Here's a Totally Self-Serving Story About E-Readers

This article is from the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. It asks the following question: is the time a child spends with an e-reader story time or is it screen time?



The conclusion is hardly surprising. We at Little Shop of Stories know nothing really takes the place of a book and that there are few more important ways to bond with a child than by reading a book to him or her.

Today is the Fourth Annual Decatur Root Beer Festival -- Slice & Pint's Square Root Added to the Root Beer List!

How exciting is this?

Besides all the other great root beers and other interesting beverages that will be featured at today's Fourth Annual Decatur Root Beer Festival, we have a late entry.

The folks over at Slice & Pint in Emory Village have submitted their own Square Root root beer, brewed in-house!

We knew that they brewed great beer there (and the pizza is awfully good as well), but I was surprised to see a few different home made root beers on their menu.

Here's their description: "Our spicy root beer with a little bit of a kick. Made with wintergreen, vanilla, fennel, cinnamon, star anise, clove, nutmeg, white and brown sugar."

It's 5 to 7 p.m. tonight!

Tickets will be available at the door.

Root beer, birch beer, sarsparilla, ginger beer, butterscotch beer, Moxie, root beer cupcakes, and a commemorative cup.
How great is this?!?!?!?!?!

P.C. and Kristin Cast Tonight!

NY Times bestselling authors P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast bring Redeemed, the final book in their popular House of Night series to the Decatur Library! Please call Little Shop of Stories to pre-order your copy of Redeemed. This event is free to the public but you must purchase a book from Little Shop to enter the signing line.

Please note that this event is being co-hosted by the Georgia Center for the Book and will be held at the Decatur Library.

First come, first seated. We're expecting a good crowd!

The Blood of Olympus

Thank you to all who attended Rick Riordan's event last night. It was a GREAT evening!

For those of you who could not make it, we have a very limited number of signed copies of The Blood of Olympus available for sale on a first come-first served basis starting at 10 a.m. this morning.

Copies can be purchased over the phone but, as we only have one phone line, please be patient and also recognize that it might be far quicker to stop by the shop.

A special thanks goes out to Rick Riordan and everyone at Hyperion and Disney Publishing for making last night so special.

Rick Riordan is Tonight!

Note: This is a ticketed event.

Tickets have been sold out for quite a while.

If you have tickets, we will have a will call table set up at the event.

Details can be found here.

If we have additional signed copies of The Blood of Olympus, they will go on sale at the shop on Friday morning at 10 a.m.

See you tonight!

Emory Acquired Flannery O'Connor Papers

Emory University's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library has acquired papers from the great Flannery O'Connor.

There is an article about this in this morning's New York Times. Emory had also issued a press release.

It will no doubt take a while to categorize, but scholars of O'Connor will have a trove of information at their disposal.

B.J. Novak is Appearing Tonight!

B.J. Novak will be appearing this evening at the Decatur Library at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. We're expecting a good crowd.

Mr. Novak is best known for his acting in the hit series The Office which aired from 2005 to 2013, playing the role of Ryan Howard. He also served as a writer, director, and executive producer for the series.

He is currently a director and an executive producer for the Mindy Project on Fox in which he has also guest starred.

On the big screen Mr. Novak has appeared in Inglorious Bastards and Saving Mr. Banks.

Earlier this year Alfred A. Knopf published his list of short stories, One More Thing.

And last week Dial published his first picture book, The Book With No Pictures.

The event is free. You must purchase a book from us to get in the signing line.

Mr. Novak will personalize and sign as many copies of The Book With No Pictures that you purchase. He will sign one copy of One More Thing for each copy of The Book With No Pictures purchased.

Annie Barrows Author Event is Tonight!

Annie Barrows, the author of the Ivy + Bean series -- one of our very favorites -- is at Little Shop of Stories tonight with her new chapter book, Magic in the Mix, the follow up to The Magic Half - the fun tale of two time traveling twins!

This event starts at 7 p.m. We hope to see you then!

Fourth Annual Decatur Root Beer Festival Details!

FOURTH ANNUAL

DECATUR ROOT BEER FESTIVAL

to benefit On The Same Page

FRIDAY

OCTOBER 17th

5 to 7 p.m.

$7 in advance ($20 for a whole family!)

$8 at the door ($25 for a whole family)

Tickets go on sale October 4th!

We've moved this event to the Friday afternoon before the
Decatur Craft Beer Festival. The Decatur square simply isn't big enough to hold both events simultaneously!

Here's a rundown of this year's selections so far:

Root Beers

Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer

made with pure birch oils, vanilla, natural yucca extract

Capt'n Eli's Root Beer

made with anise, vanilla, wintergreen oil

Earp's Original Sarsaparilla

Hippo Jumbo Root Beer

made with wintergreen extract

Reading Draft Birch Beer

Reading Draft White Birch Beer

Virgil's Root Beer

made with anise, balsam oil, cinnamon, clove, licorice, molasses, nutmeg, oil of cassia, pimento berry oil, sweet birch extract, vanilla, wintergreen oil

(these guys take their root beer very, very seriously)

Make Your Own Root Beer

we supply the seltzer and the syrup, you put it together -- this was a big hit with kids last year

Just added (10/16/14)
Slice and Pint's Square Root
On Draft!
their spicy root beer with a little bit of a kick. Made with wintergreen, vanilla, fennel, cinnamon, star anise, clove, nutmeg, white and brown sugar.
Made locally at Slice & Pint in Emory Village.

Kind of Like a Root Beer

Moxie

made with gentian root extract
(the single most requested beverage year after year;
it was tough to find, but we've got it!)

Other Interesting Beverages

Avery Watermelon Soda

(seriously)

Cock 'n Bull Ginger Beer

Flying Cauldron Butterscotch Beer

made with vanilla, stevia rebaudiana leaf extract

Hippo Huckleberry Soda

made with huckleberry and elderberry extract

Each beverage is made with cane sugar with the exception of Avery Watermelon Soda (actually, I can't find the ingredients) and Cock 'n Bull Ginger Beer

Edibles

Pretzel necklaces
because you have to

Root Beer Cupcakes
mmmmmm

Root Beer Barrel Candies
you can take home a momento!

Non-Edibles

One 6-ounce commemorative cup
complete with this year's logo

A Tribute to Seamus Heany: An Evening of Poetry and Song Tonight

A Tribute to Seamus Heany: An Evening of Poetry and Song is tonight at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

Natasha Trethewey, Kevin Young, Tracy K. Smith, Belinda McKeon, William Corbett and other guest poets and writers will read Heaney poems as well as their own work during an evening of poetry and music with the Vega Quartet.

A detailed description of the evening's event and ticket information can be found here.

Little Shop of Stories has been given a limited number of tickets available for thise event. Tickets are free; there is a limit of two per person.

Carl Hiaasen Tonight!

Carl Hiaasen's new YA novel, Skink: No Surrender, was released last week to critical acclaim and he's here at the Decatur Library tonight at 7 p.m. First come, first seated. We're expecting a good crowd, so you may want to come early. The overflow room, with a video feed, will be available if necessary.

See you then!