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 ]
Corrinne Averiss and Rosalind Beardshaw have triumphed at this year’s Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards to win the Book of the Year Award for My Pet Star (Hachette Children’s Books). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 19:52:05 UTC ]
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The Children's Book Council of Australia chose the winners of the 2019 Book of the Year Awards. Get the list of winners and honorable mentions here. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-08-28 10:39:17 UTC ]
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A new independent bookshop will open its doors to customers in Bourne, Lincolnshire this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-28 01:26:30 UTC ]
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Police are investigating after burglars broke into London's Housmans Bookshop and stole the store's cash drawer and charity box last week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 10:02:54 UTC ]
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On the way to producing a new joint international children's book fair in Russia for 2021, BolognaFiere and Moscow's fair are collaborating on a tour. The post BolognaFiere Leads a First Children’s Book Tour to Moscow Book Fair appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-08-27 05:30:16 UTC ]
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A Big Green Bookshop crowdfunder to get copy of climate activist Greta Thunberg's book into schools across the UK has raised more than £11,000 in a month, with Penguin Random House matching copies raised and creating an accompanying classroom pack. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-27 01:46:04 UTC ]
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The actor, stand-up comic, and children’s book author invites readers into her head with a collection of “little weirds.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Three Cambridge School of Art Children’s Book Illustration graduates Maria Coco, Paula White and Sally Walker are shortlisted for the second Templar Illustration Prize. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-21 06:53:23 UTC ]
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Wood Green's co-operative bookshop, The All Good Bookshop, has secured temporary premises and plans to open this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-18 22:20:02 UTC ]
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The BBC has revealed plans for a special 2D animated adaptation of Sir Michael Morpurgo’s children’s book Mimi and the Mountain Dragon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-18 15:46:37 UTC ]
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Malorie Blackman laments the lack of BAME children’s characters. I know – it’s a real battle to get writers of colour publishedMy daughter, like me, is of mixed heritage. She has wildly curly hair, as have I. When she was born four years ago I was given five copies of the same kids’ picture book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 07:00:41 UTC ]
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The illustrator and graphic novelist Rutu Modan offers a homage to Leah Goldberg, one of Israel’s most celebrated poets and children’s authors. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-08-16 09:00:17 UTC ]
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Tributes have been paid to Gay’s The Word bookshop co-founder Jonathan Cutbill, who has passed away aged 82 after a period of ill health. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-15 17:00:19 UTC ]
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'A wide range of other books remain on the list' for near-term tariffs, notes AAP's Maria A. Pallante, 'including American fiction and nonfiction.' The post AAP Objects to Trump’s China Shift: Only Children’s Book Tariffs Delayed appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-08-14 03:15:19 UTC ]
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Hatchards’ new bookshop at London’s St Pancras Station will be officially opened tomorrow by children's author and illustrator Benji Davies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-07 09:17:40 UTC ]
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A reader recalls a favorite independent bookstore in Southampton in the UK. Hear all about radical bookshop October Books. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-08-06 10:39:02 UTC ]
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W H Smith has opened a flagship branch of The Bookshop, the largest yet of its 12 standalone stores, at Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-05 09:37:10 UTC ]
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This giveaway is sponsored by William Morrow. From the New York Times best-selling author of The Bookshop on the Corner comes this witty ... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-08-02 10:31:10 UTC ]
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John Francisconi, the general manager of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn., is finishing up a three-week residency at Otherwise Bookshop in Rome and reflects on the experience for PW. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-02 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Edinburgh's latest indie The Portobello Bookshop has opened its doors to the public, with customers queuing to get in on its first day of trading. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-29 21:32:06 UTC ]
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