We of the Mixed-Up Files believe that a visit to an independent children’s bookstore can’t be matched online or even in the best chain store’s children’s department.  What you get online is the lowest price, but what you get in an independent bookstore is priceless.

I’m talking today with Joanna Parzakonis, one of the parent founders of Bookbug bookstore in Kalamazoo, Michigan (www.bookbugkalamazoo.com) who describes the place as “four walls, dozens of shelves, thousands of books, one quirky playhouse, and several spots to read, talk, play, and discover great reads.”  Bookbug opened in 2008 with support from a community of parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, and kids, and it has recently expanded to become a full-service independent bookstore.

Sue Cowing for Mixed-up Files: Joanna, you and your partners at Bookbug have gone into the book business fairly recently, at a time when many old favorite children’s bookstores across the country have been closing their doors.  That takes determination, and you certainly can’t be afraid of giants!  You must do this because you believe it’s important, and that it’s serious fun, right?
Joanna for Bookbug:  I actually believe that the opening of our store well into the “Amazon/BigBox book selling age” gave us an advantage that other pre-existing independent bookstores didn’t necessarily have: an assumption that our business would be primarily about creating a cultural hub for our community and not about “selling books” alone.  We have always been committed to hosting a wide variety of book and arts-related events, seeking community partnerships, and having a continuous and meaningful conversation (in both broad and direct ways) with our customers. Of course this business was built out of our love of books, but also from our love of and belief in the spirit of community.  ”Fun”?  Yep, it’s our business to make it–and have it.

MUF: Please describe the kind of atmosphere you try to create at Bookbug and how you do that?  Who frequents your store?
Joanna:  I very much want every person who enters Bookbug to have a feeling akin to what they may feel while reading one of their favorite books.  We have taken great care to design our space to be playful, comfortable, and celebratory of great art and literature. Our book-shingled playhouse is a favorite among younger children, and many adults love our book-page papered walls and seating throughout.  We also have handwritten chalkboards throughout the store, not only displaying each section, but also ones that “talk” to our customers about our favorite books or ideas we want them to remember/think about.

MUF: Describe a good day at Bookbug?
Joanna: We’ve chosen an industry of not just books, but of service–and customers’ expectations and appreciation of that service vary widely.  They are not all, as may be imagined, kind and appreciative of the work we do.  A good day for me is made by one single person–young or old–offering his/her sincere gratitude for the work we do/ the book we recommended and/oor the “gift” we’ve given to our community.  I’m fortunate that this happens often, but I never, ever take it for granted.

MUF: How do you go about deciding what books to carry and feature at Bookbug? Do you follow reviews and journals?
Joanna: We do follow many reviewers and journals and each keep towering stacks of ARC’s on our nightstands.  We stock what we love and what has come highly recommended from trusted sources.  We also encourage our customers to talk to us about books and/or series that we may not carry, and we take their recommendations to do  so very seriously.

MUF:   As Middle Grade authors, we just have to ask: what is your favorite book of fiction for ages 9-12?  Of nonfiction?
Joanna: This has to come with the obligatory “it’s impossible to choose just one” qualifier, right? I will tell you the standouts of 2011 for me personally, however, were Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt for fiction and Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson for nonfiction.  (If I have it my way, each of these book covers will have shiny medals on them).

MUF:  Well, Heart and Soul now does! ( I loved Okay for Now, too).
Your monthly Teen/Tween Book Night sounds great!  How does that work?  Do you have regulars participating ?
Joanna:  We offer pizza, usually discuss one book and/or make it an “open discussion night” and let kids bring in whatever they’ve been reading and loved.  Our most well-attended and animated discussions have been for popular series, like the Hunger Games and Percy Jackson.

Author/Illustrator David Small visits Bookbug

MUF: Do you have an event or events coming up at Bookbug that you’re especially looking forward to?
Joanna: Author Beth Neff and her newly published YA book Getting Somewhere will be with us on Saturday, January 28 for a reading/signing and writing workshop.  We’ve had lots of hopeful authors sign up to get advice and tips from Beth and to hear more about where she got her inspiration for this great new book.  Denise Brennan-Nelson will also visit next month.  I’m particularly interested to hear her as well since she’s the creator of one of my all-time favorite picture book characters, “Willow.”

MUF: Since not every town has a children’s bookstore, we want to encourage families from out of town to make Bookbug in Kalamazoo a daytrip destination and return home with some wonderful book souvenirs!  Can you recommend a nearby family-friendly, local restaurant where they could get a bite if they’re hungry from book-browsing?
Joanna:  Among my favorite spots are: Food Dance (for downtown family dining at its fresh/local-inspired best) and Cosmos, a quirky, wonderful gem in the Vine neighborhood that cooks up some of the yummiest food I’ve ever had.

MUF: And if they can stay all day or even the weekend, are there other unique sights or activities in Kalamazoo that would help make this family trip and experience to remember?
Joanna:  Yes, Kalamazoo is a wonderfully culturally-rich community with plenty of great things to do with kids.  Other sights/spots:
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum (FREE)–wonderful interactive science and history exhibits here.
The Kalamazoo Institute of Art– a small but amazing art museum that brings many of the best works of art from around the globe.
The Air Zoo–a celebration of all-things-aviation for kids and grown-ups alike

MUF: Thank you so much, Joanna, for sharing your thoughts and work with us!
Now readers, if you have been to Bookbug and have good memories of it, or if reading about the place makes you think you’d like to visit, please let them know here!
And if you agree  with us that children’s bookstores are treasures to seek out and enjoy, please tell us your favorites for possible future posts.

Coming next month:  Portland, Oregon’s Green Bean Books, with its rather unusual vending machines. . .

The five lucky winners of Promise the Night are:

Heidi, Jody, Stacey, Ms. Yingling and Linda!

You’ll be getting e-mails from us shortly.  Congratulations, and thank you to all who commented. 

I confess, I’m a book trailer addict. I love the visuals, the music, and the tantalizing teasers that make my want to run out and read a new book!

Have you ever thought about facilitating a class or school activity in helping your students create book trailers of their own for a favorite book?

I discovered a wonderful librarian from an elementary school in Nebraska, Cynthia Stogdill, who recently finished this terrific experience with her students – and she did it in the short time span of a mere two weeks!

Kimberley: How did you first come up with the idea to have your students create book trailers?

Cynthia: My daughter’s former teacher introduced me to book trailers. I was brainstorming different ideas for my after school reading enrichment program, and I thought book trailers would be something we could try. I try to incorporate some creativity, as well as higher level thinking in our activities.

My activity units run for two weeks. We meet on two afternoons a week so everyone has an opportunity to participate at some time. For this activity we did the planning one day, filmed on two days, and had our screening party on the last day.

Kimberley: How did you choose the books?

Cynthia: I let the students pick the books they wanted to feature.  The only stipulation was that they had to have read the book at some time.

Kimberley: Did they work by classes or in teams? Which grades were involved?

Cynthia: Our after-school reading enrichment program is open to our students in grades 1-4, and we also have some older students drop by as well. The students created individual book trailers, but were supported by their peers. They discussed their ideas with each other offering ideas and suggestions before we started the taping process. A few of the students chose not to participate, but they stayed close by, watched, and offered support to the other students.

We kept the process pretty simple and kept the length to less than a minute. That forced the students to be concise and to the point.

Kimberley: Did they write their own script, or storyboard it out like a movie?

Cynthia: I provided the students with a brief questionnaire to help them outline their book trailer.  It consisted of the book’s title, author and/or illustrator, and brief summary of the book. It also included a comment on why someone should or would want to read that particular book.  I encouraged them to prepare that ahead of time and use it as a guide when they were practicing.

Some students followed their outline very closely, and some didn’t use a guide at all. Additionally, I used the questionnaire as a springboard to get them to really think about their book and why they would recommend it to someone.  I wanted them to move to a reflective level of thought.  In general, I think they accomplished this because they were discussing their choices with each other.

Kimberley: How did they film the trailers? What technology did you use?

Cynthia: I did all the filming with my Flip video camera. It’s easy to use, has a two hour memory, and long battery life.  My kids use it to film plays, sock monkeys, and our pets all the time.  It might sound like a commercial, but it is a great all purpose camera at an affordable price. It was perfect for this project.

Kimberley: Did you use any music or sound for the trailers?

Cynthia: Some of the book trailers have a background sound track.  I ripped short pieces of music and overlapped them to create a repeating background track. I avoided using whole pieces of music for copyright reasons.

Kimberley: How were they edited, and how many book trailers were created all together?

Cynthia: I used Windows Moviemaker to create the book trailers – I am a PC person.  After doing some research, I chose this software for our project.  Ideally, something like Garage Band would have been perfect, but I didn’t have ready access to that software. Moviemaker allowed me to edit the clips, piece them together with transitions, add titles and credits, and soundtrack. The software then allows you to transfer the videos onto a DVD.

One can also use photos instead of video clips, so that is an option. Video can be a big challenge but nothing a brave librarian can’t handle.

My students were younger, so the editing process rested on my shoulders and we kept it really simple.  We created about twelve book trailers that were thirty to sixty seconds long. That translated into about eight hours of editing. I think older students would have a great time creating and editing their own work.  If a librarian had access to a good editing program and time to familiarize students with its workings, this would make a great performance assessment.

Kimberley: Did you have any sort of competition with the book trailers? Prizes?

Cynthia: Nope, but in the future, I would have an awards ceremony and find some plastic statues to give to the students – similar to the Oscars. Just for the fun of it.

Kimberley: What was your culminating activity to show off the book trailers?

Cynthia: We finished the book trailer activity with a screening party. The students had popcorn and pretzels, and they were sprawled out on the floor like a movie party. We watched all the book trailers and then I created a Blooper video with some of their outtakes and mistakes. That was the last thing on the DVD.  I think we watched the entire DVD three times.

Our screening also fell on parent teacher conferences and our Book Fair. I had given the DVD to the principal after our party, and she actually had it running in a conference room for parents to stop in and watch.

Kimberley: The Book Fair Parent night is a great way to let the parents see the children’s book trailers!

Cynthia: Looking back, I wish we would have had the DVD running for both nights of parent-teacher conferences and the Book Fair. Unfortunately, we had some snow days and I really wanted the students to be the first ones to watch the DVD. 

Kimberley: Any closing thoughts or tips?

Cynthia: The Moviemaker program takes a little practice, but it was fun and pretty straightforward.  This activity will definitely make an appearance in the future. I am so proud of the students and their focus and commitment to putting together something really special.

Kimberley: You make this whole process seem very doable for any school or classroom. Thank you so much, Cynthia, for being with us here at FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES!

Some of my favorite Middle-Grade book trailers from the last few months:

This trailer was made with original music and filmed on location

A beautiful new historical in verse that just launched last week.

Book trailer made by some kids, very fun and pretty professional.

Kimberley’s busy eating buttered popcorn while enjoying the latest trailers and books of 2012. Please find her at the Tucson Book Festival March 11 and in Chicago at IRA April 29 presenting an all day Author’s Panel and signing at the Scholastic booth, Monday, April 30th from 3-4 p.m. www.kimberleygriffithslittle.com