Special Guest Northern Highlight - Reading Roots Bookshop

SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT 

Reading Roots Bookshop

Keira Andrews

When did Reading Roots open and where are you based?

We opened in December 2020 in Wetherby, Yorkshire, and were able to open for just three weeks before the third lockdown began! There’s always a silver lining though – due to the unexpected time on our hands, we began fundraising within the local community to provide every child in the whole town who receives free school meals with a brand-new book for the lockdown. We completed this goal just twelve weeks after opening for the first time!

We would love to hear about your children's section.

Our children’s section is based in its own area of the building where the ceiling is covered in a jungle net that is home to a variety of animals. We have plenty of books for everyone from newborns to young adults, and each age range has their own bookshelves to peruse. We have a wonderful (and growing) children’s non-fiction section, and reserve our largest two windows to display our children’s books (we think they look the most colourful and eye-catching from the street!).

 

Tell us about your background as a teacher and how you are using this experience to create a literary centre.

I’ve always loved working with children and helping their imaginations soar – and this is exactly what I want to help create at Reading Roots. We’ve already had our first author talk with the lovely Lesley Parr (author of The Valley of Lost Secrets) and have a growing relationship with our local schools. We are soon to be involved in the published works of local children, and have many plans in motion to welcome everyone to our creative corner of the town.

 

Who are your local children's writers and illustrators?

I would love to learn more about locally-based children’s authors and illustrators. I know from the CBN Highlights that Polly Noakes and Rebecca Colby seem nearby.

 

What are your plans for 2021?

Ooh this question sends my mind buzzing with ideas! We hope to be able to start hosting large-scale, in-person author events and hopefully begin our ‘Rural Roots’ mission to take books to the hard-to-reach areas of rural Yorkshire. I’d like to get in touch with local authors and illustrators to see how we can potentially give them an additional feature. We’d like to get our book club and writing groups going, as well as launching our pay-it-forward scheme to make books accessible to everyone.

 

What for you is the 'spirit of the North'?

Community. Community has always been the basis of the ‘spirit of the North’, and we seek to exemplify this quality at Reading Roots. Bookshops are in a process of transition, and are finding their place in the ever-changing world. I believe that bookshops hold a key role in the local community in providing support, conversation, and activities that are increasingly harder to come by in other areas of our towns.

 

Why is it so important that we continue to promote children's books in the north?

Literacy is important no matter where in the world you are based. However, a child in the north is three times less likely to attend university than a child in the south – this needs to change. I believe that it begins with a book and being able to relate to a character from a world like their own, perhaps with a similar accent or lifestyle. Children need to feel valued, and this means that we need to make sure that they have equal access to books – including the opportunity to be exposed to new literature.

 

What would you like to see from children's publishing in the north?

I would love to see a push for publishing houses to realise the potential in the north. Authors should be encouraged to go further north than Birmingham!

You can follow Reading Roots on Twitter and Instagram.