Three days of panels, keynotes, author receptions, and rep picks--along with costume parties and karaoke--came to an end Monday evening in Schaumburg, Ill., with the close of Children's Institute 2026.

Lois Lowry with Cathy Berner

The conference's closing keynote featured Lois Lowry, the Newbery Medal-winning author of The Giver, Number the Stars, and a plethora of other books for children and young adults. Lowry was in conversation with Cathy Berner, children's & YA specialist at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Tex.

Berner dubbed Lowry a "living legend," and the pair discussed Lowry's upcoming novel Building 903 (Clarion, Sept.), the reasons she writes for young people, and what gives her hope in these uncertain times. (A full report of the conversation, and more from Ci2026, will appear this week in Shelf Awareness).

Following the conversation with Lowry, American Booksellers Association CEO Allison Hill said she hopes booksellers head home feeling "seen and celebrated," and that the conference helped them remember "how much influence you have in the world." She revealed that Children's Institute 2027 will take place in Albuquerque, N.Mex., June 11-13. Quill Tree Books authors (l.) Tess Hannigan (The Cow in the Dark at Night, July) and (r.) Janae Marks (Starting Now, Oct.) with bookseller Annastasia Williams (center) of The Bottom in Knoxville, Tenn. 

Kelly Stromberg of Helianthus Books, Leawood, Kan., shows off author Frederick Joseph's October title, Everything's Not Lost (Viking Books for Young Readers).

The closing lunch at Children's Institute was sponsored by HarperCollins Children's Books, celebrating 100 years of publishing children's books. Hosted by Lisa DiSarro, executive director, marketing, Harper Children's, the lunch featured an extensive back and forth among DiSarro and four Harper authors: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Jerry Craft, Kevin Henkes, and David Wiesner. At the lunch, DiSarro announced that Harper Children's is making a $5,000 contribution to Binc in celebration of the anniversary. Pictured: (from left) Wiesner, DiSarro, Leitich Smith, Henkes, and Craft.

At the "12-15 Year Olds Need Books Too" panel, a crew of attentive booksellers: (front, l.-r.) Jennifer Gwydir and Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex., ABA president Cynthia Compton, 4 Kids Books & Toys, Zionsville, Ind., and MacArthur Books, Carmel, Ind.; (back) Heather Hebert and Laurel O'Connor, Children's Book World, Haverford, Pa.

Co-creators Raina Telgemeier (l.) and Gale Galligan of Baby-sitters on Board!: A Graphic Novel (Graphix, September) strike a pose at Scholastic's late-night '80s After Party.

Binc played its popular Heads or Tails game, which raised $3,060 for the organization through the sale of special-edition Binc 30th anniversary blinkie pins. The winner was Meghan Russo of the childhood literacy nonprofit and bookstore Read Early and Daily, in Arlington, Va. Binc enlisted the help of a celebrity guest, author and illustrator Jerry Craft, to assist with the coin toss. From left: Binc's Mary Webber O'Malley, Craft, Russo, and Binc's Judey Kalchik.

"You're losing your librarians every day," said Brein Lopez, general manager of Children's Book World in Los Angeles, Calif., during an education session Monday morning at Children's Institute 2026 in Schaumburg, Ill., about rebuilding school relationships without librarians. 

Left to right: Bonnie Ingersoll, Allie Cesmat, Brein Lopez

On the panel with Lopez were Allie Cesmat, children's book buyer and department manager at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz., and Bonnie Ingersoll, co-owner and operations manager of Spoke & Word Books in Milwaukie, Ore. 

"It's only going to get worse going into the election season in the fall," Lopez continued. "Everybody needs to be prepared for what that means in your community."

Cesmat reported that she's seen school districts in the Phoenix area "cut all librarian positions as of this fall," while others have closed libraries on elementary school and junior high school campuses entirely, with many teachers suddenly having to "self-direct" a library experience on their own. Educators must also deal with a review period for any book going into a school, which gives 90 days for anyone, regardless of whether they even live in Arizona, to challenge the book.

Ingersoll, meanwhile, has seen the "elimination of certified librarians" from her school district. Librarians are being replaced with vaguely defined "media tech positions," and the people entering those roles seem to have "little to no" experience with or affinity for books.

A number of booksellers in attendance also shared what they've seen in their communities, with several saying that Moms for Liberty has effectively taken over their respective school boards. A bookseller from Wisconsin remarked that the money being spent on school board elections is "stunning," and a bookseller from Raleigh, N.C., said their school district has instituted a policy whereby principals have to sign off on every single book that enters their school, leaving librarians without the ability to add books to their own libraries. 

Lopez highlighted the effect that ICE activity has had on school libraries. In the communities where ICE has been active, they have been going into schools, leading to some parents keeping their children at home out of fear for their safety. "The minute enrollment goes down," Lopez stressed, budgets are getting cut, and it's not the administrators' salaries that are being cut. It is "nurses, library techs, and librarians."

Without librarians to turn to, booksellers could make contacts with teachers, PTOs and PTAs, and school administrators. Lopez stressed the importance of making sure administrators are "100% on board" with a given author visit, book fair, or other school event, as there is "nothing worse" than doing all the necessary work only to have the event fall through at the last minute.

Cesmat mentioned working from the "district level down," and trying to get district support rather than individual school support, as well as talking to outgoing librarians about their replacements. Ingersoll said she's had success reaching out to public librarians as well as teachers' unions. They, along with PTOs and PTAs, are "really beneficial" for "infiltrating the system" and getting a foot in the door.

With booksellers unlikely to get the opportunity to go into schools themselves, Lopez said, it is important to "make these contacts in your actual bookstore." His store, for example, hosts free live music on Saturday mornings nearly every weekend of the year, and that serves as a great way to form relationships with parents and families. Having a "whole community of parents" supporting and believing in the bookstore can go a long way with swaying school administrators. This is especially true at private schools or in wealthy school districts.

Educator nights can serve as a good way of building relationships with teachers. One bookseller in attendance said they used to do their annual educator night in June, but this year are switching it to September, when teachers have a bit more energy. Another audience member said her store runs two educator nights per year, one in the fall and one in spring, with the fall night generally having better attendance, and those nights can include publisher reps telling teachers about upcoming books. Several booksellers mentioned saving up ARCs and publisher swag to give away to teachers during educator nights.

Ingersoll said she offers a 10% discount to all teachers and educators, and she often talks about "what's going on in schools" with customers at the register. Lopez offers educators a 10% discount on orders under $100 and 20% on orders over $100, if the books are being purchased for the school. He advised against giving parents similar discounts, and he noted that every year toward the end of the school year, districts and classrooms have money left over but are "too busy" with testing and other things to spend it. That money typically disappears if not spent, as it generally does not roll over into the new school year, and Lopez advised reaching out to school contacts after spring holidays to let them know "we're here for you."

Touching on classroom wishlists, Lopez said they can be a bit tricky with IndieCommerce 2.0, and most of the time, he creates the wish list for teachers and provides links that they can send along to parents. Ingersoll mentioned that Bookmanager has "very robust" registries and wish list features, and booksellers with other POS systems may have an easier time. The panelists agreed that when it comes to books for school visits or classroom wish lists, it is better to have the teachers or authors come pick them up.

On the subject of donating books to teachers and classrooms, Cesmat discussed her store's Books for Teachers program, which involves asking customers to round up purchase amounts at the register to buy books for teachers. It is not a nonprofit, and essentially functions as a gift card that the bookstore "reloads" with donations. In the first month of doing the program, the store raised some $3,000 for teachers.

Children's Book World has a literacy nonprofit called Readers and Writers Rock!, which was founded with the help of a James Patterson grant and is operated by the store's owner emeritus. Lopez described it as a "children's book recycling center," where community members donate books that are then given to foster programs, Title 1 schools, and teachers. 

Ingersoll brought up capacity, emphasizing that indie booksellers all have different staffing levels and "can only do what we can do." If it is too much to start a nonprofit or donation program on their own, booksellers can look to partnering with the organizations in their communities already doing that work.

Lopez took a moment toward the end of the session to talk about the school visit experience, strongly encouraging any booksellers still allowing signings to happen in-person at schools to "stop it." No child, he said, should ever have an experience that is defined by their parents' ability to purchase them a book. Signed books should be delivered to classrooms after the event, and "the visit should be open and accessible to every single student." --Alex Mutter

One of the early sessions at Children's Institute, "Making Children's Booksellers Out of Everyone," was especially popular, with more than 50 booksellers in attendance. The session--with panelists Rafe Posey of Third Place Books Ravenna, Seattle, Wash., Melissa LaSalle (aka @TheBookMommy) from Old Town Books, Alexandria, Va., Nahin Cano of Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, Chicago, Ill., and Lily Clay from Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island, Wash.--began with a tightly organized PowerPoint presentation, and was followed by an extensive q&a that made for a productive conversation.

Panelists Rafe Posey, Melissa LaSalle, Nahin Cano, and Lily Clay

The wide-ranging discussion covered the importance of being a generalist; building lifetime readers; shelf organization strategies; customer guidance; training practices; and general tips for making the store staff as strong as it possibly can be. LaSalle identified a motivating theme succinctly: "These are serious times. Kids don't want to read, and they don't value it." Stores that equip all booksellers to sell effectively in the children's section will help to build loyal lifetime readers, and that is crucial to the future of bookselling and our country in general."

One of the objectives of the session was to impress upon attendees the importance of making all booksellers in the store generalists--equally willing and able to sell adult titles and books in the children's section. As Posey pointed out: "They're all books, they're all stories, and we should be involved in all of them." The panelists acknowledged that much of what they presented in their deck amounts to "forcing" booksellers to learn titles, authors, and strategies that are outside of their comfort zone, but they presented it as encouraging employees to be better booksellers overall.

The panelists shared training tips that could be implemented by independent bookstores of any size. Clay gives new booksellers a written scavenger hunt that asks them to come up with three books from the shelves that address imaginary (but realistic) customer requests (new booksellers beware: ex-teacher Clay is a tough grader). Cano does a similar exercise, using her morning book talk to describe a customer request, and then dispatching booksellers on a hunt throughout the store. LaSalle offers a role-playing scenario--she writes lines for an imaginary customer, and then calls out two booksellers during a staff meeting. One has to role-play the customer, and the other, a new bookseller, has to address their requests. When booksellers role-play around actual customer concerns and questions, LaSalle said, it increases bookseller recall of titles and authors. This last point led to the group advising booksellers develop a "back pocket list" of potential titles for different categories.

The panelists discussed shelving strategies, with LaSalle and Posey in particular encouraging new thinking. Third Place Ravenna has integrated all categories in feature displays, and Old Town has moved to genre-based shelving--e.g., YA Fantasy vs MG Fantasy; Real World Drama; Make Me Laugh; Animal Stories, etc. This change, LaSalle said, has led to a "30% growth in sales in young teen since we implemented it." The panelists noted that it is easy to adjust the recorded categories for these titles in both Bookmanager and Booklog.

In the q&a, the conversation touched on customer interactions and how to turn a difficult conversation (one example: "he can have any book, but not a graphic novel") into a positive experience for guardian, bookseller, and reader alike. There was extended discussion about how to handle requests for books by J.K .Rowling, with a variety of solutions. Shifting attention to other series, such as Nevermoor and Dragonborn, has proven successful, but there are no easy answers. One bookseller offered that they have a separate category for Rowling sales, and donate profits at the end of each month to a trans-supportive organization.

Among the useful and specific tips that came up throughout the session:

• When making recommendations for a child/parent, build a stack of titles, which gives the customer permission to "reject" titles. This also creates opportunity for discovery and multiple title purchase. A stack also gives the bookseller one-on-one time with the parent, which helps to build loyalty. This kind of engagement can be a time to explain advanced concepts to a reluctant parent (e.g., how re-reading a graphic novel builds reading stamina and comprehension).
• Talk to the child using open-ended questions. Be weird--kids love that, and it helps to create a connection.
• LaSalle uses Slack extensively, and keeps a detailed spreadsheet of upcoming titles that she encourages staff to read and rate. Not finishing a title is understood and allowed, and LaSalle tries to read everything that her staff liked.
• Posey uses e-mail to communicate with staff since they are rarely all together, and he does so frequently. All of the panelists endorsed the frequency of communications, and Cano offered that she puts hidden questions in her e-mails and requires staff to answer them.
• The panelists emphasized the importance of the buyer being on the sales floor. While many set aside time to work at home or in a back office, there is no substitute for being on the floor in order to understand the tenor and demands of the customer base. --Matt Baldacci, Shelf Awareness

Barnes & Noble will open a new store in Oak Park, Ill., tomorrow, July 1. The new location will occupy the historic Marshall Field's building at 1144 Lake St. and span 24,000 sq. ft. It will also have a B&N cafe. Mia P. Manansala, author of Death and Dinuguan (Berkley) will be on hand to cut the ribbon and sign copies of her book.

The Oak Park store will be the third new B&N to open in the Chicagoland area this year, with a fourth set to open in downtown Chicago later this summer.

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In August, B&N will be moving its store in the Fayette Mall in Lexington, Ky., to a larger space in the same shopping center. The store, at 3401 Nicholasville Rd., will close on August 5 and reopen later in August at 3565 Nicholasville Rd. The new space is about a two-minute walk from the old and is more than 3,000 square feet larger. 

The Fayette Mall store is one of two B&Ns set to relocate in August; the other is the chain's Peachtree, Ga., store. B&N plans to open more than 60 new stores this year.

Watchung Booksellers, Montclair, N.J., hosted Amy Edelman, co-author (with Chris Begley) of The Emergency Playbook: A Bunker-Free Guide to Disaster Preparation (Ten Speed Press); she was in conversation with Jill Fox, owner of In the Fold, a home organizing company. Pictured (from left) Jill Fox; Watchung Booksellers owner emerita Margot Sage-EL; Amy Edelman; Kathryn Counsell, Watchung Booksellers director of events.

M. Judson Booksellers, with stores in Greenville & Fountain Inn, S.C., created a short video showcasing the making of its new logo. 

The Lost Haida Manga: A Compendium by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas & McIntyre).

Today:
Fresh Air: Isaac Butler, author of The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art, and the Birth of America's Culture Wars (Bloomsbury, $32, 9781639733491).

Tomorrow:
The View repeat: Jill Biden, author of View from the East Wing: A Memoir (Gallery Books, $32, 9781668222881).

The shortlist has been chosen for the $25,000 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, given to the author of a book that "reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula's own work," and sponsored by the Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation. The winner will be announced on October 21, Le Guin's birthday.

The shortlist:

Audition by Pip Adam (Coffee House Press)
Sunward by William Alexander (Saga Press)
Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell (Neon Hemlock)
Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Algonquin)
The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (Tor Books)
Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (Tor Books)
Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (DAW Books)
One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp)
Slow Gods by Claire North (Orbit)

Amaris Castillo's sharply observed debut, Bodega Stories, captures the daily details of life at Orlando Latin Market, the bodega owned and operated by Castillo's parents in St. Petersburg, Fla. Castillo shares her parents' history as Dominican immigrants, bodegueros (bodega operators), and small-business owners, while providing colorful portraits of staff members and regulars at the market.

Castillo begins with a hand-drawn map of the bodega and directions: "Drive through St. Petersburg, down US 19. Make a right on Thirtieth Avenue North." Throughout her narrative, she places Orlando Latin Market in its context as a typical Latino-owned bodega but also underscores its particularity. The store's bulletin board, covered in ads for efficiency apartments for rent, furniture for sale, English-language classes, and other notices, serves as an ever-changing barometer of the neighborhood: what people need, what they want, what they are constantly looking for.

The other reliable barometer of the store's mood is its customers. Castillo profiles many bodega regulars with compassion and a keen eye. There's Esther, who comes in regularly for chicharrones; Miguel, who is nearly finished with trucking school and is there to shop for his cousin; 87-year-old José, known as Negrito, who picks up ingredients for his sister-in-law's sancocho. Each customer finds what they need--aguacates, fried plantains, hot food, cleaning supplies--but they also form strong relationships with one another and the staff.

Castillo, who logged plenty of hours behind the bodega counter as a young woman, writes with warmth and candor about the grueling work required of bodegueros and their employees. She celebrates her parents, Damaris and Freddy, recounting their history as immigrants to New York City and the early days of their marriage, their quiet dedication to their store and community, the way they provide a third space for their customers and staff, and the way they "choose each other and their business day after day after day." Several chapters are written as conversations with one parent or the other, highlighting Freddy's sense of humor and Damaris's constant need to feed and nourish her children, even when they're grown. Castillo also profiles her grandmother, Abuela Rosa Julia, who ran a "bodeguita chiquita" in her home in Santo Domingo, and her Tía Margarita, who spent years working at Orlando Latin Market. Castillo touches on the broader history of Latin American immigrants opening bodegas and other small businesses in the U.S., but this is mostly her family's story, and she tells it with sensitivity and style.

Brimming with sensory details and lively character sketches, Bodega Stories is a loving portrait of a family business and the community it both supports and creates. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

Shelf Talker: Amaris Castillo's engaging debut paints a warm, lively portrait of her parents' bodega in Florida and the community that surrounds it.