We recently had a free afternoon in Long Beach and while we could have 
gone to the Queen Mary, we chose to poke around some bookstores. One gem we found was Once Upon a Story, a sweet children’s bookstore. Once Upon a Story has a nice selection of books for every age. The front two sections concentrate on picture books while the back third is overflowing with YA books. The store offers lots of reading activities for the kids from three story hours a week, to book groups for a variety of ages, a YA Galley Book Group (what a treat to read the ARCs before all of your friends) and a Mother Daughter Book Group. We would love to have those options close to home!
But best of all, there is a special treat for the adults on Sundays when a massuase works on you for free. The store is located by the Coffee Cup Cafe and benefits from people stopping by after breakfast, the perfect duo!
At the cash register, I found the greatest invention for kids going through a fear phase, Monsters Go Away Spray. It’s a small spray can that easily fits into a child’s hand. Monsters in the closet? Under the bed? In a dark corner? Then spray these organic oils to make them disappear. I wish I had this when I was a child and feared spiders crawling in my bed.
Once Upon a Story sponsors an impressive recycling program. They distribute boxes for cell phone collection, then pick up the boxes, recycle the cell phones and any fees they receive are used to buy children’s and YA books for a local homeless center. What a great way to give back to the community.
I told my daughter that I would buy her the books nominated for the Indie Choice Awards and we started with two, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. She fell in love with both books, but it’s The Hunger Games that is being passed among her friends and they’re all counting down the days until the second book, Catching Fire, comes out September 1st. We also found 3 Willows, the new series by the writer of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants author, Ann Brashares. My daughter left the store carrying two books and reading another, a very happy girl indeed.
Tags: California, California bookstore, childrens, Long Beach, Long Beach bookstore, young adult
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