Back from Midwinter!

Well, we made it back from ALA Midwinter! Conventions are always so busy and so exhilarating. I spent breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with librarians this year, and what a wonderful group of people! Those who know our books know what they want from them.

Our breakfast on Saturday was with a couple of librarians . . . and I mean a couple! Malcolm and Martha Fick are librarians who once worked in the technology industry, but have come back to the school library with enthusiasm. Martha works at Moorestown Upper Elementary School in Moorestown, NJ, and her students love our Jake Maddox series. On her website, she uses icons to make searching for books easier. She has added our logo to help her students find our books quickly. Seems like a good idea to me!

Malcolm, who is a librarian at Willingboro Memorial Upper Elementary School in Willingboro, NJ, has very little budget to work with, but has a group of kids that could really use our books. He’s still experimenting, but we’re sure he’ll get his kids hooked on Stone Arch Books too! We gave him a few books to get his SAB collection started.

Saturday night dinner was with Diane Chen and her fellow librarians from Tennessee. What a hoot! We laughed all night.

Photo, left to right: Kathleen Baxter, Maryellen Gregoire, Deborah Ford, and Stone Arch Books president Joan Berge

You can see Joan and me in the picture with our friends Kathleen Baxter, author of the Gotcha books and SLJ columnist (“The Non-Fiction Booktalker”), and Deborah Ford, BER presenter (and author!). We just like hanging out at the booth with them. They always have good advice about our products.

My last visit of the weekend was with Dr. Sylvia Vardell from Texas Women’s University. She is such a wonderful mentor for me. She advised me on what part of librarianship would be appropriate for me to study (I’m starting classes this semester at The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN). Dr. Vardell was on the very first ALSC/Booklist/YALSA Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production Selection Committee. She had great things to say about the committee and its chair, Mary Burkey.

All in all, it was a great weekend—and I even made it to see the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps like I’d hoped to.


--Maryellen Gregoire
Director of Product Planning and Public Relations, Stone Arch Books

Hugo Cabret: The Shape of Things to Come?

Last year at the SCBWI conference in New York, I was in the audience when Brian Selznick presented his amazing The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a Novel in Words and Pictures. He first spoke about how he was inspired by silent films, especially those created by the Lumiere brothers of France. Then he showed a nonstop montage of images from Hugo (lasting at least 20 minutes) accompanied by atmospheric orchestral music and, of course, ending with a famous shot of the David O. Selznick mansion, which featured in the credits of many Hollywood classic films (the director is a cousin of Brian’s grandfather). When the “film” was over, there was a collective gasp, and then a standing ovation.

Graphic novels today seem to take most of their inspiration from current mainstream cinematic effects. Selznick showed his audience that any powerful visual medium can spark and trigger an idea, a plotline, a character, or a scene. That’s one of the reasons I was thrilled to hear that Hugo won the Caldecott: Selznick has redefined the novel that tells its story “in words and pictures.” At Stone Arch Books we have two copies of Selznick’s 20-pound tome on our shelves, one for Design and one for Editorial. Hugo makes us look at all of the art that surrounds us on a daily basis, and re-think how it can help us make our books more exciting and more affecting, and speak to reluctant readers in ways we never thought possible.


--Michael Dahl
Editorial Director, Stone Arch Books

ALA Midwinter!

This Friday, we’re off to ALA Midwinter! Joan Berge, Michaela DeLong, and I are representing Stone Arch Books.

The fun thing about our booth (we're in #758) is that for the first time, we are physically adjacent to our sister companies, and we're also communicating that we are all from Capstone Publishers! You’ll definitely notice it with the carpeting and the signage. We did something similar at AASL and it looked great!

On Friday night, come visit our booth and sign up for the sports basket, part of the raffle sponsored by ALA. The drawing for the basket is on Friday night around 7:00. Winners will be announced over the loudspeaker in the exhibit hall. We’re handing out cool Library of Doom posters, too! They’re printed on both sides . . . perfect for windows!

I’m hoping to find some time to visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The steps, made famous in the "Rocky" movies, were built with stone from Mankato Stone Company, part of Coughlan Companies (our parent company). After hearing about it for so many years, I can’t wait to see those famous steps in person!

When you come to the booth, make sure you mention this blog and we’ll give you a Library of Doom book signed by the author, Michael Dahl (while supplies last). See you at booth #758.

Hope to see you there!


--Maryellen Gregoire
Director of Product Planning and Public Relations, Stone Arch Books