Wishing Tree Books, a children's bookstore with an emphasis on literacy, diversity and acceptance, will open next April in Spokane, Wash., Bookselling This Week reported.
Owner Janelle Smith and her husband, Ivan Smith, intend to make events a major part of their store, and plans are already in the works for Independent Bookstore Day, Children's Book Week and National Poetry Month celebrations. They are looking to partner with a local Buddhist temple for monthly storytime sessions focused on compassion and kindness, and with a children's yoga and mindfulness group for yoga classes.
"Everything in our lives has aligned to make this the perfect time," Smith told BTW. "Our kids are older, our 'village' is super supportive, and the community is large enough."
Smith also has plans for a variety of literacy-promoting programs, including one called Neighborhood Reads that will seek to get the whole neighborhood reading and discussing the same book, as well as book groups hosted in partnership with organizations like the Odyssey Youth Movement, which helps local LGBTQ youth.
Smith has been a bookseller at several other stores, including the Children's Corner Bookshop in Spokane, where she started her career, and Auntie's Bookstore, where most recently she was the children's manager. Smith reported that since leaving the latter store last year and deciding to open a store of her own, she's received a ton of support from other indies.
Tegan Tigani, bookseller at Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle, Wash., and her husband have invested in Wishing Tree, and they've purchased the house in which the store will reside once renovations are done. And in fact, another indie bookseller, Melissa Demotte, owner of the Well-Read Moose in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, helped her find that house.
"I've wanted my own children's bookstore almost my entire life," Smith said. "I was probably 14 when I started making lists of books I would carry and events I would hold."