On Thursday, September 8th, the fun begins with Maggie and the Story Pirates as we host “Theodore Boone & the Thrill of Rights,” an interactive traveling bus tour based on John Grisham’s Theodore Boone series.

At this point, you may be asking yourself, “Who are the Story Pirates? Who is Theodore Boone? What is the Thrill of Rights? Huh?” I know, it can get pretty confusing.

Let me start at the beginning: John Grisham has written two books for kids in his Theodore Boone series. A Hardy Boys- esque series, Theo’s parents are both lawyers and he has been in love with law since he can remember. Theo is a lovable character for kids and parents alike.

John Grisham is not touring with his new book, but the Story Pirates, an arts and literacy activist acting troupe, have taken the characters from Grisham’s well loved books and create the play “Theodore Boone and the Thrill of Rights.” It is this play that they will be performing for five different audiences while they are in Jackson, MS.

This tour kicked-off with a performance at Jackson Elementary, one of Atlanta’s top-ranked public schools, and the tour will wrap up with three days of performances for the Sarasota County school system in Florida, while making stops in seventeen different cities and over five different states.

In Jackson, Maggie and the Story Pirates will visit First Presbytyrian Day School and St. Andrew’s on Thursday with a public show that afternoon at the Eudora Welty Library at 4:00. Then I will be taking the Story Pirates to Madison-Ridgeland Academy and Power APAC Friday, September 9th.

During the show, the audience will learn basic concepts of the American justice system while being introduced to the world and characters of Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer. The performance will include sound effects, interactive skits and games, and audience members will act as a jury. The Story Pirates performers, who have proved popular among teachers, students, parents, and education advocates, will be on hand after the show to sign posters.

And although Grisham won’t be joining the tour to sign books, Lemuria will be on hand at every stop in Jackson with books for sale, as well as hardback copies of both Kid Lawyer and The Abduction signed by John Grisham himself.

It’s going to be a fun time and if the play isn’t coming to your school, be sure to be at the Eudora Welty Library Thursday, September 8th at 4:00!

These are the books available at the events and at Lemuria:

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, 2010, signed hardback 1st edition, $16.99

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer, paperback, not signed, $7.99

Theodore Boone: The Abduction, 2011, signed hardback 1st edition, $16.99

Our kids book clubs have been pretty sporadic this summer, but starting in August, we returned to our once a month scheduling. A couple of months ago, our middle school girls book club read Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Gracie, one of the girls in the book club, read the book for the book club and has written a review for those of you interested in what kinds of books this book club reads:

Raised by Wolves is the first book in the new series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Bryn, the main character in the first book, was raised by wolves, literally! Bryn is a stubborn and smart girl who throughout the story is trying to figure out her complex past while at the same time keeping up the shroud of being a normal human girl. Easy as all this might sound, Bryn’s life is a constant battle of what she thinks is best as opposed to what her adoptive mother Ali and her guardian Callum think. Her course of life never seems to change until the presence of a new wolf is sensed by the pack. Naturally told to keep away, Bryn goes to Callum arguing and pleading with him to see the new wolf. After the arrival of the new wolf Chase, the story is set into overdrive as Bryn separates from the pack with Chase, her new love. Together they conquer demons from their pasts and form a new family of young wolves. This book is a wonderful and thrilling ride with words that ride with you through the betrayal, romance, and adventurous scenes of being raised by wolves.

Bryn lives with a pack of wolves. That might sound fun but when you have all of them breathing down your neck to be perfect… not so much. Even though her friends are always there for her when she meets Chase its a bond like no other in their eyes, but the pack thinks otherwise. And so of course as all good and great books do, our Bryn goes out on an adventure to find her parents killer, the truth to her past, and most importantly her reason for being saved as a child. Once our epic story comes to an end after a battle against Wilson the rogue were. All seems well for now with Bryn, her new rescued pack of adolescent werewolves, and of course her soul mate Chase. But will it last?

Remember, if you are wanting to be a part of the book club, email emily@lemuriabooks.com. Members get 10% off of the monthly book and we are always looking for new members.

I didn’t know about the Llama Llama books before coming to work at Lemuria, but this little guy is a staff favorite so it wasn’t long before I was familiar with all of his drama.

The Llama Llama books chronicle a little llama and his relationship with his mama. Little llama is perpetually losing his patience with Mama Llama, whether it be at the store (This one is my personal favorite and involves Llama becoming bored at the Shop-o-rama, and before you know it, he begins to throw things out of the cart in a fit. I mean, haven’t we all been there?) or at bedtime, or when he gets dropped off at school, but all it takes is a quick reprimand from his mama (Please stop all this llama drama and be patient for your mama.) and all is well again. Because, despite all of his drama, Llama really does love his mama. These stories are funny, and even when the little llama is throwing a “tizzy,” he’s still quite lovable.

These fun books are written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney (you can visit her site here), and I’m happy to announce that she will be visiting us here at Lemuria on September 19 at 4pm to sign her new book Llama Llama Home with Mama.  I hope that you’ll join us for a great event!  -Kaycie

In July I wrote about defining children’s classics, and here I am with a semi-related topic.  New books by authors that I already consider to be classic, which just adds to the conundrum of defining children’s classics.  Are they automatically given classic status?  At this point it doesn’t matter, I’m just excited that I’ve been able to preview some of them and that this fall they’ll be hitting the shelves.

And now that I’ve kept you in suspense for an entire paragraph, here’s what is in store:

1. Every Thing On It—poems and drawings by Shel Silverstein

Sadly Shel Silverstein passed away in 1999, but lucky for us, some of his work has continued to be published posthumously.  In 2005 a book of poetry titled Runny Rabbit was published and this September Every Thing On It, another new volume of poetry, will be published. Flipping through the small preview copy that we received brings back distinct memories of reading through the copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends that my grandparents kept at their home for me, my brother, and cousins to read whenever we came to visit (and which eventually found its way to a home on my younger brother’s bookshelf).

2. The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

This collection of seven short stories (accompanied by the sort of illustrations we know and love from the Dr. Seuss collection) were all originally published in magazines between the years of 1948 and 1959 . In his introduction of this collection, Seuss scholar Dr. Charles D. Cohen likens these stories to buried treasure and claims that they “were hiding in places that could be found without a treasure map,” and I, for one, am so grateful to Dr. Cohen for tracking them down.  I read through this collection and am happy to report that they are precisely what we love in the already classic Seuss stories.  I often giggled at Hop on Pop as a child and today The Cat in the Hat is still a popular story-time choice for the little girl I babysit.  Be on the lookout for The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories this September.

3. Bumble-Ardy by Maurice Sendak

In my last blog on children’s classics, I mentioned that Where the Wild Things Are was (and still is so far as my recommendations to customers) one of my favorites.  So I’m quite glad to see that Sendak is still at it with this new book about a little pig and his misfortunes with birthday parties.  This book is full of Sendak’s usual quirky creatures who are up to some sort of mischief.  A fun book with great illustrations, Bumble-Ardy will be for sale this September!

So keep these classic authors’ newest work in your mind this fall when you begin your Christmas shopping because quite frankly, you just can’t give child a better gift than a wonderful book from one of these beloved authors.  And before these books come out, perhaps you can refresh yourself on some of your old favorites from Silverstein, Sendak and Seuss.  -Kaycie

I’ve been working back in OZ lately, mostly with the classics section, and I’ve realized how much of a conundrum this section really presents.  What actually constitutes a children’s classic?  Is it the number of years it has stayed in print?  Is it based on fads (for example, will the Harry Potter series eventually be considered classics? Or is fantasy just in vogue right now but likely to fall by the wayside in fifty years)?  What gives a children’s book staying power?

It’s different from adult classics, which are often just an accepted part of the Western canon and appear again and again on high school and college reading lists to teach us about certain cultural and historical perspectives.  And that’s not to say that some children’s classics are not also on the academic list for important literary analysis, because they certainly are, but what makes them stay on the shelves just for a child’s enjoyment?

For example, a book that I am always eager to show children and their parents is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  I had a hardcover copy of this book when I was a child and distinctly remember my parents reading it to me quite often.  And though I consider this book a classic, it’s not as if it’s very old.  Maurice Sendak is still alive, and Where the Wild Things Are was first published in 1963.  That’s not so long ago.  Not like, say, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden which was first published in 1910 and lives in children’s classics along with Sendak’s work.

Philip Pullman’s (author of His Dark Materials) publisher David Fickling (in a 2007 Times article )”says that his definition of a classic is ‘rereadability.’ ‘Plenty of books are enjoyable to read once, but with a classic, the more you reread, the more comes out. It’s the same for all ages; there is that tone, that care with words, that control from the big picture down to individual sentences.'”

And I have to agree with Mr. Fickling on that, but I have to wonder if there’s not more to it than “rereadability.”  What about books that I read and loved as a child that would never be on the Western canon, but that I would certainly buy for my child to read for fun–books like The Baby Sitters Club series, R.L. Stine’s creepy collection of child-appropriate horror stories, and Bunnicula. Everyone in my elementary school enjoyed those books, and no one buys them now.  But who is to say that when my generation starts having children that they won’t come back in style?  I mean, I wouldn’t want my future child to miss out on vampire bunnies! That just wouldn’t be fair.

So what do you think makes a children’s classic?  What kid’s books have staying power with you? Or with your kids?

Just to start the conversation, I will say that some of my favorites are The Witches by Roald Dahl (1983), The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (1865 and 1871 respectively), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961),  I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (1949) and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937).  -Kaycie