Monday Event Post--Find Waldo Starting Today and All Through July, Repair Your Bicycle on Saturday.

Due to the July 4th holiday, we've got an abbreviated event schedule.

Monday, July 1, 4-6 pm, at Boswell:
Find Local Milwaukee Launch and Activity Day. (Here's our Facebook page)

Team Waldo (Nick, Hannah, Halley, and Jannis) decided to take this project on, a promotion that worked very well in other cities in the summer of 2012. We got over 30 other local merchants to sign up, in Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Wauwatosa, and Milwaukee (on the East Side, Riverwest, The Third Ward, and Bay View) to play. Each location should have a cling outside identifying themselves as a Find Waldo store. Then somewhere inside the store should be Waldo. When you spot him, the retailer will sign your passport.

Passport? Yes, it's a programming you can pick up at Boswell (and yes, the other retailers have them too) with a list of participating locations, including places like Fischberger's Variety, Just Kidding Kids Cuts, Indulgence Chocolatiers, Zoom Room, Yo Mama, Outpost Natural Foods, and the Downer Avenue Cafe Hollander These are also the retailers offering prizes to the winners.

So you fill out fifteen (or more stamps), bring the passport back to Boswell, and it gets you a $2 coupon off Waldo books, a Waldo sticker, and entry into our drawing for prizes from the above retailers (there are plenty of others participating, but it made sense to single out the ones who offered prizes, right?), one of ten $10 Boswell gift cards, or a deluxe set of Find Waldo titles.

We start offering passports today, and from 4-6 pm, we'll have Waldo activities at the bookstore with refreshments from Outpost. You'll want to finish finding Waldo by July 30, as on the Wednesday, July 31, we'll announce the winners and give out the prizes, also at 4 pm.

Saturday, July 6, 2 pm, at Boswell:
Sam Tracy, author of Bicycle!: A Repair and Maintenance Manifesto, second edition.

The pitch: Written by a long-time bicycle mechanic and former bike messenger, Bicycle! offers detailed descriptions of all maintenance tasks and repair situations, clearly illustrated with photographs and drawings. Cutting through technical jargon, and injecting his own dose of humor and radicalism, Tracy encourages riders to learn for themselves how to make their bikes work, in a way that is clear and fun.

This guide has served as the serious rider’s manual, with numerous professional bicycle workers—messengers, mechanics, pedi-cab drivers—and bicycle commuters eagerly awaiting this updated edition, which includes an abundance of helpful photos, an expanded index, and an updated resources section. Tracy also includes low-cost and no-repair solutions he developed while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania.

And a sneak peak at next week...
Monday, July 8, 7 pm, at Boswell:
Joelle Charbonneau, author of The Testing

The pitch: It’s graduation day for sixteen-year-old Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes region) is celebrating. All Cia can think about—hope for—is whether she’ll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing post-war civilization. When Cia is chosen, which is considered a great honor, her father finally tells her about his own nightmarish half-memories of The Testing. Armed with his dire warnings (“Cia, trust no one”), she bravely heads off to Tosu City, far away from friends and family, perhaps forever. Danger, romance—and sheer terror—await.

Joelle Charbonneau is well-known for her mysteries series, and in fact will be doing a signing at Mystery One on July 8 at 5 pm. This is her first foray into young adult fiction, and it's already winning raves. The Testing is the #1 pick from indie booksellers on the Summer 2013 Kids Indie Next List.

Here's our rec from Hannah: "Cia has just been selected for university, a huge honor in the new country that formed after the destruction of the USA. Just before she leaves home to start her learning, her dad warns that school may be dangerous and her life may be at risk. Who can Cia trust and will she survive the ordeal ahead? Perfect for fans of Hunger Games."

Part two of the trilogy, Independent Study, comes out next January, while Graduation Day drops in June 2014. We're all wondering how folks are going to react to this speeded up publishing schedule--books in a series like this tend to be published annually. More on last week's blog post.

Alas, the Jackie Lyden talk on July 2, sponsored by the Charles Kubly Foundation, is now full.