It's a tumultuous time for the world of the printed book. With all the recent technology that has arrived in consumers hands along with the proliferation of e-books, the big question is what will happen to printed books in the near future. The discussion usually views the printed book as an outdated form of presenting a book. Something that is no longer advanced.
The Holiday season is fast approaching and many of you will be searching for the perfect gifts for the children in your life. Obviously we think that books are a great gift idea, so to help you narrow down the search we thought we would suggest some of our favourite titles for different age groups.
First up, here are some of our favourite board books for infants and toddlers.
Right now, as I am writing this post, a good friend of ours is in the middle of labour, expecting her third child (Hi Sandra!). As we've been waiting for this day, we've been thinking about some of our favourite books to give to expectant parents. Of course there is the old stand-by "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw, but we aren't huge fans of it.
We've always found it odd that pirates have become such popular characters for children. Gone are the brutal realities of their exploits, replaced with funny little costumes and odd speech. We're not sure what has made this sanitized modern image of pirates popular, it's probably "Treasure Island" or the Disneyland "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride, but whatever the reason it is here to stay. Not only are pirates popular characters for Halloween costumes and Lego sets, but there are also some mighty fine picture books with pirate characters.
I will be the first to admit that I am a book snob. We have always operated our bookshop based on what we consider quality titles, books that everyone can enjoy reading; to the exclusion of ones we consider to be inferior. There's nothing worse as a parent than being stuck reading terrible books to your little one night after night after night. There's nothing that will discourage a child more, than reading something they don't enjoy.
For this entry in our "Spotlight On" series, we are focusing on the very talented artist and author Jon J. Muth.
Here are a few of our favourites that he both wrote and illustrated:
As bookstore owners, we often get asked about our opinion on what will become of the printed book with the current shift to e-readers, apps, and digital books. While it is impossible for us (or anyone else for that matter) to predict what the near future holds, we do have a couple of things we would like to talk about.
Drew here - for this post I'm going to commit what will essentially be children's-book-sacrilege. I might have to resign from being a bookstore owner after this one, but please hear me out.
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