A new book shop is set to open in Pateley Bridge.
Paper People Books, which will take over the former JOT Gallery site on the High Street, will stock books and literature for different age groups.
Owner Kerry Thorpe, who moved to Pateley Bridge six months ago, said the shop will offer adult fiction, children’s literature, books on the local area and more.
There will also be a large children’s room with games and puzzles to encourage young ones to read and play.
Ms Thorpe told the Stray Ferret:
“Reading should be fun, not a chore and we want people to feel happy and spread a bit of joy when coming into the shop.
“I’m a former art teacher and always loved books and people, using your imagination and being creative. I’m dyslexic myself and wanted to show books are for everyone.
“I work with children who say they can’t do certain things because they find reading, spelling and traditional work difficult.
“If you have an idea and really believe in something you can do it with hard work. This is something I wanted to show my children too.”
Ms Thorpe added the book shop will be a “good addition to the town”. She hopes to run various in-store initiatives to help people in the wider community.
These include a ’till round-up scheme’, whereby people round up their payment and the extra money is donated to local schools to fund new books for children.
Ms Thorpe also said the team are working with Bark and Read, a Kennel-club owned foundation, which invites children to read with their support dogs. She said the charity will hopefully visit the Pateley Bridge shop once a month to run sessions.
She told the Stray Ferret:
“We are super excited to be opening, we hope to bring a bit of fun to reading, inspire others and work with local schools and people to really make this a success.
“We feel everyone needs a book in their lives, we are all so busy and sometimes it’s just great to switch off, read a book and really escape.”
Paper People Books will have two official opening weekends: March 23 and 24, and March 30 and 31.
The shop will then open Tuesday to Friday, as well as weekends during the summer.
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