New York Teen Author Festival

I can't believe I missed this - granted, I live in Cambridge not New York City - but it would have been worth the trek!

The New York Teen Author Festival gathered together multitudes of young adult writers across the boroughs for readings and symposiums. Authors from Barry Lyga, Maggie Stiefvater, and John Green to Melina Marchetta, Matt de la Pena, and Gayle Forman read, performed (I never knew Libba Bray was in a band called Tiger Beat!), and led talks on writing. If you went, I am incredibly jealous and I hope you'll come by and tell me stories. If you also missed it, there are some great articles up about it - I like the videos (and E Lockhart's tights!) on Random House's Random Buzzers website.

Big monkey business news

When you first walk through our store these days, you may notice a few changes - actually some pretty big changes! Our building is over a 100 years old and will undergo various renovations this year. During this process, our chapter book room will be closed. The early readers, chapter books, older kids' toys, puzzles, and science kits have moved upstairs - And yes! We did fit everything! For the time being, we will still have an arts and craft room at the bottom of the stairs.

We will maintain the same variety of quality children's toys and books, they will just be in different places! Thanks for supporting us through these changes.

Annual Art and Writing Contests

It is early spring, and you know what that means - our annual art and writing contests are kicking off! All kids (excepting relatives of Curious George employees) between the ages of 5 and 13 are eligible. Each contest will be subdivided into age categories: 5 to 7, 8 to 10, and 11 to 13.

Art Contest

Illustrate your favorite fairy tale, poem, short story, or book. Label your artwork with the author and title of the story you're illustrating.

Writing Contest

Write an original story, poem, or essay. Please keep your submissions to 3 pages.

Entering both contests means illustrating your favorite story as well as writing an original story: we're very excited to read stories you have illustrated, only tell us which contest you would like us to judge it for!






With all entries, please include our submission form that tells us your name, address, phone number, school and age. This submission form, which you can pick up in the store or download from our blogs (right click on the image above), enables us to contact the winners. Winning artwork will be on display in the store, and winning writing will be posted to our contest blog. Winners will also receive store gift certificates!

The deadline for entries is Friday, May 13th. Winners will be announced the following Friday the 20th.

The best March bracket: Middlemarch madness

I love Rajon Rondo as much as the next person (although maybe not as much as our book buyer!), but I don't follow the March Madness basketball brackets. I'm much more of a fan of the pop culture and children's lit brackets like School Library Journal's Battle of the Books, which is why I'm exorbitantly excited that the witty women of Persephone Magazine have started a Middlemarch Madness. Their bracket pits female characters from stories across the genres and decades. I've been watching with bated breath for a few days - Lyra Belacqua of The Golden Compass versus Tiffany Aching of The Wee Free Men?! How could one ever decide? Other great pairings include Harriet the Spy versus Nancy Drew and Offred from A Handmaid's Tale versus Jordan Baker of The Great Gatsby. Ah, the world of book lovers, it never ceases to amuse.

Weekly news bits, including: Muppets, moors, Muggles, and a new kind of mafia

I can finally start the countdown and plan for withdrawal afterwards: A release date has been set for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. July will be here before we know it!

I am beyond thrilled for the Jane Eyre movie adaptation from Focus Features coming out this March. Jane will be played by Mia Wasikowska, the actress from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right. Stormy menfolk and moody moors. Sigh.

Another kids movie coming out this month is the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. In my opinion, Rodrick has entirely too much hair to look like his cartoon alter ego, but who's counting?

There's going to be another Muppet movie?! How did I not know this? I hear it will involve the reunion of separated Muppets, including finding Fozzie performing at a casino! It will be released November 23rd. Thanks to Katie at Out of the Box for mentioning it on her Muppet comics post.


The YA Mafia: a coterie of writers so influential and prolific it has its own twitter hashtag. But wait: Holly Black revealed last week that it does not exist, and in fact, could not exist. For a play by play across the blogs, YA Highway has the best wrap-up I've found yet, (and as a sidenote, some of the best mash-up YA cover art I've seen!). It makes sense to me that people are passionate about the same things (bird-watching, YA literature, raw vegan cooking) are going to know each other, or want to know each other, or bump into each other in common places (national parks, book signings/trade conventions, Grezzo in the North End), but that doesn't necessarily mean they are colluding on book blurbs or plotting to take down common genre-enemies. Whether or not YA authors, editors, or booksellers are scratching each other's backs, it's still pretty entertaining to envision a "secret cabal" of all those people I talk about all day.


Lastly, the Guardian has launched a children's books website for children's use, kicking it off with Philip Pullman answering questions from his fans. I love what he has to say to aspiring writers: "We shouldn't bother about other people at all when we write. It's none of their business what we write...One of the reasons for JK Rowling's success was that she didn't give a fig for what people thought they wanted. They didn't know they wanted Harry Potter till she wrote about him. That's the proper way round." Take heart, you future entrants to our upcoming art and writing contests!

Moon over the March Book Club

This Thursday at 5pm will be our third meeting of our monthly reading group. We'll be discussing this year's Newbery Medal winner, Moon Over Manifest, the debut historical fiction novel by Clare Vanderpool. You can still pick up a discounted copy in the store to read in time for the meeting, or come for the cookies, conversation, and choosing of our next month's book.

Staff picks under my umbrella

It may still be precipitating, but at least it's warmer out! Nothing says (almost) spring to me like stomping in puddles and then reading a new favorite book while my feet dry. Here are our latest staff picks.

Small Persons with Wings by Ellen Booraem
Bookseller: Jose-Luis
Genre: fantasy, humor
Suggested reading level: ages 10 up

Mellie believed in "small persons with wings" as a kid, earning her the nickname "Fairy Fat." For years she abandons whimsy, Roald Dahl, and fairies altogether, thinking magic can never be real. But when her family moves into an inn, guess what it's infested with? Don't call them fairies; they might turn you into a frog! This is a hilarious book that keeps getting weirder and better with every chapter.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Bookseller: Michelle
Genre: realistic fiction, humor, environmentalism; mystery
Suggested reading level: ages 9 up

Florida is chock full of weird characters and mysteries. It starts when new kid Roy sees a strange barefoot boy running from the school bus - chasing him leads Roy to discover sparkly painted snakes, the dangers of flapjacks, and how to handle all kinds of bullies. Look for Hiaasen's other books, Flush and Scat.


Harvey by Herve Bouchard
Bookseller: Shara
Genre: graphic novel
Suggested reading level: ages 12 up

Following a toothpick race down Rue Tremblay, Harvey and his brother come home to find their father has suffered a fatal heart attack. With its combination of poignant prose, muted colors, and generous use of white space, this book offers a subtle and heartbreaking glimpse of a boy's experience of loss.

Nate the Great by Marjorie Sharmat, illustrated by Marc Simont
Bookseller: Teresa
Genre: early reader, mystery
Suggested reading level: ages 5 to 7

Do you like pancakes? Do you like solving mysteries? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then this is the book for you! In this story, Nate the Great has a very important case. He needs to help his friend Annie find the missing picture of her dog, Fang. Can you help him gather clues and solve this mystery?

Sad Stories of the Death of Kings by Barry Gifford
Bookseller: Shara
Genre: short stories, realism
Suggested reading level: ages 16 up

Set in 1950s Chicago, this collection of stark short stories brings together the grit of post-war city living with the disillusionment that so often accompanies coming of age tales. Still, Gifford manages to include just the ring amount of surprise and delight to make the harsh realism bearable.


Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger
Bookseller: Jose-Luis
Genre: realistic fiction, LGTBQ
Suggested reading level: ages 12 up

Born biologically female, high school student Grady has taken the bold step to be himself and live as a male. He knew it was going to be difficult, but he never imagined the wide variety of reactions he receives. Grady misses his best friend, Evie, who is now friends with the biggest bully in the school. And will his mother ever accept his new identity?

Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater
Bookseller: Michelle
Genre: fiction, humor
Suggested reading level: ages 9 up

Don't let this black and white cover deceive you: this book is weird beyond weird! Victor is left home alone and so stays up late watching the late news shows (he's a big fan of Walter Cronkite) - until he sees human-sized lizards playing music on TV. The lizard coincidences pile up until a man with many names and a chicken under his hat becomes Victor's guide, though he inspires more questions than he answers...

Zut alors, it's Zutano!

We are so excited to announce that we now carry Zutano baby clothes! These adorable clothes come in a variety of styles, sizes, and designs.
We carry wrap dresses, body wraps, T shirts, pants, coveralls, bodice jackets, and leggings, with designs ranging from gumballs, zoo animals, sputnik, and a variety of stripes.


The sizes are primarily infant sizes at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months, with select styles in toddler sizes.

Read Across America Day - Dr Seuss

Today is the NEA's Read Across America Day, which is also Dr. Seuss's birthday! The National Education Association started this annual program in 1998 to celebrate the importance - and the pure fun - of reading, and motivate children especially to read. Celebrities, mayors, school principals, athletes, and many other public figures participate in activities and reading challenges across the country.

Random House's Seussville website has ideas for activities and a resource for finding events near you.

Shaun Tan: picture book creator, graphic novelist, Academy Award winner!

I've been trying to see the Oscar nominated film shorts ever since I first heard Australian graphic novelist Shaun Tan was nominated for an animated adaptation of The Lost Thing. I'm definitely going to have to get out to Kendall Cinema soon because Shaun Tan won! He's such an incredibly talented storyteller and artist, with such popular and lauded titles as The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia under his belt, I'm very happy for him to have another acknowledgment of his talent. You can see a trailer for The Lost Thing on its official website.



Lost and Found, a collection of three previously published stories, The Lost Thing, The Red Tree, and Rabbits, will be published early this spring.