Celebrating Indie Bookstore Day!

Independent Bookstore Day was celebrated nationally this past weekend. It's a wonderful event that rewards book lovers with exclusives and events at all their favorite local shops. I love participating as a shopper, supporting the small businesses that make our neighborhoods special -- all while filling up our shelves with new books to enjoy.

But, it's also a great opportunity to participate as an illustrator and to give back to our communities!

Indie Bookstore Day takes place on the last Saturday in April!

Personally, I'm passionate about small businesses, so I got involved years ago with my local Bookstore Day by signing my books or presenting my artwork during the event. Many families celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, so it's an opportunity to read aloud, draw with kids, or talk to families about the path to publication and how picture books are made. Even just to answer questions. You never know who you might meet and inspire!

Photo credit: Dain Middleton

But this year, I was named Book Crawl Ambassador for my city-wide Independent Bookstore Day Celebration. (They even made me a sash!)

I designed giveaways for every bookstore participating, and also hid prizes around the independent shops just for fun. I ran from shop to shop for ten hours of signings and events!

It was worth it to see the smiles and to meet the wonderful book lovers of my community.

Photo credit: Full Circle Literary on Twitter

It's been a lot of fun, a great way to give back to my community. Indie bookshops are run with a lot of heart and give us recommendations and conversations a website never could. 

These book stores celebrated my debut as an author and every book I've published, know every member of my family, carry my products in their stores, and have laughed and cried talking about books and life with me! I love them, and the people who run them, and they deserve to be celebrated -- as do the people who shop at them!

Here are more images from the San Diego Book Crawl / Independent Bookstore Day 2019! (#SDBookCrawl was our hashtag -- check out those book lovers in action!)

People of all ages attended -- some riding public transportation or bikes to every stop! One of the best parts of being out and about during our Indie Bookstore celebration was hearing everyone's stories -- where their home bookstore is, where they've discovered, and how they're crawling between stops. All in all, it reminded me of the power and kindness of the book loving community - and I'm glad I volunteered my time to this!

Thank you to my community and all the wonderful booksellers in San Diego who made this event a total blast. I don't know about you, but I'm already excited for next year's!

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Susie Ghahremani is the author and illustrator of BALANCE THE BIRDS and STACK THE CATS. She is also the illustrator of WHAT WILL GROW, WHAT WILL HATCH, and forthcoming LITTLE MUIR'S SONG written by John Muir (Coming August 13th, 2019)

She paints in gouache, drinks a lot of coffee, and is -- believe it or not -- an introvert.

Find her at: Boygirlparty | Patreon | Etsy | Fb | Twitter | Instagram