booksinckids's blog

May 1 is a Celebration for Writers & Readers!
Come celebrate the San Francisco Bay Area's richchildren's book community with your local independent bookstore on May1 from 1 - 3pm. Three Books Inc. locations will be participating! 

Erin Hunter, the author of the bestselling and beloved WARRIORS series, will be making her only Northern California stop at Books Inc. This is a ticketed event! Tickets are $1 per person with the purchase of any Erin Hunter book at Books Inc. or $5 per person with no book purchase. Tickets and books available at all Books Inc. locations. Click here for more info or to buy online!Saturday • April 24 • 2:00 pmCapuchino High School Auditorium1501 Magnolia Avenue • San Bruno, CA

Unfortunately our Wordplay Writing Workshop: Writing for Children had to be cancelled, but we will reschedule it.  Our apologies.Check back in with our WordPlay page, though, or get on our mailing list, because the Summer 2010 workshop lineup will be announced soon! http://www.booksinc.net/wordplayNow we suggest you step away from your computer and go enjoy reading a book in the park... that's what we're gonna do!

Who needs a night out more than teachers; you brave souls who confront bureaucracy, budget cuts and metal detectors to mold the minds of future generations? Forget the lesson plan, let the papers correct themselves and let Books Inc. show our appreciation for all that you do!

Join us for wine and cheese, 25% off the entire store, plenty of giveaways and a special spring preview of books from our Children's Book Buyers.


Tuesday, March 9, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
 Books Inc. in Mountain View
 Wednesday, March 10, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Books Inc. in Burlingame
Thursday, March 11, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Books Inc. in Berkeley
RSVP by email:  rsvp@booksinc.net  -- or call 415-643-3400 Ext 14

From now until March 14, we're celebrating Dr. Seuss's b-day with a special promotion. Buy any two Dr. Seuss books, get one free, plus a supercute Horton plush while supplies last!

 

 
 

 

There’s nothing like reading a book set in your hometown. I was born and raised in San Francisco. I went to school here. I live here now. And tonight I went up to the roof to experience my San Francisco. Ships passing in the Bay called out to each other, the fog blanketed the city so only the brightest lights were visible—a few from Ghirardelli Square, the TV glow from tall apartment buildings a few blocks away, and always, always the beacon from Alcatraz. I’ve only been to The Rock once. Though these days it’s a popular historical tourist destination, it's bleak and eerie, no place you’d want to spend days, months, years of your life. Even though I see it from a distance at least once a day, I never fully experienced it until I read Gennifer Choldenko’s Al Capone Does My Shirts and now Al Capone Shines My Shoes.

Gennifer is a great writer. She creates believable characters who lead interesting lives, but in these books in particular she has handed her readers a mostly silent character who dictates much of how the other characters spend their days—San Francisco. Read her books and you’ll feel as if you’ve lived here too.

What other books deliver this same familiar feeling? The Heights by Brian James is essentially a retelling of the classic Wuthering Heights peopled with contemporary teens set in the exclusive San Francisco neighborhoods of Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff. He has perfectly captured the look, feel, even smell of the City’s fog and all its deceptive, mysterious, confusing, even protective qualities.

When I read the scenes from Wild Girls by Pat Murphy that take place on the UC Berkeley campus, I was immediately sent back in time to my college days walking through Sather Gate. Tennyson by Lesley M.M. Blume dropped me smack dab in the middle of my trip to the plantation houses outside New Orleans. And though I didn’t grow up in New York City, I felt like I could see the sidewalks outside Miranda’s apartment while reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

I could go on, but won’t. What books have you read that are set in places familiar to you? I’d love to take a trip to your hometown.


- Summer, Books Inc. Laurel Village

Two recent picture book biographies will not only appeal to art & architecture fans, but might just inspire a young person to take a closer look at the world around them:

BUILDING ON NATURE: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez explores the childhood inspirations of the Catalonian architect and how they affected his work. Young Gaudi was fascinated by honeycombs, leaf patterns and other natural phenomena. It was these early interests that would become vaulting cathedral walls and strange curving chimneys, and readers will love to explore the buildings he created (even if only on the page). Julie Paschkis has done a stunning job incorporating the sinewy grace and movement that characterizes Art Nouveau style with child-friendly details. You'll feel like you are inside one of Gaudi's own creations!

EAST-WEST HOUSE: Noguchi's Childhood in Japan by Christy Hale focuses on the early years of architect Isamu Noguchi. Isamu was born to a Japanese father and a white American mother and raised partly in Japan, where he was bullied for being gaijin (a foreigner). Like Gaudi, young Isamu turned to the beauty of the natural world and made it an inspiration for his art. His mother was supportive of Isamu's artistic bent and allowed him, at age 8, to help design their home. It would be known as the East-West house, and would combine elements of traditional Japanese and Western design. And the book itself does the same - Hale's wonderful collages manage to evoke both traditional Japanese woodblock art and Midcentury American cool. Simply gorgeous.

 

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