“Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day began when my children were little and I was going to story time at bookstores nearly every week. Did all children know the pleasure of spending time in a bookstore? I wondered. Of being drawn into a magic world for a while, then being left to choose treasures on the shelf? I wanted to begin a holiday that would expose as many kids as possible to this joy.”
Jenny Milchman

When Jenny Milchman, my friend and a talented thriller writer (see Three Thrillers!), started “Take A Child to a Bookstore Day” in 2010 to bring young readers and books together, it attracted 80 bookstores; today more than 700 bookstores from coast to coast will be taking part and hosting events on this Saturday, December 5 designed to expose kids to all the treasures their shelves hold. Let the “Sixth Annual Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day” begin!

What started as an inspired idea has turned into a movement, as book bloggers and book lovers took the idea viral and brought their local bookstores on board. When Jenny and her husband took their two kids on several cross country indie bookstore tours to celebrate the publication of her award-winning novels Cover of Snow, Ruin Falls, and As Night Falls, bookstores everywhere welcomed Jenny as the founder of a wonderful event designed to bring kids and books together.

As Jenny says so well, “Bookstores hold a place in the hearts and times of our community. They are places to discover an author, a story, a life. Nothing affords the conversation and interaction among books and book lovers that a bookstore does. In the future, whether you download your story or pluck a volume off a shelf, a bookstore will be able to accommodate. But in order for bookstores to flourish and thrive, we must expose future generations to the unique pleasures they offer.”

Today, TYCBD is a global affair, with bookstores in Canada and on five continents joining in on the fun. And Jenny and her team have even bigger plans afoot: They are hoping to offer grants to kids who can’t visit a bookstore on their own and even envision creating internships for budding young bookstore owners-to-be. How wonderful to think that there’s a global movement afoot that benefits both kids and bookstores — and that it was all started by one writing mom who wanted kids everywhere to know the pleasure of taking a book from a shelf.

So why not give the kids in your life a trip to your local bookstore this Saturday, December 5 — and join the fun? Bravo, Jenny — write on!