Month: March 2022

Former librarian Flannery Buchanan had always dreamed of opening
her own bookstore, but financial limitations forced her to get inventive: She bought a 1966 Banner camper and turned it into Bluebird Bookstop, a bookstore on wheels. The curated collection includes a little something for everyone—by design.

“Right now times are hard and stressful and I’ve found that people just want human connection,” Buchanan says. “Books are the perfect way to connect with other humans.”

434: Tell me a little about your background and how it led you to the Bluebird Bookstop. 

Flannery Buchanan: I trained as a librarian and worked briefly before staying home to raise my four children. My oldest is now 16 and all four are avid readers and bookstore fans. Whenever we travel, we love to find the local bookstores and discuss what we like, what their collection was like. It’s always been a dream for a family bookstore but the financials of owning a bookstore can be tough especially in a high cost-of-living area like Charlottesville/Crozet. So in response, I figured out an asset-light model: no rent, low overhead, take the books to the people! We live in such a beautiful place with so many outdoor meeting places, that it was easy to dream about parking the trailer at vineyards, breweries, markets, anywhere that people are already gathering. 

Did you renovate the camper yourself? How long did it take and what was the process like?

Ha! I’m not very handy, but I’ve certainly learned a lot! I bought the camper gutted, however, I tore out the flooring and stripped the roof of old sealant. After that, I turned it over to my contractor John Garland and his team. 

What genres of books do you stock in the camper? 

I like to think I have a little bit of everything, something for everyone. I carry mostly new and notable because of the space constraints and so that whenever you walk in, there’s something fresh and new that maybe you haven’t seen before. We have a very healthy and diverse Young Adult and middle grade section. It is a family business, and my children love to help me curate those sections. They have great taste and they’re great salespeople. 

Where can we find you?

I am usually parked every weekend at vineyards, breweries, coffee shops, markets. I keep a calendar on my website and I post every week on Instagram where I will be. I also love to do special events like author events, Bookish meetups, and book clubs. 

Back in the spring of 2020, while a student at UVA, Alec Brewer noticed something outside of his apartment complex that didn’t sit quite right: mattresses stacked 20-high, ready to be sent to the landfill. Around the same time, he was learning about the concept of customer discovery in one of his classes. He put two and two together and, with four co-founders, came up with Refurnished.

The nonprofit matches those in need with donated items—sofas, dressers, rugs, and, of course, mattresses.

“We’re the only nonprofit in the area that will accept mattresses under 10 years old with tags,” says Morgan Chung, the organization’s head outreach specialist. 

Here’s how it works: After asking for furniture requests, Refurnished matches a donation with a recipient. From there, volunteers take care of the handoff. 

“We realized that many people do not have a vehicle large enough to transport furniture or can’t afford a U-Haul, so we do everything from pickup to drop off,” Chung says. The nonprofit even cleans each donated piece before it gets matched with a recipient, who is often found through Refurnished’s partners, Habitat for Humanity and Come As You Are Cville.

Chung says inventory is at its most plentiful toward the end of the school year when students are moving out of their apartments, but the nonprofit has a catalog of currently available items on its website, refurnishedcville.org.

Jacquelyn Lazo thinks a lot about communications. So, as the Charlottesville resident spoke to a friend whose child was having trouble with the COVID-19 pandemic, she was really listening.

A former Darden Report managing editor and current poetry magazine proofreader, nonprofit communications consultant, and engagement specialist for Save the Children U.S., Lazo sprung to action. She started talking to kids. What were they feeling as the pandemic evolved? 

Lazo’s initial discussions within her circle led to wider conversation and eventually to a new book, Comeback Kids: A Pocket Guide to Post-Pandemic Parenting, written with family friend and University of Pittsburgh Professor of Psychiatry Frank DePietro.

Lazo, who will host three fireside chats about Comeback Kids at Jefferson-Madison Regional Library on March 24, April 21, and May 19, recently spoke with 434 about the book and beyond.

434: How did you come to the idea for the book?

Jacquelyn Lazo: I was talking to a former colleague around the time the pandemic started. It was her daughter’s birthday, and the party had to be canceled. Then her daughter started to show some signs that were a little concerning—just asking a lot of questions her mom didn’t have answers for. She didn’t even know where to start, who to talk to. I have always been interested in mental health issues and working with children, and it got me thinking. I wanted to see if I could find a way to help other families.

So the process started well before you decided to write a book?

In April 2020, I made a short questionnaire to get some feedback, to start the dialogue with kids. It was five questions trying to get everyone to start talking about this. How do you start to talk to your kids about something you don’t know anything about? What we found from those who responded was that it did allow them to open up the conversation. And, it was not necessarily this big scary thing.

What was the next step?

I thought it was going to turn into a children’s book. But as we got responses from people all over the United States and even internationally, it became a whole journey. My background is in writing and communications; I am not an expert on mental health. Frank is a family friend who has watched all of my husband’s family grow up. After looking at the kids’ quotes, he said, “What kids need to hear is that their parents are okay.”

So how should people read Comeback Kids?

It really is meant to be a pocket guide. Dr. DePietro and I are both parents. He is a father of four. I have a little girl at home. We were coming at it as parents. Parents know their kids best, and this book is to be used at their discretion when it’s helpful.

Is there a specific type of parent or family that would benefit most from the book?

I would say it’s even for the broader audience of caregivers—the people that care and are paying attention. There is so much data pointing to the fact that having a good, loving relationship with adults is instrumental for kids. And while the book is specifically around the pandemic, it is really about helping communicate during times of stress and change. We put it at a relatively low price point because we want it to be accessible. We’re doing a lot locally with the library. The goal is to begin to create a community of caregivers.

What about the caregivers who are feeling pandemic fatigue?

That is huge. We all feel that. Some days you won’t want to pick up this book, some days you will. And as much as we don’t want to hear about the pandemic more, the nice thing about the book is that it is forward thinking and hopeful. The book is really focused on tapping into humanity. Your kids are little humans, and raising them is a hard job anytime. Now, we are faced with doing it in a time of greater stress. This next generation has been forced to grow up a little faster, and in a way, that is going to serve them well.