Bookstore reveals ‘Children’s Reading Tree’
Recently community members joined authors and staff at Otto Bookstore for the Big Reveal of the Children’s Reading Tree, painted by Mandi Engel in the children's corner of Otto Bookstore.
Engel said she was a self-taught artist, and this is her "second or third mural at Otto's" and third year she loves joining in the festivities on First Fridays in Williamsport.
Kathryn Nassberg, co-owner of Otto Bookstore, the oldest independently owned bookstore in the country, announced to participants that "in the last year, Otto Bookstore has taken on the energy to bring it back it to its full potential we have wanted it to be. We could not have done it without our wonderful staff."
Nassberg went on to explain how they want the "bookstore to be a center for the community and this is a community that has been kind, generous and supportive so we want to give back and become a hub of literacy."
Otto Bookstore will be launching a reading program known also as a reading pool, in which the children will be able to put their name on a leaf of the tree after reading a certain number of books. Their leaf will be added to the canopy of the tree, creating an interactive environment which promotes reading development. Nassberg stated how this will become a "living breathing tree" which grows with the community.
John Shableski, the manager of Otto Bookstore, has been a driving force in encouraging the promotion of authors, artists and the community. Shableski added how
"This moment of the introduction of the tree along with festival, allows us, as a bookstore to take this where we should be in the community and become a wonderful resource for families and anyone who wants to read or is just looking for a book," Shableski said. "We want to feel like home!"
Shableski pointed out how he changed the space around to be more open and they can fit many more customers for book readings and events. Importantly, Shableski said how they will capture children's interest by also asking the children to name the tree and then will ask the children why they feel the tree should be the name of choice.
Engel also encouraged the importance of other mothers to find their niche.
"A lot of young mothers lose themselves and this was a big thing for me, not to be dependent on family and many of my friends started their own businesses to get out of post-partum depression," she said.
Engel's mother, Tina Capatch, said how Engel's 7-year-old son, Kade Engel, busies himself while her daughter paints and has seen "how they (daughter and grandson) have become closer, more than they have ever been."
Many authors like Shauna L. Grant, Judi Jessick, Harold Buchholz and Amy Chu attended the event.
"As parents, we need to let our children do what they love," Grant's mother, who came out to support her daughter, said, adding how she is so very proud of her daughter for writing Mimi and the Cutie Catastrophe.
Chu, a comic book writer, left her corporate work to follow her passion and is well-known for her six-issue mini-series Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death and a few Wonder Woman issues for DC Comics and many other stories for Marvel.
"Agatha Livermore and the Magic Cookies Spoon-is a rhyming story, with Agatha Livermore not having much self-confidence and compares herself to her brothers and sister until she finds her own magic," Jessick said of her book. She acknowledged "this is a struggle both children as well as adults feel throughout their lifetime" and her book speaks to this feeling.
Buchholz created the Wild and Wooly, the Sweetest Beasts Collection, wanting to address issues like bullying and being part of a group. Buchholz later authored The Neat Before Christmas-How Santa Soiled My Home, a comical rhyming story that is fun and comical for all ages. Buchholz is also the executive producer of Creator Joel Hodgson's Mystery Science Theater 3000, which has been released on Netflix since 2017. As of 2023, 230 episodes and a feature film of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 have been produced.