We're excited to announce the dates for the next Bookmaking Class series with Sarah Fagan!

One parent raved, "Sarah's ideas, expertise, and patience are inspiring She encourages the kids to  collaborate and help each other when appropriate, and/or gives individual attention as well."

These classes are held every other Wednesday starting January 16th from 3:30PM-4:30PM. They are great for kids ages 5-8 and are only $10 per child, per class. Sign up for one or all six by giving us a call or stopping by the store! 

The twinkle lights are up and our "book tree" is in the window...the holidays are in full swing at Green Bean Books! The sound of tires whooshing in the rain and our little sign tinkling against the door as customers come and go never fail to get me in the Christmas spirit. Fulfilling wishlists for eager young readers truly is one of the best jobs in the world.

Of all the fun new features we've added to the store this year, one of our most popular has easily been the new, "Perfect for Reading Aloud," section. Full of whimsical and sweet chapter books (and a few picture books!), this little section is a go-to favorite for parents and kids looking for something magical with a classic feel. There have been many winter and holiday books in this style published or re-issued recently, and we're so excited to have them on our shelves for all your holiday read-aloud needs!

We couldn't be more excited about the reissue of Miss Suzy by Miriam Young. A tidy little brown squirrel named Miss Suzy has her cozy winter den taken over by pushy, greedy, gray squirrels--oh no! With a little ingenuity and help from some kind toy soldiers, Miss Suzy will have her den back in no time. A book many grown-ups will remember from their own childhoods, Miss Suzy is wonderful winter title for either giving or keeping!

Alison Jay is one of our very favorite author/illustrators here at Green Bean and her books have a special way of speaking to children of many different ages. There really is something in her work for everyone, and her newest picture book, Christmastime, is no exception. Perfect for a night of family reading!

 Something for Christmas by Palmer Brown is part of the New York Review children's collection (which you might recognize by their beautiful, red, cloth spines!), and is the perfect sized chapter book for a stocking stuffer! The simple story of a baby mouse trying to figure out the perfect gift for his mother, Something for Christmas is the perfect holiday chapter book to read by the fireside.

A new title sure to become a winter classic is A Perfect Day by Carin Berger, author of Little Yellow Leaf. Her illustrated collages are the perfect mix of sweet and modern, and her text is the perfect celebration of winter and the natural world. I know quite a few Portland kids who would LOVE more than one "pefect" snow day this year!

What could be a more fitting read-aloud than the original version of E.T.A. Hoffman's, The Nutcracker, illustrated by none other than the late Maurice Sendak? This large-scale, fully illustrated chapter book will certainly become a family treasure. Even if you can't take the kids to the theater for a performance of The Nutcracker, you can still make it a tradition in your home. Sendak's rendering of Marie's dreamworld is nothing short of breathtaking.

So why not start a new family holiday tradition of reading aloud this year? Come in and check out these little gems and so many others we've got on display. Happy Holidays!

As I've shared before, the board books we get in always amuses me. I'd like to focus on two new series both of which introduces the youngest of readers to classics!

The first is from the Baby Lit collection and features six well-loved titles- A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Dracula, Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, and Romeo & Juliet. The first two are color primers and the rest are counting books. Cute illustrations by Alison Oliver make Jennifer Adams' simple texts come to life. For example, in Dracula, we see 5 heroes still smiling, fully unaware of the dangers that await them, and 9 boxes including one coffin keeping a sleeping Dracula safe from the sun. Three more titles are expected to hit shelves early next year expanding into different concepts like weather, ocean, and opposites!

Another series is the aptly named Cozy Classics. Jack and Holman Wang share timeless stories with just twelve words for each and accompanied by wonderful needle-felted illustrations! Currently, there are Moby Dick and Pride and Prejudice available with Les Miserables and War and Peace coming out in Spring 2013.

These are perfect for the little readers in your life!

We've been thinking a lot about the people of New York in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and keeping this city, home to so many stories, in our hearts. Christmastime always makes me feel like hopping on a train bound for Grand Central Station and enjoying the Big Apple in a big blue hat. Though Portland has plenty of lovely holiday offerings of it's own, I get jealous of all the city mice ice skating under the colossal Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, visiting Santa at Macy's, and watching the sugarplum fairies twirl at the ballet! To combat my winter wanderlust and in honor of the rallying metropolis, I revisited a couple of my favorite New York books this morning!

New Yorker Maira Kalman offers one of the most beautiful hustle-bustliest looks at the especially grand Grand Central Station in her picture book Next Stop Grand Central. She honors it's "stupendous star-filled ceilings" with her wacky paintings and introduces readers to all the important folks behind the scenes make the trains run smoothly 365 days a year! George Coppola, the stations police chief, deals with no-goodniks. Wanda handles complaints, of which there are bound to be many, since the station welcomes 500,000 people every day! We meet loads of oddball passengers rushing off on their weird outings. Ofir Weiss is headed to the Bronx zoo in a dino outfit and Millicent Bluebird delivers a lemon to a man at the Botanical Gardens!

Sasek's New York celebrates the city's huge fluffy squirrels and tiny hot dog restaurants on wheels! He depicts both famous landmarks and little things that make the city what it is. He remembers shoe shiners and art museums, tunnels, dinos, tubas, and many varied mother tongues. Besides boasting hundreds of languages, the city cooks up a zillion snacks from near and far! Sasek paints beautiful bridges and cityscapes in the moonlight! A wonderful symphony on one of America's favorite melting pots! Don't you want to have lunch at the soda fountain pictured below, where you can buy both a hamburger and a copy of Hamlet!?

Another absolute treasure is The Cricket in Times Square--the classic chronicle of a little country cricket from Connecticut who makes his home in a train station magazine stand, befriends a city cat and mouse, and sets off to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the city for the first time! This is the sweetest story, perfect for anyone who has ever felt little or lost in a new place! Also a treat for lovers of miniatures like us, as it's filled with things like cricket-sized strawberry soda floats!

"They were standing at the corner of the Times building, which is at the south end of Times Square. Above the cricket, towers that seemed like mountains of light rose up in the night sky. Even this late the neon signs were still blazing. Reds, blues, greens, and yellows flashed down on him. And the air was full of the roar of traffic and the hum of human beings. It was as if Times Square were a kind of shell, with colors and noises breaking in great waves inside it. Chester's heart hurt him and he closed his eyes. The sight was too terrible and beautiful for a cricket who up to now had measured high things by the height of his willow tree and sounds by the burble of a running brook."

Don't miss these other amazing books set in NYC--from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side, from the Plaza hotel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art!