{"id":33542,"date":"2016-10-31T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T17:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=33542"},"modified":"2016-10-30T16:36:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T03:36:57","slug":"haere-ra-christchurch-childrens-bookshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/10\/31\/haere-ra-christchurch-childrens-bookshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Haere Ra, Christchurch Children’s Bookshop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"the-childrens-bookshop\"<\/a>

That old, familiar logo…<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday was New Zealand Bookshop Day. It was also the day the Christchurch Children’s Bookshop closed it’s doors after 37 years — and that fact made me feel pretty durned sad.<\/p>\n

I don’t know the in’s and out’s, but suspect that at least one factor in its demise was the locational change forced by the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes and the fact that large sections of the city are still far from recovered, with people’ travel and basic living patterns (including retail) very much disrupted.<\/p>\n

\"childrens-bookshop_victoria-street\"<\/a>

The “new” Victoria Street premises<\/p><\/div>\n

Be that as it may, I thought I’d like to say a few words about what the Children’s Bookshop has meant to me over many years. I first encountered it in a lovely historic house on Christchurch’s Victoria Street, where books lurked in nooks around every corner. It really was a magical place and I loved to drop in on my lunch break and browse for the next best gift for the young readers in my life.<\/p>\n

That building went long before the earthquakes and the bookshop moved to another premises in Victoria Street — by no means as magical but still very accessible for that lunchtime and weekend browsing.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Children’s Bookshop “getting in behind” with the book table<\/p><\/div>\n

My first novel, Thornspell<\/em>, was published during this time and although the launch was not held in the shop, the shop did support it with a book table, which was very much appreciated.<\/p>\n

After the earthquake the bookshop had to relocate to Blenheim Road in Riccarton, putting it well off my post-earthquake flight path, which meant an end to lunch time and weekend browsing although I did continue to make\u00a0 ‘specific purpose’ visits.<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>

Good times<\/p><\/div>\n

I am very sad indeed that those good old days will now never return, but I will also never forget the magic of the Children’s Bookshop over many years and will always be grateful for their support for Thornspell<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Haere ra, Christchurch Children’s Bookshop — you’re already greatly missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday was New Zealand Bookshop Day. It was also the day the Christchurch Children’s Bookshop closed it’s doors after 37 years — and that fact made me feel pretty durned sad. I don’t know the in’s and out’s, but suspect that at least one factor in its demise was the locational change forced by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33542"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33551,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33542\/revisions\/33551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}