Every month, our series Shelf Life will profile a business in Greater Boston that’s part of the region's thriving independent bookstore community. This month we are featuring Hummingbird Books in Chestnut Hill.
Just over a year after opening its doors, Hummingbird Books is humming along as a cheery space for book lovers in the Chestnut Hill community.
The independent store was founded by Boston area native Wendy Dodson, along with local partners Andrea Chiang and Rachel Walerius. The female-owned shop is also operated by a staff made up entirely of women and nonbinary people. Dodson aimed to make the space a welcoming community destination and a place to find the latest bestsellers.
Already the owner of the Valley Bookstore in Jackson, Wyoming, Dodson wanted to bring her love of books to the place where her family is from. Hummingbird opened last spring in The Street Chestnut Hill shopping center.
“This area, in particular, sorely needed a bookstore, so I was thrilled that I could bring that expertise and experience here to an area that I really care about,” Dodson said.
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To do that, Dodson has curated all of the 15,000 titles in the store. There’s a wide array of fiction, nonfiction books, and a sizable collection of kids books, including the most popular selection: middle grade books.
“I just wanted a bookstore that would be some place magical for kids to inspire a love and appreciation for reading, so that’s what I’ve tried to create,” she said.
Dodson had a vision for the store to be a space where children could be comfortable and foster a love for reading. Inspired by having her birthday parties as a kid at a McDonald's giant tree in its play area, she installed “The Great Oak,” in the back of her store. It’s a giant tree with a reading nook inside.
“Every single time I see a kid curled up in the tree reading a book, it really warms my heart,” Dodson said.
Hummingbird Books also nurtures young bookworms with storytimes every Sunday at 11 a.m. and by collaborating with schools in the area for book fairs and other events.
“I really wanted to build and have a community convening space,” Dodson said. “That was my vision and my hope and my dream. And that's what we're doing.”
Another thing Dodson is passionate about? Getting books into the hands of everyone who wants them. The store takes aim at book bans that are happening across the country by featuring a “Banned Books” section right by the cash register.
“I really feel like books unite us, and you learn across cultures when you read. You learn things that you don't get from school, such as empathy,” she said. “I felt like having a banned book section was really important to bring attention to the issue of censorship.”
The store is partnering with two organizations in Beaufort County, South Carolina, where nearly 100 books were pulled from school library shelves. The Beaufort County Board of Education adopted a piecemeal review process for those titles, and has so far decided to ban a handful of them.
Hummingbird Books will be donating books to Lowcountry Pride, a LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, and to Families Against Book Bans, a grassroots organization in Beaufort that is helping to fight the book bans and increase access to books and school supplies to students in the area, of whom 60% live below the poverty line.
“We really want to link our community here in Chestnut Hill with their community and say 'We stand with you,'” Dodson said. “There are so many things going on in the world. But if you can shrink the problem, you can really make an impact.”
Angela Wright, co-chair for Lowcountry Pride, said the community is excited for the donations. She noted that about a third of the books that were pulled off school shelves have LGBTQ+ themes or are by LGBTQ+ authors.
“In our community, I think there's a sense of concern that there's this censorship occurring,” Wright said. “Having access to things like that for LGBTQ youth is super important. Being able to see yourself in a book can be life changing. I feel like when we attack these things, we're taking away opportunities for kids to see themselves in books, to feel more comfortable with who they are.”
Back in Chestnut Hill, Dodson hopes the store can continue to be a place to inspire readers, whether in Beaufort County or at home in Massachusetts. The space will continue to host events for children, author events and more.
“Right now, we are so bombarded on our cellphones and attached to our laptops and it is something I do worry about for our children,” she said. “I feel we as a society need to be putting away our phones and laptops and picking up books and really flexing our muscles to really be able to concentrate for more than a 30-second tweet on twitter. I hope I’m providing access for people to get back into that habit and pick up a book.”
