On a frigid evening earlier this month, affection and appreciation warmed a children’s bookshop in the Western Massachusetts village of Florence, where 30 local children’s book creators came together to fete High Five Books’ owner Lexi Walters Wright. The surprise champagne reception, celebrating the fifth anniversary of the store and Wright’s deep passion for connecting young readers and books, was orchestrated by four local authors: Molly B. Burnham, Grace Lin, Heidi E.Y. Stemple, and Lisa Yee.

The gathering was the brainchild of Burnham, who recalled having a spontaneous thought last summer about finding a way “to acknowledge all the support that Lexi gives to our community. Specifically, as a children’s writer, I am moved by how generous she is to us. I wanted to throw her a surprise party to let her know how much we appreciate her.” Burnham shared her idea with Lin, Stemple, and Yee over their monthly lunch and, she said, “my friends, who are totally awesome, ran with the idea.”

Stemple was grateful to have the chance to applaud the vital role Wright and her colleagues play in authors’ lives. “Good booksellers who are passionate about getting the right books into the hands of readers are our people,” she noted. “We are nothing without them. We must honor them. We just had that opportunity and shared it with our extended community.”

Lin commended the ability of High Five employees to “think outside of the box” and their receptiveness to innovative proposals. “They are always eager to hear my ideas and help in any way they can,” she said. “I think that is why so many authors came out to celebrate Lexi—she and the staff are so supportive of our work and, especially when the book industry is gloomy, having them in our corner is such a life raft to keep us going.”

And Yee’s description of the party for Wright encapsulates the effervescence of the evening: “ ‘Operation Surprise Lexi,’ was something I will always cherish. The laughter, hugs, and overflow of pure joy was amazing. I wish we could bottle it!”

The Road to High Five

Wright’s path to bookselling began in a different sector of publishing. After studying magazine journalism and education at Drake University, she worked as an editor for parenting magazines and websites at Meredith Corporation and then became an editor at Disney Publishing.

In 2006, Wright moved to Northampton where, she recalled, “I fell in love with the woodsy charm and literary richness of Western Massachusetts. I had discovered a very special place to be a book-loving grownup.” Wright married, had a son, and earned a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College in 2011, but shelved her plans to become a children’s librarian when she was offered the opportunity to work on an educational nonprofit startup dedicated to families of children with learning disabilities, Understood.org.

“I spent a number of years commuting to New York City for that job but eventually felt called to be more physically present for my kiddo and in my community,” Wright explained. She moved from Northampton to Florence, a nearby village that was appealing for its “LGBTQ+ family diversity and its classic main street and sweet downtown that sold all the necessities—save for children’s books.”

She envisioned filling that void with “an inclusive third place in the neighborhood where caretakers and kids could have fun together and be surrounded by stories and experiences that reflected their own birth and chosen families.” To that end, she attended a course for professional booksellers offered by Paz & Associates and, in October 2019, she opened the doors of High Five Books (which shared the store space with an art school) with child-pleasing fanfare. “A marching band played around families reading on our lawn, while hundreds of kids danced with glow sticks and shuffled through our tiny shop for a glimpse of what we were up to,” Wright reported. Bursting at the seams, the bookstore and art school subsequently moved to larger digs just up the street in 2020.

Baptism by Fire

When the outbreak of the Covid pandemic shut down the world, Wright’s resourcefulness and resilience kept High Five ticking. Without a robust website yet up and running, the bookseller took to the road.

“I put a couple hundred books online and created a socially distanced shopping workflow,” she explained. “Families within 25 miles of our store could place online orders till noon every day. Then I would plunk my kid into the car, and we would deliver all over the Pioneer Valley for hours, listening to Percy Jackson and Arlo Finch on the radio. It was weird and wonderful, waving to kids through their front doors as my son and I popped books on their porches. ‘Book Lady’s here!’ they’d yell and hold up drawings of their favorite characters.” In addition to pandemic-era delivery, Wright offered private shopping, one family or pod at a time, for almost two years.

Wright’s indefatigable pace has not slackened in the ensuing years (“In a race with the Energizer Bunny,” Burnham said, “Lexi would win”). This past January 1, when the in-house art school moved out, High Five expanded into that area, creating what Wright called “malleable community space for gathering and hosting book clubs, craft hangouts, birthday parties, RPG tournaments, and the like. Now, more than ever, we’re hearing that readers and their families want to be together in community with one another. Providing that space feels like the least we can do for our supportive readers.”

And, buoyed by support from literary luminaries, other loyal customers, and staff members, Wright continues to extend her bookselling learning curve. “I have learned to curate a devoted team with complementary skills and interests—and to get out of their way once they propose events and activities they’re tickled by,” she said. “I have gotten a lot more comfortable asking for help—I still have a ways to go—and am realizing that just because we haven’t yet been able to act on all our ideas doesn’t mean they’re not worth doing. Five years in, I’m just getting to some of my initial event dreams from the outset. And I’m also learning to trust that more ideas will come.”