Flying Pig to Close on Saturday and Fly the Coop
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on August 31, 2006 Sign up now!
by Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 8/31/2006
Not only can pigs fly, but when 10-year-old children’s bookstore The Flying Pig in Charlotte, Vt., takes wing next week and reopens in nearby Shelburne on September 8, it will do so as a general interest bookstore.
Co-owners Elizabeth Bluemle and Josie Leavitt may be looking forward to the new location in the 200-year-old renovated Shelburne Inn, because of its proximity to popular tourist spots like the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, the Shelburne Museum and Shelburne Farms, but another draw is space. With 1460 sq. ft., the new store will be nearly double the current one.
 Flying Pig's new space before renovation.  >The store during renovation. |
Although the pair hired a moving company and will use library transporters to keep their inventory of 38,000 books in shelf order, there has been no shortage of volunteers, including several teenage boys who offered their services without any parental prodding. Leavitt and Bluemle are bringing part of their old store with them in other ways. At a good-bye party held earlier this month, customers painted tiles that will be displayed in the new space later this fall. The Shelburne Art Center is offering four additional sessions in October to paint decorative tiles for the store.
Still, for The Flying Pig to leave is a big, big change for the town, Bluemle says. However, she and Leavitt, who own the building in Charlotte, are working to honor requests to have a café occupy their former space. And even though they’re leaving, all their friends and neighbors are already accustomed to going down the road to Shelburne to do their grocery shopping and banking. Now they can do their book buying, too.
