Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock

Eye of the Crow: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His 1st Case by Shane Peacock
2009-05 - Paperback
Tundra Books (NY)
9780887769191
$9.95

What more needs to be said? Sherlock Holmes as a young boy. Yes, it's been done before but I never get tired of Holmes' many incarnations. (I loved the Arthur Conan Doyle appearance in the adult mystery Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance.) So, Doyle and Holmes are a sort of comfort literature for me.

One of these days I'm going to talk about the number of young titles that are drawing adult audiences! Stay tuned.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
2009-08 - Hardcover
Scholastic Press
9780545123266
$17.99

Here's a book that's bound to become a bestseller. And if you're having a hot, sweaty summer (and we're not) this is the perfect relief from the heat. A book that's so cold and intense it'll make you shiver. If you don't get hooked by the opening chapter then this may not be the book for you, but it completely pulled me in. I had the rest of the staff read that same first chapter and they all agreed that it's a compelling story. A love story. A story about wolves. It's a very chilling story!

Getting a handle on the day

Tuesdays are my Mondays. In some ways I like having Monday off. But somehow, when I arrive at work on Tuesday, I feel as if I'm playing catch up for a day or two. Today was no exception. I'm acutely away of how easily the "adult" side of the store dominates the day. I try to make sure there are new books on display in the store windows but a children's title doesn't always make it. My attempts to make up for this balance result in a posting of a new book. But today I was utterly off my game. I have a mountain of catalogs to review before the sales rep arrives on Thursday along with the daily tasks and new problems arise.

Have you ever had one of those days where a problem stares you in the face and defies resolution. That was a piece of today. A note from yesterday's staff apprised me to the problem of a set of calendars that arrived with a less than desirable discount. The note attached indicated that the publisher was not going to budge on this. I called the publisher and ran into that same brick wall. No help. I stared at the calendars. I puzzled in my head possible solutions. This publisher has no sales rep to call for help. Bad news there. So, I pushed it aside to take care of the next task, and the next task. I made a few phone calls for some input but there was no one to be found on the other end of the phone.

Finally, I called the publisher back and presented my dilemma to a new customer service person. She paused, put me on hold, came back and finally I made one more offer to her. And out of no where, the solution was accepted. Within minutes I received and email. Problem solved. The calendars are gone, off my plate.

But I still lost a huge part of the day with that little problem blocking my progress.

Tuesday (AKA "Monday") is a day of problem solving. I'm not wild about starting out the week this way. But if I just push away and get some breathing room I can make it to the end of the day. And do you know what awaits me at the end of Tuesday? Meditation.

Yep, I meet with a group of folks in Albany to sit in silence for 30 minutes. No problems. Just stillness.

So, tomorrow I'll start again. There are some children's books I wanted to talk about but I didn't get a chance to even touch them today. I'll try again tomorrow.

The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence

I met with one of our wonderful sales reps yesterday and came upon a new series that I had never heard of. It turns out that the Brits have been hiding this little secret and it now comes to our shores. It's called the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence and at this writing I have no cover art to share, no ISBN to post. I'm writing this from home with a terrible teaser for you. Sorry. I can say this, the series is for ages 8 to 12 and are all set in Ancient Rome, or thereabouts.

There are four "detectives" in the series:

Nubia: An African girl, former slave of Flavia.
Flavia Gemina: A rich Roman girl.
Jonathan ben Mordecai: A kind but pessimistic Jewish boy.
Lupus: A mute beggar boy.

The description reminds me of a kids version of the Brother Cadfael series.

So, stay tuned. The books will be arriving soon.

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink 2009-08 - Hardcover Little, Brown Young Readers 9780316027427 $17.99

So, you think YOU'VE got sibling rivalry issues?! Recently orphaned, 16-year-old Lia Milthorpe discovers she and her twin sister Alice are part of an ancient prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other. To escape from a dark fate and to remain in the arms of her beloved boyfriend James, Lia must end the prophecy before her sister does. The idea of a dysfunctional family takes on a whole new twist when your destiny is tweaked by a prophecy that makes your sister more than a little "untrustworthy!"

"An ancient prophecy divides two sisters-
One good...
One evil...
Who will prevail?
Twin sisters have become orphans, also. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.
Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust.
They just know they can't trust each other."

Harry Potter one more time (Spoiler alert!)

Stop reading NOW if you haven't read the last of the Harry Potter series!

The final book in the Harry Potter series was released yesterday in paperback (7/7/9), two years after the release of the hardcover edition. It seems quite anticlimactic to say the least. There was no fanfare, no lines waiting to get in the store, no party, no costumes. The era of Harry Potter is now over. I have a bit of melancholy about this series coming to an end. I read each one and enjoyed them. Like everyone else I was looking forward to the next installment. I wasn't insane about it. I don't remember all the plot twists, nor can I remember all the names of the characters without a little prompting from others. But I enjoyed it. But from a bookseller's point of view I'm going to miss the excitement of the customers, children and adults alike. There was a sweetness about the way readers flocked to Harry. Nothing else has garnered that much attention in the 15+ years that I've been selling books. And so it is that I'm feeling a bit wistful about the end of the series. There will still be children discovering Harry for the first time. But there is no longer that collective discovery for books waiting to be published, the arc of the story yet to be revealed.

I sound more maudlin that I really am about this. I just mean to mark the day after the release of the paperback edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (#7). And with that release comes a companion to the series put out by Mugglenet.com, a book of speculative essays about the series: Mugglenet.Com's Harry Potter Should Have Died: Controversial Views from the #1 Fan Site by Emerson Spartz, Ben Schoen, Jeanne Kimsey. Rowling is supportive of this group of followers who kept up a podcast discussing the possible ways the series might unfold. I actually enjoyed listening to the podcasts. They gave me a way to add some excitement and spin to the discussions with customers who were awaiting the next installment. But I clearly couldn't keep up with all the theories and ideas these kids had going. They could easily have been a think tank for J. K. Rowling in terms of providing ideas for a never ending series. I wouldn't be surprised if this crew of Mugglenets put out their own series of novels. They have quite a bit of talent to pull of a good story and they have the reputation to encourage publishers. We'll see if it happens.

As for the spoiler I mentioned, well, it's in the title of this book. Not very revealing, I know, but there are some folks out there who have yet to read this series and are awaiting this seventh volume in paper.

Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich

Hermit Crab by Carter Goodrich, Illustrated by: Carter Goodrich
2009-06 - Hardcover
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
9781416938927
$16.99
Here's a wonderful book for the summertime for little kids. It's the story of a hermit crab who likes to keep to himself. But things change when he becomes known as a hero in his part of the ocean! You will fall in love with this book, the story, the illustrations.

I'm sorry to say, I can't post my regular book info links at the moment. Something seems to be wrong with the pages that I link these books to. Sigh! Ever updating technologies! What's a blogger to do?