When do you buy a book?

The social studies classes at school have just finished an economics unit.  Students had to research and create a product they thought would appeal to other seventh graders and it made me think about a book needing to be not only appealing for a child to read but also in the right place and time for parents to buy it.  When am I most inclined to purchase a new book for Maria or Estella?  Around a holiday- for a Christmas stocking, an Easter basket, a birthday present, as a gift for another child-again birthday but perhaps also christening.  Another time we often purchase books is when we're on vacation as souvenirs of our trip.  Any time we go to Spain we stock up on books of all kinds.  Some of our favorites are Luna and Cocodrilo by Antonio Rubio and Oscar Villan.  Years ago when we went to Rocky Mountain National Park on vacation I bought Antelope, Bison, Cougar: A National Park Wildlife Alphabet Book and in the gift store they stamped it with an official passport stamp of the national park.  A few years ago while spending a weekend on Monhegan Island with my family I bought The Country of Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett because it was about coastal Maine, my exact location at the time.  Anyone going to Maine with a middle schooler?  Think about buying them Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord, a great book about a small Maine island with a unique idea for keeping its one room school house open.  Where and when do you buy books?  What are some great purchases you've made when on vacation?  What makes a book as irresistible to you as a pink, animal print bracelet made out of duck tape is to a seventh grader?

A glimmer of spring

I pull the push pin out of the cork, flip the page up to reveal a new picture, a new orientation of numbers, contemplate the pay periods of a new month and experience a moment of deja vu.  The turning of a calendar page and how it sometimes can prod ones mind and spirit into action.  Certain months instigate more of a call to action than others.  August for example says- "Have you had enough fun this summer because I'm going to fly by!".  December says- "How much Christmas shopping have you actually accomplished.  March says- "Hey, you've been stumbling through the darkness of winter for two months.  Take the snowman decorations off the car window and cross your fingers that "Jingle Bells" as a bed time song will stop before St. Patrick's Day".  And the first 50 degree day of the new year, combined with a cup of tea and a fortuitous car ride, sparks my mind to life again.
The book went over well at Christmas.  Everyone thought it was a great idea and Maria found the rabbit in her bag and I found no typos, a complete package.  And then the buzz of the holidays is over, work starts in earnest and all thought of writing is buried under the day to day sludge much like the yard under three feet of snow.  The last couple of Saturdays I've found myself in the car during the 4:00 pm hour driving for the sake of a late afternoon nap and as my car is always tuned to NHPR I was introduced to The Moth Radio Hour.  The Moth is a theatre somewhere in New York and I know very little about it.  It's a stage for story telling and I believe the story tellers range from well known to unknown.  The stories I have heard had me stifling laughter at risk of waking up the nappers in the backseat although reading the website they describe the storytelling as "humorous and heartbreaking tales told with honesty, bravery and wit."  If you're not familiar with The Moth visit The Moth, they have a lot of free downloads and podcasts.   It's not radio for your kids ears unless those ears are asleep in the back seat.
It has renewed my interest in wanting to be a storyteller.  If you want to publish a story where do you start?  I have no idea but my new commitment to myself is to answer that question.  It could be a journey that takes decades but it has to start sometime and sometime might as well be now.