Independent Booksellers' Kids' Picks Featured on NPR

On Wednesday, July 7, NPR's Michele Norris interviewed three independent booksellers on the All Things Considered segment "Summer Reading Picks for Kids: Booksellers Make Suggestions for Warm Weather Tales." Norris spoke with Sheilah Egan of A Likely Story Children's Bookstore in Alexandria, Virginia; Johann Hauser-Ulrich of Wild Rumpus Bookstore in Minneapolis; and Judy Burlow of Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver. Each gave several recommendations on the show and several more were posted on the Web site, www.npr.org [1].

Among the recommendations were a number of titles that have appeared on the Book Sense Picks lists, including several from the Summer 2004 Book Sense Kids' Picks. Some of the on-air selections featured brief excerpts read by children.

On the air, Egan, manager of A Likely Story, mentioned Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle (Philomel), a Summer 2004 Book Sense Kids' Pick; and When the Sky is Like Lace by Elinor Horwitz Lander, Barbara Cooney (illus.) (Viking).

Her Web picks for picture books were the That's Not My... series by Fiona Watt (Educational Development Corporation) and Journey Around Washington D.C. by Martha Day Zschock (Commonwealth Editions). Her YA picks were The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (Viking), a Summer 2004 Book Sense Kids' Pick; A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins); Eagle Strike by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel Books); and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books), a 2002 Teen 76 Top Ten.

Storyteller and bookseller Hauser-Ulrich told Norris that some of his favorites included The Daddy Mountain by Jules Feiffer (Michael Di Capua Books); The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle, Hanako Wakiyama (illus.) (Dutton); and Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech, (HarperCollins), an Autumn 2003 Children's Book Sense 76 Top Ten.

Hauser-Ulrich's Web picks were Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison (Houghton Mifflin); Quimby the Mouse by Chris Ware (Fantagraphics Books); Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow), a Summer 2004 Book Sense Kids' Pick; and Halibut Jackson by David Lucas (Knopf), a Summer 2004 Book Sense Kids' Top Ten.

In Colorado, Burlow's broadcast selections were the Chet Gecko Mystery series by Bruce Hale (Harcourt); one of the series, The Malted Falcon is a Summer 2004 Kids' Pick. She also selected a YA book Feed by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick), a 2003 Teen Readers Book Sense 76 Top Ten.

The Web site listed her picks: No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman (Hyperion); The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum), a Summer 2004 Top Ten; Larabee by Kevin Luthardt (Peachtree); Tales From the Waterhole by Bob Graham (Candlewick); Saving Samantha by Robbyn Smith Van Frankenhuyzen, Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen (illus.) (Sleeping Bear), an Autumn 2003 Children's Book Sense 76 Top Ten; and Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (Knopf).

To go directly to the NPR Web page featuring "Summer Reading Picks for Kids," click here [2]. --Karen Schechner [3]