Over and Out #IBW2017

This week has been #IBW2017. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s Independent Bookshop Week (24th June – 1st July 2017), which is part of the Books Are My Bag campaign, and seeks to celebrate independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland.  

Here at Chicken and Frog Bookshop, we had a pretty normal (for us) week, until Friday 30th June, when, in a moment of madness, we had planned two big events.

First up was Macmillan’s Authors Assemble. Two simultaneous tours ran from North to South and West to East during the week, featuring three middle-grade authors and five independent booksellers per tour and reaching hundreds of school children through two daily events. The two tours converged on Friday 30 June with all six authors performing in an ultimate Authors Assemble event, right here in Brentwood. Our thanks go to the Macmillan team and all of the schools involved: Brentwood County High (the hosts), Hogarth, Ingrave Johnstone, Larchwood, St Thomas’, St Helen’s, Larchwood and Warley Primary.

The authors were all fantastic, bringing their own style and bucket loads of enthusiasm with them. We have signed copies of books here, just in case you were not one of the 350-strong audience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The atmosphere was buzzing and today we’ve had lots of eager visitors to the shop, buying more signed copies of the Authors Assemble wonderful books.

 

 

In the evening, we went back to Brentwood County High School, for  our second event of the day. I would like to publicly thank Ann Smy, BCHS librarian, for being accommodating, enthusiastic and incredibly creative too.

We had a library full of Potter-heads, all eagerly ready to take on the Bloomsbury challenge, in the hopes of being part of the national round, later in the year. This leg of the tournament was exclusive to just 20 indies, so we can’t tell you anything about the quiz itself…apart from to say that it was tricky!

Congratulations to all who took part and thank-you for making the end of an exhausting day so, well, magical!#

Throughout the week, we have been giving away the exclusive Harry Potter tote bags to all customers. Visitors who didn’t purchase anything were asked to donate £2 to J.K.Rowling’s charity, LUMOS. We also asked for a £2 donation from everyone who entered the quiz. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we can forward on £80 to LUMOS, which is a heart-warming end to #IBW2017.

A final note: Remember, every week is Independent Bookshop Week for us indies, so please do continue to support us throughout the year!