Saturday, May 21, 2011

Perth's northern suburbs suffer disastrous book drought

I am very frustrated at the moment. Things have gone from bad to worse in this neck of the woods. I live just a little south of Geraldton (okay, I'm exaggerating - it's a little south of Yanchep). We are a new growth area on the northern fringe of Perth. Many, many new families live out this way.

The Ocean Keys shopping complex came to our neighbourhood several years ago. Suddenly we had several retailers including a bookshop. It wasn't fancy, but still ... it did sell books. Now it has closed (another one bites the dust!)

So, we must make-do with such exquisite book retailers as 'Coles', 'Woolworths' and 'The Salvation Army'.

UH-OH.

So, in a flash of panic I contacted a children's book retailer recommended to me by some very knowledgable children's book enthusiasts. I will be taking approximately 100 QUALITY children's books (including many by local authors and illustrators) to the six playgroup sessions at my local community centre in a couple of weeks.

THERE.

That's all I can do for now, but I figure it's worth something. I'm not profiting from it, but the playgroup will, because the very kind retailer offers 10% of the sales towards new books for the organisation. This wonderful retailer does not have a website that I can link to, but I do think you should call Child Education Services on 9225 6516 if you feel the urge to do something similar. What a great fundraiser for your school, playgroup or other organisation.

Cheers,
Caz

5 comments:

Samantha Hughes said...

Caz, you are freaking WONDERFUL!!

Ken said...

Great work Caz. This is where Scholastic is a plus - taking books to (school) kids because kids are not taken to books. But there's no $ incentive to the schools, so sometimes it doesn't happen. I once came up with a proposal for Fremantle Press to 'collect' some schools and discount backlist (and frontlist) books, in a a scheme run by parents that yielded some $ for schools. I thought a pilot scheme would be easy to run in 2 or 3 different areas... but nothing happened.
PS.. did you choose the word verification word?? Spoofi!

Caz Williams said...

Thanks Sam and Ken for the encouragement :) Lets hope this works out as an interim solution of sorts. I have no desire to go into business, but if I did I think a children's bookshop / literacy tutoring shop (826LA - hello!) would be so awesome up here.

Caz Williams said...

PS - Yes, I checked the box that said 'Make Ken Spillman type Spoofi' :D

Unknown said...

That's awesome! I live in a very small town - Walmart's our "bookstore". And pretty much the only store around for 30 miles. Sometimes I think sinister things must happen there... I mean who builds a store that size here?

I digress. I will have to look into this book program for our community.