Find out when and where your favorite authors will be visiting your local independent bookstore. Just click the store icon to see events by store or the calendar icon to see events by date! Don't know who you want to meet and greet? Check out this week's SoCal Indie Bestsellers. Read on for special news, Authors On Tour Now and recent Author Sightings!
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School Teachers/Librarians/Administrators: Information-packed evening will help you promote the use and enjoyment of children’s books, enrich classroom and library book collections and improve the quality of reading instruction. From getting hard to reach children into the habit of reading to giving challenges to children with advanced reading skills, you'll take away ideas that you can use the very next day! (Click art at right to enlarge.)
Noted children's authors Eve Bunting (Our Library), Susan Patron (Lucky Breaks) and Lisa Yee (Absolutely Maybe) are the featured speakers; Pam Munoz Ryan will MC. Saturday, February 7 at Westin Pasadena Hotel; includes cocktail reception, dinner and chance to meet over 20 authors.
Kadir Nelson, widely acclaimed illustrator of many books for children, visited Mrs. Nelson's this week to sign We Are the Ship and Change Has Come, by The Words of Barack Obama. His past works include Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award; Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; and Hewitt Anderson's Great Big Life, written by Jerdine Nolen, which won the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. Kadir lives with his family in San Diego, California.
Glenn Goldman, whose independent bookstore, Book Soup, became a Sunset Boulevard landmark known for its tall, teetering stacks and mazes of shelves crammed with books, died Saturday. He was 58. Exceedingly well-read and committed to reading, bookselling and the literary life, Glenn was an ardent supporter of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Associations and will be missed by all. Book Soup general manager Tyson Cornell said that the entire staff is prepared to carry on the legacy of Book Soup, and invited well-wishers to visit the store to sign the memorial book for the family. Article links: L.A. Times and L.A. Times Jacket Copy. (Photo at left by Carolyn Kellogg)
When eight-year-old Anne Gusha wandered into E.T. Williams' San Pedro bookstore during the depression years of the 30s, she never dreamed that she'd end up owning the store in what some might say are similar times. But she does own William's Book Store, the oldest continuously operating new book store in Los Angeles and a Historic Landmark, and along with her son Jerry have helped big box bookstores come and go by skillfully kicking their behinds with niche marketing. Her store specializes in local authors, harbor area history, comic books and foreign newspapers and magazines. Plus, what customers can't find, she'll order, so there's no need to leave town! The anniversary celebration takes place January 23-25, with Ray Bradbury, Lisa See, Angi Ma Wong, Andy Rafkin, Debbie Marr, Joe McKenzie, Bungy Hedley, Mike Schaadt and Ed Mastro taking part. William's Bookstore is located in San Pedro at 443 W. 6th Street. Call store for details at 310-832-3631.
Woohoo! Strega Nona, loved by generations of children’s book readers, was introduced to a yet another generation of readers recently at Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop. Tomie dePaola was on hand to talk with fans old and new about his new book Brava, Strega Nona, in which Strega shares her words of wisdom for leading a magical life in an all-new interactive way. With doors to open, tab
s to pull and a host of other fun features, kids are treated to six spreads of pop-up magnificence. Tomie has been published for 40 years and has written and/or illustrated over 200 books. Pictured: Tomie with Judy Nelson and staff. (Click on pic to enlarge.)
You have other things to read, but in brief, the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association is a non-profit organization made up of independent booksellers and industry professionals doing business in Southern California, Southern Nevada and Arizona. For more information, click here.
