Bookstore uplifts both literacy and diversity
A few months after Janelle Smith opened Wishing Tree Books in the South Perry District in November 2019, COVID led her to temporarily close the purple, 100-year-old house she remodeled as a bookstore.
Running a bookstore was her childhood dream, so she wouldn't let COVID stop her from selling books to children and adults.
At first, she was able to run the store temporarily out of her own home, because she had set up a website before COVID, but then she missed doing sales with a personal connection that allows her to match people to books, as she is again able to do.
Now the store is able to allow browsing customers, limiting the number of mask-wearing customers. She also offers porch pickups.
