Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers

08/25/2026

I get a great many email promotions from publisher sales representatives and they range in quality of course, but it is very rare to get one that is positively inspired such as the one I received yesterday with the subject line The Books That Made Us Readers from Penguin Random House Children’s Books. It was based loosely on the pending US release of Katherine Rundell’s delightful essay Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. The promotion had every Penguin Random House kids book rep share the book that made them a reader and the book published in 2026 that would have made them a reader. To give you an idea of how it worked here the two books selected by my rep Rachel are below.

Charming! For myself, I’ll pick Little Bear’s Friend by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. I learned to read with Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop when I was three and it was a bit like a plant’s first experience with water, a vivid memory to be sure but Little Bear’s Friend is the first book I really lived inside. I can open its pages today and still find my old friends, unaged, along with my child self.

For a book published this year I'd choose Bean Supreme by Stephanie Graegin. I hope there will be a more tender, warm, understated, finely developed, funny, and heart-sustaining book than Bean Supreme published someday, but I kind of doubt it. Bean’s world has everything a child could want and should have: a great friend in Clem, a wonderful caretaker in Grandma, and all manner of quests, discoveries, and solutions.

Here's meg with her picks.

The book that made me a reader:

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith

Oh, how I loved this book as a kid! These short vignettes turned familiar fairy tales on their heads with weird, subversive humor, breaking the fourth wall and allowing my young mind to inhabit the page. I was obsessed with experimental typography and elements of collage that continue to delight and inspire me to this day.

The book that would make me a reader today:

Have You Ever Seen a Ghost? By Daniel Kwan & Julia Pott, Illustrated by Sean Lewis

“There is a ghost in this room,” reads the first page of Have You Ever Seen a Ghost? atop a soft illustration of a seemingly empty room. “And they are very excited to show you their new hat. Do you like their hat? Do you love the way it brings out their eyes?” A hat floats near the window. Immediately inviting, the reader becomes an integral part of the story as Ghost’s confidant as they nervously prepare to attend the party of a fellow ghost. There is an interesting and rewarding tension of what’s seen (Ghost’s rich emotional landscape) and what’s unseen (Ghost!) until the very end. So much space for us as readers to imagine into!

Take a minute, if you are so minded, and send us your picks for the book that made you a reader and the book published this year that would have done so. If we get enough responses, we’ll make a nice display table with them! You can post them here or send to [email protected]

08/18/2026

Our new thematic display at the bookstore is called “Plush Pairings” and features store animals paired with great books. It’s been a big hit. Thus far the top-selling pairing has been Don’t Trust Fish and the plush River Trout. To get an inside view, I checked in with the River Trout.

Kenny: There’s been quite a response to your pairing. We’ve sold 4 copies of Don’t Trust Fish and three trout!

River Trout: Yes, it has been all downstream for us.

Kenny: Are you and your table mates pleased with the pairings?

River Trout: Everyone on the table is happy to be here, sure, but you’ve missed some great possible pairings, Kenny.

Kenny: Such as?

River Trout: Oh, don’t be mundane. You can’t be just handed things in life. Why don’t you invite your readers to come in the store, look around, and make pairing suggestions? The best ones will join the table and win prizes for the customer.

Kenny: I like it! Thanks, Trout.

River Trout: Happy to help, but try and think more for yourself in the future.

Kenny: I will.

08/04/2026

We receive input from some prominent dead authors at the store for our Preorder Corner. Though on the other side of the veil now, these deceased authors still keep up with current literature. This week's pick came from William Butler Yeats.

Kenny: What book do you advise our readers to pre-order?

Yeats: The Siren, indeed.

Kenny: Interesting I have heard that it is a polarizing book. Some early readers have been taken aback by it while others loved it.

Yeats: Sure if you want the self affirming safety of a paint by numbers affair The Siren will curdle your milk. There are no shortage of books for such but I say of The Siren that it gives horror and occult suspense the moral complexity and ambiguity they require to thrive. Sustained by trauma as a tomato plant is by water, Adeyemi’s story grows rich and full as it draws the reader into its roots. Fascinating questions regarding the value of established norms of behavior, friendship and justice are posed with an almost disorienting force in this gripping tour de force whose many crossroads moments would leave even Robert Frost unsure of which path to take.

Kenny: Thanks Yeats!

Yeats: Certainly.

https://ddgbooks.com/book/9781250404756

08/03/2026

Last Friday afternoon we wrapped up another highly successful Where’s Waldo in Downtown Farmington with a party at the bookstore. The partygoers were the children who had completed their challenge this July of finding Waldo where he was hiding in 20 downtown businesses. Thanks to all 19 of our business neighbors who participated this year and who provided prizes to give away at the party! We had three coloring prize awards this year at the party, Line of Waldos, The Waldo Clan, and the Create Your Own Waldo Scene. Genius is known to be a quality that defies definition but it is clearly present in Abbie Mae’s Create Your Own Waldo Scene! Congratulations to all the Waldo finders and their families.

07/10/2026

To squish or not to squish...

07/08/2026

Those of you who are familiar with the proud ribbon-winning tradition of DDG's Waldos, they who had walked in past Farmington July 4th parades handing out pamphlets to children all along the parade route, may well have wondered how 2026's first time Waldo, Isabelle, would fare. Could the the weight of glories past, of 1 blue ribbon, 6 red ribbons, and 1 white ribbon garnered by prior Waldos such as Reid, Sam, and Nick, growing ever more ponderous, be somehow borne or would that mantle prove too heavy for even the most stalwart fledgling Waldo to take up?

The weight proved trifling. One more red ribbon won, hundreds of children delighted, and the heft of an already substantial tradition increased! Well done, Isabelle!

07/01/2026

Today marks the return of a beloved tradition: the start of the Where’s Waldo in Downtown Farmington scavenger hunt. This is the 14th year that DDG has sponsored the scavenger hunt in Farmington with the support of Waldo’s publisher, Candlewick Press.

Truth to say, I’ve wanted to interview Waldo for many years to find out what he likes to read, if he has a favorite Waldo book, and to learn what he likes to eat. The bottom line, however, is that not only does Waldo not do interviews, he also never speaks. That got me thinking. Who would be close enough to Waldo to know his inner mind? Then it occurred to me. Who could be closer to Waldo than the little Waldo standees who are hidden in the 20 downtown stores for children to find each July? I noticed that three of them had congregated near Aldous the DDG store bear.

Kenny: So do any of you know Waldo personally?

Waldo Standees:

Kenny: Can any of you speak?

Waldo Standees:

Kenny: Hmmn. Let’s try this another way. Just stay absolutely still to say yes or jump up and down to say no. Okay?

Waldo Standees:

Kenny: Great! So now, can any of you speak?

Waldo Standees:

Kenny: Aha, so you can! Is there anything I can say or do to get you to share some insights into the original Waldo?

Waldo Standees: (All three jump up and down.)

Kenny: Sigh!

For more information on how to join the hunt for Waldo, have a look here.

https://ddgbooks.com/wheres-waldo

06/18/2026

This week's staff pick is brought to you by Nicholas!

"Stoner" by John Williams is an absolute masterpiece that only seems to gain more attention and appreciation as time moves on since its quiet publication in 1965. It's an oddity of a novel for many reasons. The title suggests a William S. Burroughs beat-era type of transgressive fiction (as does the time of its release, right before the "Summer of Love"), but it is far from that. It is a book about an ordinary man with ordinary problems at the dawn of the 20th century; an explanation of the plot would not pull you in by any means. Despite all of this, "Stoner" is written on such a magnetic scale that it beggars the mind. Hypnotic is its prose, extraordinary is its power, and unforgettable is its ending. It's a book that did not receive its due until this excellent reprinting by the New York Review of Books in 2003, purely on the basis of word of mouth. The whole staff is hooked on it! Come find out why!

https://ddgbooks.com/staff-picks-week

05/07/2026

Wonderful new book…

Few things are more important to the success of a literary venture than an author’s relationship with the imagined audience of the book. In the case of children’s books the imagined audience is often…