In honor of the last day of animal month here at Bookmans, we welcomed local author, Pamela Venezio to share with our Bookmans kids about the plight and joys of the beautiful Mustang horses all over the country. Pamela and her husband both grew up around live horses and together share a vast love for them and informed us of the training and adoption process of a Mustang which includes: 90 days with a professional trainer and a show to follow that the Mustang displays its newly trained skills so that everyone can see what gracious and intelligent creatures they are in order to make the proper adoption decisions.

Pamela shared with us her new book, "Ripley and the Traveler,” which follows a true store about a captured Mustang horse and their journey through the training process while his new friend, Ripley the dog, helps along the way and has beautiful illustrations to follow. The book is very in unique in that it also “grows” with the child as the first part of it geared towards children under seven with shorter sentences and larger print while the other half is for children over seven with more complex lessons and writing. It’s a great two-for-one deal! Part of the proceeds of this book benefit the Mustang Heritage Foundation to help with their great cause of facilitating Mustang adoptions all over the United States. We have to thank Pamela for stopping by the store(even in this crazy weather)to share her love of horses with us and make sure to keep an eye out for future events with her and “Ripley and the Traveler.”

The Mandalorian Mercs have stepped out of their Star Wars world and into Bookmans Phoenix for a special Star Wars story time as part of our summer kids events. We’ve asked the Mercs to come in and read some of their favorite kids books to our eagerly awaiting tiny customers. They chose two Star Wards picture books and a couple other animal-related books in honor of animal month in July to read aloud.

Hey everyone! If you were wondering why there were all these wild animals running around the store, have no fear, it was some amazing kids in masks. Today at our free Summer Kids Events, Kidz Art was with us making lion, tiger, cat and dog masks. The kids did a great job creating and decorating these fantastic masks. The Girl Scouts were on hand as well making beautiful mosaics--rainbows and butterflies! Check out the pictures from this awesome event! Next week is our last event and we are throwing a back to school party! See you then.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Vooon!

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Blue Light Special

Hello Bookmans universe! Scott K. was here in the store today displaying his beautiful photos of Tucson, surrounding areas and Hawaii. His prints are available for purchase here at the Bookmans on Speedway. If you like landscape photography you will love Scott's work. Check out some of the beautiful pictures on Flickr.

Recycled record clocks are a fun way to take something obsolete (sorry to all the record enthusiasts out there) and turn it into a practical work of art! Lightning bolts, eyeballs, and flowers were all designs that our Girl Scouts chose to decorate their clocks with. We all had a great time seeing the thought that went into all the designs and look forward to future Girl Scouts recycled craft events!

Go ahead and check out the pictures. You know you want to!

With beaches and oceans being so far away from all of us in Phoenix, Bookmans decided to make our own fun with a beach party as a part of our summer kids events. We’ve collected all the necessary supplies to throw an awesome party that included straw hats, beach balls, tiki torches, and plastered our community room with fake fish and a pretend ocean made of crepe paper. The kids had the option to play one or all three of our fun beach games, like pin the sunglasses on the sun, where they won their very own pair of sunglasses; a dolphin ring toss game where they won mini beach balls; and a lucky duck game where the prizes were beach yo-yo’s. We ordered up two sandcastle cupcake cakes which were devoured instantly and enjoyed with a cold juice box. While it’s still pretty hot outside, we cooled off and had a great time with our indoor activities. Thanks to over 60 of our tiny customers who came out for the festivities and we’ll see you next week for Star Wars story time! Check out pics on Flickr.

Wednesday nights at Bookmans Ina have become a thing of legend. Fierce warriors, treacherous goblins, fair maidens and other creatures of fantasy inhabit the store from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. Thankfully, all these things are only in the imaginations of the members of the Wednesday Knight Nerds! W.K.N. is a group that meets weekly (or bi-weekly, depending on your preferred game) and plays Magic: The Gathering (every week) and Dungeons & Dragons (every other week). Formed in late May, the W.K.N. has grown to nearly thirty members and continues to grow each week. It's a lot of fun for all involved and a great place to meet some new friends (real or imaginary). Magic: The Gathering players can enjoy a free league where prizes include promotional/rare cards and Bookmans trade credit!

My daughter is currently getting her two-year-old molars, and it's almost mommy-suicide time. I've had a day or two lately, full of tantrums and night wakings, where I've wondered, “Couldn't I get my hands on some of that sleep potion they had in Romeo and Juliet, and just skip a few days?” But, alas, she needs me. I can feel the little mountains of teeth pushing up through her sensitive little gums, and I know she must be uncomfortable. But sometimes I wish I could lay down on the floor, beat it with my fists and scream because I'm uncomfortable and still need to go to work, clean the house, do the never-ending laundry...

Adulthood can suck. That being said, one good thing about having a toddler is vicarious childhood- I get to run in the sprinkler, moo in the grocery story, and read books about talking possums. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I sing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” without missing a beat. All this while my childless friends are publishing books and getting Fulbright scholarships. “Once a Fulbright, always a Fulbright” is what they say. Well, good for you, motherhood is the same way – you're branded for life.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Konamis: Dan's Guide to the Ladies (Part 2)

To celebrate the dog days of summer and everything animal-related in July, we welcomed, for the first time, the Any Rat Rescue. This non-profit organization specializes in rescuing, fostering and finding homes for affectionate rats that can sometimes be ignored due to a negative stigma about them. Domestic rats are actually much different than wild rats and most people don’t really know that information. It’s like comparing dogs to wolves! The volunteers from Any Rat Rescue shared with us that cats, dogs and children can generally come to get along with rats and they are fairly easy to tend to, much like a ferret actually. We snapped a picture (blurry, but the best we could get) of one of the foster rats, Travis, whose lovely white coat and unusual dumbo ears made him a Bookmans favorite! You can catch the Any Rat Rescue again at our Animal Fair this upcoming Saturday on July 24 where they’ll be set up for more rat meet and greets and information about what they do. Check out the Flickr pictures.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Hive: The End

I'll admit it, every once in a while I need a break from that vast mecca of information, the world wide web. Basically, unless it has been work-related, I've not been keeping up with the big happenings going on for the last week or so. But in the last few days, I realized how much information I've missed out on by not having been online. It's not like I don't stay informed, either--I watch the local news every single day, but there isn't a place for something like the "double rainbow" viral video (which now has over 4 million views), or the news that Harvey Pekar passed away earlier this week.

Hey everyone! I'm Nature, here to tell you about two guys in a band called Regretting Silence. These two local guys came in today and played a short but sweet set of their original music. Great voices and smooth guitar, these self taught musicians swept the crowd away with their stellar jams. If you missed them today they have a gig coming up at Scrappys on Friday July 30 at 6:30 p.m. Keep an eye out for these guys playing a venue near you. Check out the pics from todays event at our Flickr page.

The smell of fresh baked bread in the morning. Obscure jazz musicians. Literary authors never on the radar screen. Divorce, hypochondria, cancer, comics, nerds, friendship, enemies, Lives of cranky desperation. This is a small sampling of the cornucopia of subjects Harvey Pekar wrote about in his ongoing underground comic, American Splendor. It has finally come to an end. Harvey Pekar died on July 12 after suffering from cancer, asthma, high blood pressure, and depression.

Do you Fandango? We did! Today at Bookmans Speedway's free summer kids event we made Fandango puppets! Imagination was key in making your own puppet. The kids did great glittering, gluing, cutting, and pasting all the goodies to make some amazing puppets! The Girl Scouts were with us as well, making little marionettes! This event was glittertastic and a lot of fun. Thanks to all who came out and participated in our event today. Check out the cool pics here.

While some people were no doubt getting out of the heat today by going to the movie theater, where they were sure to see commercials with the lovable Fandango puppets, we were busy making puppets of our own! At Bookmans Ina we were brown bagging it today, but these aren't your grandma's plain old brown bags! With an assortment of googly eyes and fuzzies we built our own Fandango puppets to show off to friends and family! Some were more traditional (two eyes, one nose, one mouth), while others could have been something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie featuring five or more eyes or completely covered in fuzz... or both! It's so great to see all the imagination that the kids bring to these crafts and to say that all the puppets were amazing would be an understatement.

Don't believe me? Check out the pictures on our Flickr page and see for yourself!

We sent Gretchen (@nyazgirl) to VidCon2010. She got some awesome exclusive interviews with some great vloggers. It's funny, it's smart, it's the future of video... check it out:

The Phoenix Chapter of the Zombie Research Society has a new home for public meetings: Bookmans Phoenix! We’re working with the ZRS to bring you the best and latest information on zombie ANYTHING! We sat in on the Zombie Research Society’s first public meeting, as did a College New Times rep (to spread the word to other zombie lovers) and in less than an hour, we learned how to pack a “Bug Out Bag” which can be used for any emergency situation, not just zombie attacks. The bag included items like flints, dental floss, cast iron skillet, first aid kit, chains, maps and travel information, crowbars, duct tape, medicine and much more.

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

Sting

Our guest blogger Gretchen (a.k.a. @nyazgirl) is at VidCon 2010 representing Bookmans. You can check out her first day's adventure's here:

We get excited, here in Phoenix, any time we get to use materials we find laying around the house and turn them into something spectacular! Such was the case during our Summer Kids Event when we used brown paper lunch sacks and animal templates to create personalized arm puppets. We had plenty of animals to choose from to create: pandas, pigs, cows, frogs, owls and much more.

Hey all!  This month is Dog Days of Summer and to celebrate our loving pets, we decorated pet frames at Bookmans Speedway! Little cat and dog frames that were really cute. The Girl Scouts were on hand as well to help make pet journals, so that the kids can write all the fun facts about your pets in these really cool journals. The imagination and creativity of the youth of Tucson is amazing!  Check out the rad pictures from this event! Join us again next week for more fun activities!

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

Bee Mine

The Konamis is a webcomic by Jack Crawford and Bookmans own Tavis Maiden (@tavismaiden). Updated each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, follow the adventures of The Konamis, a real comic tale about the real comic adventure of The Konamis (meaning "little waves"), the little ol' rock band that makes a big splash!

The Bumbler

Six months have passed since Bella Swan ran off to Italy to rescue her vampire soulmate Edward, forsaking her best friend and newly turned werewolf, Jacob. There she met the Volturi, the governing law of vampire society, who ruled that Bella was to be turned immediately. Eclipse opens in a sunlit field of wildflowers with Bella's voice reciting Robert Frost's Fire and Ice. It's this poem that foreshadows the entire events of the film defining both the love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob and how vampires are dispatched.

Last month Bookmans Mesa was proud to highlight the Twilight series written by Stephanie Meyer. We hosted a remarkable giveaway where customers entered to win an assortment of shwag from the upcoming "Twilight: Eclipse" movie. With over 1,350 total entries (WOW), winners were randomly drawn and notified to come down and sink their teeth into such great prizes as life sized stand ups of the lead cast, a gift basket featuring all three Twilight movie soundtracks, a set of the Twilight saga books, and a chance to win one of 60 IMAX movie posters. Thanks to everyone who entered this amazing contest.