Former bookseller Shannon O’Connor has been tapped as manager of the ABC Children’s Group at the American Booksellers Association. O’Connor, who worked at the Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, Pa., for four years, three as children’s book buyer, and taught seventh grade last year, took up the new position on Monday.
Her appointment, and getting the newly reconstituted ABC up and running, has been a long time coming. In 2008, the then independent Association of Booksellers for Children began working with ABA to explore a possible merger, which was overwhelmingly approved by ABC’s membership in November 2010. At the start of this year, ABA members were given the opportunity to join the renamed ABC Children’s Group. Former ABC executive director Kristen McLean stayed on as a consultant, and in the months leading up to O’Connor’s appointment ABA industry relations assistant Carolyn Bennett has kept ABC’s biggest annual project on track for the holidays, ABC Best Books for Children Catalog. It is slated to be in stores in early October.
O’Connor told PW that working at ABA is “the next best thing to being in a bookstore.” In a note to the ABC listserv, she wrote, “I am excited to join the staff here at the ABA as the ABC Manager; I can personally attest to the fact that children’s booksellers have one of the most challenging—and most rewarding—jobs in the world. I look forward to working closely with all of you, and I dedicate myself to your success!”
