In 2009, two bookshops a week were closing in the UK and the days of physical books seemed numbered. Now, indie stores are booming. What explains the turnaround – and can it be sustained?When Sarah Mullen was asked to set up a children’s book festival in a leafy suburb of Birmingham in 2012, she couldn’t find an independent bookseller to run the bookstall. “So we all rolled up our sleeves and did it ourselves,” she says. Pregnant with her third child, she had recently given up her job as a solicitor to work for the Bournville Village Trust. Mullen’s task was to set up the Bournville BookFest, which ran for 10 years before being brought to a halt by the Covid pandemic. But far from accepting defeat, she rolled up her sleeves once again and “pivoted the whole thing into a bookshop”. Two years on, the Bookshop on the Green is thriving – a living rebuttal to the once widely held idea that the digital era meant certain death for the neighbourhood bookstore.When I visit early on a Friday morning, a turquoise vintage Smith Corona typewriter holds centre stage in the Bookshop on the Green. Beside it stands Bradley Taylor, a poet whose job is to write poems on demand for anyone who asks. He has composed a lot of Batman and football poems for the children who pile in on Saturdays, he says, before sitting down to tap one out for me about the joy of bookshops. In the multitasking tradition of small retailers, Taylor also works in the shop. He made his cosplay debut last month as the... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-27 09:00:32 UTC ]
And of course it includes a two-story library — modeled on the Bodleian at Oxford University — for his massive collection of books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-09-28 09:00:26 UTC ]
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Schemes provide mentors and funding to help aspiring writers on low incomes enter market dominated by white celebritiesA programme that aims to tackle the lack of diversity in children’s books has been launched after its founder said the practice of richer authors paying for support to get... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-09-26 06:15:04 UTC ]
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This is a Shel Silverstein appreciation post. He has given us so much over the years! Most famously, we have The Giving Tree, a twisted children’s book about a benevolent tree that gives up its whole self for an unappreciative little boy. By extension, we can also thank Shel Silverstein for Ryan... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-24 14:00:42 UTC ]
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As faith-based children’s book publishers strive for greater inclusivity and diverse representations of all people within stories, decisions do not always come easily about which pronouns to use for God or what skin color to use in illustrations of Jesus. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Comedian Rosie Jones has added another string to her bow by authoring a children’s book series—the sort of titles she says she needed as a child Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-24 00:06:18 UTC ]
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Broadleaf signs former Miss Canada Tara Teng, W takes on ‘Godly Dating 101,’ a new children’s book from Beaming will celebrate Diwali, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The children’s book market has increased by more than 11% this year, boosted by picture books, non-fiction and a remarkable 61% growth in YA sales. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-20 01:05:47 UTC ]
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Far too many times, I’ve been in a bookshop or a school and heard adults persuade a child away from a picture book and encouraged them to read ‘something more appropriate’. There’s a huge notion in this country that picture books are for younger children and a step into ‘proper reading’. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-13 08:06:26 UTC ]
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"If you can give children hope and empowerment, it makes them much more inclined to do something,” says Hannah Gold. “Frightening children about climate change just makes them paralysed with fear.” Gold is speaking to me over video call from her home in Lincolnshire about her début children’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-09 19:32:48 UTC ]
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Sophie Lambert has been appointed to Bookshop.org's advisory board, as the company continues to grow and embarks on future development plans. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-08 04:20:35 UTC ]
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There is a job in which smart people are paid to think, create and dream but it's not taught in schools where children are told to follow rules and do what they're told to the extreme. The world of advertising is perhaps still a mystery to most of the planet as it rarely makes an... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2021-09-07 13:36:49 UTC ]
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Andersen Press has partnered with children's bookshop brand Moon Lane Group to promote author Joseph Coelho and illustrator Fiona Lumbers' latest title, Luna Loves Dance, in a series of window displays. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-01 11:21:08 UTC ]
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Check out some of the amazing children’s book releases hitting shelves in September, including My Two Border Towns by David Bowles & Erika Meza. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-09-01 10:37:00 UTC ]
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Independent children’s bookshop Round Table Books has hired Meera Ghanshamdas as its new director. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-01 06:07:32 UTC ]
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Conflicts over race, culture and inclusion have roiled the Romance Writers of America, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and other groups devoted to books and literature. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-30 18:34:42 UTC ]
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There's more great children's books being published than ever before -- this is how to find the best children's book reviews online. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-30 10:36:00 UTC ]
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The lead protagonist in the British TV comedy series Black Books might even relish being in lockdown. If you don’t, you might enjoy watching this show. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-08-27 00:11:11 UTC ]
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An Essex-based indie bookshop is doubling in size after "thriving" during the pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 20:03:30 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop which nods to Bristol’s “radical past and present” has opened in the city’s Harbourside area, near where Edward Colston's statue was brought down last year. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 11:33:12 UTC ]
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A story for children about families with same-sex parents has been published in Russia as part of a campaign to have the country’s ‘gay propaganda’ law repealedA month after a Hungarian bookshop chain was fined for selling a children’s story about a day in the life of a child with same-sex... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-08-17 14:33:19 UTC ]
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