By Bridgette A. Lacy
Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, a one-day national party that takes place at indie bookstores across the country on the last Saturday in April.
Independent Booksellers of Piedmont North Carolina (IBOP*NC), a group of twelve independent bookstores located in the Piedmont area, will have special events and limited edition items donated by authors and publishers for sale in each store on Saturday, April 27, 2019.
Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh has events planned all day including hourly gift bag drawings, storytime for children, slime making, and trivia games for adults. Back by popular demand is the Purr Cup Cat café open from 9 a.m. to noon. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and pet some kittens. There will be a (contained) area of the store where people are welcome to pet the cats, while an in-store café cart will have coffee and tea available for a donation.
The Purr Cup Cat Café, a not-yet-open coffee shop with cats, hots pop-up events around Raleigh to raise money for their café and for the Meow House Cat Rescue.
Special guest Cat In the Hat will come by for story-time and photo opportunities with children. The Poetry Fox will also be on hand to take words from customers and turn them into one-of-a kind poems on the spot.
McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro is not only marking Indie Bookstore Day but also its thirtieth birthday. Drop by and you will find cake, mimosas, the dulcet tones of Mr. Billy, and giveaways. Bookseller Pete Mock will also be making scintillating book recommendations. Raleigh author Belle Boggs and Raleigh author Therese Anne Fowler will read from their new novels, The Gulf and A Well-Behaved Woman.
Swing by Page 158 Books of Wake Forest for a Sesame Street Themed Storytime honoring fifty years of Sesame Street. It will also have random giveaways and selfie stations. The store will also have assorted collectable author pins, children’s book author and artist Maggie Stiefvater signed posters and signed copies of Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants by bestselling author Andrea Beaty, and Newbery Medal winner The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.
Bring your children for a fun-filled day at Read With Me, A Children’s Book & Art Shop in downtown Raleigh. The store is presenting a special musical story and craft event at 2:30 p.m. Registration is required and the fee is $10. Special items for sale include autographed copies of Ada Twist and the Perilous Pants and a collectible embroidered iron-on patch of stellar scientist Ada Twist and signed editions of The Girl Who Drank the Moon and free vinyl stickers.
It’s not too late for customers to still purchase an IBOP calendar available in stores now. The calendar includes a page to tear out and collect stamps from the various stores listed. Once a person has collected all twelve stamps from participating stores by Saturday, April 27, 2019, they will receive a discount card entitling them to 20 percent off at all of the stores until the end of 2019.
The IBOP NC bookstores are: Scuppernong Books of Greensboro; Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh; Read with Me in Raleigh; The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines; Sunrise Books in High Point: Purple Crow Books in Hillsborough; Page 158 in Wake Forest; McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro; Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill; The Regulator Bookshop in Durham; and Letters in Durham.; and Bookmarks in Winston-Salem.
To see what events your bookstore has in store for Independent Bookstore Day, check out their websites.
To request an interview with booksellers, please contact Bridgette A. Lacy at (919) 872-4234, or by email at bridgettelacy@att.net.