By Carrie Channell
Bookish, 9911 S. Wood, is not only the name of Beverly/Morgan Park’s newest pop-up, it also describes the owners Tara Baldridge and Angela Sherrill. Both women have extensive backgrounds in bookselling, writing, publishing and book marketing as well as being mothers of young children. Bookish, a temporary store across from the 99th Street Metra Station, is set up for the 2018 holiday season.
The intention behind Bookish is to create a community-focused destination to create experiences involving books. They will be offering Storytime at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Wed., Dec. 5, 12 and 19. More than just reading stories to children, they will engage their listeners in discussions about the stories and characters. Their goals are exposing young readers to quality books they might not encounter elsewhere and helping them become better, more engaged readers.
In keeping with the community destination focus, the store owners will be working with neighbor Cakewalk Chicago to present joint gingerbread activities. In conjunction with how-to make gingerbread structures, Bookish will host reading activities around books that feature gingerbread characters. Children will have a coloring activity to help the gingerbread people disguise themselves to escape being eaten!
Bookish is committed to presenting high-quality work with an emphasis on diversity in voices. Being small, they make a point of presenting books from smaller presses and independent publishers that may not be readily available from other venues.
Baldridge and Sherrill hope their endeavor will transition from temporary to permanent and they have many ideas for engagement activities for older children as well as college and high school students and adults. They are hoping to provide summer literary camps focusing on books, comic books, writing and illustration.
The entrepreneurs see their bookstore as familiar yet with an appeal that is just a bit different than other stores. They will be offering a number of items from local artists on consignment so busy commuters can get off their train just steps away from the shop.
Contact Bookish at 773-570-0795 or www.thisisvaria.com. Hours: M-S 10 to 6, Sun 12-6.
