Southfield Battle of the Books Announced 02.11.2011

The Southfield Battle of the Books contest is starting for the 2011 / 2012 season, and they have announced this year’s titles.  Book Beat is proud to support this challenge that encourages reading for children.  You can purchase them all together  in a packet or one title at a time.  The Battle Books include sets for 4th graders, sets for 5th graders and Young Adult sets.  Please call ahead if you need to hold a title as availability on books does fluctuate.   The kick-off meeting for managers and team leaders is for  Thursday, December 1st, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the Library Auditorium.  This meeting is not for everyone, just managers and team leaders, but Book Beat will be there with battle books for sale.
Posted in: Children's Books, Young Adult | No Comments »
Read in the Park returns to Berkley! Sunday May 1st 13.04.2011


Read in the Park, Sunday May 1st at Berkley High School

Book Beat is happy to announce that the Read in the Park event will be returning this year on Sunday, May 1st from 1 to 3 p.m at Berkley High School. This is the 4th year of Read in the Park and participating authors will be Natalie Taylor, Bryan Chick, Wong Herbert Yee,  Scott Seegert and illustrator John Martin (and perhaps a visit from their friend Vordak the Incomprehensible?). Read in the Park will be held in the Collaborative Center at Berkley High School.  (It is on 2325 Catalpa, at 11 and 1/2 mile East of Coolidge facing Catalpa.)

This is a free, fun and community wide celebration of books and reading for children, young adults and their families.  This year’s Read in the Park falls on El día de los niños/El día de los libros, The International Day of the Child and Day of the Book, a day recognized by the United Nations.  This will be a great opportunity to introduce children to national and internationally known Detroit area authors and illustrators. The Book Beat has invited some of our favorite area writers to this special afternoon event. Below are some short descriptions of the books and authors with links to learn more. We hope to see you there! We can’t reach everyone, so please pass this event  info along to people you think should know about it. Thanks for your support and we hope to see you there!!!

Here is the schedule for the day’s program:

1:15 PM:  Wong Herbert Yee

1:40 PM: Bryan Chick

2:05 PM:  Vordak with Scott Seegert and John Martin

2:30 PM: Natalie Taylor

Natalie Taylor is the acclaimed author of SIGNS OF LIFE, a rare and wonderful page-turning memoir of early motherhood, suggested for adults and young adults ages 15 and up. Natalie is also an English teacher at Berkley High School. Signs of Life is her first book.

“Sit down with this book. See if you can stop after one page.”

—Elizabeth Berg

“Natalie Taylor faced an enormous happiness challenge. In this thought-provoking memoir, she explains how she coped with it and what she learned, in a way that’s profound yet funny, painful yet hopeful. I couldn’t put it down.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

Bryan Chick is the author of  10 volume SECRET ZOO series;  “The idea of The Secret Zoo came to me when I was just nine years old. I wondered what it would be like if zoo exhibits had secret passages that allowed kids to get in and animals to get out. Over twenty years, this idea matured in complexity and length until it had become an epic story, to be told in ten full-length novels.

When I’m not exploring the worlds in my head, I spend time speaking to like-minded peers at elementary schools across the nation.” –Bryan Chick

Scott Seegert is the author of HOW TO GROW UP AND RULE THE WORLD by VORDAK, THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE - a book that young future mad-scientists will cherish and drool over. Filled with charts, diagrams, lists and advice for the novice tyrant, Vordak is the maniacal new anti-hero who makes no secret of his plan for world domination. Seriously, Vordak has no boundaries. This guy is EVIL. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Will VORDAK himself make a rare appearance?? Be prepared to meet the caped superhero mastermind behind this diabolical and hilarious new book…  also present will be John Martin, the creative illustrator behind Vordak’s book and his top-secret evil, evil website: http://www.vordak.com/index2.html

Wong Herbert Yee has been writing and illustrating beautiful, wise and gentle children’s book since his 1992 debut success EEK! THERE’S A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE. His latest book MOUSE AND MOLE, FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS received a 2010 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award.
Posted in: Author signings, Children's Books, Detroit & Michigan, Young Adult | No Comments »
New Wimpy Kid Book Nov. 9th! 03.11.2010

Tuesday, November 9th marks the release of book 5 in the ever-popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, The Ugly Truth.  If you pre-ordered or reserved copies, they will be available for pick up Tuesday morning.  Call Book Beat at (248) 968-1190 if you have any questions or would like to have a copy reserved.

Book Beat/ Temple Emanu-El Days are Here!

Help Support the Temple Emanu-El Library and Celebrate Jewish Book Month!  From November 8th – December 11th, mention Temple Emanu-El when you purchase books at Book Beat and the Temple Emanu-El Library receives 20% of your total purchase. There are four whole weeks to shop – so shop early… and often!

Battle of the Books titles available now

The Southfield Battle of the Books title selections for 2010/2011 were recently announced and Book Beat has copies for sale.  You can purchase them all together  in a packet or one title at a time.  The Battle Books include sets for 4th graders, sets for 5th graders and Young Adult sets.  We also have the Birmingham Battle of the Books titles for sale as well.   Please note, however, that we have limited quantity of one title, Every Soul a Star, as of 11/3/10.  We will be trying to order more of this title, but the publisher was currently out of stock.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

On November 18, Southfield Public Library hosts the Battle of the Books Kick-Off Meeting at 7:00 pm.  The meeting is only mandatory for managers, but we will be selling books there if parents, teachers or students would like to purchase copies there.
Posted in: 000_HIDDEN, News & Events, Reading, Young Adult | No Comments »
Blue Balliett & Three Oaks, Michigan 02.10.2010

Blue Balliett is one of our favorite writers. She creates fascinating mysteries and adventure stories for YA readers that are based on historical figures (the artists Vermeer, Calder and architect Frank Lloyd Wright all had roles in her past books. She often describes in true-to-life detail places that actually exist… and adults love to read her books too.. you’re always learning something new and interesting when you read Blue Balliett. Her books are like antique curiosity cabinets, with clever mind-twisting games and codes sprinkled throughout.

Her latest book, “The Danger Box” takes the reader to “Three Oaks” -a small Michigan town in the Southwest corner of the state near Lake Michigan.  The book is about a mystery concerning a rare stolen notebook written by Charles Darwin. You will discover the towns founding father Warren Featherstone and his massive buggy whip factory… the post office, pharmacy and of course Warren’s massive mansion, with its brass polished doorknobs and wall-to-wall imported Italian marble. Now its home to the town library and museum.

Blue Balliett will be in the area for a non-public signing and we have prepared a special flyer with book ordering information…

you can download our flyer here:—>     blue_balliett
-you can see all her books listed in the pdf file with prices, and she will gladly sign them if purchased before her appearance on Thursday, October and we will fill any order that is placed before her appearance on Thursday, October 8th. It will be best to call or drop by soon if there are titles you’d like to own.

“The story is well written and an absolute joy to read. The book is filled with many beautiful analogies, like the exquisite feeling of gentle rain tapping you on the shoulder every time you encounter one of them. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy named Zoomy. He’s a boy that struggles with OCD and battles with pathological myopia. The depiction and description of Zoomy enables you to be sucked into his world, drawing you deeply into the plot and leaving you totally engrossed.he story is well written and an absolute joy to read. The book is filled with many beautiful analogies, like the exquisite feeling of gentle rain tapping you on the shoulder every time you encounter one of them. The story is told through the eyes of a young boy named Zoomy. He’s a boy that struggles with OCD and battles with pathological myopia. The depiction and description of Zoomy enables you to be sucked into his world, drawing you deeply into the plot and leaving you totally engrossed.” –Mr. Ripley’s Enchanted Books.

This summer we took a ride to Three Oaks to discover for ourselves some of the places discussed in “The Danger Box”. While there, we could feel a strange buzz surrounding the town, as if travelers from all over were there like us, taking pictures and discovering this marvelous place out-of-time described throughout “The Danger Box”. Here are some pictures from that charming town, familiar already to anyone whose read it.
Posted in: Author signings, Detroit & Michigan, Young Adult | No Comments »
Edward McClelland, author of “Young Mr. Obama” @ Southfield Public Library, October 24 15.09.2010

Edward “Ted” McClelland will be at the Southfield Public Library on Sunday, October 24 at 2:00 p.m. to speak about his new book, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President. This event is co-sponsored by the Book Beat bookstore.  Please call 248-968-1190 for more information. The Southfield Library is located at 26300 Evergreen in Southfield, MI.  Books will be available for purchase at the event from Book Beat.

How the rough-and-tumble reality of Chicago taught a brilliant but callow young African-American politician the lessons that launched him on the road to history.

Barack Obama’s inspirational politics and personal mythology have overshadowed his fascinating history. Young Mr. Obama gives us the missing chapter, a portrait of the politician as a young leader, often too ambitious for his own good, but still equipped with a rare ability to inspire change. His route to the White House began on the streets of Chicago’s South Side.

Young Mr. Obama tells the real story of the first black president’s education in the capital of the African-American political community. Obama’s touch wasn’t always golden: the unflappable, charismatic leader we know today nearly derailed his political career with a disastrous run for Congress in 2000.

Obama learned from his mistakes, and rebuilt his public persona. Young Mr. Obama is a masterpiece of political reporting, peeling away the audacity, the t-shirts, and the inspiring speeches to craft a compelling and surpassingly readable account of how local politics shaped a national leader.

from the publisher

Ted McClelland is the author of Horseplayers: Life at the Track, a senior editor at Lake magazine, and a writer who has contributed to Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, Slate.com, and Utne Reader.
Posted in: Author signings, General, Young Adult | No Comments »
Amy Goldman Koss Book Club @ Book Beat, August 12 27.07.2010

Young adult author Amy Goldman Koss is promoting her latest book, The Not-So-Great Depression, with a book club discussion and signing at Book Beat on Thursday, August 12, from 7-8:30 pm.  Goldman Koss is the author of Poison Ivy and Side Effects.  In The Not-So-Great Depression a young 9th-grade girl deals with the economic repression when her mother gets laid off, friends lose their homes and other realistic situations occur that might sound familiar.  The book club discussion is for children ages 10 and up, they can pick up the book any time before the signing.

Amy Goldman Koss is a Detroit / Southfield native who has written several books of fiction for young adults including, The Girls, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and The Cheat.  Amy Goldman Koss currently lives in Glendale, CA with her family.  Check out her website www.amygoldmankoss.net.

“While this background is serious, the story has a lot of humor and a bit of romance. Jacki’s relationship with her supportive friend Emily is both realistic and admirable, but the interactions between Jacki and her family members take center stage. This novel offers readers likable characters and a personal narrative of economic woes. It will keep them turning the pages.” Review from the School Library Journal
Posted in: Author signings, Author/artist interviews and lectures, Children's Books, Young Adult | No Comments »