The Awards Go To… January 30, 2013
Posted by Galaxy in Book news.Tags: Awards, Caldecott, children's books, Newbery
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January is not just award season for movie stars and singers, it’s also award season for authors and illustrators! This week, the American Library Association held its ceremony honoring children’s books. Top honors were awarded to:
Winner of the John Newbery Medal (for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature): The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate
Newbery Honor Books:
Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz
Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, by Steve Sheinkin (This book was also awarded the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, for most distinguished informational book for children, as well as the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults!)
Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage
Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal (for the most distinguished American picture book for children): This is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen
Caldecott Honor Books:
Creepy Carrots! illustrated by Peter Brown, written by Aaron Reynolds
Extra Yarn illustrated by Jon Klassen, written by Mac Barnett (The first time since 1947 that an author or illustrator has been awarded both the Caldecott Medal and a Caldecott Honor in the same year!)
Green written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
One Cool Friend illustrated by David Small, written by Toni Buzzeo
Sleep Like a Tiger illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Mary Logue
Michael L. Printz Award Winner (for excellence in literature written for young adults): In Darkness, by Nick Lake
And our sincere congratulations to Vermont author Katherine Paterson, winner of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award! This award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.
Find the entire awards list here.
Join the Club! Stories & Stitches January 11, 2013
Posted by Galaxy in Store Events.Tags: book club, community, knitting, sewing, short stories, stories & stitches
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If you’re looking for something to get you out of the house on some of these dark winter evenings, here’s a cozy option: join us at The Galaxy Bookshop on Tuesdays from 5 – 6:15 p.m. for our new Stories & Stitches Book Club. Created with the handcrafter in mind, we invite people to bring along a knitting or needlework project (or any other easily portable project) to work on while listening to a short story being read by a volunteer.
We’ve had one meeting so far and chose to read a selection from Birds of a Lesser Paradise, by Megan Mayhew Bergman. Cups of tea were brewed and knitting projects grew while the story unfolded. (One non-knitter attended, too–crafts are not required!)
We’re committed to continuing this book club through January, and through the rest of winter as long as there is an interest! Join us anytime – we’ll have a mug of tea and a seat waiting for you!
DATES: January 15, 22, 29
TIME: 5 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
PLACE: The Galaxy Bookshop
The Bestsellers of 2012 December 31, 2012
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It’s always fun, at the end of the year, to run our bestsellers report. It rarely mirrors the national bestseller lists (you’ll find 50 Shades of Grey falling square in the middle of the list, rather than up at the top), but instead reflects the books and authors we have admired and welcomed to Hardwick through the year. All but two of the authors of our top 10 books gave readings at the store this year!
The topic of food continues to dominate our local reading lists, and there was an exciting race for our number 1 book of the year–Bethany Dunbar nosed ahead by one single copy to take the title from Ben Hewitt during the last week of the year!
Without further ado, here are The Galaxy Bookshop’s Top 20 Bestsellers of 2012:
1. Kingdom’s Bounty, by Bethany Dunbar
2. The Town That Food Saved, by Ben Hewitt
3. The Great Northern Express, by Howard Frank Mosher
4. The Lepine Girls of Mud City, by Evelyn Grace Geer
5. The New Feminist Agenda, by Madeleine Kunin
6. Are You My Mother?, by Alison Bechdel
7. True Colors, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
8. Paradise City, by Archer Mayor
9. The Greenhorns, edited by Severine Von Tscharner Fleming, et. al.
10. Vermont Wild: Volume 3, by Megan Price
11. Stand Against the Wind, by Chris Braithwaite
12. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E.L. James
13. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
14. Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch, by Constance Hale
15. Park Songs, by David Budbill
16. Falling Upward, by Richard Rohr
17. The Bear That Heard Crying, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
18. Privacy, by Garret Keizer
19. Life Everlasting, by Bernd Heinrich
20. A Wedding in Haiti, by Julia Alvarez
Celebrating Vermont Children’s Authors! December 6, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in Local Happenings, Store Events.Tags: hardwick holiday happenings, library fundraiser, vermont children's authors
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We are very excited about our upcoming Vermont Children’s Author Celebration, which will take place on Saturday, December 15th, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. We are hosting this event as a fundraiser for the Jeudevine Library, which provides our community with access to books, technology, and programming for all ages free of charge.
We are honored to welcome 6 men and women to represent the large and illustrious group of children’s authors who hail from our state, writing books for readers of all ages.
Katherine and John Paterson have recently collaborated on a spirited retelling of the 1910 fantasy, The Flint Heart. Katherine Paterson is the two time winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award and author of numerous novels, including the classic Bridge to Terabithia. She and John live in Barre, Vermont.
Linda Urban’s most recent novel, Hound Dog True, was named a Kirkus Best Book of 2011. She is also the author of A Crooked Kind of Perfect and the picture book Mouse Was Mad. She lives with her family in Montpelier, Vermont.
David Martin began writing after having children of his own and making up stories for them. He is the author of fourteen picture books, including Let’s Have a Tree Party and All for Pie, Pie for All. He lives in Lyndonville, Vermont.
Jenny Land teaches English and creative writing at St. Johnsbury Academy and works on farms during the summer. Her debut novel, The Spare Room, is set in Vermont during the Abolitionist movement, prior to the Civil War. She lives in Peacham, Vermont with her husband and twin daughters.
Jo Knowles, winner of the 2005 PEN Literary Award, has written three novels for teens. Background for her most recent novel, See You at Harry’s, came from the time her parents ran a restaurant and ice cream factory called Kellers’ Restaurant. She lives in Vermont with her husband and son.
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This event will take place during Hardwick’s Holiday Happenings, so be sure to take a stroll around town, before or after visiting with our authors, to enjoy sales and events hosted by other local merchants!
Get to know your booksellers: An interview with Diane Grenkow November 23, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in Staff.Tags: about us, meet the booksellers
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Diane Grenkow has been a customer of The Galaxy Bookshop since the beginning, or close to it. Now, as a member of our crack team of booksellers, she can be found behind the counter on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Here’s a little more about Diane, in her own words:
Book that changed your life: On the Road. I was already living on a school bus and traveling around and then I read On the Road. Maybe it didn’t change my life so much as reinforce it.Get to know your booksellers: An interview with Edgar Davis November 16, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in Staff.Tags: about us, meet the booksellers
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On your nightstand now: The Best American Mystery Stories of 2012, Paradise City by Archer Mayor, Alberic the Wise by Norton Juster, and Looking at Philosophy by Donald Palmer
life: playwright/essayist David MametGet to know your booksellers: An interview with Marisa Neyenhuis November 9, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in Staff.Tags: about us, meet the booksellers
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Our second bookseller to be interviewed is Marisa Neyenhuis, who came to us with a glowing recommendation from her former employer at Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana. Marisa is a woman of many hats who takes time from her other jobs to spend Thursday afternoons at The Galaxy bookshop.
On your nightstand now: A whole slew of galleys that I have the best of intentions to start, Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, Messenger by Lois Lowry and The Midwife of Hope River by Patricia Harman. I also have a stack of The New Yorker that I have been fully neglecting for the last month.
Favorite book when you were a child: This is a tough one. I loved the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Anne of Green Gables series, The Phantom Tollbooth, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series too. Not to mention the hundreds of picture books my parents read to me before I struck out on my own. There are too many good books to choose just one!
Book that changed your life: Wally Lamb’s first book, She’s Come Undone, inspired me to be a vegetarian from ages 16-26. There was a passage in the book equating meat to rotting flesh and it struck a chord. I didn’t eat meat in earnest again until my 2nd time living in Texas. Turns out, Texas is way more fun if you’re a carnivore!
Person who had the biggest influence on your literary life: I think my parents began reading to me before I had even left the womb and they were always happy to buy me a new book any time we went to the bookstore. When I started working at Chapter One Bookstore in high school all my co-workers were great about recommending new books that I wouldn’t have thought to pick up on my own. They loved pushing my literary boundaries.
Five books you would want with you on a desert island: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Blankets by Craig Thompson, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst (This is my go to book on a bad day and I bet there are bad days on desert islands, too.)
Biggest literary crush: Johnny from S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. When he died, I could not stop crying. I first read this book right when I was starting to notice boys and Johnny was a very safe crush, unlike all the boys roaming the halls of Daly Elementary School.
Book you can’t live without: The book I always go back to, at least every other year, is The Giver by Lois Lowry. I suppose I could live without it, but I don’t know if the world would be as nice of a place.
Get to know your booksellers: An interview with Sandy Scott November 2, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in Staff.Tags: about us, meet the booksellers
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Welcome to part one of an interview series with our booksellers! The first under the spotlight is Sandy Scott, which is only fair since, with the exception of Linda, she has been a Galaxy bookseller the longest (11 years) and is also the one who is making everyone complete this interview.
On your nightstand now: John Saturnall’s Feast, by Lawrence Norfolk; Mrs. Queen takes the Train, by William Kuhn; The Center of Everything, by Linda Urban; and The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, by Catherynne M. Valente. What would be more difficult to list are the books around my nightstand, which are numerous and encompass everything from stacks of parenting books, to stacks of ARCs I’ve brought home with good intentions of reading, to stacks of picture books for my daughter’s bedtime storytime.Bookseller Summer Reading: Part 4 October 26, 2012
Posted by Galaxy in book review.Tags: favorite books, meet our booksellers, staff picks, summer reading
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It was brought to my attention that I missed posting Marisa’s summer reading list, so on this Indian Summer day, here’s a bit of summertime (or, really, anytime) reading for you:
1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
An otherworldly circus, open only at night, is the setting for a duel between two young magicians. The imagery is amazing and the story compelling. It’s a hard book to put down!
2. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
Budo is the imaginary friend of a boy named Max. He gives us the inside scoop on what it’s like to be an imaginary friend and a close look at the trials and tribulations he goes through to save Max’s life, at the risk of his own.
3. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
I got so attached to the characters in this novel that when I was through, I seriously considered starting over again. A novel about baseball, family, friends and love.
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In this futuristic dystopian novel, 24 children ages 12-18 are pitted against each other in a televised fight to the death. It’s now a movie but as is often the case, the book is better. It’s worth a read, even if you’ve already seen it.
A few other books I liked: The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai, Cutting for
Stone by Abraham Verghese and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving
by Jonathan Evison.
I also read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Half the time I loved it and the other half I felt like “accidentally” losing it so I wouldn’t have to read it anymore. Some classics make me feel that way. I know I’m supposed to like them, but sometimes it’s hard.
