This weekend bookstores around the country, and a few abroad, will be taking part in the fifth annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day. Author Jenny Milchman, whose newest book, As Night Falls, is due out next spring, came up with the idea when her own children were young. Many stores have special activities planned, like Main Street Books in Minot, N.D., which is giving each child $3 worth of book bucks and hosting a make a reindeer headband activity.
New bookstores continue to open. Several new stores are planned for next year in Michigan, including one in Battle Creek and two in Detroit. At the same time others are marking big anniversaries, like Brattleboro, Vt.-based Everyone’s Books, which is turning 30, and St. Augustine's Buy the Book, which is 20.
Events
Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day (Dec. 6): For the fifth year in a row, this bookstore celebration is back and will be celebrated by stores in every state, seven Canadian provinces, England, Australia, and Germany.
Openings & Closings
New Bookstore for Battle Creek, Mich.: Retired doctor John Donahue plans to open a 2,000 sq. ft. bookstore in the downtown on February 1.
Books Galore Re-opens: Main Street in Duncan, Okla., has its bookstore back after a family emergency forced new owner Steve Neese to temporarily close it for three months.
New Britain’s Leaves & Pages Closing: After 14 years, Arlene and Dan Palmer closed their Connecticut store so that they could retire.
Bookworms Exchange to Close: After 31 years in the used book business, Bev Brown, age 79, is closing her 31-year-old bookstore in South Burlington, Vt.
Other News
BEA Registration Opens: Registration for BookExpo (May 27-29) at New York City’s Javits Convention Center officially opened this week.
Indiegogo Campaign for Word Up: The 100% volunteer New York City bookstore launched a fundraiser for $25,000 earlier this week to expand its Spanish-language inventory and youth programming.
30th Anniversary of Everyone’s Books: The Brattleboro, Vt., which specializes in books about social change and the environment, as well as multicultural books for kids, is holding an anniversary party/fundraiser for Overflow Shelter next week.
Buy the Book in St. Augustine Celebrates 20 Years: On Thanksgiving Julie December had another reason to be thankful, her bookstore, boutique, and post office marked its second decade.
Good Tidings for Detroit Bookstores: Shelf space for books is growing in Motor City with the opening of a new pop-up, Silver Rerum Books http://www.silvarerumdetroit.com, which hopes to find a permanent location, as does Pages on Livernois.
Amazon Christmas Boycott in UK: Over 11,000 people have pledged not to shop at Amazon between December 1-25 http://www.amazonanonymous.org as Amazon Anonymous seeks to force Amazon to pay a living wage and stop dodging taxes.
