"I think the Nancy Drew mysteries still seem like a summer rite of passage for a lot of young readers. They're not literary masterpieces, but they're fun stories with a heroine meant for 8- to 12- year-olds."--Elizabeth Bluemle, children's author and co-owner of the Flying Pig bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., quoted by the Burlington Free Press in a story about the Nancy Drew movie opening tomorrow.

Congratulations to Jen Reynolds, director of publisher relations and events for all the Joseph-Beth and Davis-Kidd stores, who is joining PGW as Midwest sales rep, covering John Mesjak's old territory. Her last day at the Joseph-Beth Group will be Friday, June 22. She starts at PGW the following Wednesday.

Reynolds had been with Joseph-Beth 11 years and was a bookseller and small press buyer before taking her current job. Wishing her luck, Deb Covery, books product manager of Jospeh-Beth, said that while the marketing department will miss her, "we are happy that she will be our new PGW rep!"

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Carol Dunn is celebrating her purchase of Northwind Book & Fiber, a bookstore, yarn shop and gallery in Spooner, Wis., with a grand opening next week, the Spooner Advocate reported.

Dunn worked at the store for 10 years and has made a few changes after buying it from Norman and Alene Peterson. "Norman and Alene left me with a wonderful store," she said. "It's always easier to edit than to build from scratch."

Among the changes:

• New windows, lighting and a tin ceiling, all of which makes the store feel "warmer."
• A new seating area with coffee and tea.
• An expanded gallery.
• More gift items, educational toys and games.
• The addition of magazines.

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Effective July 1, the Varsity Mart at North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., is changing its name to the NDSU Bookstore, the Forum reported. Bookstore director Carol Miller said that the name Varsity Mart, which dates back to 1961, has confused off-campus customers, and "varsity" is an "outdated term" for many students. The newly renamed store is expanding into two new branches.

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"Would anyone really approach a guy wearing a giant name tag? Or a woman with a plastic giraffe on her head?" For most of us in attendance at BEA, the answer would seem to be a resounding no, but the Christian Science Monitor had a more understanding take on the "silly dress is optional" school of book- and/or self-promotion.

Tomorrow is a red-letter day for Wordsmiths Books. The new Decatur, Ga., store opens its doors at 9 a.m. and will hold grand opening festivities throughout the weekend.

Located in a 1930s-era former post office, Wordsmiths has 3,000 square feet of selling space and carries tomes of all types except for kids books. "Directly across the street from us is Little Shop of Stories, a children's bookstore," Wordsmiths marketing and pr director Russ Marshalek explained.

Wordsmiths is the brain child of Marshalek and store owner Zachary Steele, who met while working for Chapter 11 Books and first discussed the idea of launching a retail outlet over coffee last November. In addition to Marshalek and Steele, several other former Chapter 11 employees are now on board at Wordsmiths. (Chapter 11 once had more than 15 stores in and around Atlanta, but now has just one outlet.)

Along with an event space on the spelling floor that can hold 400 people, Wordsmiths has a separate area intended for use by reading groups. "It's our goal to work with publishers to have authors here specifically to meet with book clubs," Marshalek said. A third space near the store's entrance will serve as a combination reading nook (with complimentary wi-fi), a gallery for displaying works by local artists and a performance venue for musicians.

An investor in the bookstore venture is author David L. Robbins, who will headline tomorrow evening's event. By special arrangement with the publisher, Wordsmiths will be the first store in Decatur to sell copies of the paperback edition of Robbins' The Assassins Gallery. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Georgia Center for the Book, with whom Wordsmiths has partnered. The weekend's line-up also includes readings by Sheri Joseph (Stray) and Jack Pendarvis (Your Body Is Changing) on Saturday and a Father's Day brunch with motivational speaker and author Patrice Dickey.

Wordsmiths staffers will host a private party on Thursday evening, allowing them the opportunity to show family and friends why they "haven't seen us for the past half a year," said Marshalek. It's also a chance to turn their loved ones into the store's first customers. "Look at what we've done," Marshalek plans to tell them. "Now buy books."--Shannon McKenna

Wordsmiths Books is located at 141 E. Trinity Place, Decatur, Ga. 30030; 404-378-7166; www.wordsmithsbooks.com.

Bookstore sales in April were $909 million, down 6% from sales of $967 million in April 2006, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales were $5.1 billion, down 4.3% from $5.3 billion in the first four months of 2006.

By comparison, total retail sales in April rose 2.75% and are up 3.6% for the year to date. Still, many general retail chains reported dismal sales this spring, and sales at retail and food establishments fell 0.1% in April, according to the Commerce Department.

Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include "electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale" or used book sales.

This morning on the Today Show, Lisa Druxman shares tips from Lean Mommy: Bond with Your Baby and Get Fit with the Stroller Strides Program (Center Street, $17.99, 9781931722933/1931722935).

Also on the Today Show: Sara James and Ginger Mauney, authors of The Best of Friends: Two Women, Two Continents, and One Enduring Friendship (Morrow, $24.95, 9780060779481/0060779489).

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Today on KCRW's Bookworm: Joanna Scott, author of Everybody Loves Somebody (Back Bay, $13.99, 9780316013451/0316013455). As the show put it: "Joanna Scott claims her collection of stories is a history of love, from World War I to the present."

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Rob Gifford, whose new book is China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power (Random House, $26.95, 9781400064670/1400064678).

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Today on NPR's Fresh Air: Josh Rushing, author of Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World (Palgrave Macmillan, $24.95, 9781403979056/1403979057).

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Today on Fox's O'Reilly Factor: Dick Morris and Eileen McGann on Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . And What to Do about It (HC, $26.95, 9780061195402/0061195405).

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Tonight on the Colbert Report, Daniel B. Smith muses about Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination (Penguin Press, $24.95, 9781594201103/1594201102).

Book TV airs on C-Span 2 from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday and focuses on political and historical books as well as the book industry. The following are highlights for this coming weekend. For more information, go to Book TV's website.

Saturday, June 16

6 p.m. Encore Booknotes. In a segment first aired in 2000, Harold Bloom, author of How to Read and Why (Scribner, $15, 9780684859071/0684859076), talks about the inspirations for his own reading life as well as the writing of this impassioned treatise on the pleasures and benefits of reading well.

7 p.m. History on Book TV. In an event held at the Book Passage branch in San Francisco, David Talbot, author of Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years (Free Press, $28, 9780743269186/0743269187), explores the personal and political relationship between John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. Talbot is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Salon.

9 p.m. After Words. Newsweek investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff interviews Ted Gup, author of Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life (Doubleday, $24.95, 9780385514750/0385514751). Gup contends that our current political culture is defined by a misguided desire for secrecy, and examines the role of the journalist in navigating this terrain. (Re-airs Sunday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.)

10 p.m. General Assignment. A panel of book reviewers and book review editors, featuring John Leonard, Sam Tanenhaus, Christopher Hitchens, David Ulin, Francine Prose and Carlin Romano, discuss "Ethics in Book Reviewing" at BEA.

11:30 p.m. General Assignment. Stephen Colbert, Ken Burns, Khaled Hosseini and Lisa See talk about their upcoming books at the Saturday book & author breakfast at BEA.

Sunday, June 17

12 p.m. General Assignment. In an event held at the New York Public Library, Vanity Fair contributing editors Elissa Schappell and Leslie Bennetts debate the premise of Bennetts's new book, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? (Voice, $24.95, 9781401303068/1401303064).

 

After Oprah talked up LightWedge book lights on Monday in a segment about getting better sleep, LightWedge was "swamped" with orders, CEO Jamey Bennett wrote. "At about 4:30 all the phones in the office lit up and the website started going nuts. We clued in pretty quick that Oprah was the cause and started to call key customers to let them know. We also received several great inbound calls from customers that started along the lines of, 'We aren’t sure what is going on, but we have received over 300 orders for LightWedges in the last two hours, we are going to need some more inventory.' " The company has since expressed its appreciation in the front windows of its Nantucket headquarters.

 

It was only fitting that when the Audie Awards returned to New York City the Friday of BEA, one of the industry's most honored contributors served as Master of Ceremonies. Jim Dale's mantlepiece holds Grammy, Oscar, Tony and numerous Audie Awards. Moreover, his work on the Harry Potter audiobooks helped him earn a place on the Honors list: he is now Jim Dale, M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire.) After the elegant evening at the Rainbow Room, he could add another honor: charming, witty and agile host. (He also won an award--solo narration, male--for Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, from Brilliance Audio.)

The subjects of the night's first award were, fittingly, also M.B.E.s. Alfred Molina's narration of The Beatles by Robert Spitz won the Non-Fiction, Abridged Award for Simon & Schuster Audio. This marked the beginning of a kind of second British Invasion: several British narrated and/or produced audiobooks took home the crystal award.

One of two new awards this year was Spanish language, created to recognize the many audiobooks for Spanish speakers. Fonolibro had three nominees; its translation of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, read by Raul Amundaray, won.

The other new award reflected further divisions in the children's category, with a prize for Children's Titles for Ages 8-11, won by Recorded Books' production of Gloria Whelan's Listening for Lions, read by Bianca Amato, and Children's Titles for Ages 12+, won by Full Cast Audio's Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Director Dan Bostick proudly noted Full Cast's age-appropriate casting: David Kelly, the narrator of Airborn, is 14, making him the youngest narrator in the history of the awards.

A Special Achievement Award and a portrait by Peter Max went to Audible founder and CEO Don Katz on the occasion of the company's 10th anniversary. (On average, Max listens to seven hours of Audible audiobooks every day as he paints.) Mary Beth Roche, chair of this year's event and former longtime Audio Publishers Association president, praised Katz's innovation and determination.

Classics are always popular in the audio format; this year's honoree was also a nominee for Audiobook of the Year. HarperAudio publisher Ana Maria Alessi recounted the encouragement she received from the audiobook world as she brought Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird out in an audio edition. When a clip aired of narrator Sissy Spacek articulating the book's memorable opening lines about her brother's broken arm, the audience, lost in Scout's world, sighed.

An astonished Bruce Coville accepted the Achievement in Production award--one of the most prestigious categories--for his Full Cast Audio production of Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl, narrated by Cynthia Bishop. The Package Design award winner, this year one of the easiest to predict, was Listening Library for the innovative packaging for the 10th anniversary edition of The Golden Compass. (Booksellers should note that this would be an excellent audiobook to feature because the film is now being teased in theaters.)

The most heartfelt moment of the evening was a tribute to Kate Fleming. Producer, award-winning narrator and audio advocate, Fleming died tragically as she tried to save her work from floodwaters in Seattle last December. Scott Brick recalled presenting an Audie with Fleming, also known as Anna Fields, three years ago. That same evening she won an award. With it in hand, he recalled, Fleming told the audiobook community, "I love my job!" with a depth of sincerity that touched everyone. (Fleming's sentiment became the mantra of the evening: several winners affirmed their love for their work, too.) Fleming's partner and mother were presented with a replacement for the earlier award that was swept away, and the pair--and Fleming--received a standing ovation.

The Audiobook of the Year honored the extraordinary effort in marketing, production, packaging and more that was put into Inspired by . . . The Bible Experience: New Testament (Zondervan). The recipients said that they wished their entire team could be with them but they were back home working on the Old Testament. Two astounding facts: the production began with a cast of 30, including such celebrated actors as Angela Bassett, Denzel Washington and Cuba Gooding, Jr., and eventually grew to over 300. Some 48 engineers worked on the production.

Audio Renaissance and Blackstone Audio won four Audies each, Recorded Books and S&S followed with three. Publishers with two awards were Zondervan, Full Cast Audio, Random House and HarperCollins. Isis, Hyperion, Tantor Media, BBC Audiobooks America, Weston Woods, Focus on the Family, Hachette, Brilliance and Soundwalk each took home an Audie. For a complete list of categories and their victors, visit the Audio Publishers Association website and remember that June is Audiobook Month!--Ellen Myrick

After conveying the ascetic values of Henry David Thoreau for the picture book crowd in Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and its sequels, Johnson here lightheartedly examines the political themes in George Orwell's Animal Farm for youngest readers. On "a tumbledown farm where only animals lived," Farmer Orvie, a pig clad in overalls, cap and boots, tips back in a chair, ostensibly to keep the lean-to buildings standing ("I'm holding up the barn all by myself," says he). Comic details show the letters "The Manor Farm" transformed into "No Man Farm," and the graffiti-like motto (which acts as Orvie's refrain), "4 legs bad, 2 legs good," painted on the side of the dilapidated barn. But when Orvie claims he cannot budge from his chair and, in a circle of panel illustrations, barks orders to Duck, Cow, Goat and Donkey to shine his boots and bring him slops to eat, they bristle. "That farmer is a lazy pig!" Cow observes. So Duck approaches the porcine fellow, "I have 2 legs, Orvie," says she. "Can I be the farmer now?" Orvie replies, "You have to do big work to wear the farmer boots." So Duck fights back.

In the first of only two full-bleed spreads, Duck steals away from the swirling swimming hole back to the barn, against a midnight-blue backdrop and the "chug-a-lug, glug-glug sound" of the draining pond. The other critters soon identify the culprit (she wears the pond's drain around her neck) and give chase. Johnson's signature cubist style works to great effect in a series of panel illustrations that heighten the perspective and quicken the pacing. As the creatures pursue Duck through a pond that has devolved into a mud hole, guess who is the only one to get stuck? A triumphant spread shows the teamwork involved in freeing a now naked and humbled pig. "Hooray! 18 legs best!" exclaims Duck, as equanimity is restored to No Man Farm. This book can stand proudly alongside Johnson's Henry books. Hooray indeed.--Jennifer M. Brown