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Jawnts: A Big Blue stage for young authors

Sheila Avelin opened Big Blue Marble Bookshop in 2005, on the same block as the then-32-year-old Weavers Way Co-op in the heart of West Mount Airy. The shop was a gamble, with a Borders in neighboring Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy's small-business corridors atrophying.

Maya Anderson.
Maya Anderson.Read more

Sheila Avelin opened Big Blue Marble Bookshop in 2005, on the same block as the then-32-year-old Weavers Way Co-op in the heart of West Mount Airy. The shop was a gamble, with a Borders in neighboring Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy's small-business corridors atrophying.

Today, however, the small bookstore thrives, offering a rigorous schedule of events and appealing to the "shop local" movement in the midst of a revived commercial strip.

"Mount Airy Village has totally come back to life over the last 10 years," says Elliott batTzedek, outreach coordinator at Big Blue Marble. She notes the expansion of Weavers Way, the High Point coffeehouse, a yoga studio, and Nesting House, a shop that seeks to outfit new parents with the accoutrements of infancy.

In the last year, Big Blue Marble has expanded its event offerings as a means to broaden its community footprint. It has held 300 in the last year, almost six a week. By that tally, this week will be a bit slow with only five separate events on four days.

"It's been great for our bottom line and for neighborhood engagement with the store," says batTzedek. "It's one way for indie bookstores to survive, not just a place for people to buy books but for people to connect around books."

The event register includes book clubs and workshops, including one Saturday on self-publishing, but also author events. Just don't expect to see Stephen King speaking in the rowhouse-cum-shop. Customers and speakers mostly hail from the surrounding neighborhoods.

"There are a lot of authors in Mount Airy," batTzedek says. "We are absolutely a neighborhood bookstore. [Avelin often says] we are nine miles from Center City in a residential neighborhood on a one-way street, but she knew when she opened that the neighborhood could sustain a bookstore."

This Sunday at 2 p.m., the store will showcase two young authors. Maya Anderson, 14, will read from Claws, her graphic novel. She's donating proceeds from her book to Philadelphia's public schools. (She lost a beloved art teacher to budget cuts.) Amelia Robin Chaplin-Loebell, 12, will read from her first novel, The Astounding Retrieval of Clementine.

Big Blue Marble is at 551 Carpenter Lane. For more information, visit www.bigbluemarblebooks.com.