Port Book and News in Port Angeles, Wash., is under new ownership. Crystal Council acquired the business from longtime owners Cindy and Alan Turner. A Port Angeles native, Council spent 10 years in the Air Force before returning to the city, most recently serving as CFO of ACTI. She will be operating the bookstore with her partner, Orion Paulsen, and her mother, Karen McCormick. 

In a statement announcing the transition, the Turners noted: "We know that Crystal and her family have a profound understanding of the important role an independent bookstore plays in a community and recognize how deeply invested this town is in this store. Crystal is committed to continuing the 38-year legacy of Port Book and News as she makes it her own. We will be here to assist in the transition for the next two months. Our current, excellent and knowledgeable staff will remain, which Crystal requested without reservation."

Alan Turner told KONP: "It's been a great 38 years in this town. It's been a wonderful run. Both Cindy and I are delighted. We've had a great life. Not leaving town, we'll be here through March to help them with the transition. Nothing much is going to change, except I hope that the jokes will improve. The current great staff is going to remain. The people that are taking over have deep roots in this town and they know how important this bookstore is to the town. We expect that they'll just continue the legacy."

McCormick observed that the Turners "managed to steward this business through the Kindle era, and the introduction of digital books, and audiobooks, and somehow people still want to put a paper book into their hands. There's something about it that is different than having a screen in your face. And I think that a lot of people in our local area appreciate that more. And I'm not quite sure what that is, but I'm sure thankful for it."

Black & Read, a new and used bookstore in Arvada, Colo., is relocating, the Arvada Press reported.

Black and Read's current location

After 34 years at 7821 Wadsworth Blvd., the bookstore, which also sells music, games, and comics, will move to 6655 Wadsworth Blvd. It will be switching from a storefront in a strip mall to a larger, freestanding building.

In a message to customers announcing the move, the Black & Read team wrote: "We have the best customers in the world, and everybody seems to be in agreement that we need more space.... You can expect the same eclectic selection of merchandise, interactive employees and welcoming atmosphere at the new location, but it's going to take a while to fill it up and make it feel like home. Our new landlord is awesome, so we are moving all of our existing shelves and bins down there for now."

The team noted that it was important to them to stay in Arvada and continue to be part of the community. While they did not give an estimate of when the move will be complete, they are running a 20% off sale at the store until the end of the month.

From the Ground Up Books, La Grange, Ky., is planning to expand its offerings beyond new and used books. WLKY reported that owner Lynn Tincher hopes to transform the bookstore into a vibrant community hub with a café and wine bar by this summer. 

"I started the bookstore literally from the very first book. The community helped me come together. They really came together and supported me," she said.

From the Ground Up Books opened in 2023, and Tincher added a second location in Shepherdsville last May. "I'm really trying to make it a place where people want to come and hang out. So, you could sit here and play checkers or whatever to be able to build on that," she noted.  

The planned expansion will see both locations incorporating a wine bar and café, complete with outdoor seating and a space for live music. She has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the expansion at both locations. 

"We're just now getting started. We have just a few handful of donations so far, but I think this is something the community would really like," Tincher said.

On the GoFundMe page, she wrote: "We envision cozy indoor spaces, charming outdoor seating with gazebos, tables, and chairs, plus a dedicated space for musicians to perform. Imagine enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while diving into a good book or listening to live music under the stars.

"This expansion will also create a central café at our La Grange location to serve both locations, offering delightful beverages, light snacks, and a warm atmosphere to elevate your bookstore experience."

Rebecca Lee Kunz (photo: Jeremy Charles)

Rebecca Lee Kunz is a multimedia artist and the owner of Tree of Life Studio in Santa Fe, N.Mex. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and her work draws upon traditional iconography and is greatly inspired by mythic and archetypical symbolism, where each of her paintings serves as an invocation and a prayer. Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers (Levine Querido) is her debut picture book. She is the winner of the 2024 Caldecott Award, announced earlier this week.

Hello and congratulations! This is your first picture book, correct? How are you feeling?

Yes, this is my first picture book. I'm over the moon. This past 24 hours has been just wonderful.

You met author Andrea L. Rogers by chance, right? And that's how you were brought onto this project?

I met Andrea at the Cherokee National Holiday in 2022. We started speaking, and I was later offered a book contract by Nick Thomas at Levine Querido for Andrea's manuscript, Chooch Helped.

How did you feel about the text when you first read it?

I loved the story from the first time I read it. It's a beautifully written, heartwarming tale that most everyone can relate to.

Did you have an idea of how you wanted this book to look right away? Or did it take some time?

I had some ideas from the beginning, but then the illustrations took on their own life as I began to work on them--it took some time to develop the style of this book.

How did you develop this book's style?

I have been developing my artistic style for many years, through lots of sweat and tears. It took some time to learn how to translate my painterly style to the picture book format. I love organic textures and colors, and my style is based on those things. I have been studying symbology for many years. I incorporate Cherokee symbols in all my work and motifs, and I infused them into every part of this book.

Your bio describes you as a multimedia artist and the book combines watercolor, gouache, printmaking, collage, and digital illustration. How do you pull those different mediums together? How do you know what wants to be done with what medium?

Before starting a project, I put together all the elements that will go into the art: the color palette, the textures, the symbols, and the symbolic themes for each character. I work intuitively, and each painting comes together differently. Each image begins with a sketch; next, I start creating the different background layers and textures and motifs; and then I finally start painting the scene and characters. Many of the images have overlapping and consistent themes. And, whether I'm working by hand or digitally, I always work with many layers.

The palette here is striking--you consistently use soft pinks, tans, yellows, with just a few double-page spreads that feature midnight blues and blacks. Could you speak to that a bit?

Color plays such an important role in my work. I choose colors carefully to convey specific emotions and messages. I love to work in subtle earthtones while throwing in splashes of bold color to demarcate things that feel important. I am deeply inspired by the colors of New Mexico, where I live--from the colors of the earth, clay, and pinon trees to the wild jewel-tone colors of our sunsets. 

I love how the patterns of the children's clothing move outside the lines and the borders of their bodies. Why is that? What do those spreading patterns mean?

I create patterns/motifs for each character to develop the mood and personality I want to convey. Like each human has their own set of unique characteristics--an "energy"--each character in this book does, too. I used symbols and colors to paint a symbolic picture of each personality. As the characters may experience different emotions at different points in the story, their personality symbols and traits follow them. The motifs for each character have energy and life and often reside outside of the characters' bodies, as the energy or aura of a human does.

Your illustrator's note says, "the illustrations are rich with Cherokee symbolism and culture." Would you give us some examples of this in Chooch Helped?

Yes, an example of this would be the small cross symbols that you see in Sissy's dress and around her "aura." The cross, in Cherokee culture, sometimes symbolizes the four winds or the four directions.

Who do you hope reads this book? What do you want them to get out of it?

I hope children from any race or background can pick up this book and relate to the characters. Specifically, I hope Indigenous children pick up this book and feel like they can see a bit of themselves in the characters. I hope this book speaks to their souls.

Are you planning to illustrate more picture books? Anything in the works?

Yes, I'm working on another picture book right now, which hasn't been announced publicly, and I plan to keep making more books! I absolutely fell in love with the craft of book illustration.

Is there anything you'd like to say to Shelf Awareness readers?

Please keep believing that you matter. Kindness and joy matter. It is through the small acts that we create the world we want to live in, whether it's through supporting a local small bookstore to small acts of generosity. Do not doubt that the decisions you make matter. I believe children need to see examples of beauty, compassion, and care. The art of slow handmade crafts matters more than ever in this busy fast-paced world. I hope that my work can be a beacon in what can feel like a sea of darkness right now. I wish for everyone to feel like they are a beacon. We are the light we wish to create in the world, and it's our time to carry that torch. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness

Bookstore chain WH Smith "is in secret talks to sell its entire high street business in Britain more than 230 years after it opened its first shop in central London," Sky News reported, adding that negotiations have been underway with a number of prospective buyers of the division for several weeks.

The division, which comprises about 500 stores, employing approximately 5,000 people, is currently part of the same group as the company's "faster-growing, more profitable travel retail business, comprising 600 shops in the U.K., about half of its global operation in airports, train stations and hospitals.

WH Smith's high street division recorded flat operating profit of £32 million (about $40 million) last year. The travel business accounts for 75% of the company's revenue, and 85% of profits, due to higher margins. Sky News noted that it is growing particularly quickly in the U.S. market.

Results reported today highlighted the continuing split between WH Smith's two main businesses. In the 21-week period ended January 25, WH Smith reported that travel division sales rose 7% while high street sales dropped 6%, the Bookseller reported.

In a statement, WH Smith confirmed it was "exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash generative part of the Group, including a possible sale.... Over the past decade, WH Smith has become a focused global travel retailer. The Group's Travel business has over 1,200 stores across 32 countries... There can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached, and further updates will be provided as and when appropriate."

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Books "recounting torture in Syrian prisons or texts on radical Islamic theology now sit openly in Damascus bookstores, no longer traded in secret after iron-fisted ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster," AFP (via France 24) reported, adding that several books that were previously banned and only available to Syrians if they were pirated online "now frequently pop up on footpath displays or inside bookshops." Among those titles are The Shell by Syrian author Mustafa Khalifa and My Aunt's House by Iraqi author Ahmed Khairi Alomari. 

Prison literature "was totally forbidden," said bookshop owner Abu Yamen. "Before, people didn't even dare to ask--they knew what awaited them."

In his Damascus bookshop, Abdel Rahman Suruji "displays leather-bound works emblazoned with golden calligraphy of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, a medieval Muslim theologian and important Salafi ideologue, as well as titles by Sayyed Qotb, a theoretician behind the Muslim Brotherhood who inspired its radicalization," AFP wrote.

"All these books were prohibited. We sold them in secret, just to those who we could trust--students we knew or researchers," he recalled, adding that now they are in "high demand."

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The RISE Bookselling project, which the European and International Booksellers Federation launched in 2022 as a three-year initiative supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission, has been renewed for four more years. 

"This next chapter allows us to expand the activities that make RISE so special. And most importantly, it ensures that the soul of this project--you, the booksellers--will keep thriving," EIBF noted.

During its first three years, RISE hosted the first and second international conferences specifically tailored for booksellers, with more than 250 booksellers participating in Prague and more than 300 in Lisbon. The program also supported 114 booksellers from all over the world through the RISE Booksellers Exchange Program, and sent a total of 91 booksellers to 16 of the most important trade events, including the Frankfurt Book Fair, the American Booksellers Association's Winter Institute, Rencontres nationales de la librairie, and more.

In addition, six volumes of Industry Insights, RISE's research reports on key topics for the industry, were released, as well as three seasons of the Let's Talk Bookselling podcast. --Robert Gray

Grand Gesture Books, Portland, Ore., featured some video advice on "luring customers into your bookstore on a cold winter's night," noting that "January can be such a slow time for a bookstore (or any small business, really), so maybe consider stopping by a business that you love and checking out their cute items? We have great books, great neighbors (@craftywonderland and @casestudycoffee), and great sales associates. Oh, and the best music taste out there, if we do say so ourselves!"

"It's a calm Tuesday at the bookshop," Catherine Carter, owner of the Dog-Eared Page, Danville, Va., posted on Facebook earlier this week. "When I started this journey several years ago, I would have never thought that we'd be here. The shop is not only a second home to my family, but to many others, and I cannot even begin to explain how humbling it is that many of you are so familiar with the shop that you can come in, grab a seat, and chat about whatever is on your mind because you know that we care and we love you. The community we've built over the last several years is a beautiful one that has become more of a family than anything else, and I consider that one of the biggest blessings in my life. Whether you've been a customer one time, or whether you are here more than you're not, know that we love you and we're thankful for you. We're open until 6pm today, so come by and see us! We love you, Danville, thank you for always being so supportive."

Sara Eagle has been promoted to director of marketing, Alfred A. Knopf and Knopf Cooks at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Eagle has been at Knopf for 19 years, and held positions in both marketing and publicity.

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At Candlewick Press, Holiday House, and Peachtree Publishing:

Sara DiSalvo has been promoted to assistant director of publicity. Her previous title was Publicity Manager.

Rachel Kirby has been promoted to publicity manager. Her previous title was senior publicist.

Stephanie Pando has been promoted to senior publicist. Her previous title was publicist.

Tomorrow:
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Pamela Anderson, author of I Love You: Recipes from the Heart (Voracious, $35, 9780316573481).

Peacock has given a series pickup to the Elin Hilderbrand novel The Five-Star Weekend. Deadline reported that the project, starring Jennifer Garner (The Last Thing He Told Me, Yes Day), is from UCP.

Created by Bekah Brunstetter (Maid, This is Us), The Five-Star Weekend "had been in the works at the streamer for about a year under an overall deal Sue Naegle and Ali Krug signed with the Universal Studio Group unit for their Dinner Party Productions. The series green light was secured by Garner coming on board as star and executive producer," Deadline noted.

Brunstetter serves as creator, writer, and executive producer. Beth Schacter (Billions, Super Pumped) is writer and executive producer. Naegle (Pam and Tommy, The Day of the Jackal) and Krug (Pam and Tommy, The Staircase) executive produce through their Dinner Party Productions. Hilderbrand also exec produces.

The U.S. chapter of the International Board for Books for Young People (USBBY) has chosen its 2025 Outstanding International Books featuring children's and YA titles published in 2024 that originated or were first published in another country. To see the list of the 40 titles, which come from 23 countries, and are listed by age category, click here.

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Irene Hasenburg Butter has been honored with the Anne Frank Award for Human Dignity and Tolerance, presented to a person who "has demonstrated a commitment to confronting intolerance, antisemitism, racism, or discrimination while upholding freedom and equal rights to promote an open, pluralistic, and democratic society." Butter, the author of From Holocaust to Hope: Shores Beyond Shores (Leapfrog Press), will receive the award in March.

photo: Lucas Marquardt

Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry and is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Her first picture book, In Praise of Mystery, illustrated by Peter Sís (Norton Young Readers), is based on the poem that she wrote to be engraved on NASA's orbiter spacecraft, Europa Clipper, which launched to the second moon of Jupiter on October 14, 2024. Her second children's book, And, Too, the Fox, illustrated by Gaby D'Alessandro, is out now from Lerner Books.

Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:

A picture book for the imagination, In Praise of Mystery expands ideas about space and our relationship to our own wondrous planet.

On your nightstand now: 

I'm currently reading The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger, a smart and engaging book about the biology and wonder of plants. I love how the more we learn about nature, the more we realize how wise the natural world is. I find this book a welcome journey into the inner workings and science behind the plant world. It's amazing to me how much we still have to learn about how plants live, thrive, and suffer on this planet.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Flying Dimitri by Blair Drawson is a beautiful picture book that explores the blurred lines between our reality and our dreams. I remember staring at the pictures as a child and imagining flying over the oceans, over whales. I think most of my flying dreams came from this book when I was a little one. Gorgeous illustrations that offer something new each time you look! 

Your top five authors:

I'm honestly not sure if I can answer this question. I have a hard time ranking books that I love and authors that I love. We go to books and writers for different reasons. Sometimes I crave the lyrical poetry of Audre Lorde, sometimes the long line of Larry Levis. Sometimes I need the images and impeccable sentences of Virginia Woolf and sometimes I need the abundance and power of Juan Felipe Herrera's poetry. My favorites change because I change and what I need at the moment changes.

Book you've faked reading:

Okay, I don't want this to sound dismissive or rude, but I think I've faked reading pretty much anything by Philip Roth. I tried. I really did. I've tried and I've failed. But if someone asks me, I nod my head because it somehow seems like I've read his books. I've read portions: I've started and stopped. There's something about his books that have always shut me out. And I'm okay with that. I don't think they were written for me. Sometimes when someone is not talking to you, you don't have to listen.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a book I tell everyone about. Over and over, I'll send it out and share it. I send it to friends and family members. It's one of the few books I've read multiple times. It's also one of the few books that reimagines our relationship with the natural world as a reciprocal one. I've referred to her book in my poems and there are lines from that book I hold as talismans against despair.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X. What an incredible cover and title. Such a powerful book. And the image on the cover is so good. Also, when I was a teenager and working at my local independent bookstore (Readers' Books in Sonoma, Calif.) I remember buying both Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García or their covers. Still love those books (and their covers!).

Book you hid from your parents:

I'm pretty sure I hid any of the Sweet Valley High books because I thought they'd assume they were full of silly romances and were more like soap operas. But let's face it, as a young person, soap operas and romance are delightful! I think those books felt like eating cotton candy and I don't think my parents disapproved entirely but I think they'd steer me in another direction if they saw me reading them.

Book that changed your life:

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde is a book that deeply changed me. It gave me language for so much of my life. I remember reading it as a sophomore in college and feeling unprepared for the world and yet her words, the explorations of feminism and racism and class, all felt like the world was being unveiled. It was a book that made me feel like I wasn't alone.

Also, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I had never read a book that mapped the mind so effortlessly, so seemingly true. I remember how it made me gasp as the mind and memory were laid bare. I believed every single word.

And the musical Really Rosie, with lyrics and books by Maurice Sendak and music by Carole King. I think I listened to that album for five years straight. I probably have every single word still memorized. Part of me thinks I always wanted to be, more than anyone else, Really Rosie. I still remember the first lines/lyrics: "I'm really Rosie, I'm Rosie real, you better believe me, I'm a great big deal."

Favorite line from a book:

"Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond." --Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Five books you'll never part with:

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (I still have the original copy)
Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III
Snake Dreams by Francisco X. Alarcón (I have a signed copy I cherish)
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Snow White by Paul Heins, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I'd love to read The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare again. I loved the descriptions and the way being an outsider was explored. It's been years since I've read it, but I'd love to read it again. I'd also love to read the Narnia Chronicles again. I remember loving them so much as a child. And let me add that every time I'm reading Emily Dickinson, I feel like I'm reading her for the first time, so that's a gift. Each poem opens up in a new way and once again I am seeing the world anew.

Ashley Hope Pérez's Out of Darkness "became one of the most banned books in the U.S." in 2021. The removal of her books from libraries and schools and the vitriolic hatred she received from strangers unlikely to have read her writing galvanized Pérez to create Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights. This powerful compilation of essays, stories, comics, and poetry features 15 authors banding together over being banned; their work is enhanced by Ignatz Award-nominated illustrator Debbie Fong's graphics. The goal here, Pérez says, is "to talk about what is happening to books in libraries, why these vanishing stories matter, and how you can empower yourself and others to resist."

Maia Kobabe, whose Gender Queer was "the most challenged book in the United States in 2021 and 2022," captures the disturbing data behind the bans, specifically that "most of these challenges are to books with diverse characters and LGBTQ themes." Nikki Grimes contributes a verse response ("Extraordinary Hazards") to challenges to her award-winning memoir-in-verse Ordinary Hazards, calling out "the kangaroo court of/ hate-mongers masquerading/ as sweet mama bears." Elana K. Arnold describes instances of sexual abuse from her own life in "The Things, the Things That Happened, the Things That Happened to Me," explaining why and for whom she writes vulnerable books. In "Groomer," Bill Konigsberg, too, shares his abuse as a young teen, saying "the stories I tell make a difference in preventing what happened to me from happening to other kids." Brendan Kiely's "O-Town Blues" chillingly pits a teen against his own mother over book bans; MariNaomi's "Mature Themes" uses an illustrated format to show how banned books saved her life; and Isabel Quintero's "The Art of the Hocicona" states: "I don't need to be pretty; I need to be heard."

In between the broad range of contributions, Pérez inserts informational interstitials (denoted by purple pages): examples include Book Ban FAQs, enriching book lists, "Ridiculous Reasons Books Have Been Challenged, Removed, or Banned" (for example, Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray was mistaken for the adult erotica Fifty Shades of Grey). Ellen Hopkins reminds readers in her personal piece "Imagining the Unimaginable" that "knowledge is power. And that is what they fear. Regardless of your upbringing, of where you live, or how you're otherwise pigeonholed, you'll find the knowledge you need in books." --Terry Hong

Shelf Talker: Banned author Ashley Hope Pérez gathers work from 15 lauded and banned writers in this compelling collection.