Book Sense Best Children's Books [antikvár]

Foreword CORNELIA FUNKE when book-o-philes close their eyes, what do they see? A bookstore, of course, filled to the brim with books thick and thin, old and new, all of them waiting on their shelves for a hand to grab them and take them home (that is, after having paid the relatively small sum that affords such a large pleasure). But what kind of bookstore is it? I'd been a writer in Germany for fifteen years and visited many wonderful bookstores before I walked into my first independent bookstore in the United States. But now, when I close my eyes, I see that American store: a treasured memory of an enchanted place that could feed me for weeks with printed pages, booksellers' advice, and reading passion. A place that will surely one day find its way into one of my stories. Back home, there are many, many independent bookstores—in fact, they are still the rule, not the exception, because in Germany the retail law allows bookstores, big or small, to sell books only at the price set by the publisher. "That sounds like paradise, Cornelia!" one priestess of American independent book passion said to me recently when I told her about this incredibly useful law. And yes,