Watch Your Windows

Early on, Susan Durrie and Judith Hamel, who founded the Children's Corner Bookshop in Spokane, Wash., in 1973, learned the value of display. Because their store is located on the skywalk level of a downtown development, they get a lot of walk-by traffic. "We have four windows, and we change them every couple of weeks," said Durrie, who also likes to mount new in-store displays frequently. "That way, the bookstore never looks the same for someone who hasn't been in for a few weeks."

Any book that Durrie orders in quantity usually ends up displayed in the store. "If we bought more than one, we must have liked it," she said. "If it doesn't sell, we say, no, we're not going to return this. We're going to give it life through display."

Anything can end up in a Children's Corner window or in-store display, from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to books on cows. When a group of new titles came in recently with vibrant red and blue covers, Hamel and Durrie put together a table of new titles that fit together visually rather than thematically.

Soon, though, a new owner may be trying her or his hand at displays at the Children's Corner. After 30 years, the two have put the store up for sale.