Writers offer book gift ideas for kids

It’s never easy to find that right Christmas gift. Even when you know that gift is going to be a book.

Maybe especially when the gift is going to be a book.

So Auntie’s is trying to give you a hand. The store has invited a number of local children’s and/or young-adult writers to come down on Friday and provide what they consider to be some good literary gift ideas.

Among the group invited you’re likely to find Chris Crutcher (“Deadline”) Kelly Milner Halls (“Dinosaur Parade: A Spectacle of Prehistoric Proportions”), Terry Trueman (“Hurricane: A Novel”), Verla Kay (“Rough, Tough Charley”), Beth Cooley (“Shelter”) and Deby Fredericks (“Too Many Princes”).

Notice how clever I was to offer a few gift recommendations of my own.

The writers will be at Auntie’s beginning at 7 p.m. The store is at the intersection of Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206 for more information.

Return to ‘Home Planet’

An assortment of former Spokesman-Review writer Cheryl-Anne Millsap’s “Home Planet” columns has been collected in book form.

“Home Planet: A Life in Four Seasons” (New Media Ventures, 129 pages, $11.95) features 43 of Millsap’s best-loved columns, updated and with an introduction by the author.

It’s available at regional bookstores and all Spokesman-Review offices, and online at amazon.com.

Millsap, editor of Spokane Metro magazine, will read from the book Dec. 10 at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Bing books sold

Amid the films and other attractions of the third annual Bing Crosby Film Festival, which will be held Friday beginning at 10 a.m. at the Bing Crosby Theater, 901 W. Sprague Ave., copies of books about the crooner will be offered for sale.

Books will be autographed by Kathryn Crosby (Crosby’s widow, author of “My Last Years with Bing”) and Carolyn Schneider (Crosby’s niece, author of “Me & Uncle Bing”).

For information, call the theater at (509) 227-7638.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

The reader board

•Jim Payne (“One Inch Above the Water: Running Away on America’s Rivers”), slide show/signing, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Zan Agzigian (“Stamen and Whirlwinds”), Kathy Kostelec, reading/musical performance, 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Calypso Coffee Co., 116 E. Lakeside Ave., Coeur d’Alene. Call (208) 665-0591.

•Margaret Croom (“Nosey Parker Guidebook”), signing, 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Therese Marszalek (“Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People: Inspiring Stories of Divine Intervention”), signing, 3 to 6 p.m. Friday, Lincoln Heights Hastings, 2512 E. 29th Ave., call (509) 535-4342; signing, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division St., call (509) 483-2154.

•Carol Muzik (“Raising Lucy Coloring Storybook and Video”), signing, 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Coeur d’Alene Hastings, 101 E. Best Ave. Call (208) 664-0464.

•Bob Manion (“Santa’s Heroes”), signing, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Jean Flanigen (“The Zhombie Conspiracy”), signing/musical performance, with cowboy poetry by John Steltzer, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Pat’s Books, 526 S. Whitman Ave., Rosalia, Wash. Call (509) 523-3045

•Abraham Ferris (“Manic or Not, Here I Come: My Life with Bipolar Disorder”), signing, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

•Barbara Olivo Cagle (“16XMOM: A Mastery of Motherhood”), signing, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Library of the Lakes, 4008 Cedar St., Loon Lake, Wash. Call (509) 233-3016.

•Renee D’Aoust (“Graham Crackers”), 2 p.m. Saturday, Sandpoint branch, East Bonner County Library, 1407 Cedar St. Call (208) 263-6930.