It’s been a busy selling season at Village Books in Bellingham, a city located in the upper northwest corner of Washington State. Children’s buyer Hana Boxberger reports on some of the titles that are moving briskly in the kids’ section this summer.
Our big picture book for the last couple of weeks has been Thunder Boy Jr., Sherman Alexie’s first picture book. The author is a real powerhouse for supporting independent bookstores and literacy in general – he is really a good guy. He does such a wonderful job describing Native American culture and life, and there is a lot of interest in that in this area. Yuyi Morales did the illustrations, and this is a beautiful book visually as well. The author is very popular in the Northwest, and his picture book has definitely been a bestseller in our region. We’re hosting him next week at a local theater, and that is also helping strum up interest in the book.
Another popular picture book is Lane Smith’s There Is a Tribe of Kids, which has really cool illustrations that are the foundation of the book. This is a beautiful, intelligent, and fun story about a boy who sets out on an adventure, and comes across groups of animals, like a pod of whales of whales and a smack of jellyfish. It’s such an easy handsell – you just have to flip through it. And the story has a repetitive nature, which is always an appealing thing.
In middle grade, the new Kate DiCamillo book, Raymie Nightingale, is selling very well for us. We have a stock of signed copies and it’s a very easy recommendation. We point out the other great books she’s written – she is such a spitfire author – and her new novel goes right to your heart.
I need to mention Rick Riordan’s The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle, which has been flying off the shelves. I love his books, and love how they get kids interested in writing and mythology. Another great novel for middle-grade readers is Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes, which takes place 15 years after 9/11. It centers on kids who were not yet alive when the attacks took place, and don’t have a clue about the enormity of the event. This is a unique story, and very relatable to kids, and it’s a good first book to introduce kids to the subject.
In YA, we are doing well with a novel that came out earlier this year, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. It is set during World War II, and is told from the perspectives of three European teens from different backgrounds who are refugees crammed on the Wilhelm Gustloff when it is sunk by a Russian submarine. It is such an interesting story – more people died in that incident than died in the sinking of the Titanic or the Lusitania – and it is beautifully written.
One last YA that I’m excited about is S.E. Grove’s Crimson Skew, the third book in the Mapmakers trilogy. It is a series that is so close to me – I’ve loved it since I read the galley of the first book, The Glass Sentence – and this is a magnificent conclusion. The author has created such a unique world, and the novels are so rewarding to read. This final book just came out this month – and I’ve been pushing it like crazy!
