Pssst. Drew Daywalt (author of The Day the Crayons Came Home) will be at Lemuria on September 15 at 3:30!
How long have you worked at Lemuria? In my current position, I’ve been at Lemuria for 1 year, although I worked here in the summers in high school. It is definitely the best job I’ve had and I’m glad to be back.
What do you do at Lemuria? Most days I’m Dorothy who has been spit out of the tornado. On good days I’m Glinda the Good Witch, and on AWESOME days I’m the Wizard of Oz. Oz, for those of you not familiar with Lemuria, is our children’s book section! I order all the books for newborns all the way up to teens. I also arrange for authors who write books for kids to visit Jackson. You can catch what children’s books I review each Sunday in The Clarion Ledger!
Talk to us about what you’re reading right now.
I just finished Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. For every 10-20 children’s books I read, I try to read one adult book, and this one was a winner.
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit. A WW2 story told from Anna’s perspective, who at the beginning of the story has just turned 7. Her father, an intellectual linguistics professor in Poland, leaves for work one day and never returns. The Swallow Man finds her and an incredible journey ensues.
Drowning is Inevitable by Shalanda Stanley. Four teens find themselves in a heap of trouble in Louisiana and set off to New Orleans. A little Kate Chopin, a lot of Southern Gothic, and I love it.
After Alice by Gregory Maguire. We all know the story of ALICE, but what happened to the other girl listening to Carroll’s story, Ada? This is her story, and the book will be out just in time for the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands. Kevin Sands will be at Lemuria September 18! This is a fast-paced adventure and mystery story set in London, and Christopher Rowe is an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn, an apothecary. When Master Blackthorn is murdered, Christopher is left behind to unlock the key, or code. Really fun, and I can’t wait for the event.
I know it’s difficult, but give us your current top five books. THIS IS SO HARD. This fall in particular there are so many debut authors whose books I am obsessed with, so come talk to me about them because the list is too long.
1. Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (out in October!)
2. Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell
3. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie is always in my top five and
has been ever since I read it in 5th grade. It’s his only children’s book.
4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
5. The Nonsense Show by Eric Carle
What did you do before you worked at Lemuria? I was a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville (anchor down!), a student in Florence, Italy, a substitute teacher, a Spanish tutor, a painter at Old Tyme Commissary, a hostess, a research intern at the Mississippi Museum of Art, a magazine editor for Mississippi Magazine and a receptionist in a doctor’s office.
Why do you like working at Lemuria? When you take an author to a school and see the effect they can have on a child, it’s wonderful. Also, finding that perfect book for the perfect person is all the more rewarding when it’s a child who has just discovered reading.
If we could have any living author visit the store and do a reading, who would you want to come? J.K. ROWLING!!! I think I would die.
If Lemuria could have ANY pet (mythical or real), what do you think it should be? Hedwig!! I would love receiving mail by owl post.
If you had the ability to teleport, where would you go first? You mean apparate? Hogwarts, duh. Except not in Hogwarts (nobody’s able to apparate into Hogwarts grounds) but I’d apparate to Hogsmeade.
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