This summer, in addition to my writing projects, I will be on catching up on all the great middle-grade or early YA books that I haven’t had a chance to read yet.
One of the instigators of this was my visit to Ashland, OR, part of my quest to decide where to live during the next phase of my life.
While I was there, I stumbled across the most fabulous children’s bookstore ever, Treehouse Books! Take a look at the website to see what a magical place it is. Since it was 104 degrees outside the day I was there, it was no great hardship to spend a couple of hours raptly pulling books from the shelves.
With great effort, I kept myself in hand, selecting only what I had to have at that moment (rather than the entire store). Reviews of those books — and others—to come!
I should mention I was bowled over by the public library there, too; there’s an entire floor for YA and they have piles of current releases, unlike my local. The library in Eugene, OR also had me lusting over what was available there – they had a real poetry section. As in University presses, small presses, recent releases, not just stale anthologies of people long dead. It was wonderful to see.
I suspect the population being served by my local system is much larger and the competition more fierce (and then there’s always the question of where the budget comes from.)
In terms of bookstores and libraries, Oregon rocks. 104 degree weather? Not so much. And every time I visit I have to relearn that green and rural Oregon has much more polluted air than the urban area where I live. California’s clean air law makes a huge difference; CA gasoline doesn’t contain such high levels of benzene and other toxic hydrocarbons. Maybe OR legislators should worry less about who pumps the gas and more about what’s in it.