Month: December 2012

As this year draws to a close I thought that it was time to reflect a little. This time last year things were very uncertain for us; Mr Frog’s job was looking shaky at best and we had no idea what the future held for us and our wonderful children.

Did Mr Frog find a new job? No, although not for the want of trying. In these tough times it’s not so easy out there. I had already stepped up to working five days a week and although I love my ‘day’ job, it wasn’t exactly ideal. What did we do? We decided to go a bit crazy and start chasing an old dream. After over twenty years of having ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ conversations we started saving like mad and went for it.

It took a while, but at the end of October our dream became a reality when Chicken and Frog Bookshop opened its purple door to the public of Brentwood and beyond. What a busy couple of months it has been for us. Our fantastic children have taken the massive changes in their stride and our parents have been so immensely supportive, we truly couldn’t have taken such a huge leap of faith without them.

What does the New Year have in store for us? Who knows! We have secured a grant from the Brentwood Localism Share Fund, which means that our Family Learning Project will soon benefit local families, our tuition centre continues to grow, children’s parties are booking up, our first creative writing competition is launching…the list goes on.

All that is left to say is a huge thank-you to those who have supported us in the last few months and here’s to an exciting, hugely successful 2013 for everyone.

Today we rescued many a stressed-looking man by opening our doors on a Sunday, therefore providing the opportunity for an extra few precious hours of panic buying. It worked out well, resulting in the sale of a fair few books and gift certificates, as well as crafts from Claire’s Beautiful Things.

Although the said rescuing made me happy, my favourite part of the day was just as the morning’s business began. A lovely young American came in, searching for a copy of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. She was delighted when I offered not one, but two versions of this classic, deciding upon this edition by Clement C.Moore:

It wasn’t just the fact that I had what she was looking for, but the lovely story that she told. Every year her mum reads ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas to herself and her sister, but this is the first year in England without her mum, so the book is for our lovely customer’s husband to read on Christmas night. Everyone that I have relayed this episode to has had the same ‘aah’ response, so I decided to share it with you!

If I don’t say it in person or before hand, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and (even more importantly), a peaceful New Year.

I was driving to work on Monday morning, merrily listening to the XFM Break fast Show, when suddenly I turned from a mild-mannered teacher/ bookseller into a ranting crazy lady.

Why? I’ll tell you why. Because the latest radio ad for Talk Talk came on. ‘That’s not much of a catalyst,’ I hear you proclaim and you are quite right. Although adverts can be an irritant, they do not usually cause such an emotional reaction. However, this particular one did.

It’s all about their Christmas promotion for some shiny product or another, which is fine. What is not fine is that a disgruntled teen says ‘thanks’ for book tokens in a clearly derisory tone. What I’d like to know is what is wrong with the giving or receiving of a book token? I used to love them and my children still do. And I mean an actual book token, not an Amazon (boo hiss) voucher.

Ooh, it made me so cross. It’s this kind of negative, false depiction that continues to compound the myth that children no longer read. Absolute nonsense. Year on year the sales figures for the children’s book market buck the ‘trend’. Children do read.

Rant over, apart from to say that we sell and accept National Book Tokens, as well as our very own Chicken and Frog branded gift certificates.