Last Friday’s 20th anniversary party for Devaney Doak & Garett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, was “a wonderful celebration of books, community, and friendship,” says Kenny Brechner, who has managed the store and owned it for nearly all of its 20 years. He took it over when he was in graduate school, where he earned a masters in history. DDG has always been a general store, but over the years Brechner developed the children’s area. For him the boundaries between friend and customer have become blurred and the store’s future is about community. “We need those connections,” he says.

The party’s theme was books, and Brechner dressed as one of his favorite characters, Jeeves. “I love Jeeves, and it’s appropriate for me, for a longtime independent bookseller who answers questions all day,” explains Brechner. Other characters who attended include the peddler from Caps for Sale, Fancy Nancy, Tom Sawyer, and Huck Finn. Several local authors also came out to show their support for the store: Cynthia Lord, Bernd Heinrich, Bill Roorbach, and Wesley McNair. The food, too, was book-themed with donuts from Homer Price, tomato sandwiches a la Harriet the Spy, Miss Havisham’s cake, and cucumber sandwiches from The Importance of Being Earnest.

Read on for photos from the event.