Books by Booksellers -- Volume 2

Posted Thursday, Mar 25, 2004

Behind many great books are great booksellers, not just those who promote them and persuade others to buy them, but the authors of the books themselves. BTW found a number of booksellers and friends who have written books of all kinds and introduced them in "Books by Booksellers and the People Who Love Them" (news.bookweb.org/read/2326). Additions must already be made to that original list, and many others are still out there. BTW would like to know about any new books by booksellers and friends. Please contact Nomi Schwartz at nomi@bookweb.org.

Several very experienced booksellers have recently added their works to the shelves. Experienced, that is, if you consider that of the three authors mentioned below, the one with the least bookselling experience, Suzanne Staubach, has worked in a bookstore for 23 years. The other two, Valerie Lewis and Jody Fickes Shapiro, have each owned their stores for 25 years.

Staubach is the manager of general books at the University of Connecticut Co-op in Storrs, Connecticut. Apart from bookselling, Staubach has several passions that have ended up filling a couple of books. An expert potter, she is completing a book titled MUD: The Story of Clay and The Rise of Civilization. "In the book I describe how clay was a key ingredient in the invention of so many things -- writing, medicine, cooking. For example, to make wine, one needs a container to hold the liquid grapes so they don't ferment. Pottery was then needed to make beer and wine. Probably someone left the grapes in the bowl by mistake and found that the clay bowl stopped fermentation. The first cuneiform writings were on clay tablets...." The book is to be published by Berkley/Penguin, in 2005.

Another passion of Staubach's is the rich history of her home state of Connecticut. Previously, she wrote Connecticut: Driving Through History, published by Douglas Charles/Covered Bridge.

Since 1979, Valerie Lewis has been helping children and their parents select books at Hicklebee's, a children's bookstore in San Jose, California. She has doubtless made many a good match between book and reader but even Lewis, who regularly recommends children's books on the CBS Morning Show, can't always be nearby to make a recommendation. That is why she, with storyteller Walter Mayes, wrote Valerie & Walter's Best Books for Children: A Lively and Opinionated Guide, published by HarperResource.

The book is the second edition of their 1998 book by the same name. Most listings include some amusing dialogue between the two authors, and many pages have sidebars with all kinds of useful information. Lewis' years as a children's bookseller show through clearly in the authors' philosophy of book recommendations, which they outline under "The Eleven Most Important Rules About Reading and Children: Not!" Disputing old dictates about 'advancing' to picture books, they write, "We live in a society where children are rewarded for reading by having the art taken away. Some children need visuals to help them through a story…." And, of comics, they say, "Some of the best writing today can be found in comics, though often the subject matter requires a mature reader. A comic-book reader can experience a world of masterly storytelling, sophisticated vocabulary, and complex imagery…." Best Books will be published this month.

A third bookseller-author is Jody Fickes Shapiro of Adventures for Kids, a children's bookstore in Ventura, California. Shapiro opened the store on March 24, 1979. Her new book, Up, Up, Up!: It's Apple-Picking Time, was illustrated by Kitty Harvill, and published in September 2003, by Holiday House. The book has been one of the three top sellers at Shapiro's store and has been popular with librarians and teachers, who can use it as part of the traditional fall unit on apples. "As booksellers, we see holes -- things that aren't on the market but are needed. One of the non-existent books I had waited for was a California-based apple story. When one didn't appear, I wrote it. It's not only about apples -- it's a cozy family story."