Midtown Reader, Tallahassee, Fla., has purchased the building next door and, after it's demolished, will use the space to expand the store and for additional parking, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

"I'm really excited about it," owner Sally Bradshaw told the newspaper. "This is our eighth year, and I think our customers have shown there is a need for and a demand for a locally owned bookstore." The store expansion, she noted, will provide an events space and more inventory for Midtown Reader.

The building to be demolished was the home of Waterworks, a tiki bar that closed in January after 32 years in business. Many businesses in the Midtown area have long complained about a lack of adequate parking for customers.

On Facebook, the store posted in part, "We have long enjoyed partnering with Waterworks for movie nights, book signings, and everything we love about the Midtown neighborhood. But we have some exciting news! Last week, Midtown Reader purchased the Waterworks property, and we are planning a future expansion to grow what we love: our community.

"We're so grateful for the support of our readers over the last eight years, and it's always been our dream to bring you more books, new authors, and expanded event space in-house. You've proved that indie bookstores feed a community, and you've encouraged our growth. This won't happen overnight, but in the meantime, we remain grateful to be your neighborhood bookstore. Stay tuned for our progress, and keep shopping and reading local!"

In partnership with Hudson Group, Green Apple Books has opened a branch in the San Francisco International Airport in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1. The store stocks books, newspapers, magazines, vinyl, CDs, audiobooks, gifts, and more. It is "the largest Hudson bookstore in the country," Green Apple said.

Green Apple, which has two locations iand owns Browser Books, all in San Francisco, added that the store "takes elements of our other locations: a wide selection of books in all subject areas; staff favorites from our booksellers; key titles from Green Apple's history; carefully chosen LPs and gifts; hand painted section headers, and knotty pine bookcases. Alas, SFO wouldn't allow creaky stairs or random old posters taped to the wall, but Green Apple and Hudson have definitely captured much of the spirit of Green Apple."

Hudson has similar partnerships with other independent bookstores around the country, including Vroman's, Pasadena, Calif.; Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, Colo.; Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Wash.; Warwick's, La Jolla, Calif.; Bookworks, Albuquerque, N.Mex.; McNally Jackson, New York City; Barbara's Bookstore, Chicago, Ill.; and Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tenn. The King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah, has a similar arrangement with Paradies Lagardère.

On Tuesday morning at Children's Institute 2024 in New Orleans, La., three booksellers discussed ways of supporting young readers through tough times.

On the panel were Danielle Pernell, bookseller at King's Books in Tacoma, Wash., and Lorie Barber, education director at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville and Downers Grove, Ill., while Heather Albinson, bookseller at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, Minn., moderated the session.

The trio described tough times as a "concentric circle," with layers pertaining to global, local, interpersonal, and internal tough times, and they identified representation as the fundamental first step in making children and teens feel supported. A store's children's section "has to reflect the community," Pernell said, and she noted that representation includes not just race but also gender expression, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, and more.

It was also key, the panelists agreed, for booksellers to be able to support each other. That involves staff members consistently checking in and communicating with each other as well as educating each other. Barber explained that her role at Anderson's includes educating staff, particularly those working mainly with adult books, about things going on in the children's literature world and among young people more broadly. She emphasized the value of children's staff at all-ages bookstores sharing recommendations with booksellers in other departments.

A significant topic of discussion was agency, or as Albinson put it, "giving that child the ability to find resources on their own." Lots of little things could contribute to agency, such as talking directly to the child as well as the parent or guardian; having child-safe step stools located in the children's section so that kids can pull books from the shelves themselves; and putting shelf talkers written by kids at a child's eye-level.

Pernell remarked that when people hear the phrase tough times, they tend to think of very serious books about heavy topics. And while books like that certainly have their place, sometimes the best way to support a child going through tough times is to give them a book full of joy and whimsy. "Joy is a radical act," she said, that can "break through even the toughest times." Adding to that, Albinson suggested creating a variety of displays, some directly addressing big topics, and others focusing on fun or goofy subjects.

The panel also touched on the various gatekeepers that exist in children's reading lives, including educators as well as parents and guardians. With teachers, Barber said, the gatekeeping has increased sharply in recent years because "people are afraid for their jobs." When organizing school visits, faculty members are now asking to see the author's slide decks in advance, which is something that did not happen until recently, Barber pointed out. Educators are "under the thumb" of school boards and operating under book bans forced into place by a "very loud and vocal minority." In her role, she tries to "cut through that fear" so teachers can bring these books back into their classrooms and make "every child feel seen and heard and validated."

Albinson acknowledged that sometimes, booksellers need to curate their messaging in order to "get past the gatekeeper with the credit card," and one way of doing that is "talking to children through the abstract." As an example, Pernell mentioned titles like Bunnybear by Andrea J. Loney (illustrated by Carmen Saldaña) and Neither by Airlie Anderson. The books do not directly mention gender identity at all, but the former is about a bear who feels more like a bunny inside, and the latter is about an animal that's not quite a bird and not quite a bunny. "Putting the abstract out there," Pernell added, "is a great way for you to have that safe space for kids."

Other actionable items booksellers can take home included putting topical books in high-traffic areas, displaying adult books and children's books on the same tough topic together, tagging tough topics in Edelweiss, and adding chairs to the children's section to encourage kids to sit and read. --Alex Mutter

Among the enlightening and practical panels last week at Children's Institute, The New Strategy for Author Events considered how Covid-19 has forced an evolution in bookstore events. The participants discussed updated strategies for "forming mutually beneficial relationships with publishing partners, managing ticketing and turnout, and creating an ordering strategy that feels less like throwing spaghetti at the wall and more like a tactical approach to hitting your event numbers bullseye." The panel, moderated by Cathy Berner of Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex., featured Thu Doan from East Bay Booksellers, Oakland, Calif., Casey Robinson of the Silver Unicorn Bookstore, Acton, Mass., and Angie Zhao of bbgb in Richmond, Va.

Berner began by asking the panel "how many total author events was your bookstore doing before the pandemic and how many are you doing now?" Doan answered first: "Three to four events per week in the store before pandemic; after, we've done 10 events total." Robinson said her store also did three or four per week pre-pandemic and are now doing two a week: one during the week and one over the weekend. "The feeling of the event planning shift is one of distillation. We've really honed what we're doing--it's definitely fewer events, more intentionally scheduled." Zhao noted that she started in 2021, right in the middle of the virtual school year. "There were maybe 20 events that happened in 2019," she said. "Last year, 2023, we did 106." Berner said that before the pandemic, Blue Willow did about 400 events a year. "During the pandemic, we did more than 700 virtual events. Now, we consider carefully why we will say yes to an event. We still do about 300 a year, but we're more deliberate in our reasoning. Before, we would almost always say yes; now we consider why we should say yes."

(l.-r.) Cathy Berner, Thu Doan, Casey Robinson, Angie Zhao

So, Berner asked, why are we doing events? "I think about events singularly," Robinson said. The idea is to make authors, illustrators, and customers happy when leaving the store. "I also think about events in aggregate as an opportunity to extend our brand. What do we want people to feel about the store? What role do events play in facilitating that?" Basically, Robinson said, "I try to think with one eye on the execution of the individual event and one eye on the bigger picture." Events are so much more than "events," Zhao agreed--especially as a children's bookseller. "I would argue that children's events are, in many ways, more difficult than adult events." You are taking "two (child and parent) completely different and sometimes competing interests and creating a time and space to bring those audiences together to celebrate the same thing. It's more than just an event--it's almost like the heart of the actual bookstore." Doan has had a very different experience from the other panelists: "There are five of us on staff and we do everything. Every single role. It took us a long time to get back into events." For the first two years, Doan said, they didn't want to do events at all. No one had the energy. "When we were finally ready to do events, it showed. Now, we have big and meaningful events."

"Have you had to change your ticketing processes?" Berner asked. Zhao said the store needed a way to manage expectations and have since "tried and gotten better at avoiding low turnout through mandatory RSVPs, even for free events." She had an excellent idea for "those devastating moments when there's not even one person in the crowd." She suggested to the author that they "make this into a virtual interview that can be put on the website." They used Crowdcast and invited anyone who did show up to the event to be part of the live cast and recording.

Robinson said the Silver Unicorn Bookstore doesn't ticket for events in-store, but does "a ticket with book sale" for offsite events. "I find this very stressful," she said, admitting that she refreshes the ticket numbers over and over. "I feel like we all share that 'please please please please please come' feeling before the event." Robinson also said that the bookstore has started a kids' graphic novel festival: "This year 3,000 people came, so we really needed that data to let us know to ask the town to close down the street next to our store and to rent the large wedding tent."

Doan said the first event at East Bay Booksellers was held in-store but the staff quickly realized they "did not have the energy to move fixtures and clean everything." They switched to a "completely off-site partner" and now host everything at a local brewery. That venue, though, "has a lot of rules around ticketing, so all of our events are free, and we use Eventbrite for ticketing."

When asked what they find particularly important when working with event partners, Doan responded: "transparency." Being clear with partners "will set you up for success. As an independent bookstore, we are fostering human connection with our communities. We're always working toward improving, and I think that needs to be reflected in how we connect with all the functions in our bookstore." Berner agreed, suggesting events coordinators be "kindly candid." If, for example, "you're asked to do three visits in one day and the author is flying out that night, suggest to the author or publicist that this may not be a great idea. I have found that publicists appreciate having that information." And it's important to maintain that transparency post-event as well: "You're doing a disservice to any event partner if you're not being honest with them about how the event went," Zhao said. And be curious, Robinson added. "Going from what you think you know to what you actually know usually involves putting it into words--having that conversation with the author and the publicists. It's in an effort to better the ecosystem" and to help the individual event coordinators learn from every function.

Berner ended the panel with an activity: "How can you move from a scarcity mindset to reframe event success from a place of abundance?" Robinson answered with a story. "This makes me think about all the different kinds of events we do. I can talk about the small event that had four kids come and they clutched their well-worn copies of the book to their chests. The absolute awe and joy on those kids' faces? That event was a success. I can talk about the self-pubbed memoir that we did for a community member, and she packed the house. She was absolutely beloved, and her book was on our top 10 list for months and months. That event was also a success. Of course we need to stay in business, of course we need to sell books, of course we want flashy names to promote on our social media. But I think it's important we think broadly about why we're doing it. What we're doing is building trust with events and once you have that trust, you've built that brand and people will come." --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

At Children's Institute in New Orleans last week, Little Bee Books hosted a dinner for author Cheyenne Stone (Toypurina). Pictured: Virgie DeNucci (Off the Beaten Path, Steamboat Springs, Colo.); Cheyenne Stone; Danielle Skov (Off the Beaten Path); Madison Kirkbride (Second Star to the Right, Denver, Colo.); Audrey Moor and Sean Moor (The Book Jewel, Los Angeles, Calif); Calvin Crosby (The King's English, Salt Lake City, Utah).

Carlee Boomer has been promoted to distribution client sales coordinator at Chronicle Books.

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Karen Menzie has joined Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree as senior national account manager to Amazon. Menzie was most recently director of sales at Zibby Books.

Strategically Navigating Anti-Black Racism in Professional Spaces by Pearis Jean (New Harbinger Publications).

Today:
Good Morning America: Derek Black, author of The Klansman's Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism (Abrams, $30, 9781419764783).

Here & Now: Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593652824).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Dr. Anthony Fauci, author of On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service (Viking, $36, 9780593657478). He will also appear tomorrow on CBS Mornings.

Tomorrow:
Morning Joe: Louise Story and Ebony Reed, authors of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap (Harper, $32, 9780063234727)

Good Morning America: Taraji P. Henson, author of You Can Be a Good Friend (Zonderkidz, $19.99, 9780310160595).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Nicola Yoon, author of One of Our Kind: A Novel (Knopf, $28, 9780593470671).

Several book-related productions came up winners at last night's Tony Awards, including: 

The Outsiders, based on the novel by S.E Hinton: Best musical; direction of a musical (Danya Taymor); sound design of a musical (Cody Spencer); lighting design of a musical (Brian MacDevitt and Hana S. Kim)

Suffs, inspired by the book Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote by Doris Stevens: Best book of a musical (Shaina Taub); original score (Shaina Taub)

The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel: Costume design of a musical (Linda Cho)

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, based on stories by Christopher Isherwood: Scenic design of a musical (Tom Scutt)

E.J. Koh has won the New York Public Library's $10,000 Young Lions Fiction Award for her novel, The Liberators (Tin House). The award spotlights "contemporary novels that reflect the diversity of interests and experiences of the communities the Library serves."

A.M. Homes, one of the judges, said, "The Liberators is a deft and powerful novel, historical and deeply humane. E.J. Koh illuminates Korean history with compassion and a poet's gift for language creating a haunting and resonant elegy that cuts across the great divide of multiple countries and generations."

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Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein has won the £25,000 (about $31,670) Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. Organizers said that Hungry Ghosts, published in the U.S. by Ecco, "tells the story of marginalised Hindu communities in Trinidad during the 1940s when, in the words of the author, 'British colonial rule was loosening' and 'Trinidad was starting to be reborn.' "

Judges said, "Richly imaginative, urgent and compelling, Hungry Ghosts plunges us into the turbulence of precarious lives struggling to flourish amid the vivid natural lushness of 1940s Trinidad. For the 2024 Walter Scott Prize Kevin Jared Hosein has triumphed with a many-layered tale woven with the dexterity and alchemy of the true story-teller."

Hosein lives in Trinidad and Tobago, is the author of two previous novels, and won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018.

In her riveting 10th nonfiction book, historian Pamela D. Toler (Women Warriors) profiles reporter Sigrid Schultz (1893-1980), who ran the Berlin bureau of the Chicago Tribune for a decade and a half, and repeatedly warned her American readers about the rise of Nazism.

Born in Chicago to a Norwegian painter and a mother of multiethnic European descent, Schultz always considered herself American, though she spent decades living abroad. A multilingual, only child, she worked as a teacher and a translator as a young woman before meeting several journalists from the Tribune as World War I ended. She took a job as a "combination interpreter and cub reporter," using her broad network of connections in Berlin to gain the interviews her colleagues wanted. The job gave Schultz the training she needed to become a star journalist, and eventually to head up the Tribune's Berlin bureau.

Toler's narrative paints a fascinating picture of her subject: a woman driven to hunt down the next story and to bring the truth to her readers. Determined to prove herself equal to her male colleagues, Schultz worked long hours, carefully verified her facts, and called herself a "newspaperman." She reported on local and national politics, the growing military might of the Nazi Party, and the lives of ordinary Germans in Weimar-era Berlin, often throwing parties to cultivate connections for stories. Toler charts the rise of the Nazis through Schultz's fastidious reporting on their activities and her clever ways of getting around the censors, including the use of a male pseudonym.

Due to illness and exhaustion, Schultz left Berlin for a planned vacation in January 1941. She ended up spending the rest of the war in the U.S., safe from Nazi violence but longing to return to her reporting work. She did return to report on the postwar trials at Lüneburg, helping to expose the horrors of the concentration camps. Toler chronicles Schultz's struggle to carve out a new place for herself once the war ended. She tried her hand at lecture tours, magazine articles, and book writing, though she admitted she was "just a reporter" in the end. Toler exposes the discrimination Schultz often faced as a woman in male-dominated press offices, but also highlights her successes: her broad network of informants, her sharply reported articles, and her invaluable contributions to the Tribune.

Vivid, insightful, and meticulously researched, Toler's biography turns a well-deserved spotlight on Schultz and her career. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Pamela D. Toler's riveting 10th nonfiction book delves into the life of Chicago Tribune journalist Sigrid Schultz, who, while reporting from Berlin, warned American readers about the rise of Nazism.