Launch Countdown Week
A week from today, my book with love and sugar will be available in a Toronto bookstore jammed with goodies.
Tucked on a Toronto midtown corner where those passing can’t help but gape at the wondrous windows, Mabel’s Fables has survived where others have fallen. Since 1988, this gem has done far more than serve up children’s stories. Dreams are the currency here. When owner Eleanor Lefave invited me to launch my food memoir in her store, I might have fallen over right then. Fortunately for the stacks of gorgeous books around me, I wobbled but stayed afloat—just.
Monday night next week is seven sleeps from having my scrapbook of sweets tucked among other titles on offer for parents who think they’ve come to buy a kid’s book. Ha! Yes, of course, this indie bookshop is the place to source out the very best of children’s books, and staff who understand what a quirky reader your kid is and have just the title(s) for you, you who can’t keep up with said child’s reading habits. There are also adult titles lined in a cozy nook as you climb the stairs to find another floor of wonder. Here is a space I know well. I brought my children here, nieces and nephews too, for the popular reading programmes. None could leave without books in their arms. Leaving at all is difficult. Such is the glory of the story. Here we travel without moving our boots. Here we don our inner child cape. Wearing it proudly is the best trick I know.
When I was a television producer, I often received books from publishers hoping for media attention. Some made it to air. Most were donated. The rest were brought home to fill our crowded apartment, and now, years later, tucked in a second-floor children’s library in our home surrounded by walls filled with my children’s art projects. There, miniature readers come and go, making messy piles and mayhem.
When no one is there, I like to curl up in the pink wing chair and visit the pages myself. Stories for children live in us deeply.
Mabel’s Fables, for this grownup kid, is a kindred spirit sanctuary where imagination sighs with pleasure as it wings about the two-storied space. That my book will be here in this haven of books delights me, as does the very existence of a magical store in a time of angst and ephemera. With love and sugar is a valentine to my children, and a tip of the hat to rituals our family, all families, enjoy. Visiting this gem year-round is one of my rituals connecting me to my days as a pigtailed bookworm, an earnest arts producer, young mother, and proud aunt.
Now I come into the store in a new pose: author.
Join me* Monday November 28th to hear more about my book and browse the shelves of this lovely space. I’m certain you can find something here for everyone on your list, and I promise you a slice of the sweet life if you scoop a copy of mine.
* The store is closed to the public for this event. You must email me to let me know if you intend to come.
annehome1@rogers.com
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