Beyond downtown Evanston, residents gather at Booked, a children’s bookstore on Main Street, where they can be found bedazzling a copy of Twilight or discussing their favorite novels with new friends over a potluck of food. The store has been fighting back against a nationwide plateau in bookstore sales by creating a community of readers with its specialized events. 

According to Pew Research Center, print readership has decreased by 8% since 2011 and Publishing Perspectives said book sales have been virtually flat for the first part of 2026 – only being up by 0.9% in the first quarter. 

Consequently, bookstores across the country have had to find creative ways to capture the attention of potential customers. From innovative events catering to specific age groups to stocking only items that connect to a specific topic, each bookstore is finding their own way to stand out. 

Booked offers a perfect example of this growing business model. Abby Dan and Betsy Haberl, the store’s owners, said one of their strategies to attract customers is to stock books they would not find anywhere else. 

“A lot of the things that are like on the best seller list nationally are irrelevant to us because really, a bestseller people are gonna pick up for 40% off in the Target aisle,” said Haberl. 

Instead of stocking only bestselling authors like Kristin Hannah, they opt for books they discover with “a funny story or a great rhyme or beautiful artwork or silly artwork”. Dan said along with this, they look for ones they know their regular customers will love. 

“We get excited when we’re looking at the catalogs, we’ll be like, ‘oh, Sam’s gonna love this,’” said Haberl. 

Beyond knowing their clientele well, they also sell and prominently display work by local Evanston authors like Lucy Knisley, who recently released her first picturebook, Searching for Wocks.

Haberl said an even more important part of drawing people to their bookstore and building community is the events they hold. Each month, the store offers a range of book clubs for various age groups and interests; from their literary book club to their Dumpster Fire Book Club – focused on young adult dystopian tales – to their adult romance novel book club. 

Other events are more exclusive, like their toddler storytime hosted by two fathers that always fills up the store to capacity. Unlike the rest of their events, it is not publicized and Haberl said people are only able to find out about it through word of mouth since there are so many attendees. 

“I don’t want to say it’s hush hush, because obviously we would never turn away a child and their caregiver,” said Haberl. “But it is packed.”

Most recently in July, Booked hosted their annual “Cooked” potluck-style bookclub. The theme was recipes from The Butter Book, a cookbook that looks exactly like a stick of butter. Club members brought treats like biscuits or cookies for the entire group to enjoy. However, attendees are not required to stick to the cookbook, as long as their recipes match the theme. 

Alicia Ross, a bookseller, additionally said “we did a cookbook called Scare-cuterie in the cookbook club, which was all Halloween-themed charcuterie boards,” last fall. 

Booked is also expanding its events to include a tattoo pop-up, featuring children’s book-inspired tattoo art ranging from dragons to dinosaurs to personalized books. 

The bookstore also features many events that include arts and crafts. Ross said they have done many projects in the past, like the “giant papier-mache potato” Ross made based on the Ben Clanton book The Sneakiest In The World. 

“Me and another bookseller, Teresa, got a bunch of chicken wire and brown paper and made a giant potato because the characters in Ben’s books are potatoes,” Ross said. 

She said they were able to use the sculpture at the school events they attend, creating more publicity to the store and enticing kids to read. 

Ross said events, like a bookmark coloring one, pull a mixture of loyal bookclub members, as well as some of the people who were coming to a Booked event for the first time. The store’s owners said they always encourage newcomers to their store. 

“I actually got an email from someone yesterday who just moved here from Brazil who was like ‘Can I come to book club?’” said Dan, “‘Of course, you can come to book club.’”

These events help to build the community that keeps more and more families from Evanston and surrounding areas coming to their store.