Lorelei Kennedy is on a mission to get books into the hands of kids. “Every kid gets a free book the first time they come in,” she says.
Narrated by Matt Davies Voiceover
Storytime Bookshop opened in Downtown Kennewick this past November. It started in July as a little bookshelf on wheels. Kennedy said she would take her books to farmers markets and other pop-ups. “I started meeting a lot of community members and homeschooling parents and educators — people in the public who love books were just over the moon,” says Kennedy. Even though she wasn’t looking for a brick-and-mortar, Kennedy says that moving into their location in Downtown Kennewick just “came together beautifully.”
How it all got started
Growing up in rural Alaska, Kennedy says she was reading by the time she was three. “I would just read everything I could get my hands on,” says Kennedy. She also spent a lot of time around the stage. “My parents and my grandparents were musicians and performers themselves,” she says, “so I had a dual love of reading and theater.” These two passions led Kennedy to her eventual dream job once she moved to Portland, Oregon.
“I'm called a Theater Teaching Artist: a theater professional that chooses to teach and work with kids,” Kennedy explains. “It's the best job in the world, for so many reasons, and I didn’t even know it existed until I was 22.”
She discovered her chosen profession one day when she visited her extremely shy younger brother’s classroom and was surprised to see that they had a Puppet Theater Teaching Artist doing a residency at the school. Kennedy says she walked into the class to find her timid little brother “with a plastic jug puppet and a silly voice, having a great time.” She knew then that her life was changing course.
Kennedy talked to the Teaching Artist in residence, and then to the Artistic Director, who took Kennedy on as an intern. “They had me in an afterschool program right away as an assistant teacher,” says Kennedy. “Since then, I've taught afterschool programs, and residencies, and classrooms, and workshops — all kinds of stuff. I did that in Portland for about 20 years.”
After moving to the Tri-Cities four years ago, Kennedy found that inviting Theater Teaching Artists to classrooms was not common practice, as it had been in Portland. So she turned to her first love: books.
“Everything we do is based on books,” says Kennedy. “I always read a book first, and then we do something based on the book. Everything I do is play-based and literacy focused.”
With all of Kennedy’s background in teaching through movement and art, she is able to put together teaching experiences that combine crafts, yoga, and other activities with reading at Storytime Bookshop.
Community and collaboration
Kennedy can’t say enough about how much she loves her community. She says Cara and Allyson from Hot Mess Burgers (less than a block from the Bookshop) have been some of her biggest champions. Cara often stops in with her kids, as do other Downtown Kennewick neighbors. Terry, who owns Tri-Cities Treasures next door, frequently brings useful items to Storytime Bookshop. Kennedy recalls, “A couple of weeks ago, she walked in with two tiny blue chairs for really little kids, and said, ‘I’ve got these chairs. Would you like them?’"
Kennedy says she especially enjoys collaborating with other local businesses.
Annelee Giese from Rise & Shine Bakery is just across the street. “We have been doing an event called ‘Cookies and Bookies’ where Rise & Shine makes book-shaped cookies,” says Kennedy. “The kids each get two frostings and a cookie, and then I read stories while they decorate the cookies.”
Part of the reason the nearby business owners have been so good to Kennedy is because her bookshop is filling a need that the community has, Kennedy told us. “It's just so great,” she says. “I feel really welcomed into the community, and also I feel like they are not only welcoming me as a fellow business owner but as someone who adds value to the community at large.”
Storytime Bookshop is also part of the American Booksellers Association, an organization that helps indie bookstores thrive, and does advocacy work around free speech, opposing book banning, prioritizing local bookstores, and more. In fact, Storytime Bookshop is one of the few applicants that won a James Patterson Holiday Bookstore Bonus this year. For almost a decade, James Patterson has given holiday bonuses to independent bookstores he chooses himself.
“It means a lot to me as a business owner, not only because it's a monetary bonus that will directly help the store, but because recognition on a larger level brings attention to what we can do on a local level,” says Kennedy. “Mr. Patterson deeply understands what it means to bring a new children's bookstore to a rural area and chose us to keep up the good fight.”
Programming
Kennedy uses her wealth of experience to teach kids about literacy in unconventional ways. “Everything I do is playbased and literacy focused,” she says. “They're always learning something, but they never feel like they're learning anything except how to have a lot of fun.”
They have Story Tumble classes for younger kids. Lorelei reads a story and then the kids do yoga poses based on the story. She does Crafternoon Bars on Fridays and Saturdays, where they read a story and then do a guided craft.
Harkening back to the beginning of Kennedy’s journey as a Teaching Artist, she teaches a class on Thursdays called Puppets ‘n’ Plays, in which students ages six through ten create puppets and craft their own stories. The class ends with a performance using all of the characters they have created.
The bookshop has weekly Storytimes, Tuesday through Friday, which are open to everyone. “I have one session that’s thirty minutes for Pre-K kids, and then I have a longer session that’s 50 minutes for kids who are a little older and have a longer attention span,” says Kennedy.
In addition to the Storytimes, Kennedy has her paid classes on Thursdays and Fridays. You can register here: https://www.storytimebookshop.com/classes
Donations
When we asked Kennedy if she carried books for queer kids and people of color, she said, “I don't always have exactly what I want, but I make sure I have books for folks who identify as something other than white and straight.” She also mentioned that she is a Spanish-as-a-second-language speaker, and reads some Spanish books for Storytime. “I'm finding ways to support as many communities as I can in the ways that I can, and carrying books that people identify with are one way that I can do that,” she says.
It is important to Kennedy that they do everything they can to make books accessible to everyone. She plans to start a lending library for people who would like a book but can’t afford it, and she is actively looking for more Spanish-language books for young readers.
Donations of all kinds are welcome. Some of the main things Kennedy is looking for right now are:
- First reader books
- Books in Spanish
- YA books (that aren’t inappropriate)
- Crafting items
- Volunteers!
If you have a donation or just want to check out the bookshop, contact Lorelei: storytimebookshop.com/contact or give them a call: 509-542-7786
Or you can head to Downtown Kennewick and stop in!
