A new chapter begins …
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Our next chapter
A new chapter in the life of the Blue House Bookshop Company Ltd will begin in September.
When we set up the business a major motivator was to encourage the love of reading to, and for, children. After seven years in the shop, we are now refocussing on that aim.
We have decided the business could achieve that goal better by becoming a social enterprise with that purpose. We want to take our shop into schools, colleges and into the communities bringing to them creative writing courses and storytelling performances to illustrate the world that reading books can open up.
So we are in the process of becoming a CIC, a Community Interest Company, a type of charity, not for profit business, but intentionally now! Blue House Books is born. As such we can bid for trust funding and supporter donations to help with that purpose and with our activities.
Because of this we did some overdue Maths and worked out that we couldn’t keep the bricks and mortar shop on. We will continue with our bookshop.org shop online, where you can support us and other independent bookshops rather than the billionaires. We will retain our website, where you can also order books and take out book subscriptions for yourself or as gifts, and we will do more blogging and audio interviews on books and reading.
So 10, Bootham will no longer be a bookshop as we switch to online bookselling, subscriptions and peripatetic bookselling at events, and our continuing work in schools.
Three S’s of support - subscriptions, schools and sales
These are three of the ways you can support Blue House Books. We will still be selling books so you can support our wider aims by taking out a subscription for three months or six months as a gift, or for yourself. More details here SUBSCRIPTION.
From September our first order discount for schools and nurseries will now be 25% off RRP with follow up orders at 20%. You can encourage your school, and any others you know, to take advantage of our discounts this autumn with books delivered straight to school. They can email us and we can help with book choices and if they are a secondary school it will make the Government’s library grant go much further. We are also taking bookings for our popup shop at school fairs, parent’s evenings or just as an in-school event this autumn.
Come into the shop in July and early August and enjoy our BOGOFF deals - Buy One Get One Free as we out do the supermarkets by giving you great deals on our wide choice of books.
Teachers days in July
We are hosting special teachers days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday July 13th, 14th, 15th daytime or afterschool till 5.30pm It will give us an opportunity to tell you more about what we want to do, find out what would work for your school and your teaching groups. BOGOFF deals apply so bring some bags!
We will also hold a celebration day and CIC kickoff day in August, more on that next month.
Creative writing and games courses this summer
Sarah and Jack will be holding creative writing and games courses during the summer holidays.
Creative Course, 4-5 August
To give the shop the send-off it deserves, we will be hosting a creative course for two days on Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th August, 10:00-15:00. We will have a combination of games and creative writing activities to celebrate and commemorate the bookshop.
The price will be £90 for the two days.
To register interest please email karen@thebluehousebookshop.co.uk
Summer Holiday Club for young printers
Thin Ice Press in York are offering printing workshops over the summer. Each full-day session explores a different printmaking or book arts project, giving children the chance to learn new skills, collaborate with others, and leave with their creations. From letterpress, cyanotype and Risograph printing, to bookbinding and creative writing, every session is packed with hands-on experimentation and fun.
Personalised Stationery, 22 July: Print, foil and personalise your own stationery, from notelets and invitations to tags and pencils.
Printing with Flowers & Sunshine, 29 July: Discover the magic of cyanotype printing and experiment with flowers and leaves to create beautiful designs.
Letterpress & Lino, 5 August: Explore letterpress and linocut printing to create your own prints and contribute to a collaborative poster.
Newspaper in a Day, 12 August: Create and Riso print your very own collaborative newspaper. Budding journalists, satirists, editors and fashionistas welcome!
Pop-Up Book, 26 August: Plan, design and construct your own pop-up book inspired by your favourite story, or one of your own.
A Book in a Day, 2 September: In our final club of the summer, we'll combine creative writing with printing and bookbinding.
Each session is £45. Participants can book individual days or join us for the full summer programme.
Recommended for ages 7+.
If you have any questions, please email thinicepress@york.ac.uk.and say Blue House Bookshop sent you!
Bookish news
This month, there was good news from research done by the National Literacy Trust, that children’s enjoyment of reading and daily reading habits have risen for the first time in five years, though it was disappointing to see that the disadvantage gap is widening. Congratulations to Julia Donaldson and Malorie Blackman who were made dames, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in Camden opened its doors, the Discover Children’s Story Centre reopened in Stratford, East London after a major renovation and Nosy Crow celebrated its 15th birthday.
Our new chapter reinforces our support and commitment to the National Year of Reading and the idea of reading for pleasure and taking that impetus into our continuing work with primary and secondary schools. We are going to focus on encouraging reading, creative writing, story-telling as vital parts of every child’s education.
Actually the same for grown-ups too!
If you are a teacher do get in touch for details of what we can help with and the big 25% discounts we are offering schools on book sales this autumn.
“We are better than this” anti A.I. campaign launched
A group of children’s authors and illustrators have launched the "We Are Better Than This" campaign, described as a "creative uprising" against AI.
Created by Chris Haughton, Simona Ciraolo, Ged Adamson, Benji Davies and Momoko Abe, the campaign centres on a short film, WATCH HERE voiced by Miriam Margolyes, with music and sound by Matt Wand. The film was written, directed and edited by the author-illustrators themselves, and has been designed "to spark a movement rather than simply make a statement".
They said the campaign comes at a "pivotal time" for the UK’s creative industries, as the government has "stopped short of ruling out a copyright regime that would make it easier for AI companies to train their models on creative work".
The campaign is calling on the British public to watch and share the film, sign up to be part of what comes next.
Benji Davies, illustrator of books including Grandad’s Island (S&S Children’s Books) and The Snowflake (HarperCollins Children’s Books) said: "We make books that children carry with them for life. The idea that our work, and the work of every artist, could be scraped to train machines, without permission or payment, is something none of us can stand by. This isn’t about being anti-technology, it’s about saying that people and creativity come first. We are better than this."
Chris Haughton is the author and illustrator of books including Chris Haughton’s Little Library (Walker Books), and a number of board books also published by Walker. He said: "A situation where everyone who does valuable work is rewarded for it is a good economy. Creators who make valuable work will be remunerated for it and so are encouraged to do more, and everyone benefits from this.
"What is being proposed is the opposite of that – it is that AI companies can take our creative work, like they do with all our other data, without paying us. Millions of people doing work which is then taken for free by a handful of billionaire companies. Their underlying purpose is extraction. We are allowing their wealth to access our collective skills while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth."
THANK YOU
Finally, for the moment, to you - thank you.
Sincere thanks and love to each and everyone who has encountered the Blue House Bookshop as a browser, customer, subscriber, illustrator, author, creative course participant, each and every one of you have been and will be very important to us.
Not everything has run smoothly. A covid shutdown within six months of our opening, then another, a flood destroying a thousand pounds worth of books, the collapse of a supplier who owed us hundreds of pounds and ill health.
But then, wonderful author visits, school visits, courses, mindfulness events, Santa’s workshop, Blind Date with a Book, our St George’s Day evening, Books and Roses, one day 24 hour opening and kids running the bookshop for Independent Bookshop Day.
To Sarah W, Jack, Jill, Pam, Eric, Nissa, Sarah H, Nikki, Janette for all your help and support. To Mike, Catherine, Loretta, Katie, Hannah, Sophie, Tom, James and more - for being wonderful creative writers and illustrators and now friends.
It’s very sad to have to let the shop go, but as Dr Seuss would say “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” - come and buy one of his books upstairs in the shop today - always served with a smile!
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