On the eve of Children's Institute 2024, Baldwin & Co. yesterday welcomed booksellers to New Orleans, La., with a party that featured remarks from store owner DJ Johnson, a book signing with children's author Renée Watson (Summer Is Here, published last month by Bloomsbury Children's Books), a buffet featuring Southern classics like shrimp and grits, and a live performance by a brass band, which led booksellers to their shuttle buses at the end of the night.

Ci2024 begins today and will continue through Wednesday afternoon. Highlights include bookstore tours, keynotes by, among others, Watson, Meg Medina, Rex Ogle, and Mark Oshiro, plenty of education sessions and roundtables, networking events, an opening reception/costume party, and karaoke. The American Booksellers Association says it's the largest Children's Institute ever.

ABA CEO Allison Hill noted: "Children's bookselling and booksellers are critical to sustaining the book industry and to supporting young readers. Children's Institute is an opportunity for booksellers, publishers, and authors to come together to celebrate and support this important work."

The Casa Bosques Bookshop, an art and design bookstore founded in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood in 2012, has opened a short-term pop-up in the Standard Hotel in New York City's East Village, Wallpaper reported.

The pop-up opened on June 3 and will run until the 17th. Coinciding with Pride Month, its selection features queer books, zines, and art, including a few rare and out-of-print items. There are titles from Mexico, as well as others sourced from the U.S. and Europe. Other offerings include Casa Bosques chocolates and branded merchandise and apparel.

Casa Bosques co-founder Jorge de la Garza told Wallpaper that setting up the pop-up was "more complex" than originally anticipated, due to many "incredible publications" from Mexico never being reprinted. He described the inventory as a "photograph of today," and feels the selection does a good job of representing the diversity of the LGBT+ community.

The pop-up will host a number of talks and signings before the end of its stay on June 17.

Temple University's bookstores in Philadelphia, Pa., are transitioning from Barnes & Noble College to Follett Higher Education Group this summer. The Temple News reported that Follett's bookstores will fully open June 24, after closing June 8-23. All online services will cease on June 2, and both the Main Campus and Health Sciences bookstores will physically close June 7.

"While there will be temporary inconveniences, we believe this will ultimately allow us to bring a higher-quality service to our students, faculty and staff that is better in line with our world-class institution," provost Gregory Mandel wrote in a message to students.

The Main Campus bookstore will occupy the same space in the Howard Gittis Student Center, on the basement level, until Fall 2025, then relocate to Paley Hall once the renovation is complete. The Health Sciences Center bookstore will continue to operate in the same location. 

Follett is partnered with more than 1,000 universities and can offer more materials, merchandise and experiences for Temple students and staff, the university wrote. 

On June 24, students and staff will be able to use a new Temple bookstore website through Follett for all online bookstore purchases. The Barnes & Noble College bookstore websites have been separate for textbooks and spirit shop apparel. 

Nonny Hogrogian

Writer and illustrator Nonny Hogrogian, "who mined her Armenian heritage to bring diversity and wonder to her woodcuts and watercolors, an approach that helped expand the world of children's literature and made her a two-time Caldecott Medal winner," died May 9, the New York Times reported. She was 92.

Hogrogian received her first medal in 1966 for the book Always Room for One More, written by Sorche Nic Leodhas; and her second, in 1972, for One Fine Day, based on an Armenian folk tale she retold and illustrated. She also received a Caldecott Honor for The Contest (1977), inspired by another Armenian folk tale.

Hogrogian was a close friend of illustrators Maurice Sendak and Ezra Jack Keats, "and like them she drew on the old-world European artistry and traditions of her immigrant family to broaden American children's literature, starting in the 1960s," the Times noted.

"Nonny helped kick open the door for today's multicultural movement in children's books," noted Richard Michelson, a friend and fellow children's author. "She proudly explored her Armenian heritage in her many books--mining its folk tales and her own history--at a time when most books were more interested in creating a 'melting pot' than a 'patchwork quilt.' "

Much of her work was done using woodcut prints, though she also used watercolors, charcoal, and pen, depending on the project. She said she started by studying the text to see which medium it called for, rather than imposing a single approach to all her work, the Times wrote. "Regardless of the medium, her books impressed readers with a deceptive simplicity, which on close inspection revealed a complex richness of color and tone. Her works stood on their own as art even as they brought to life the stories being told."

In her acceptance speech after receiving her first Caldecott, Hogrogian described how she decided to illustrate Always Room for One More, based on a Scottish folk song about a poor man who keeps welcoming guests into his home. "Woodcuts, long my favorite medium, were too strong for the gentle folk in the heather," she said. "So I pulled out my watercolors and chalks, some ink and a pen, and before long, in an almost effortless way, the drawings seemed to flow."

Hogrogian studied fine arts at Hunter College in Manhattan, and after graduating in 1953 she found a job designing book covers for publisher Thomas Y. Crowell. Allowed to provide artwork for some of the books, she wanted to be a full-time artist and studied woodcuts at the New School before eventually starting a freelance career. She returned to working for publishers occasionally, but her first Caldecott win erased any concerns she had about a future as an illustrator.

She met her husband, poet David Kherdian, when she was hired to design the cover of his 1971 book, Homage to Adana. They married that year, and she went on to illustrate several more of his books.

Hogrogian often said her next book would be her last, and referred to herself as retired, even as she continued to work. "I have probably been busier in retirement than out of it," she wrote in an autobiographical sketch in 2001, adding that the word retirement "indicates more a time in my life when I need to live as I really wish to live, and work is a large part of what I take joy in doing."

Congratulations to Love's Sweet Arrow, the romance bookstore in Tinley Park, Ill., near Chicago, which is celebrating "five years of happily ever afters" this month. Festivities include a surprise romance gift with every purchase and nationwide shipping for $5 throughout the month, in-store treats every Saturday in June, 15% discounts the week of June 15-21, and a party on June 30 with treats, raffles, and giveaways.

"The shop was simply glowing in the shine of Brenda Novak’s Bookstream on Friday! I’ll post more about that later today. Meanwhile, happy Sunday!" Shop Around the Corner Books, Redding, Calif., posted on Facebook. 

Morgan Pfeiffer has joined Sourcebooks as special markets sales coordinator.

Today:
Today Show: Ryan Holiday, author of Right Thing, Right Now: Good Values. Good Character. Good Deeds. (Portfolio, $28, 9780593191712).

Also on Today: Katie Ledecky, author of Just Add Water: My Swimming Life (Simon & Schuster, $28.99, 9781668060209).

Live with Kelly and Mark: Andrew McCarthy, author of Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain (Grand Central, $19.99, 9781538709214).

Fresh Air: Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593652824). He will also be on Good Morning America tomorrow.

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Amy B. Scher and Mark Jason Williams, authors of Out in the World: An LGBTQIA+ (and Friends!) Travel Guide to More Than 100 Destinations Around the World (National Geographic, $30, 9781426223501).

CBS Mornings: Elin Hilderbrand, author of Swan Song (Little, Brown, $30, 9780316258876).

The View: Questlove, author of Hip-Hop Is History (AUWA, $30, 9780374614072).

Heyday Television has acquired adaptation rights to Gillian McAllister's novel Just Another Missing Person. Deadline reported that after what has been described as a "highly competitive situation," British screenwriter Georgia Pritchett (Succession, Veep) will adapt the story for TV. 

Heyday founder and Academy Award-nominated producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter films, Barbie, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood) is executive producing along with Pritchett, McAllister and Sue Gibbs.

"I'm so honored that the superlative Heyday Television, Universal International Studios and Georgia Pritchett have teamed up to work on the adaptation of Just Another Missing Person," McAllister said. "Truly, sometimes I think I am dreaming."

Heyman added: "Gillian McAllister is an extraordinary storyteller, and Just Another Missing Person is a shining example of exactly. It's a provocative and gripping thriller filled with emotionally engaging characters, deliciously complicated relationships and shocking twists. Just Another Missing Person is a story that stays with you long after the final page and Georgia Pritchett is the perfect screenwriter to bring it to life as a thrilling premium TV series."  

The winners of the 2024 James Beard Foundation Book Awards are:

General: Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly (Knopf)
International: The World Central Kitchen Cookbook by José Andrés and World Central Kitchen with Sam Chapple-Sokol (Clarkson Potter)
Literary Writing: The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García by Laura Tillman (W. W. Norton & Company)
Baking and Desserts: Dark Rye and Honey Cake: Festival Baking from Belgium, the Heart of the Low Countries by Regula Ysewijn (Weldon Owen)
Beverage with Recipes: Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More by Danny Childs (Hardie Grant North America)
Beverage without Recipes: Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals by Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera (W. W. Norton & Company)
Food Issues and Advocacy: Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis: Essays and Recipes by Philip Gleissner and Harry Eli Kashdan (Rutgers University Press)
Reference, History, and Scholarship: White Burgers, Black Cash: Fast Food from Black Exclusion to Exploitation by Naa Oyo A. Kwate (University of Minnesota Press)
Restaurant and Professional: Fish Butchery: Mastering the Catch, Cut, and Craft by Josh Niland (Hardie Grant Books)
Single Subject: Pasta Every Day: Make It, Shape It, Sauce It, Eat It by Meryl Feinstein (Hachette Book Group)
U.S. Foodways: Love Japan: Recipes from Our Japanese American Kitchen by Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi with Gabriella Gershenson (Ten Speed Press)
Vegetable-Focused Cooking: Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Knopf)
Visuals: The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp by Yudi Echevarria (Ten Speed Press)
Emerging Voice: Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed by Abi Balingit (HarperCollins)

Cookbook Hall of Fame: Pierre Thiam

Zoologist and Cambridge lecturer Arik Kershenbaum (The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy) examines the conversation methods of a handful of fascinating species in his thought-provoking popular science book Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication. Kershenbaum synthesizes historic thought, original research, and his own contagious passion for the subject not to answer whether animals have language like humans but to reveal how and why they use the astounding communication methods they do have.

Wolves howl to contact pack members across great distances, dolphins chatter constantly in clicks and whistles, and parrots can learn to speak in human voices. Humans have wondered for thousands of years what animals say to one another, but Kershenbaum encourages the reader to wonder instead why they communicate with each other in the ways they do. Along the way, he investigates the question of whether any animal has a language in the same way humans do, as well as whether scientists could ever translate animal sounds thoroughly enough to have a conversation across the divide of the species. Spoiler alert: Kershenbaum believes the evidence to date supports neither possibility, but he also considers animal-speak to be deeply fascinating despite the unlikelihood of developing a dolphin-to-human dictionary. As he says of chimpanzees, "No matter how similar to us, their communication is not like ours--it's precisely like theirs. As it should be."

His enthusiasm for his subjects is captivating: he takes the reader into the jungle where gibbons sing, under the sea to study the name-like signature whistles that dolphins use to address each other, and into rock colonies of hyraxes, a tiny relative of elephants, where dominant males use complex songs to ward off competition for female attention. Readers may not hear the sounds he describes, but they can still experience them through Kershenbaum's inclusion of spectograms, visual representations of sounds that demonstrate the difference between dolphins' personal whistles or a hyrax's snort versus its tweet or chuck.

Readers willing to let go of human exceptionalism and look at the world through the lens of animals' interactions with their environments and each other will find a rewarding exploration of communication and its impact on survival. Kershenbaum is open about the challenges facing researchers and the resulting limitations of their conclusions, acknowledging that science is merely on the frontier of this subject. This accessible survey proves animals have much to teach humans about communication if humans are willing to listen. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Shelf Talker: This engaging, accessible popular science book explores why and how animal communication methods work.

The bestselling Libro.fm audiobooks at independent bookstores during May:

Fiction
1. Funny Story by Emily Henry (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. The Women by Kristin Hannah (Macmillan Audio)
3. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Simon & Schuster Audio)
4. James by Percival Everett (Penguin Random House Audio)
5. Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (Hachette Audio)
6. Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (HarperAudio)
7. Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Macmillan Audio)
8. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Penguin Random House Audio)
9. Real Americans by Rachel Khong (Penguin Random House Audio)
10. Long Island by Colm Toibin (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Nonfiction
1. The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson (Penguin Random House Audio)
2. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (Penguin Random House Audio)
3. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Tantor Media)
4. The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell (Simon & Schuster Audio)
5. Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna (HarperAudio)
6. Sociopath by Patric Gagne (Simon & Schuster Audio)
7. Coming Home by Brittney Griner and Michelle Burford (Penguin Random House Audio)
8. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Macmillan Audio)
9. Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer (HarperAudio)
10. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Simon & Schuster Audio)