Ticket to read
INTRODUCING KIDS TO BOOKS AND TO MIA THE ST. BERNARD
ARE AMONG ARLENE LYNES' JOYS
Rick Kogan | In the Loop
September 9, 2007
Sitting behind the counter at Read Between the Lynes, a bookstore on the town square in Woodstock, is a massive and lethargic 6-year-old St. Bernard named Mia.
"She's not herself. We got a new puppy," says Arlene Lynes, who owns the store and Mia. "She'll perk up."
Lynes is confident because it is Wednesday morning and the store, as cozy and well-stocked as any member of that besieged breed known as the independent bookstore, is filling with the bright eyes and high-pitched giggles of little kids. It's the same every Wednesday and Saturday morning, when the store hosts Storytime, just one in an ever-growing number of regular activities, special events and author visits.
"These are things that make for a community," says Lynes, whose three children are too old for Storytime.
The person reading today is Debora Mitts-Smith. She has a PhD in children's literature and teaches at Dominican University. More intriguingly, she and her husband and kids live in what is commonly referred to around here as the "Groundhog Day" house. It "played" the Cherry Street Inn in the 1993 movie and was where the weathercaster played by Bill Murray was awakened at 6 a.m. morning after morning after morning by a radio blaring Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe."
As the children and their mothers (not a dad in sight) begin to gather around Mitts-Smith at the back of the store, the woman behind the counter beams. "It's been so nice to watch the kids grow and change," says Leslie Schubert, who has been a lively, knowledgeable employee since the store opened two years ago.
The youngest children sit on mothers' laps and a few nuzzle up to Mia, whose presence compels Mitts-Smith (far right in Osgood's photo, with Lynes behind her) to begin by reading "Harry the Dirty Dog." The following 30 minutes make for a charming scene, all these little brains paying attention to spoken words, getting an early--and one can hope lasting--taste of books' beguiling powers.
Woodstock had been without a bookstore for five years when Lynes opened hers in 2005. She had done her homework, eventually traveling with her husband, Keith, who is in the computer business, to Florida to take a five-day course titled, simply enough, "How to Open an Independent Bookstore." But there is nothing simple about trying to do battle with the book-retailing giants.
"My philosophy is to offer personal service," says Lynes. "We have come to know so many of our customer . . . I hate to even use that word, 'customer.' These are friends."
The morning's Storytime ends with a stirring reading of "Pinocchio," though many of the kids appeared to have more fun with the book that was read before, "If My Dad Were a Dog." By that time, though we can't be sure, Mia seemed to have forgotten her troubles.
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rkogan@tribune.com |
