A Specialist Children's Bookshop

Summer Holidays

2011-08-28T11:19:00.003+01:00

Not an easy summer as the recession bites and people are obviously spending less on children's books as they have to make tough decisions. Too busy monitoring cashflow to blog.

But our loyal customers keep coming in, and our programme of events is always supported. Looking forward to the puppet show at half term. And hope that we can add to our list of 90 school customers in the term about to start. We do enjoy dealing with requests to research books, when someone doesn't know the title or the author, but who can tell us the story. Thanks to Google, we can usually find it...and thanks to Bertrams, our sterling suppliers in Norwich who put helpful illustrations of book covers on their website.

Lynn

2011-03-25T14:26:00.002Z

Friday 25 March

A hectic day with a Tickled Skink show, attended by seven toddlers this morning. Then Lynn met with Sara Scarry this afternoon. Sara is a student at De Montfort University on a Design Management course. She had lots of interesting questions about the design of the shop, our mission and how we support children with learning difficulties. Thank you, Sara. I enjoyed it!

2011-03-09T11:42:00.007Z

What's It All About? Reading event for Leicestershire schools at the Tigers Ground

Wednesday next week 10.37 Wow, what a week. Didn't say how much I enjoyed the Friday speakers, and had the thrill of hearing John Dougherty's wee song again! He picks up his guitar, he starts what seems to be a soppy love song, the audience of children start wriggling and yawning...then suddenly he is singing about wanting to go to the toilet in the middle of a boring lesson and he has them, totally captured by the naughtiness of singing about wee in front of TEACHERS!! It was such an enjoyable week for us, meeting so many children who love to read and sharing the thrill of meeting top children's authors.

Friday 10.30 No time yesterday to write but what a terrific speaker Andrew Norriss is (author of Ctrl-Z) If you are reading this and fancy a good read and a really good laugh, BUY THIS BOOK!! And now I'm listening to Jo Cotterill (Sweethearts series) and can say the same. Sitting at the foot of giants - not only able to write great children's books but accomplished performers, keeping hundreds of children entertained and involved for over an hour. The secret is humour, gentle, witty, continuous, appealing to all ages.

Wednesday 13.00 Nice lunch! Now getting ready for the next session. Sold loads of Shoo Rayner books this morning - and one school bought 25 of Bali's books. Some very well-behaved children from Parks Primary just filing in. Hope they enjoy this - sure they will! Ian from the Library Service has just done a brilliant warm-up for Bali so it should be a great afternoon.

11.44 Have just sat in on session led by Bali Rai. I do enjoy listening to him talk. He has a great knack of getting close to kids, never patronises them and is SO FUNNY. It was the same with Pete Johnson yesterday. But sold very few books. I suppose in these straitened times, parents have very little cash to give their children to buy books. Off to have some very healthy Tigers' lunch, before gearing up for the afternoon session.

Harry Potter Readathon for Comic Relief

2011-02-22T09:29:00.019Z

9.29 I'm terrified. There is no-one here but me. Help! Just about to start reading.
9.42 Thank goodness, Rebekah has just turned up. And Ben and Holly - hurrah! And Radio Leicester have just telephoned us asking if we would like an owl to come in.
10.05 What a great start - have three readers here and one child listener which leaves me free to answer the phone. We've already raised over £50.
10.15 Ben and Holly have just read about the zoo and we're really laughing and enjoying Rowling's humour...and now Emily (aged 8) has taken over and is reading like a seasoned trooper.
10.30 Our first hour done!! And Joy has just come in to read. And our first contribution from a customer.
11.00 Akbar came in and read for 10 minutes, raising £5 - terrific! And now Joy is having her first read. Money keeps coming.
11.16 Emily just left having raised a very impressive £14
11.30 Another hour done! We are a good way through HP and the Philosopher's Stone
1.15 Alice, John and Edna have just arrived, Joy left 30 mins ago with Holly and Ben, and the owl is now here! Hedwig is in the house!!
2.00 Now done one-third and having a sneaky peek in the tin, it looks as if we've got around £100 so far. Alice has just gone, having done 20 minute - fab! And Daniella and Charlotte have just turned up. John read for 10 minutes and is so far our oldest reader.
3.30 Just passed the halfway mark and 6-year-old Abbi is now reading. She has beaten our record for the longest continuous stretch (20 minutes) and is still going. And she has raised £62 in sponsorship which is magnificent. So far we have at least £150 - but we need lots more!!
4.30 Well, records are made to be broken. Annabel (aged 9) has just read for 36 minutes in one go. Abbi did 40 in two stretches. And now Poppy (aged 7) who has visual impairment, read specially-enlarged sheets for 16 minutes. Very well done, all three. Magnificent!
5.30 Only four hours to go, and I'm beginning to flag. Time for a pasta meal, I feel! Nearly at the end of the first book. Brigid has just read continuously for one hour!!! I won't be mean and reveal her age. Lottie is now reading the last bit, and Jonathan from Action Homeless has joined us to help us through this final stage. So grateful to everyone who has supported us, particularly to BBC Radio Leicester who got right behind this project.
6.10 Now onto the second book, and we've just enjoyed Jonathan and Lottie read the Dobbie episode. Had my pasta - yum! Has given me a second wind to get through to 9.30.
8.00 Phew, getting tough now. Just me and Sue and coffee. But we are determined to enjoy this last bit, read with expression for all we are worth, and appreciate the humour and the brilliant description in this book.
8.15 Annabel has just come back! Just the job to give us a boost and get us through the last hour and a bit. We are now reading a chapter each and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It feels like a warm and exclusive club in here: the brightly lit shop with the dark street outside, reading aloud to each other - as if we're in a bygone age.
8.30 A loud cheer has rung through The Parade - only one hour to go! And now Lottie has come back too, so the last bit is going to be SOOOO easy! I think we are now definitely over £200 once sponsorship monies have come in.
9.15 Only 15 minutes to go. Lottie and Annabel are doing 10 minutes each to finish. I've just counted monies so far - £147 taken today, and that's without a lot of sponsorship so we have definitely taken over £200. Will go home tired but happy. Tomorrow will put all the photos of the readers on our gallery page.

A new year!

2011-01-03T10:32:00.004Z

After a long and lazy holiday, I'm gearing up for a return to the shop. It seemed a very busy Christmas but the snow knocked our sales badly and despite keeping heaters going constantly, it was SOOO cold in the shop. Even Santa in his grotto, well padded as he was, admitted it was a bit parky! Didn't help that I fell on the ice at the end of November and have been struggling with a bad hip sprain ever since. I usually whizz around happily - can't get used to my present dot-and-carry. We shall spend the next couple of weeks stocktaking and updating our website. And finalising our spring programme of events in the shop which is going to include a puppet show, a demonstration of baby massage, another visit from the owls (see the gallery about what this means!) and some face painting sessions. And Vanessa's wonderful Tickled Skink sessions which have moved to Fridays at 11am.

Pam is carrying out creating her brilliant windows for us. Santa's workshop with several cheeky elves and a conveyor belt of presents was a triumph. So must start planning for this year to give her plenty of notice.

We had our annual meal together yesterday. It was good to catch up with Rachel who is now at uni and having a good time studying creative writing. I'm looking forward to promoting her first book!

A big problem for me is how to take story reading forwards. Saturday mornings is obviously not a good time. I might try to put a session into the Skinkled Skink session at the end.

Lynn