Giving away books to middle schoolers is made of win! 

On behalf of the bookstore, I attended the Perry Middle School 

Reading Fair last Wednesday (2/11). I didn't get a chance to visit 

many of the 20+ tables that were set up,because the large group 

of kids in attendance kept me busy. I kept it simple: in order to 

receive an item from my table, the students had to tell me 

two things: their name, and an in-depth description of a book
they had read.

I was impressed with their enthusiasm and the variety of the books
they had read - I heard no repeats. On young man circled back three
times before he could dredge up enough information about a book he'd
read to satisfy my requirement, but he did - like a lot of the kids,
he seemed determined to get his very own book. Books were by far the
most popular thing kids chose - I almost ran out. What a wonderful
event. I congratulate Principal Waite, the participants, the families
who got the kids out, and most especially, the kids, from the most
avid readers to the ones for whom reading is hard but worthwhile work.

These were the books the kids told me about (as far as they could
remember the titles):

Serafina67 Urgently Requires Life
New Moon
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Outsiders
City of Ember
Frankenstein
My Friend Rabbit
Three Good Deeds
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
Where the Red Fern Grows
Soul Surfer
Charlotte's Web
The Indian in the Cupboard
Kingdom Hearts
Jaguar
Granny Tirelli Makes Soup
The Old Man and the Sea
Wait Till Helen Comes
Psychic Pets
Daniel's Story
Suckers
Mr. Klutz is Nuts
Twilight
Jake
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hatchet
Inkheart
Irish Christmas
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Party Princess
Sarah, Plain and Tall
How I Survived Middle School
The Pinballs
Ten Ways to Cope with Boys

We're in midwinter, still having bitter cold, but the sun shone yesterday and today, and the forecast is *warm* - up into the 40s. Perhaps that's why things felt more hopeful today, after a bit of retail gloom. The store was hopping with people, especially those with kids in tow, this afternoon. And someone came to pick my brain - a man working on opening a restaurant downtown. Hooray for that - we babbled excitedly about the prospects and his background for about 20 minutes, then someone else, a Pioneer employee, piped up - he, and many fellow employees, wanted to start his own business, too. I introduced the two of them , then one of my favorite businessmen came in, and I warned him I'd suggested him as a good source of advice, too. Now what the first two gys and I want is a way to gather people to talk about these things - I offered to host at the bookstore, if they got people together. The restauranter is taking the microenterprise business class I took, beginning this Monday.

In the midst of winter and a depression, it's good to see the ferment of ideas bubbling. Hope helps.