Customer: Do you have the Wicked book?
Me: Are you looking for the novel or the Grimmorie?
Customer: The novel?
Me: That'll be over in Fiction.
(make to take the customer over there and wait while Customer collects a pre-teen from the kids' section; I handed the customer a copy of the original trade edition)
Customer: This isn't a children's book?
Me: No, Gregory Maguire has a few childrens' books - Leaping Beauty, What-the-Dickens - but the Wicked Years series are all adult novels.
Customer: So what is the reading level?
Me: Well ...
(how do you say this nicely)
... since it's an adult novel it's written at least at the high school level.
Customer: Oh...she (nods at pre-teen) only reads at the 7th grade level...do you think this would be appropriate?
Me: Um, I think that's your decision since this is a book intended for an adult reader.
Customer: I guess we'll pass on this one, then. It looks too hard.
(about five minutes later the customer passes me and holds up a copy of the mass-market Broadway tie-in)
Customer: We decided to take this one. It's smaller.
(I smiled and pointed her toward the register)
Dude. Just because the actual size of the book is smaller doesn't make it any easier. It's the same in the trade as in the mass market.
But whatever floats your boat.
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