The Folded Leaf will open in Cedar, Mich., this spring, 9and10 News reported. Owner Rachel Zemanek has signed a lease for a 1,100-square-foot-space at 9044 S. Kasson St. in downtown Cedar. The bookstore will carry new and used titles along with local art and a selection of native plants.

Zemanek, a former paramedic, intends to donate a portion of the store's proceeds to the Northwest Michigan Peer Network and other nonprofits supporting mental health, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and LGBTQA+ initiatives.

The store's first event, a book-themed bingo night at a local brewery, is scheduled for March 20. The Folded Leaf will be accepting used book donations, and the event will include a fundraiser for the local Big Brothers Big Sisters organization.

Renovation work is underway, and Zemanek plans for a mid-spring opening. To help the bookstore along, she has also launched a GoFundMe campaign.

Celtic Cove Catholic Bookstore has moved to a larger location in Oxford, Mich., Detroit Catholic reported.

The store is now at 925 N. Lapeer Rd., in a complex that also includes several family-oriented businesses: a pizzeria, arcade, and bowling. The additional space has allowed the team to create seating areas both in-store and outside.

The move came about suddenly, with store manager Jeanette Pardonoff learning only in December that the bookstore's lease would not be renewed. Though she and the team initially worried they wouldn't be able to find a suitable space, they found the new storefront quickly and were able to host a grand reopening on February 1.

The Lapeer Rd. location is the bookstore's third since its founding in 1999 as an Irish import store, before becoming a Catholic bookstore in 2005. After founder and original owner Breege Regan-Kelly retired in 2016, volunteers took over the business and made it a nonprofit.

Socialight Society, the bookstore focused on Black women and Black literature, will close its bricks-and-mortar store in the Lansing Mall in Lansing, Mich., later this month, the Lansing State Journal reported. The store initially opened as a microshop in November 2021.

In late February, store owner Nyshell Lawrence announced on Facebook that she would be closing the physical bookstore on March 22. After that, the bookstore will continue to sell books online, and Lawrence plans to host pop-up events in the Lansing area. The store's membership program will continue, though the perks will shift slightly with the physical store closed.

Lawrence wrote: "For years, Socialight Society has been more than a bookstore. It's been a movement, a gathering space, a love letter to Black women and our stories. Every event, every book recommendation, every conversation held in this space has meant something. It's been a place of joy, connection, and celebration. And that part doesn't change."

She noted that the decision was not made lightly, and she emphasized that though the physical storefront is closing, it's not the end for Socialight Society. "As bittersweet as this transition is, I also know that this is not the end--it's an expansion. Socialight Society is shifting, but the mission remains. The work continues. And I promise you--we're just getting started. There is so much more ahead, and I can't wait to step into this next chapter with you."

Children's book author and illustrator Uri Shulevitz, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, and "survived a harrowing childhood traversing Europe to escape the Nazis and wove those experiences into arresting works like How I Learned Geography and the graphic novel Chance: Escape from the Holocaust," died February 15, the New York Times reported. He was 89.

Uri Shulevitz (photo: Mel Adelglass)

Shulevitz published more than 40 books, some in collaboration with other authors. He won a Caldecott Medal in 1969, for his illustrations in Arthur Ransome's The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, a retelling of an Eastern European folk tale. He also earned Caldecott Honors for three of his own books: The Treasure (1979), Snow (1998), and How I Learned Geography (2008).

"Despite the Nazi shadow looming over his childhood, Shulevitz made it clear that he was a wartime refugee, not a Holocaust survivor," the Times noted. He told Kirkus: "We weren't either in the ghetto or in the concentration camps," but "none of our family in Poland survived," adding that if his immediate family hadn't escaped, "we would have been just as they were."

After the war ended, the family lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany before moving to Paris in 1947. Two years later, they relocated to Israel. At 15, Shulevitz became the youngest artist represented in a group drawing exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Times wrote, adding that he "continued working toward an art career as a student at the Institute for Israeli Art and by studying privately with the modernist painter Yehezkel Streichman."

He moved to New York City when he was 24 and studied painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School while also illustrating Hebrew children's books.

Shulevitz published his first children's book, The Moon in My Room, in 1963. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, he published The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century (2005). His other works include The Secret Room (1993), When I Wore My Sailor Suit (2009), Dusk (2013), and Troto and the Trucks (2015). His final book, The Sky Was My Blanket: A Young Man's Journey Across Wartime Europe, will be published in August. 

Throughout his career, Shulevitz "strove to find meaning in the agonizing experiences of his youth," the Times noted. In Chance, he recalled how he was forced to leave a temporary home before a friend could finish reading him the L. Frank Baum novel The Wizard of Oz.

He told Kirkus: "I didn't realize at the time, when I was listening to The Wizard of Oz, how our trip back to the West would resemble in some ways the hardships of Dorothy in trying to get back to Kansas. It actually has very deep echoes.... It wasn't all a painful experience to work on the book. It was also a journey of discovery."

On Friday, Politics and Prose, Washington, D.C., held the first in a series of discussions dubbed "teach-ins." Much like the teach-ins of the 1960s that grew up around the civil rights and anti-war movements, P&P's sessions are intended to help inform the community about critical issues during these stressful political times and to offer suggestions for citizen action. This initial gathering focused on the challenges to individual rights and liberties and to the rule of law posed by the Trump administration's moves since the inauguration. Held before an audience of 400 people packed into P&P's Connecticut Avenue store, the event featured four distinguished panelists: David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and former ACLU legal director; Skye Perryman, head of Democracy Forward, which has filed numerous suits seeking to block the mass firings of government workers; Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat and former law professor who is ranking member of the House Oversight Committee; and Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign and pioneering advocate of LGBTQ+ rights. Moderating the panel was Ally Coll, an assistant law professor at the City University of New York. See the event online here. Pictured: (from left) Ally Coll, David Cole, Skye Perryman, Jamie Raskin, and Kelley Robinson.

Posted on Instagram by Annie Bloom's Books, Portland, Ore.: "The Rose City Yarn Crawl begins TODAY, 3/6, and runs through Sunday 3/9! We're looking forward to visiting with all the fiber enthusiasts who are here in the Village this weekend to check out Northwest Wools on Troy St.--we always have a great time chatting and hearing about/seeing your projects! Our friends at Northwest Wools have once again let us borrow some gorgeous yarn projects for our current window display. Thank you!"

"Spring has sprung! It's Iced coffee time." That was the seasonally shifting chalkboard message at Hooked bookstore, cafe and wine bar in Lansing, Mich., which noted: "We're doing our best to manifest Spring for Spring Break, though Michigan weather is not always cooperating."

Sonya Harris is joining Simon & Schuster's special markets team in the newly created role of associate director of client sales. She was previously senior sales manager in specialty retail at Chronicle Books.

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Maggie Salko is being promoted to marketing and publicity manager from marketing and publicity associate at Little Bee Books.

Moving Day by Teri Roche Drobnick, illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House).

Today:
Good Morning America: Lakeysha Hallmon, author of No One Is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life (Dey Street, $29.99, 9780063315891).

CBS Mornings: Dylan Mulvaney, author of Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer (Abrams Image, $28, 9781419770395). She will also appear on the View.

Drew Barrymore Show: Ione Skye, author of Say Everything: A Memoir (Gallery, $29.99, 9781668048269).

Tomorrow:
CBS Mornings: Eric Adjepong, co-author of Ghana to the World: Recipes and Stories That Look Forward While Honoring the Past (Clarkson Potter, $40, 9780593234778).

Good Morning America: Tori Amos, author of Tori and the Muses (Penguin Workshop, $19.99, 9780593750346).

Drew Barrymore Show: Savannah Guthrie, author of Mostly What God Does Is Love You (Zonderkidz, $19.99, 9780310160281).

Tamron Hall: Olga Khazan, author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change (Simon Element, $28.99, 9781668012543).

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Dream Count: A Novel (Knopf, $32, 9780593802724).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ezra Klein, co-author of Abundance (Avid Reader Press, $30, 9781668023488).

Michelle Monaghan (The White Lotus) and Adam Scott (Severance) have been added to the cast of the Netflix film The Whisper Man, based on the novel by Alex North, Deadline reported. They join Robert De Niro, who is starring in the project, which will be directed by James Ashcroft, with Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer adapting the script.

Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Michael Disco will produce for AGBO, marking the sixth film from Netflix and AGBO’s ongoing partnership. Kassee Whiting is exec producing for AGBO, along with Marcus Viscidi. Production is set to start this spring.

The winners of the 2024 Golden Poppy Awards, sponsored by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance and honoring "the most distinguished books written and illustrated by creators who have made California their home," were announced in a virtual ceremony last Thursday. The books were chosen by committees made up of CALIBA bookstore members and voted on by California independent booksellers.

The winners:

Fiction: James by Percival Everett
Nonfiction: Rebel Girl: My Life As a Feminist Punk by Kathleen Hanna
Mystery: Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
Poetry: Woke Up No Light by Leila Mottley
Octavia E. Butler Award: Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror: The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
Romance: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Martin Cruz Smith Award: Emerging Diverse Voices: All Friends Are Necessary by Tomas Moniz
Glenn Goldman Award: California Lifestyle: Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities by John King
Glenn Goldman Award: Cooking: Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine by Micah Siva
Picture Book: The Man Who Didn't Like Animals by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Middle Grade: The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko
Young Adult: Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
Children's Nonfiction: My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War History by George Takei, illustrated by Michelle Lee
Children's Nonfiction: Road Home by Rex Ogle
Mirrors and Windows: Excellence in Children's Literature: Juneteenth Is by Natasha Tripplett and Daniel J. O'Brien

This year's Golden Poppy Awards were marked by the devastating fires in Southern California. Originally scheduled for January 31st, the award ceremony was pushed back to March 6 in order to give space for the booksellers, authors, illustrators, and publishers reeling from the life-changing event. In response, CALIBA partnered with the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation to create the Golden Poppy Wildfire Fundraiser for Binc to raise funds that will directly assist booksellers affected by the fires. More than $1,000 was raised during the event, kicked off by a generous offer by bookseller Sharon Levin from Reach and Teach in San Carlos to match the first $250. CALIBA thanks everyone who donated.

Returning home after an unexplained three-day disappearance, robotics teacher Sarai Lilienblum quickly becomes an Internet sensation when a video surfaces showing her using an unplugged vacuum cleaner to turn sand into a rain-producing cloud. That's only the first of a series of hilariously improbable events that make Israeli author Iddo Gefen's wry, wise first novel, Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory, so enjoyable.

Sarai is an inveterate inventor of devices, like a toothbrush with built-in dental floss. With her husband, Boaz, and 22-year-old son, Eli, who's fitfully contemplating the next stage of his life, she lives in a replica of a Swiss ski village that features a never-used ski slope, high atop the world's largest erosion crater in Israel's Negev Desert. For years, Boaz has battled sometimes crushing debt to operate a lodge and visitors center that boasts, among other things, a museum catering to tourists in search of a mysterious Irish hiker, Robert McMurphy, who disappeared in the desert more than a decade earlier.

Hannah Bialika, widow of a wealthy local businessman, pledges $4 million to fund the manufacture of a working cloud machine; billionaire Ben Gould offers no less than five times that sum if the Lilienblums' startup, Cloudies, is able to produce rain on an entire town in four months. Eli and his hard-driving sister, Naomi, who quits her job with a technology company and returns from her home in Tel Aviv, scramble to produce the required device with their mother. In that quest, they're assisted by an assortment of misfit employees, like Paulina, the village's dry cleaner, who possesses "basically, tons of motivation, but no relevant experience or background." A scheme to keep the company afloat financially and some startling revelations about McMurphy add intrigue to the story of whether the Lilienblums will be able to finish the job in time to reap the promised financial rewards.

Gefen, winner of the 2023 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for his short story collection, Jerusalem Beach, deftly balances smart and sometimes hilarious scenes in his warmhearted exploration of one family's tangled dynamics wrapped in a sharp satire of technology startup culture. The climactic, highly public demonstration of Sarai's cloud-making machine is a comic masterpiece. But it's only one of the novel's many savvy moments that reveal its undeniable humanity and make it such a delight. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Shelf Talker: In this deft and wise comedy, an eccentric inventor creates a device that turns desert sand into rain, igniting a sensation in the high-tech world and a crisis for her family.