Taylor Books – Charleston West Virginia

Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day 2014

Today is the fifth annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. This is the second year I’ve participated and once again I took my glam diva 7-year-old twin nieces to our favorite local indie bookstore, Taylor Books. I thought I was excited about today (book celebration day), but my nieces had my brother call me at 9 this morning to ask what time we were going to the bookstore. The plan was to meet around 11:30ish and they were impatiently awaiting my arrival at 11:25. I arrived a few minutes later only to be told I had to wait until they finished their hot chocolates before we looked at books.

What exactly is Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day? This is a nationwide event designed to help promote a love bookstores in children. The event was started five years ago and was recognized in 80 bookstores. This year over 700 bookstores will be participating. I’m happy to say that two bookstores in West Virginia are participating in today’s celebration. To find a list of participating bookstores, please visit: http://www.takeyourchildtoabookstore.org/bookstores.

Miss A., the older of the twins, decided that she wanted to get books from the My Weirder School series by Dan Gutman. She chose three books: Mr. Harrison is Embarrassin’ (Book #2), Mrs. Lilly is Silly (Book #3), and Mr. Burke is Berserk (Book #4). Apparently their teacher is reading the first book in this series to them in class and Miss A. is hooked.

As with last year, Miss J. opted for a slightly more advanced book – Diary of A Wimpy Kid – The Ugly Truth (Book #5) by Jeff Kinney. I asked why she wanted a book from the middle of this series and her response was simply “It’s what I want to read.”

After paying for the books, we went back to our table in the cafe so I could finish my chai latte. The girls consented to another picture, again as long as I didn’t show their faces (told you they were divas). Here they are with their books. Best part about today, other than getting books for the girls, was the fact that they were eager to get books to read. I almost wish there was a Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day every few months. I know, overkill, but I’m simply glad the girls like to read and want to “own” books.

Did you participate in Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day? Please share where you went and the books purchased.

Let’s Celebrate Books – An Update

Yesterday was Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day (TYCBD). My plan was to take my twin 6 y.o. nieces to my favorite local indie bookstore and buy them books. The plan was kind of, sort of, almost successful. We did make it to the bookstore, Taylor Books. We did purchase books. This is where the kind of, sort of, almost comes into play…my darling nieces decided that they needed “big kid” books as opposed to more age appropriate books. Rather than have a meltdown in the store over this issue (mine not theirs), I decided to let them choose their own books. Here’s where things became even more interesting.

First a little background information on the girls might be helpful. My youngest nieces are fraternal twins. A. likes the color pink, adores all things glittery and glam, and is into gymnastics. J. likes the color purple, loves all things related to dinosaurs, dreams of getting a bearded dragon lizard, and is taking dance class. They are both cheerleaders for a local basketball league, and they love to wrestle with one another. I expected that J. would want to get a book on lizards, dinosaurs, or dragons. She insisted she wanted a book on horses, no problem. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from A. since she likes to keep us guessing. A. wasn’t quite sure what book she wanted but wound up choosing a book on bizarre sea creatures. Again, not a problem but definitely not what I expected.

Here are my diva nieces (I had to obtain their permission to post this picture and they were quite adamant that it was only allowed if I didn’t show their faces) perusing their books. Actually they’re just hiding behind the books for the picture.

Miss A. chose a National Geographic Kids book, Weird Sea Creatures by Laura Marsh. The photographs are bright, colorful and awesome (my favorite is the blob fish) and the text is filled with fascinating facts about these creatures.

Miss. J. chose Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry. Told you it wasn’t age appropriate but J. carried this book around and browsed through it for the remainder of the day. She told me she was going to read it “in her head” and she might, someday, tell me about it.

After choosing our books, Miss A. wanted a hot cocoa, which I purchased for her at the bookstore’s cafe, and yes I got a Chai Latte. Miss J. wanted candy so we left the bookstore for our local candy and nut store (conveniently located a block away from the bookstore and directly across the street from the library).

The remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent browsing through their books, glancing at a few movies (we never really watched a movie in its entirety), and enjoying their new game called “Let’s torture Auntie Vee.” This was the most fun I’ve had in quite some time. My only regret is that I can’t afford to buy them books every week. Maybe I’ll have to institute a recurring “Take My Nieces to the Library” weekend event. We can spend our Saturday afternoons browsing through library books and then read “in our heads” for the rest of the day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Saturday. Did you participate in TYCBD? If so, where did you go and what books did you buy? Please share.

Happy reading!

Let’s Celebrate with Books…

Today is the fourth annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. The purpose of this day is to instill a love of books AND promote bookstores in our children. Don’t have any children to take to a bookstore today? Take your nieces, nephews, cousins, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or neighbor’s child with you to a bookstore day. I’ve already specially ordered a book for my 12 y.o. grand-niece (regrettably she isn’t local so I’ll be mailing this to her) and will be escorting my twin 6 y.o. nieces to our favorite local indie bookstore, Taylor Books.

Over 500 bookstores across the United States, Canada, England, Australia and Germany will be participating this year. If your favorite local bookstore isn’t participating this year, please inform them about this event and perhaps they’ll be added next year.

Want to learn more about this event? Please visit Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day to learn more. If you participate in today’s event, please come back and let us how your day went.

Bookish ramblings…

There are quite a number of reviews that will be posting soon, including reviews for The Last Clinic by Gary Gusick and The Price of Innocence by Lisa Black. I’ll be reading and reviewing a number of other books this month, including: This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash, Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley, Bliss by Hilary Fields, Wake to Darkness by Maggie Shayne, and many more…

I’m seriously considering posting my favorite books of 2013. This will be the first time I post a list of my favorite books and I’m trying to keep the list relatively small. The problem is I’ve read over 375 books this year and enjoyed quite a few, but I’ll restrain myself and keep the list to 25 books or less. This list will not post until December 31st just in case I read a book at the end of the year that needs to be added to my favorite books of the year.

I hope you all stay safe and warm during this chilly weekend. Go out today to celebrate Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day then curl up with a few good books and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy reading my friends!