Indie Spotlight

Indie Spotlight: The Reading Reptile, Books and Tapes for Young Mammals

By on December 27, 2012   /   Indie Spotlight  

It’s our delightful task in these Indie Spotlights to feature an Independent children’s bookstore each month and to share the well-kept secret that children’s bookstores aren’t going away.  In fact they are thriving all over the country because we love them and support them and because no on-line or chain store can match the things children’s bookstores do best.

screenshot_508This month we’re talking with Debbie Pettid, founder/owner of The Reading Reptile—Books and Tapes for Young Mammals in Kansas City MO (www.readingreptile.com)

Sue Cowing for Mixed-Up Files: There’s nothing like a great bookstore name/logo to make us want to visit, and Reading Reptile doesn’t disappoint.  How did the name, and the store, come about?screenshot_501

Debbie Pettid: The name came about brainstorming with friends long ago. The idea for a store began after working at Eeyore’s in NYC. The staff was hardworking and knowledgeable and my time there inspired me to open my own store. I was young, naive and determined so went for it.

MUF: Take us inside your shop and describe the climate you’ve created “for young mammals.”screenshot_499
Debbie: The store itself is very organic and always changing. I never purposely set about trying to create a look or feeling, but had a general idea of wanting it to be the “best bookstore ever.” When I look at and read books they inspire me to create, so I do.  When you walk in the store, if you look back you realize you have walked through a large mouth (Zabajaba Jungle) The front left of the store is a George and Martha playroom and to the right is our in store bakery Le Petit Rouge which is designed to look like a fairy tale forest. Then depending which way you look you may see… up… a mural on the ceiling from Babar the king and all the vices, posters covering most of the ceiling, a U.S. map just like Scrambled States of America and lots of pieces hanging – Fortune from Fortune Cookies, the gorilla from Goodnight Gorilla, Max from Where the Wild Things Are, the Bear from Milos Hat Trick, Arnie the Doughnut, the boy from Meanwhile plus an assortment of origami, homemade paper, and miscellany. screenshot_500Each wall alcove has a scene from a book such as Go Dog Go, Dr. Desoto, My Father’s Dragon, Snowy Day and on top of shelves or tacked in different places you could find JLo from True Meaning of Smekday, Frances, Doll People, Fire Cat, Tin Tin, Moomins, Caps for Sale, Camille, Frog and Toad, Bill and Pete, Lily and Chester, David, plus others.   There are all sorts of stuff nailed, glued, and hung everywhere, crafts kids have made, some dioramas, (Wump World, etc.) some miniature scenes. Most everything is made large and in papermache. Our goal is to cover every surface!

I guess you could say I am obsessed, but I think it is great for kids and adults to recognize characters from their favorite books or want to read the book of the character they see.  Books are exciting, art is exciting and there are a million ways to enjoy both.  I’m in the store every day, as is my husband and five kids and I want them to be interested in the world around them and be open to possibilities and interpretations and so I have tried to create an interesting world. Mostly I like to make stuff.screenshot_504

MUF: You hold an annual writing contest for young writers ages 5-12, and the deadline is coming up on Monday, January 21st.   What role does this contestplay in your shop’s philosophy?
Debbie: With that event we have local illustrators who are nationally published judge the stories. They pick their favorite and illustrate a scene from the story which the child receives. The only rule is don’t plagiarize. The focus is creativity and uniqueness. We have upwards of 500 kids entered each year, and many amazing stories. It is one of our favorite events.

MUF: Tell us about your D.N.A. fest.  Curious title.  Looks like you’ve established a major annual literary event in Kansas City that engages the community, both kids and adults.screenshot_498
Debbie: The festival is hard work, expensive and definitely worth it. We do our best to make sure everyone involved, (presenters, kids, adults, volunteers, etc.) has a really great time, and are able to leave with lots to think about. We think it’s important to have an event where everyone involved with books from readers to creators can have a chance to exchange ideas and build off that excitement. We also enjoy bringing some of the best authors and illustrators and introduce them to new readers.

MUF:  One fan describes your books as “lovingly curated.” You seem to make it a point of pride to introduce readers to great books and authors that aren’t current best sellers but shouldn’t be forgotten. How do you do that?screenshot_497
Debbie: Our books are chosen after having experienced them. Reading them ourselves, reading them out loud, having others read them. We look at the artfulness of the book, the content, the language, the craft. I don’t feed my kids McDonalds so why would I want to hand them the equivalent in a book? Content does matter when you read. “At least my kid is reading” doesn’t cut it. Anyway, if it is something I like a lot, I get it for the store.

MUF: What makes your day as children’s booksellers?
Debbie: Having an inspiring conversation with a customer, making something cool, reading something interesting, eating a cupcake, not wiping up any bodily fluids.screenshot_495

MUF: If readers and their adults from out of town come to visit your shop, are there some favorite family-friendly places in the neighborhood where they could get a snack or meal after browsing?
Debbie: Bella Napoli for lunch or Blue Grotto for dinner. Le Petit Rouge for a treat.  A little farther away, Aixois for lunch or Chai Shai for dinner.

MUF: And if they could stay in town for the weekend, can you recommend some unique sights and activities they shouldn’t miss while they’re there?
Debbie: Kemper Museum of Art, Little Freshie, Broadway Cafe Donna’s Dress Shop, Shop Girls, Local Pig, Artist and Craftsman, Loose Park Rose Garden, Kauffman Gardens, Berkeley Park for a bike ride.

 Readers please note:  A very special event coming right up on Reading Reptile’s calendar is an appearance by Minneapolis-based duo The Okee Dokee Brothers, playing songs from their Parents Choice Award-winning CD, Take it Outside,on Saturday, January 7 at 11 AM.  USA Today calls the Okee Dokee brother’s music “authentic bluegrass for your little brother.”screenshot_489

If you have been to Reading Reptile, or if reading about it here makes you think you’d like to go, please leave a comment here for Debbie.  And if you’ve never visited a real children’s bookstore, why not make it a 2013 resolution to give yourself and a child that unique experience?

Sue Cowing is the author of the puppet-and-boy novel You Will Call Me Drog (Carolrhoda Books 2011 and Usborne UK 2013).

 

 

 

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Indie Post: Creating Children’s Bookstore Memories

By on November 27, 2012   /   Indie Spotlight  

This month, with the holidays and the New Year coming on, Mixed-Up Files is saluting all children’s bookstores everywhere, and remembering a few individual gems we’ve featured in 2012.

www.takeyourchildtoabookstore.org

Kids can get overwhelmed with gifts of things, especially at this time of year. Yet we know that the most lasting childhood memories are not of things but of experiences, especially shared experiences.   A good book is both a thing and an experience, shared in a sense with the author and with everyone else who reads it. So isn’t a book the ideal gift?

And it’s so easy! Go online any time of day or night and in less than five minutes you can order your child a book tax-free at a big discount, and it will magically appear a few days later, even gift-wrapped, if you so choose.  Or, if you need the book sooner, you can wait until open hours at the nearest chain store where you’re bound to find something appropriate from their large selection.

Whoa.  What if, instead, you invite the child to come with you to real children’s bookstore to choose his or her own books,  even make a day trip to another town if there’s no such store where you live?  What will reward your extra effort?

A unique atmosphere

All online and chain bookstores are alike in predictable ways, on purpose. Chains are concerned with “brand” and want all their stores everywhere in the country to have a familiar look and feel.  And there are not many places to sit down (unless you buy something at the café), because they don’t want you to browse and read.  They want you to get to the checkout counter.

Each child’s bookstore is different in its own way, a unique world, created by owners who delight in children and children’s books.  It’s their dream come true of what a children’s bookstore should be. Can you stay all night and read at Barnes and Noble?  You can at Velveteen Rabbit Book Shop and Guest House in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Can you get a moustache out of a vending machine there?  You can at Green Bean Books in Portland, Oregon.  Are the walls bursting with colorful art and the signatures of visiting authors?Are there live animals roaming the store—cats and chickens and chinchillas?   Encounter  them at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis.

Browsing at Wild Rumpus

There’s a welcoming magic in children’s bookstores that children young and old (and the child in us) respond to immediately.

Real people

All physical bookstores have people in them.  But in a children’s bookstore, you can be sure these will be people who know children and books. Their main job is to help find just the right ones for a child, and they aren’t required to spend part of their time at a table up front, demonstrating and promoting their company’s latest e-reading device.    (Note to children’s authors:  these independent booksellers are also the ones who actually read, know, and hand-sell your books).

Real choice

At first it might seem that a big chain store could offer you a better choice of books than a small independent. But it matters who chooses the books and why.  Independent booksellers can and do choose to carry—or not carry— any books they like, and they can display and promote them however they want to.  Of course, you say.   But most of the titles in a chain store have been selected, not by the people who work there, but by remote company experts who have made a guess about what you will be likely to buy and who need you to fulfill their predictions. Independent booksellers are on-the-spot curators who can sort out quality from hype, and can lead you to their favorites and yours, often less-publicized great finds you might not otherwise have discovered.

Higher prices

Though independent bookstores may offer some modest sales and membership discounts, most have to charge the cover price for a book.  You may feel foolish, even guilty, paying full price plus tax for something you know is available at a deep discount and tax-free elsewhere, but in this case you  get what you  pay for.

A great time with the child

When you make a trip with a child to a children’s bookstore, inviting him or her to enter the atmosphere and browse and choose to his or her heart’s content, you create an experience neither of you will soon forget.  Priceless.

The chance to support a community

That cover price and tax you pay at an independent bookstore– where does it go? Some to the publisher, of course, but, unlike the money we spend online or at a chain, the rest goes to the local community.  Children’s bookstores stay alive by responding to the needs of their neighbors—listening to their preferences, developing personal relationships with customers young and old,  creating unique events and programs for them, and championing local authors as well as nationally known ones.  Aren’t such stores, and the communities that have the wisdom to sustain them, worthy of our support?

Hunger Games training camp, Little Shop of Storiesand championing local authors as well as nationally known ones.  Aren’t such a store, and a community that has the wisdom to sustain it, worthy of our support?

A chance to vote

Every time we spend money one way rather than another, we are casting a vote for what we value and want to see thrive.  So what’ll it be? Amazon and Barnes & Noble* or places like Blue Manatee, Eight Cousins, and The Little Shop of Stories?

 

 

 

 

Ask a child who’s been there!

 

*If online is really the only way you can buy children’s books this season, you can still order them through independent stores.  Many children’s bookstores fill online orders, including a number of the following that we have featured so far this year:

The Green Bean, Portland OR: www.greenbeanbookspdx.com
Blue Manatee, Cincinnati OH: www.bluemanateebooks.com

The Eight Cousins, Falmouth MA:  www.eightcousins.com

The Wild Rumpus, Minneapolis MN: www.wildrumpusbooks.com

The Little Shop of Stories, Decatur GA: www.littleshopofstories.com

Bbgb (Bring Back Great Books), Richmond VA: www.bbgbbooks.com

The Velveteen Rabbit, Book Shop and Guest House, Fort Atkinson WI: www.velveteenrabbitcookshop

Monkey See, Monkey Do, Clarence NY: www.monkeysread.com

Or you can go to the largest independent bookstore in the country at www.powells.com or to www.indybound.org and order from them.

If you and the children you love have fine memories of visiting a children’s bookstore, please tell us the story in a comment below.  Do you have a favorite shop you think we should feature in 2013?   Next month we’ll be talking to the folks at Reading Reptile in Kansas City.

Sue Cowing lives in Honolulu HI, 2,000 miles from the nearest children’s bookstore.  She is the author of a middle-grade puppet-and-boy novel, You Will Call Me Drog (Carolrhoda Books 2011, Usborne UK 2013)

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Indie Spotlight: Monkey See, Monkey Do

By on October 26, 2012   /   Author Interviews, Indie Spotlight  
Anyone who thinks children’s bookstores are becoming a thing of the past probably needs to get out in the country more!  True, some wonderful old favorites are no longer with us, but others are doing just fine and wonderful new ones keep springing up, even in these recent hard times.  Today we’re talking to owner Kim Krug of Monkey See, Monkey Do in Clarence,  New York, whose small-town shop is just over three years old  and  has already become an asset  to the community and  earned the 2012 Pannel Prize for Children’s Specialty Bookstore from The Women’s National Book Association.
Sue Cowing for Mixed-Up Files: It’s always a pleasure to discover a new—and thriving—children’s bookstore. What led you to start one up in Clarence, New York?
Kim: Our three children inspired me to open a children’s business.  I had the wonderful opportunity to stay at home with them for the first five years and then wanted to share with them a passion I had to give back to our community, teach them the importance of following a dream and work to inspire other families with a love of reading and lifetime learning.
MUF:Describe the atmosphere in Monkey See, Monkey Do.
Kim: It’s a very warm, charming and creative space.  Both children and adults alike love to look at the books and enjoy the building.  Our bookstore is housed in a historic 1840’s building with timber beams in the young adult/adult book room.  There are six cozy rooms in which books are shelved, tables are set up and classes are held.  People are very curious about the history of the building, it is said to have ties to the Underground Railroad.
MUF: How do you select the books to carry at Monkey See, Monkey Do? What are some favorite titles, fiction or nonfiction, that you recommend to middle-graders?
Kim: I spend a lot of time reviewing advanced titles provided by independent authors and publishers.  I follow our regional book groups and the American Booksellers Association for reviews.  I love finding unique, indie titles that I can bring into the store and tie a program around.  One of my favorite titles is Wonder by RJ Palacio, I absolutely love this book and highly recommend children in grades 5 and up along with parents/adults to read it!  It’s an inspiring story about a 5th grade boy who has a facial deformity  and is homeschooled up until the 5th grade.  The story switches narrative throughout the book as we journey along with Auggie, the main character through his first year of transition in public school.  Some newly released picture books that I am a huge fan of are:  Big by Coleen Paratore, Because Amelia Smiled by David Ezra Stein, What Does it Mean to be Present by Rana DiOrio  and Say Helloby Jack & Michael Foreman. Our Gorilla Girls Book Club (Gr. 5 and up) has been reading Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, and the Bright Monkeys Literacy Club (Grades 3-6) is reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  

Gorilla Girls Book Club

MUF: The Pannel Prize folks cited your “innovative approaches to getting kids engaged with reading.” That seems like an understatement. Monkey See, Monkey Do has a strong commitment to promoting literacy and acts on it by holding a number of literacy classes and activities, even individual tutoring sessions. Tell us about some of those efforts and the community response.
Kim:We truly believe we “bring our books to life” through the variety of creative, literacy-based classes we offer each month.  This past summer we held over 40+ to inspire children to creatively engage in literature.  This Fall we began a new venture in partnering with schools in our After-School Literacy Clubs in which we offer a 6-week literacy club led by a

Reading to each other on National Star Wars Reads Day

NYS certified teacher where children practice reading aloud, work on cadence, pace, vocabulary-building and comprehension.  Children discuss the reading each week, practice journal writing and reflective questions.  In this current session we are running in the schools, the last class will end with a very special author Skype in which children can engage directly with the author to learn about what inspired them to write their book and question the author directly.

MUF:Your book camps sound fun and popular, and you hold them not only in the summer but also during school breaks throughout the year. What have been a couple of your most memorable ones?
Kim: That is a tough question, I have so many fantastic memories from many of our camps but here’s a few that really stick out:
  • Art Safari – children spend a full week reading about a new artist each day and then working on an art project inspired by that particular artisan’s work.

    Art Safari

  • Cupcake Diaries – a full week camp in which children formed reading circles each day to complete reading, creating cupcake journals and writing entries that tied in with their reading and discussions and ended each day with a cupcake decorations lesson by a pastry artist.  The children learned a new cupcake recipe each day, worked on frosting/decorating skills and then enjoyed their work!
  • Let’s Go To Spain – a full day camp reading about Spanish culture, learning new vocabulary, enjoying Spanish treat and engaging in a role-playing skit.
MUF: All this community involvement and teaching and operating a bookstore, too! You must have some good help and/or very little sleep!
Kim: Yes, that is true!  We have an absolutely amazing staff of devoted teachers, employees, artisans and interns from local colleges that offer their time, talent and energy!  And yes….little sleep these days in juggling our family and the business.
MUF: Many towns have no bookstore at all, much less a children’s bookstore. If an out-of-town family decided to make an excursion to Monkey See, Monkey Do, would there be any places for them to have a snack or a bite to eat after browsing?
Kim: Yes, right in the back of our bookstore is a charming restaurant called The Carriage House.  It’s steps away from our bookstore and offers a wonderful lunch menu.
MUF: Are any special events planned at Monkey See, Monkey Do (or in Clarence) for Halloween or November?
Kim: Yes!  Next week we are hosting our 4th Annual Storybook Halloween Party in which we encourage families and children to dress up as their favorite storybook character and come to our free event that features free crafts, sweet treats and two local authors that will be reading their book and signing copies!
In November,  we will be hosting our 4th annual Black Friday camps (Friday, November 23rd) for children to enjoy and parents to have a place to drop off their children for creative programing while they shop.  On Saturday, November 24th we will have our SHOP LOCAL Holiday Event where we invite several authors, artisans and small business owners to come into our bookstore and sell their wares and promote a local shopping spirit.
MUF: Thanks, Kim, for talking with us and for creating not just a children’s book store but a center for learning to love to read  Here’s wishing you success and many anniversaries and honors in the future!
Readers, if you would like to know more about this place, go to http://www.monkeysread.com.  If reading about Monkey See, Monkey Do makes you want to visit the shop, and/or if you think Kim’s approach to running a bookstore is intriguing, please leave her a comment here.
Sue Cowing is the author of the middle-grade puppet-and-boy novel, You Will Call Me Drog, (Carolrhoda, 2011; Usborne UK, 2012)
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