Sid Fleischman, who won the 1987 Newbery Medal for The Whipping Boy, died March 17 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 90. The cause was cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Best known as a fiction writer for children, Fleischman started out as a magician, as he detailed in his autobiography for young people, The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life, an experience which also served as fodder for his biography of Harry Houdini, Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini. Most recently, he wrote The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West, and his biography of Charlie Chaplin, Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World, will be published this June. When asked in an interview with School Library Journal if his background as a magician helped him as a writer, he answered, "Magic is like a three-act play. You have to plan ahead; you have to look around corners. Inventing tricks is like plotting a novel. If you decide you want to make something float, you have to figure out, 'How do I do that?' [As a result,] my plots are more generous with their surprises."

A veteran of World War II and a screenwriter (including Lafayette Escadrille, featuring a young Clint Eastwood), Fleischman leaves a legacy of more than 50 books. He was a founding member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and served on its board since its inception in 1972. In 2003, SCBWI named an award for him that honors humorous writing for children. Fleischman and his son, Paul, have the distinction of being the only father-son pair to have won a Newbery Medal (Paul Fleishman won the 1989 Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices).

A memorial service will take place at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles or the American Cancer Society.

Taschen Books has opened "its newest and warmest" store, in Miami Beach, Fla. Like the Taschen stores in New York, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Paris, London, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Hamburg and Copenhagen, the Miami Beach store was designed by Philippe Starck. The store, in a new building with 12 other upscale retailers, features murals painted by British artists Toby Ziegler.

The store carries a full range of Taschen titles in contemporary and classic art, photography, design, architecture, sex, travel, cinema and pop culture, as well as a selection of the publisher's titles in Spanish and Portuguese.

The store is located at 1111 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach, Fla. 33139; 305-538-6185.

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Open Book, Milwaukee, Wis., which made its debut last fall in the former Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore location on North Oakland Avenue, will close April 30. The bookstore's organizers "cited 'a confluence of events' for the closing, including the economy, a change in the public's book-buying habits and strong competition from online booksellers," the Journal Sentinel reported.

"We had an expectation that we would have a much more robust holiday season than we did," said Keith Schmitz, chairman of the Open Book co-op. He added that the store had difficulty regaining former Schwartz customers.

The shop had a troubled, if brief, history, including controversy over its initial failure "to properly register the business with the state as a co-operative. As a result, people who thought they were joining a co-op actually were buying shares in a limited liability corporation. The organizers later corrected their mistake, and Open Book now is registered as a co-op," the Journal Sentinel wrote.

The store's approach also caused conflicts with indie booksellers Lanora Hurley and Daniel Goldin--owners of two other former Schwartz locations (Shelf Awareness, November 9, 2010). 

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Steamboat Today profiled Steamboat Springs, Colo., booksellers Ron and Sue Krall, co-owners of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore & Café; and Erica Fogue, owner of Epilogue Book Co., noting that they "are devoted, arguably fanatic lovers of books in their physical form.... But they know their industry is changing dramatically, and their business models are changing as a result."

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In Seattle, Wash., Pioneer Square retailers are facing a new challenge in addition to the imminent departure of Elliott Bay Book Company, which will close March 31 and relocate to Capitol Hill. The Seattle Times reported that while local retailers "have long hoped for more attention from the city, a recent increase in enforcement of regulations prohibiting sidewalk boards was not what they had in mind."

"It's just an insane thing to do at the beginning of the tourist season and when the city is hurting for sales," said Seattle Mystery Bookshop owner J.B. Dickey, who received a warning from a city permit inspector last week saying he had to remove his sidewalk board or it could be impounded and he could be fined up to $500.

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For Jim Lehrer, it's Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown; for Michelle Obama, it's Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak; and for Diane Rehm, it's Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. The Washington Post asked these and other local public figures to "name the book they most enjoyed reading to their children."

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Greenpoint News celebrated the third anniversary last week of WORD, Brooklyn, N.Y., writing, "With an amazing selection of titles, a jam-packed events schedule, a literary basketball league, a running club, a Bananagrams tournament series, crafting events, pot lucks, and even a literary matchmaking board, WORD has in just three short years become a one-stop spot to meet all needs, from books, to sports, art, food, community, and love."

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Book trailer of the day: The Animal Boogie by Debbie Harter (Barefoot Books).

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In conjunction with the Spring Book Show, Fri.-Sun., March 26–28, in Atlanta, Ga., the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and the American Booksellers Association are conducting spring educational sessions. On the program:

Readings by River Jordan, author of Saints in Limbo, and Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, author of Suck Your Stomach In and Put Some Color On!: What Southern Mamas Tell Their Daughters that the Rest of Y'all Should Know Too. The pair will also talk about their Southern Wing & a Prayer Tour and interview each other.

SIBA board and staff members will meet booksellers one on one to discuss a range of topics, from social networking to budgeting to selling used and remainder books.

ABA staff will lead a session on online website promotion.

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The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association and ABA are teaming up for a spring forum that will take place on Tuesday, April 13, at Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Wash. The program includes discussions led by ABA COO Len Vlahos on online website promotion and ABA CEO Oren Teicher on industry issues as well as an introduction to the store's Espresso Book Machine.

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The sixth annual World PEN Voices Festival of International Literature takes place Monday, April 26, through Sunday, May 2, and features appearances by some 150 authors from around the world, who will participate in readings, panels, performances and conversations throughout New York City. Some of the guests will also appear at events in Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Pittsburgh.

Highlights include Readings from Around the Globe, the opening night at the 92nd Street Y; a panel on screen adaptations of books; discussions on global warming, war and Iran; the PEN Cabaret, to be held at Le Poisson Rouge; and the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, given this year by Sherman Alexie.

For a full schedule, go to pen.org/festival. Many events are free, but some require reservations and some have a fee.

At an SRO event at Books & Greetings, Northvale, N.J., Tommy James (l.) of Tommy James and the Shondells and author of Me, the Mob, and the Music (Scribner) with bookstore owner Kenny Sarfin.

The recession, e-textbooks, online competition, pressures on budgets, changing student demographics and expectations, and stagnant or declining textbook sales were among major topics last week at the National Association of College Stores conference and CAMEX trade show in Orlando, Fla.

Speaking at the association's annual business meeting, outgoing NACS president Vicki Morris Benion, director of the Bucknell University Bookstore, Lewisburg, Pa., summed it up this way: "We are an industry in transition. Our traditional source of revenue is being challenged in how it's priced, sold and consumed. It is imperative that we become savvier retailers. NACS is here to help."

For his part, NACS CEO Brian Cartier said, "What we see out there today is like the perfect storm and not a pretty picture." He called on college retailers "to think differently" and focus "not on what we see but what we see is possible.

"For so many years, we've supported learning environments on campus, but now we need also to support the living environment," Cartier continued. "Students go to college to learn but, increasingly, the living environment is important."

Much of what is possible, he said, is outlined in a $300,000 study funded by NACS and the NACS Foundation and conducted by Retail Forward to research, define and "promulgate" the college store of 2015. Lois Huff, senior v-p of Kantar Retail, parent company of Retail Forward, presented the study at the show. (More on the College Store of 2015 tomorrow.)

Cartier called this "not a minor report," but "a set of ideas, a set of recommendations, for helping to guide us as an association. It looks at the state of NACS and looks at the future."

Findings from the study and its recommendations are being made part of NACS's strategic plan, which will be updated at the board meeting in June. "This is a beginning," Cartier continued. "We will be looking at helping you in terms of living and learning environments, tools, training, education and business models aimed at helping you be successful in the new environment. Many of you are already there. If one can do it, you all can do it."

He stressed that members "need to be nimble because the world is changing very, very quickly. If we focus on what we see today, the picture is pretty dire. If we focus on what's possible, the picture is very bright and exciting."

Rental Textbook Task Force

In other news, earlier this year NACS set up a task force on rental textbooks that is headed by Carol Miller, director of the NDSU Bookstore, Fargo, N.Dak. The group has begun surveying stores and reviewing the many federal and state rental textbook initiatives. So far, she said, it's apparent that "stores are doing rental programs in many different ways. No one size fits all."

Stores without rental programs are hesitant because of the upfront inventory cost and questions about the life cycle of the titles. Faculty need to use the books for a certain length of time. Also, store accounting and systems have to be adapted for rental programs.

The task force has begun discussions with publishers and wholesalers on business models that would address stores' concerns. Other areas that the task force is focusing on are devising a financial model, helping stores present rental programs to faculty and administrations and how to share all this information with NACS members.

NACS Media Solutions

Founded in 2008, NACS Media Solutions "exists so we can bring together technological and content partners," said Ed Schlichenmayer, deputy CEO of NACS and president and COO of the NACS subsidiary. "We're not building the silver bullet. Instead, we're reaching out, identifying, filtering, researching and finding the right partners and investing in the right business models that make sense to you." The unit is looking at digital content platforms, POD, e-reader support, expanded e-business capabilities and more. "We want to allow you to offer digital solutions to our customers."

NMS also acts as a consultant to companies outside the industry, many of which want to get into "the coveted space" of the campus store. Schlichenmayer said that "if they are willing to accommodate stores and have an appropriate business model for stores, we talk with them."

Among its efforts, last fall NMS entered a partnership with Canadian Campus Retail Associates to create a digital content platform for e-books and POD that will be integrated with other systems and owned by the store. NMS is coordinating a U.S. pilot program at more than 60 stores this spring.

NMS has also partnered with On Demand, the maker of the Espresso Book Machine, and Verba Software.

(In a related partnership, NACSCORP is working with Baker & Taylor's Majors Education Solutions to offer co-branded e-commerce and marketing solutions to college retailers. Majors is a longtime distributor of media and health science textbooks.)

NMS is also exploring other technological services stores might offer, including digital review copies, price-comparison tools for students and faculty, and marketing support services.

In addition, NMS has begun an e-newsletter, InCITE; set up a new website, nacsmediasolutions.com; and has a blog, all intended to help NACS members "stay current," Schlichenmayer said. "We're challenging you to expand your knowledge of e-readers" and "build campus partnerships internally," with faculty, the library, IT departments and other entities, so that stores can become "the leader of all things digital."

NACS Finances

The past two full fiscal years, ending at the end of March 2008 and 2009, were "extremely strong" for NACS financially, and the current year, ending March 31, has been "a bit of challenge," Cartier said, but the association "will exceed budget."

NACS Partnership and NACSCORP both had "solid years financially," according to Robert Ritenbaugh, assistant v-p for auxiliary services at Auburn University and chair of NACS's finance and budget committee. During the current fiscal year, NACS was able to make sizable investments, including more than $1 million for NACS Media Solutions and $400,000 for the NACS Foundation, while membership dues have held steady. Ritenbaugh said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.

Other News

NACS and ABA have begun a program allowing NACS members to receive the benefits of full ABA members for $100.

Debbie Harvie, past NACS president, president of the NACS Foundation and director of the UBC Bookstore in Vancouver, B.C., was presented with the 2010 Aspen Award, recognizing a college retailer who has made "consistent contributions to the professional development of others."

Jim Haemker, director of bookshop and Union services at Luther Book Shop in Decorah, Iowa, received the NACS Foundation Distinguished Service Award.

Red Deer College Bookstore of Red Deer, Alberta, won the NACS Foundation 2010 Innovation Achievement Award for replacing traditional plastic bags with reusable bags and using the proceeds to begin a scholarship fund, to which the store is donating its $5,000 prize.--John Mutter

Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, a one-woman play starring Kathleen Turner as the late newspaper columnist, political commentator and author, has begun its premiere at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia and runs through April 18. The show was written by journalists and twin sisters Margaret and Allison Engel and directed by David Esbjornson, and is based in part on the biography Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith (PublicAffairs, $26.95, 9781586487171/1586487175), published last November.

The book is based on interviews with her family, friends and colleagues and personal papers. Minutaglio is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas and author of First Son: George W. Bush & The Bush Family Dynasty. Smith was a researcher for Ivins for eight years.

Bedrock Studios has hired Jeff Stockwell (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys; Terabithia) to adapt Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Although the BBC previously released a film version of the novel and Dimension produced a telefilm for ABC in 2004, "Disney carried remake rights from that deal and is developing the new feature iteration with Bedrock, which had negotiated rights to the property from the L'Engle estate. Catherine Hand also is producing, and L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Voilkis, is exec producing," the Hollywood Reporter wrote.

This morning on the Today Show: Stacy Morrison, author of Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781416595564/1416595562).

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Today on NPR's Talk of the Nation: David Shenk, author of The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong (Doubleday, $26.95, 9780385523653/0385523653).

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Today on Oprah: Julie Metz, author of Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal (Voice, $23.99, 9781401322557/1401322557).

Also on Oprah: Wes Moore, author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Spiegel & Grau, $25, 9780385528191/0385528191). He appears this morning on the Today Show, too.

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Today on the Chelsea Handler Show: Kelly Cutrone, author of If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You (HarperOne, $22.99, 9780061930935/0061930938).

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Tonight on Nightline: Jamie Oliver, author of Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals (Hyperion, $35, 9781401323592/1401323596).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Jennifer Love Hewitt, author of The Day I Shot Cupid (Voice, $23.99, 9781401341121/1401341128).

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Tomorrow on NPR's Fresh Air: Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA (Free Press, $26, 9781416557272/141655727X).

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Tomorrow on Hannity: Jason Mattera, author of Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Threshold Editions, $25, 9781439172070/1439172072).

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Tomorrow on Larry King Live: Laura Ling, author of Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home (Morrow, $26.99, 9780062000675/0062000675).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report, in a repeat: Robert Baer, author of The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower (Three Rivers Press, $15, 9780307408679/0307408671).

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:

Hardcover

The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer (St. Martin's, $24.99, 9780312558154/0312558155). "This debut work is an absolutely enchanting novel with elements of steampunk and alternate history, loosely constructed around the plot of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It's a powerful story and I can't wait to see what he writes next."--Bridget Allison, Phoenix Books, Essex, Vt.

Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine by Max Watman (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781416571780/1416571787). "The subtitle belies the content, but the voice really makes this book. I didn't think I would want to read 300 pages of moonshine history, lore, and chemistry, but I couldn't put it down. A rocking good time of a book."--Pete Mulvihill, Green Apple Books, San Francisco, Calif.

Paperback

After the Workshop by John McNally (Counterpoint, $15.95, 9781582435602/158243560X). "Join media escort Jack Hercules Sheahan in a wicked romp through Iowa City as he escorts pretentious writers, spends an evening in jail, and battles writer's block. A must for any student of fiction, or for that matter, any reader."--Zach Sampinos, Sam Weller's Books, Salt Lake City, Utah.

For Ages 4 to 8

Lawn to Lawn by Dan Yaccarino (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 9780375855740/0375855742). "Of course lawn ornaments come to life and tell stories. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Dan Yaccarino has created a brilliant tale."--Rebecca Dowling, Hockessin Book Shelf, Hockessin, Del.

 [Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]

Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq by Dr. Dave Hnida (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781416599579/1416599576, April 27, 2010)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

The last time I talked with my dad was on a sweltering April evening in 2004. It was a lopsided conversation. He had died of a heart attack almost thirty years earlier. But he was one of the main reasons I was hiding in a sandy ditch in the middle of Iraq, and I had some things to tell him before I died. My dad was a good man, although up until a few days before his death, I didn't always think so. A hard-toiling factory worker, he frank a fifth of cheap whiskey every day, was a mean drunk, and always left me searching for the answer to why any man felt the need to retreat to the safety of the bottle. I had my hints and theories, but never walked in his shoes, or in this case, his Army boots. It took three hours in a ditch to get a firsthand revelation about why the liquor cabinet was permanently open while I was growing up.--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

 
Saturday night, in a town far from her Dallas home, Susannah Charleson and the Rescue K9 unit she works with as a field assistant have been searching for a missing girl. Sitting in a bar, beneath "a stratus layer of cigarette smoke that curls above us like an atmosphere of drowsy snakes," they are tired. They run behind search dogs who comb large areas for missing people, alive or dead. The dogs' remarkable noses and eyesight lead the searchers, signaling "Never here, was here, hers, not hers, blood, hair, bone, here, here, here." The searchers are aware that they "run dogs in the thin air between possibility of life and probability of death."
 
After three years with the team, Charleson has the experience and seniority to take the next open spot to train and run with a search dog. She's excited, but nervous. It's a serious undertaking, not a hobby or a pastime. She decides on a Golden Retriever, a breed that is extremely social, that wants and needs to work with their humans.
 
The puppy she chooses is "fat as a piglet, which suggested she could find [what she wanted], and she didn't mind crawling over nine other puppies to get it." Drive, confidence and willingness.
 

Charleson brings her home to a family of three elderly cats and six adult Pomeranians. How hard could it be? Plenty, and the tribulations of raising Puzzle are one of the many delights in this book. Walking her in the beginning is described as a combination of street fighting and deep-sea diving, but they both learn, because a good walk is at the heart of obedience, which is at the heart of a good SAR partnership.
 
The dogs, their training, and the searches--often involving coyotes, traps, stray dogs, vagrants with a grudge or meth labs and tripwires--all are fascinating. Sometimes the searches are heartbreaking, like the hunt across Texas for fragments from the space shuttle +Columbia+, and other times end with finding a missing Alzheimer's patient. But there is often no resolution.
 
The dogs in the SAR unit are definitely individuals. There's Shadow, a "talky girl," who likes to discuss her finds at great length; Hunter, a German Shepherd, a hard-charger who pushes through debris and digs, whose finds will never be unnoticed; Saber, a roughcoat Collie who is calm and precise, known for an intense protectiveness toward a victim and who early taught his handler how a search would progress and how she would pay attention to his signals: "With Saber there is no room for sloppiness or inattention." Charleson, as she trains with Puzzle, worries that she does not have it in her to be an effective partner for her dog. But after nearly two years, they both pass certification, and when they do the first official search of their partnership, she knows that she has learned to speak Puzzle and Puzzle has learned to speak Susannah.
 
Charleson's depictions of the dogs, how they work and their joys and pains (and hers) are a pleasure to read, both informative and heartwarming. She doesn't anthropomorphize the dogs but translates their dogginess for us. When she describes a boy found unharmed, rushing into his mother's arms, the tired dogs come alive, sniffing, tail-wagging. " 'Yes,' they seem to huff happily in the second scent of him, 'you're the one we're here for.' "--Marilyn Dahl
 
Shelf Talker: A fascinating, intense and often delightful story about training a search-and-rescue dog.