 Actor and author Kirk Cameron hands a copy of his new children's book, "As You Grow," to a young reader at the Cleveland Park Public Library in Washington on Wednesday. (Ron Charles/The Washington Post) | Behold. Kirk Cameron and Brave Books, a conservative publisher of children's stories, have teamed up "to win back Story Hour and stand up for truth and Biblical values." The evangelical actor, best known for his appearance on "Growing Pains" in a previous century, has been traveling around the country promoting his new Brave picture book, "As You Grow." Cameron markets his Freedom Island Tour as a wholesome alternative to the Drag Queen Story Hours promoted by woke Marxist librarians. Christian patriots, supposedly imperiled and opposed by a godless state, are encouraged to attend not merely to hear children's books but to demonstrate their allegiance. The Brave Books website says, "It take courage to stand up for truth." It take grammar, too, but God works in mysterious ways. | Based on the best-selling book, A Spy Among Friends tells the true story of two British spies and lifelong friends that get tangled in a web of lies, betrayal and espionage. Stream it now on MGM+. | | | | | Wednesday morning, the Freedom Island Tour came to the Cleveland Park Public Library in Washington to vanquish the arrayed forces of evil. But the forces of evil never arrayed. Instead of angry protesters, Cameron and his fellow Brave authors confronted a mostly empty sidewalk. Conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, author of "The Island of Free Ice Cream," spoke ominously of the recent "Christian massacre" at a Nashville elementary school. "If we back down," he warned, "they win." At least seven uniformed police officers and several members of a private security team wandered back and forth. Apparently, this is what winning looks like. Inside the library's large meeting room, there were more adults than children. The publisher's staff scurried around trying to divine where everybody might be. It was perplexing: Five hundred people had reportedly attended an earlier stop in Fayetteville, Ark. "Is it spring break?" someone asked. By 10:30 — starting time — nine children had arrived. One little girl was singing "Jingle Bells." At least the War on Christmas wasn't winning. (Continues below)  Sean Spicer, President Trump's former press secretary, presents his new children's book, "The Parrots Go Bananas," at the Cleveland Park Public Library in Washington on Wednesday. (Ron Charles/The Washington Post) | Brave Books is a brand fueled by a classic right-wing cocktail of aggrievement and triumphalism. Its picture books, populated by talking, well-dressed animals, are a mix of morality tales, Ayn Rand fever dreams and Trump conspiracies. Cameron's "As You Grow," a story about caring for others, is the blandest of the bunch. Posobiec's book warns children against the specious promises of lupine communists. Chaya Raichik, the Libs of TikTok star, was on hand to read "No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern," her woolly parable about groomers in school. Twenty-five minutes later, Brave founder Trent Talbot announced they would delay another five or six minutes "because there's a lot of people trying to find a place to park." Sure. One woman had a cap that said "PRAY." It seemed like the only remaining option. As we waited, Brave Book's creative director led the children in a game of Simon Says. A little girl suggested they should twirl, but he told her that boys don't twirl; they spin. They do, indeed. When story time finally started, there were about 17 kids in the room, surrounded by a larger number of adults. Cameron speculated that many people didn't show up because they were afraid. "But you're brave," he told the group, though it wasn't clear what they'd endured except delay. Holding a replica of the National Monument to the Forefathers at Plymouth, Mass., Cameron delivered a brief homily about America as a once and future theocracy. Sean Spicer, President Trump's former press secretary, came on last to talk about his new picture book, "The Parrots Go Bananas." It's a story about the dangers of fake news. Clearly, Brave Books is seeking out experts. As I stood there watching Spicer trying his darnedest to generate some enthusiasm, I imagined he was looking out at that handful of children and thinking, "This is the largest audience to ever witness a story hour — period — both in person and around the globe." Books to screens: - Twenty-five years ago, Gwyneth Paltrow was playing Estella in an adaptation of "Great Expectations." How time flies! This week, Paltrow played herself in a Utah courtroom, where she was found not liable for a ski accident involving a 76-year-old man (story). And "Great Expectations" is back, too. Hulu's six-episode series is an extremely Dickensian adaptation starring Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, who looks like she could use Gwyneth's $303 Dry Skin Kit from Goop.
- "The Power," based on Naomi Alderman's best-selling novel, starts today on Prime Video. Honestly, I'm a little terrified to watch this nine-episode series. It's a dystopian story that imagines teenage girls suddenly discover their bodies can produce a deadly electrical charge. That ability revolutionizes gender dynamics across the world, upsetting governments and turning the social order upside down. "The Power" won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in Britain, and The Washington Post named it one of the top 10 books of 2017 (full list). There are now more than 600,000 copies in print. Thoroughly charged by the novel, yours truly wrote, "This book sparks with such electric satire that you should read it wearing insulated gloves" (review).
 (Courtesy of the Audio Publishers Association) | "Finding Me," a powerful memoir by actress Viola Davis, has been named the Audiobook of the Year. The honor was conferred Tuesday in New York at the Audie Awards ceremony, considered the Oscars of the audiobook industry. "Finding Me" also won this year's prize for Best Narration by an Author (Davis reveals the trauma that shaped her as an actor). - "Mad Honey," by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, won the Fiction prize. The audiobook is narrated by Carrie Coon, Key Taw and the authors. Last fall, Book World's Becky Meloan called this story "alternatingly heart-pounding and heartbreaking" (review).
- "Happy-Go-Lucky," written and narrated by David Sedaris, won the Humor prize. Our audiobook critic, Katherine A. Powers, included this on her list of "7 audiobooks for your summer drive."
- And speaking of your summer drive, if you've got a long one coming up, consider "War and Peace," by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude. The new audiobook version narrated by Thandiwe Newton won the prize for Literary Fiction & Classics. It clocks in at more than 60 hours. But just think of the bragging rights.
The Audie Awards are sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association. Here is the list of all this year's winners in 26 categories.  Aladdin; background photo of wild horses grazing in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island, Virginia. (Nevin Martell for The Washington Post) | This week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed bipartisan legislation designating the Chincoteague Pony as the official pony of Virginia. Locals have watched these animals for centuries, but people around the world have loved them since the publication of Marguerite Henry's "Misty of Chincoteague" in 1947. (On Virginia's Chincoteague Island — all this and ponies, too.) The Beebe family portrayed in the novel has owned a ranch on Chincoteague for the last 100 years. Now, though, the descendants of Grandma and Grandpa Beebe have decided to selling off the house and remaining plot of about 10 acres. Given the spot's place in literary history — and in the hearts of so many readers — the Museum of Chincoteague Island is committed to buying the property where the real Misty lived. (DNA evidence may link Chincoteague pony origins to Spanish shipwreck.) The museum directors have issued an appeal to the public for "a colossal, grass roots effort" to raise $625,000. They plan to use the ranch as part of the museum's educational mission. Donations can be made through the museum's website, its GoFundMe page or by mailing a check to Museum of Chincoteague Island, P.O. Box 352 Chincoteague Island, VA, 23336. So far, the campaign has raised about $275,000, and details about a new challenge grant should be released this weekend. Executive director Cindy Faith tells me the museum has been receiving donations from all over the country. "People send in their check for $25 and include a three-page letter," Faith says with delight. "Nobody just sends a check!" For further information, call the museum at 757-336-6117.  George Orwell's "Nineteen-Eighty-Four," designed for Penguin UK by David Pearson in 2013. (Photos courtesy of David Pearson) | As usual, this week the No. 1 best-selling mass market paperback in America is "Nineteen-Eighty-Four." More than 70 years after it was published, George Orwell's dystopia still speaks to a world struggling against Big Brother's control of action, language and thought. Over the decades, "Nineteen-Eighty-Four" has appeared with many different covers, but the cleverest remains David Pearson's design for Penguin Books in 2013: Like a product from the Ministry of Truth, the cover shows Orwell's name and title blacked out. It's the sort of grotesque silence that speaks volumes. This month, the Academy of British Cover Design looked at all the annual winners during its 10-year history and chose Pearson's iconic "Nineteen-Eighty-Four" as the "winner of winners" — the best of the decade. Pearson tells me that he initially tried to cut out the title and author with a scalpel, but that approach was too expensive to mass produce. "Redaction felt like the next best option," he says. "As a visual signifier, it is so brazen. It's such a clear indicator that something is being concealed and almost appears to revel in communicating this to us. This seems to activate something defiant within us: We demand the answer precisely because it is being withheld." "I once saw someone in a bookshop eagerly clawing at the cover to reveal its title. They were in an almost frenzied state. I can't say I've worked on any other cover where the reader is so complicit in its creation." Ten years on, Pearson isn't surprised that "Nineteen-Eighty-Four" and his cover design remain so relevant. "Creating control by spreading fear and distrust seems like an ever-popular ploy," he says. But he finds the reaction heartening. "Banning a book will only increase the desire within many to spread its message. If you want young people to read a book, have their parents' deem it inappropriate. If you want to create a bestseller, ban the book."  Smudge Publishing; Microcosm Publishing | Last week when I was fantasizing about buying a little bookstore, several of you wisely advised me to listen to my wife. You're no fun. But I took some solace in a delightful podcast called "Strong Sense of Place." Typically, the show highlights five books about a particular city or country, such as New Orleans, Iceland or Spain. But episode No. 48, "Bookshops: Mostly Paper and Magic," is an irresistible celebration of bookstores throughout history and around the world (listen). You'll hear about the Bertrand Bookstore in Lisbon, which is almost 300 years old, and a bookstore in the Maldives that you could manage yourself someday (really). The hosts, Melissa Joulwan and David Humphreys, are bright and charming, and offer the kind of book chat we all crave. I've read a couple of the bookstore-related novels they recommend, including Louise Erdrich's "The Sentence" (review), but others — such as John Dunning's mystery "Booked to Die" — were new to me. (You'll be getting a copy soon, Mom.) And once you've listened to the podcast, don't miss the show notes on the website, where you'll find lots more to explore. If — for the moment — we can't have our own bookstore, we can still help other people's bookstores. Danny Caine is the owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan. He's also an insightful political activist and a vociferous critic of Amazon. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Caine recently published an eye-opening pamphlet titled "50 Ways to Protect Book Stores" (order here, $7.95). In his introduction, Caine quickly dispenses with the idea that charity or guilt can keep a bookstore in business. "The mind-set that we can scrimp and cut and whittle our way to a thriving bookstore industry is not sustainable," he writes. And he suggests that the mythos of bookselling as a "noble" enterprise is part of what perpetuates the exploitation of bookstore workers. Enough of that. Bookstores make significant economic contributions to their communities, and to survive they need practical support. Roughly the first half of his list of "50 Ways" involves individual habits and choices, starting, of course, with "Buy books in person at bookstores." But if his suggestions are obvious, his discussion of each one is engaging and illuminating. The rest of his list lays out steps that politicians and community activists should pursue to help bookstores (and small businesses in general). He recommends enforcing stronger antitrust regulations and passing universal health care. He also makes a good case for establishing a federal book fund (a la Canada) and passing minimum shipping-cost legislation (a la France). At the end, the "big questions" he poses about the future of bookstores will interest anyone concerned about these essential literary businesses. _tstmp_1680206720-1280-720.jpeg) Protestors clash over Drag Queen Story Time outside Sidetrack Bookshop in Royal Oak, Mich., on March 11, 2023. | Threats of violence against libraries and teachers are rising across the country. This week, the American Library Association condemned "acts of intimidation that are increasingly taking place in America's libraries, including last week's bomb threats to Hilton Central District Schools in New York." In a statement issued on Monday, ALA President Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada said, "While a vocal minority stokes the flames of controversy around books, the vast majority of people across the nation are using life-changing services that public and school libraries offer. Our nation cannot afford to lose the library workers who lift up their communities and safeguard our First Amendment freedom to read." Other library news to check out: - The Publishing Triangle, an association of LGBTQ people in publishing, announced that the inaugural recipient of its Torchbearer Award will be Drag Story Hour NYC. This nonprofit organization provides storytelling and creative arts programs for children and teens "to build empathy and give kids the confidence to express themselves however they feel comfortable." Although no one is required to attend drag queen story hours, right-wing activists across the country have grown violently obsessed with these fabulous events.
- A group of publishers that includes HarperCollins and Penguin Random House won a summary judgment this week against the Internet Archive (IA) for copyright infringement. IA has been scanning bound books and then lending out digital copies through its website, all without publishers' permission. The San Francisco-based nonprofit tried to justify its actions on the basis of "fair use" and an innovative concept called "Controlled Digital Lending." But U.S. District Judge John Koeltl rightly tore up those claims page by page and concluded that IA's practice "risks eviscerating the rights of authors and publishers."
Given Gov. Ron DeSantis's unrelenting attacks on books, I'm always looking for good news about Florida's literary culture. And ice cream. The O, Miami Poetry Festival begins tomorrow, and the organizers are determined that during the month of April every person in Miami-Dade County will "encounter a poem." Founded in 2011, the citywide festival involves readings, workshops and educational programming (full list). This year, a bilingual poem by a Miami Beach High School student has inspired a mural painted on two enormous water storage tanks near the school. The Bookleggers' Library Bookbike and an animal welfare organization called PAWS are offering a dog-themed photo booth where you can receive a poem written just for your pooch. On Monday, one of 1,500 poems submitted to the Zip Ode contest will be featured on a billboard across from the Miami Heat's arena. And if you're driving downtown, don't forget to feed the "meter," or you could find a Poetry Parking Ticket on your car's windshield. (Seriously.) Stanza your ground, and you might beat it. But back to the ice cream. In honor of the festival, Sweet Melody has created three "whimsical limited edition flavors" inspired by Miami students' poetry: - Kyndra's Fairground Funnel Cakes: Sweet cream ice cream with Sunkist jam, funnel cakes & elephant ears.
- Gabriela's Cinnamon Churros: Cinnamon sugar ice cream with churro pieces & dulce de leche swirls.
- James & Darielys's All Day Breakfast: Salted butter ice cream with maple syrup soaked pancakes & fresh berry jam.
The poems that inspired each flavor will be printed on the ice cream cartons. Naturally, this makes me simile.  Little, Brown | Clint Smith's new collection, "Above Ground," tries to reconcile the boundless joys of having a healthy child with the infinite terrors that stretch across our planet. These poems give voice to the most precious moments of fatherhood, like spotting the first smile, catching cicadas and speculating about dinosaurs at bath time. But if Smith can be unabashedly sentimental, he can also be devastatingly frank. When he sees "another school shooting on the news," he imagines the last Pop-Tarts those murdered children ate, and he thinks, "I fear everything I cannot control / and know that I control nothing." But despair isn't an option in a world full of a child's wonder. "Maybe treasure," Clint writes, "is anything that reminds you / what a miracle it is to be alive." Everyone in America should get or give this collection on Father's Day. Tradition On Sundays we make French toast
the way my father made French toast
with me. Each of you stand on stools that lift your bodies above the counter
and I roll your pajama sleeves up
to your elbows then ask you if you're ready to start. You both take turns
shouting out everything we need to begin —
an incantation of ingredients that have become the lyrics to a song only we know. So much
of what I try to do as a father is put back together
the puzzle pieces of what my father did for me. What is the way he held me
when I first said I was afraid of the dark? How long did he let the silence between us sit
when I'd done something that broke his trust? What was the shape of his eyes when he told me
he'd never be disappointed if I tried my best? I don't always remember what he said,
but I remember how it felt to have him there,
to have his body brushing against mine when he reached for the bread, to have
his hands wrap around my own as they guided me
in cracking the eggs, to remember how he extended the measuring spoon full of sugar
and cinnamon toward me so that together
we could use our fingers to lick it clean. The end products aren't exactly the same.
I don't use all the same ingredients. Sometimes
I make substitutions, sometimes I burn the bread. Sometimes he did too. But I try to remind myself that all these years
later, I don't remember what the bread tasted
like, just that my father had put it on my plate. Excerpted from "Above Ground: Poems," by Clint Smith (Little, Brown, 2023). Copyright © 2023 by Clint Smith. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Incidentally, Smith will be at the O, Miami Poetry Festival on April 7 (details).  This photo, from 2007, is the earliest I could find from my time at Book World. But I'm still wearing that jacket. Top row: Christopher Schoppa, Evelyn Small, Dennis Drabelle, Jonathan Yardley. Middle row: Michael Dirda, Rachel Hartigan, Mary Ishimoto Morris, Ron Charles, Alan Cooperman. Front row: Beth Broadwater, Marie Arana. (Photo by Julia Ewan/The Washington Post) | Tomorrow, April Fools' Day, is my 18th anniversary at The Washington Post. I'm trying to resist any symbolic interpretation. The first time I applied to Book World, I heard nothing back. Six months later, I applied again with the same cover letter and the same résumé. They hired me in 2005. From that experience, I learned that silence sometimes doesn't mean what we fear it means. As the poet Alice Fulton writes, Nothing will unfold for us unless we move toward what
looks to us like nothing: faith is a cascade. Meanwhile, send any questions or comments about the Book Club to ron.charles@washpost.com. You can read last week's issue here. Please tell friends who might enjoy this free newsletter that they can get it every week by clicking here. And remember, you can find all our books coverage, updated every day, here.
Interested in advertising in our bookish newsletter? Contact Michael King at michael.king@washpost.com. | 
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