From: Karen Breen <kbreen>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:37:15 -0500

Meghan, I was a librarian and then an independent bookseller. In fact, I bought my children's bookstore the same weekend that Barnes and Noble opened its first big box store on Long Island. I don't think I have to tell you what that meant to my store. But I know that I would compare constantly...it's a disease...and I had more new fiction than BN ever did and for longer periods of time. So when a book won an award, I usually had at least one or two copies of it. I was a librarian, after all. It just drove me crazy when people would tell me about the hundreds of books at this bright shiny new Barnes and Noble. I had as broad a range, but I didn't have dozens of the same thing. People all knew the picture books; they are easier to get to know. It took a handseller like me and my staff to move the novels. Just before Christmas this year, I went to our local Barnes and Noble to buy things that I couldn't find in our local (Huntington, Long Island) independent. I spent a half hour helping a woman find novels for her 11-year-old. (I repeat, I'm a librarian, after all.) Many of the things I wanted to put in her hand were simply not there. They would have been in my store. Now on another note, I must ask if you are the Meghan McCarthy who has just written this brilliant book about The War of the Worlds called Aliens Are Coming!. If you are, congratulations, it is just terrific. If you are not, when it comes out, you must find it and tell people you are the author/illustrator. :-) Karen Breen Kirkus Reviews
Received on Fri 27 Jan 2006 12:37:15 PM CST