Blog Archives

Story Book Ballot!

10/30/2012

Story Book Ballot!

Come to the store to cast your ballot for your favorite story book creatures using a real ballot and voting box! You are welcome to participate anytime during store hours: November 1st - Election Day on November 6th! Who gets your vote for best pig? How about for best monster? We love VOTING--both presidential and picture book-ish! See below some of our favorite books about voting, presidents, civics & America!

Donkey: "Not to change the subject, BUT I've got a question I've been meaning to ask you. Do you like CANDY? Because...if you vote for ME. I'll give you a sucker!" Elephant: You ARE a sucker if you vote for HIM. Besides, if you pick me, I'll give you PEANUTS!

On stage as a play right NOW at the Oregon Children's Theater!

A beautiful book about the potential of daughters, and a lovely tribute to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, Sitting Bull, Cesar Chavez, Billie Holiday, Maya Lin, Albert Einstein, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Jane Addams.

A TREASURE for grown-ups about the hidden treasures in American history by one of our FAVORITE children's book authors!

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Wordstock Whirlwind!

10/16/2012

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Thank you, thank you to all the folks who put together Wordstock this year! Thank you to the the visiting authors, and to all the new and old friends of Green Bean who visited our booth! We loved spending time in the children's area--the scavenger hunt was a big hit!

We were so happy to see friends from bookstores like Broadway Books and Powell's, organizations like the IPRC, and publishers like Tin House at the fest as well. It is awesome to live in a place that gathers so energetically on behalf of the literary arts!

Meeting Jon Klassen was a total highlight for us, and his new book This is Not My Hat--a sequel to I Want my Hat Back--will remain a fall-favorite post fest! His illustrations are the coolest on the kid's book block these days. See also: Extra Yarn and House Held Up By Trees.

Harlem's Little Blackbird by Renée Watson and irresistibly illustrated with collages by Christian Robinson was one of the very cutest books at the whole festival! Come check it out this marvelous story about Florence Mills--a marvelous singer and dancer overcoming adversity during the Harlem Renaissance!

A special thanks to the wonderful Christopher Healy who visited Green Bean Books for a special event, in addition to gracing Wordstock with his presence. Everybody at Green Bean Adores The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom--a middle-grade fractured fairy tale on the truth about princes!

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Paper Folding Fun, Story Times, Totem Tales, Author Visits, and Wordstock!

10/15/2012

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Whew! What a couple of weeks it's been!

I don't know if any of you've noticed but October at Green Bean Books has been full of fun events for the whole family- and we're only halfway through the month!

Our regular Tuesday story times continue to be popular and a great way to share some of our favorite new titles. Have you read Jon Klassen's latest book "This is Not My Hat?" It's a hilarious follow up to his bestselling "I Want My Hat Back."

As usual, we've enjoyed having Portland Early Learning Project stop by for our monthly Spanish story time! "Los Gatos Black on Halloween" was the current pick.

Last Monday, I had the pleasure of holding my first in store arts and crafts project teaching people how to make origami jack-o-lanterns. I'm always blown away by how creative kids are!

We had a full house for our 2nd Bookmaking Around the World class with the wonderful Sarah Fagan. Kids worked on their very own Totem Tales! There are a couple spots left for each of the remaining classes.

This past Saturday, Christopher Healy read from his fun middle reader novel "The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom." We even raffled off a gift basket full of wonderful stuff from some of our fellow businesses in Alberta. Thanks to Candy Babel, Milagros, Collage, and Tin Shed! Congratulations to our lucky winner!

Since working here, I never know who's going to drop by our store. Alexis Smith stopped by to shop and even signed her book "Glaciers" for us. Monday morning had John Stephens ("The Emerald Atlas" and "The Fire Chronicle") coming in to check out our store, which was a nice surprise.

Of course, the big event we had recently was Wordstock- Portland's annual literary festival. Having attended it the past few years, I've got to say I was impressed by how fun and creative they got during this go around- especially the Little Word area for kids!

We were lucky to be right in front of KinderCare's Carnival of Stories so we got to see just how excited the kids were visiting us and our neighboring exhibitors as they read to the dogs, sat in for a reading of their favorite authors, and picked out their prizes after completing their scavenger hunt- as well as doing countless other activities!

We enjoyed sharing our book recommendations with people stopping by our tables (yes, we had two locations this year!) and it was a real treat meeting authors who stopped by to sign copies of their books! Tad Hills ("How Rocket Learned to Read" and "Rocket Writes a Story") even drew a special piece for our store!

Thank you to everyone at Wordstock for doing such a great job- as evidenced by how many people shared with us how much fun they were having! We're already looking forward to next year's!

I want to end this rather lengthy post with a thank you to all our customers who make working at Green Bean so much fun however hectic it may get around here!

We hope to see you in our upcoming events. Happy Reading!

-Earl

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