly moral argument about buying independent. You don't want them to buy from you just because you are independent. (Well maybe you do, but they won't unless the next sentence is true.) You want them to buy from you because you can do it better. You're never going to be able to compete on price. Your edge is quality and service. You need to sell your store as well as you sell your books. Make your store the bestseller by understanding the different between features and benefits.

Continue with rest of article at ABC's new Food for Thought resource site

At least, that's what it looks like if you read the road diary of Michael Wexler and John Hulme's West-Coast swing of their pre-publication tour for The Seems: The Glitch in Sleep (Bloomsbury, October '07)

The diary is littered with an ABC who's who of stores and booksellers from the West Coast, including Yellow Book Road, A Whale of a Tale, Vroman's, Mrs. Nelsons, Hicklebees, and our beloved All for Kids. Clearly, it seems like they were having a rockin' good time.

Apparently, so were the fans. (So cute!)