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- [00:00]
LinkedIn Ads Narrator
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- [00:36]
Kate
Well, hello. And I'm gonna say this because it tailors so well into where we're going next. Good Afternoon America. Because we're assuming that you listen maybe in the afternoon. And why am I saying Good afternoon, comma America?
- [00:50]
Charlie Gibson
Dad, I haven't the faintest idea. You. We're following up on a piece on Good Morning America. Is that why you're doing it?
- [01:00]
Diane Steverson
Yes.
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Kate
You got the seg. He's not just a pretty face for you folks at home. Sometimes he gets a segue or two.
- [01:09]
Charlie Gibson
Well, we did a piece on Good Morning America about a book called the Dot, which I had never heard of, and although it was published in 2003 and it has had a life of its own ever since then, which we will explain to you in a moment. But you knew this book, right, Kate?
- [01:27]
Kate
I did. I have young kids, so I'm still reading picture books. And I'm going to be very sad when those days come to an end and my son brings me Red Badge of Courage because at that point it's just a done deal, but I'm still reading picture books. And so I do know the dot. It's famous among kindergarten teachers and pre kindergarten teachers and first grade teachers everywhere because it encourages kids to try things, even if, even if maybe they're not so comfortable trying them.
- [01:55]
Charlie Gibson
So we, in addition to being able to do this podcast, and I hope people listening know this, we get six appearances a year on my old home Good Morning America, and we pick out pieces that basically things that arise from the podcast or, or whatever. We, we, we love it when we go on GMA and get to see our old friends there. Anyway, Amanda McMaster, who was our producer for Good Morning America, said, you should do this piece this month on International Dot Day, which arises from the book the Dot. I said, what is that? Kate said, oh, yeah, what a great idea. I'm speaking for her. And then Amanda said, why don't you do a podcast on the interview that we did for the Good Morning America appearance and get a twofer, do a podcast on the DoT and International DoT Day. So the book the DoT, we will explain in a moment, but. Well, I should get into it. It's a book designed to spark creativity, and it's about a little girl who thinks she can't draw. And her teacher says, yeah, you can. No, I can't. And so the teacher says, just put a dot on this piece of paper. And then what happens, Kate?
- [03:09]
Kate
Well, and then at that point, she says, yeah, I drew a dot. And she almost draws it out of anger because her teacher is forcing her to do something that she's convinced she can't do. And her teacher says, would you sign this for me? And so she knows how to write her name. So she writes her name in the corner, and the next day she comes in, and that picture of a dot is framed over the teacher's desk with her signature. This story reminded me of. My son had a great kindergarten teacher, Ms. Nora. And the rule in Ms. Nora's class, because little kids always say, I can't throw. I can't draw. I can't. I can't tie my shoes. I can't. And Ms. Nora's rule was, you were never allowed to say that. You were only allowed to say it if you added the word yet, I can't yet. Because she didn't like people saying, you can't in your classroom. Kids get very convinced if they don't do something perfectly, that they just can't do it. It's binary. They either can or they can't. And I think what Peter is saying. Reynolds.
- [04:03]
Charlie Gibson
Peter Reynolds and his brother Paul, who are behind this book. I'm sorry, go ahead.
- [04:06]
Kate
I think what they're saying is just, you know, try anything, because you shouldn't stifle the creative expression, anybody's creative expression, by telling them that they are. Are no good. Because all you have to do is start, and you can create just about anything.
- [04:22]
Charlie Gibson
So the little girl who is the heroine, I guess you'd say, of the dot, is named Vashti. And Vashti, eventually, because she had that framed dot behind her teacher's desk, she begins to draw more dots and bigger dots and bigger dots, and then. And then even draws a picture of. Of a surrounding, of a big dot. And it all gets played into a art show. All of her dots become sort of. Well, everybody recognizes that she's done something kind of neat from that little modest beginning. She has begun to become someone who is really creative. And then at the end of the Book. A little boy says to her, I'm so impressed with what you've done. I can't do that. And Vashti hands him a piece of paper and says, draw a line. And he does. And then she says, sign it. It's a lovely, lovely thing anyway. So what has this grown into, Kate?
- [05:13]
Kate
Well, it's grown into a movement. There are teachers across, not just the country, but the world that are encouraging their students to start with a blank page and to just try anything. And so there are kids all over the world that draw dots. And it's not just kids. There have been senior centers, small towns, all different kinds of folks organizing to draw dots to show that they can be creative as well. And really, the message of the book is, make your mark. Don't be afraid to make your mark. The real tragedy would be if you didn't make any mark at all.
- [05:46]
Charlie Gibson
Right? So Peter Reynolds illustrated and drew this book and wrote it, and his brother Paul also has contributed to this movement, which has become International. International dot day is September 15th, which is the birthday of the book Peter and Paul Reynolds. We do. We welcome you to the bookcase because in four years, I believe this is the first time we've had twins as guests. Identical twins at that.
- [06:17]
Kate
And more than 20 years ago, Peter, you created this lovely little book, the Dot, and it's become this huge phenomenon. And International dot day is September 15th, as we mentioned. And we'll get to date day in a moment, but I want to start with Peter. How did this book come about?
- [06:32]
Peter H. Reynolds
I was inspired by a little girl who said that she couldn't draw. I had a workshop. I was getting kids to draw. I said, just draw. Just warm up. Draw anything that you want. A flower, a rocket ship, whatever. It doesn't matter. And so the kids were busy drawing, and I was going around and seeing what they were creating. And this one little girl threw her body on top of her artwork. She would not let me see it. And at first I thought she was joking. And then I realized she was really having a little traumatic moment. And I said, what? You know, what's. What's wrong? And she said. She just kind of looked at me very slowly, and she said, I just can't draw. And that broke my heart. So I thought, I am going to help this little girl. And I imagine that if there was this one girl, there's probably a boy, and maybe thousands and tens of thousands. As it turns out, adults also need to be encouraged to. To make their mark. Well, I knew I had to write a story for her, but I was in bed. I like to read at night, but I also have a blank journal, and I will write anything down that comes to mind. It could be a drawing, could be a poem. This night, I was so tired that I had just the strength to pick up my Sharpie marker and put it down on paper, and I fell asleep.
- [07:51]
Paul Reynolds
And we know what happens when you leave an inch marker.
- [07:53]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah. And fortunately, I did not move. And the. I woke up, and I'm guessing it was about an hour later, based on the amount of ink that had flowed out of the pen. And so I woke up. I was a bit startled. I threw my journal onto the ground. I turned off the light, had a nice sleep. I woke up in the morning, and it was a beautiful blue sky. The sun was shining, coming through the window. I climb out of bed, and there on the floor is my journal. It was opened up to that page, and there was a big dot. And I looked at it, and in the light of day, I thought, that's actually a pretty cool looking dot. And so I picked up the pen and I wrote the dot by Peter H. Reynolds. And that I placed on my mantle, and I said, that is the book.
- [08:39]
Kate
So you said that the sort of magic catchphrase, make youe Mark. What does make youe Mark mean to you, and what do you think it means to your readers?
- [08:47]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah. Well, on one level, making your mark is right. Literally picking up a pen and putting it to paper. And whether it's a dot or a drawing or a. A word or a poem or an idea or a business plan, but you have to start. You have to start somewhere. Make your mark also means to have impact. And we're a little bit biased. We're optimists, and. And we think that the world will get better if we believe that our. That our impact can cause good in the world. So you can start small, right? Dream big, start small, and have a positive impact on the planet.
- [09:25]
Charlie Gibson
And in the book, as we mentioned, the little girl is named Vashti.
- [09:28]
Paul Reynolds
And one of the stars of the book, of course, is Vashti's teacher. And when Vashti is determined she is not going to participate, she is not going to draw, and she has a blank piece of paper in front of her. Her teacher, instead of getting mad at her for not complying with the, you know, the task at hand, she just simply gives her that prompt. Just. Just make a mark and see where it takes you. And that. That is very liberating for Vashti because she's like, well, I can make a dot. I'll show you. And of course, in her anger, she slams her magic marker down on the page again. Instead of getting mad, the teacher looks at it, and she realizes this is actually an opportunity just to keep pushing her a little closer to her own self confidence and just ask her, just please sign it. Which is a little flummoxing for Vashti.
- [10:19]
Peter H. Reynolds
Vashti is surprised. She's like, you know, well, I can't draw, but it can sign my name. So she signs her name. V A S H T I. Vashti storms out of the classroom the next week. When she walks into class, hanging above her teacher's desk is. Is her dot. And it's all framed in swirly gold. And she looks at it and she says, hmm, I could make a better dot than that. And that's kind of the trigger that she needed to say, I can do this. And she opens up her watercolors, and she starts to splash her colors. Little dots and bigger dots and. And there's an art show at the end of the book.
- [10:53]
Paul Reynolds
She comes. She becomes famous for her dots.
- [10:55]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah. Yeah. Then at the end of the book, there's a little boy who's struggling, and he's. He's struggling about his own art. And she very kindly hands him a blank sheet of paper and says, show me. And he draws this squiggly line. He's a bit nervous. And she takes a look at it, hands it back to him, and says, please sign it. And that's the way the book ends. And you see this little boy's expression, and he's like, what? Sign it. Like an artist. Like an artist?
- [11:25]
Paul Reynolds
Yeah, like an artist.
- [11:26]
Peter H. Reynolds
And he signs his name, and the book ends there.
- [11:30]
Charlie Gibson
So, Paul, this grows into a simple little children's book that can be read in a couple of minutes. And this grows into something so much bigger than the book itself. Tell me how this sort of movement grew and what has it become?
- [11:50]
Paul Reynolds
That's a big question, Charlie.
- [11:52]
Peter H. Reynolds
A.
- [11:53]
Paul Reynolds
A good one. And I'm just gonna nuance it a little bit that. Cause you said this children's book. And we. We make pains to say that these really are not children's books. They're picture books for all ages, as we like to say. The older you get, the more you understand what. What the story is about. But this is. There was a teacher in Iowa named Terry Shea who was reading the book with his kids, and they got the book. They got the big idea that this is not just an. This isn't an art book. It's really a competence book. And it's really a call to say, how are we going to use our creativity to make our mark in the world? So they said, what if we celebrated the themes of the book and called it date? And they looked at the book and there's the publishing date. And we know that there was a date that the book comes out and it's called the birthday of the books many times. So this was September 15, 2003. 2003.
- [12:54]
Peter H. Reynolds
Right.
- [12:55]
Paul Reynolds
And that's. And so he celebrated the, the students actually reached out to Peter to say, Peter, is this, is this okay to celebrate?
- [13:04]
Peter H. Reynolds
They actually, they had asked me, they said, it's September 15, the birthday of the book. And I thought, how lovely. I had always thought of it as publication date, but it's, it is indeed the birthday of the book. And so they said, we're going to have a party. It's a birthday. So they, they really had the, it was a dot day birthday party. And they made dots and they made frames and they signed their work and they created a gallery and they had dot food and dot clothing and they posted pictures on, on social media. And Terry, Terry Shea, the teacher, his teacher friends were like, are you going to do this again next year? Because we want in. So the next year a couple of hundred of his teacher friends got involved and the next year was a couple of thousand and then 10, 20, 20.
- [13:49]
Paul Reynolds
Well, actually it was, it was 2010 when I checked and just said, so how did it go this year? So you did 2009, 2010. And he said there were 17,500 participants in five or six states. I'm like, did you say 17,500? And those are teachers who took the time to go to Terry's website and fill in all the information. Like, Terry, something is going on here. So that year we adopted the project and we created a very simple website. Everything is free and much easier way to sign up. And you get a free downloadable posters and guides. That year jumped to 850,000 in 50 countries. And that's when it jumped to International Day. We realized, like, whatever this thing is, is resonating with people all over the globe. And as of this, well, as of today, I think we're over 32, 32.5 million participants in more than 190 countries. So even for us, it was a surprise. You know, we've done lots of really wonderful things in our journey, but this one was definitely the wild card flipped.
- [14:54]
Kate
Well, you said it was international, but I think also too. You went out into orbit, did you not?
- [15:00]
Paul Reynolds
Wow, Kate, Very good.
- [15:02]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yes. The. The DOT went. Went to the International Space Station. I got a call from Commander Chris Hadfield at the bookstore. The telephone rang, and my Cheryl, who worked with us, said, there's an someone on the phone that says he's an astronaut and he wants to talk to you.
- [15:23]
Paul Reynolds
He's from Canada, a Canadian astronaut.
- [15:25]
Peter H. Reynolds
So I. I chat. I chatted with Chris and he. He said, oh, that he had some ideas from Stories and he liked my work and maybe we could collaborate. And I said, that sounds great. We should get together. And he said, well, I'm going to be busy for the next six months. And I said, oh, what are you up to? And he said, well, I am going to be commanding the International Space Station. I'm leaving in a few days. And jokingly, I said, can I come with you? And he said, well, maybe there is a way for you to be with me. And he said, if you can get a copy of the DOT book to my wife, who is in Houston right now helping pack my things, you know, there's a chance. I can't promise, but, you know, if NASA approves, it can be a board. And he kept it a secret, although he did. I did get a call a couple. About a month later, I got a call and I looked at my phone. It said, Houston. I'm like, who do I know in Houston? And for some reason, I thought, is there. There might be a connection? So I. I pick up the phone, and it was Commander Chris Hadfield from the International Space Station. And he was orbiting. He said, it's not going to last too long, the signal, but I just want to say hi. And he still didn't tell me if. If he had brought the book with him. But he. When he finally landed, he came to Boston to Fable Vision Studios, downtown Boston, and he presented me the book. So we have. We have that book with a lovely inscription from him on display in our studios, DOT that with a photograph that.
- [16:58]
Paul Reynolds
He took of it floating in the cupola.
- [17:00]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah.
- [17:00]
Paul Reynolds
Which is pretty cool.
- [17:02]
Peter H. Reynolds
So, yes, the DOT has been. It should be intergalactic.
- [17:06]
Paul Reynolds
Oh, right. Interdict.
- [17:09]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah.
- [17:10]
Charlie Gibson
So, Paul, you gave me the numbers, but I'm not sure. First of all, tell me what those numbers mean. Are those teachers? Are those kids that are involved? What is it? And secondly, the DOT Day movement grew sort of organically. Peter and Paul, you were sort of just. Well, you were along for the ride as this thing developed.
- [17:31]
Paul Reynolds
We even. We have to scratch our heads. How did it spread so Fast. And I think the magic was the creative prompt was so simple. Just make a dot, sign it, and maybe tell us how you're going to make your mark in the world. And that's it. So the entry point is super low. But then we watched people take that little idea and just run with it. And they're now mural dots and photo dots and sculpture dots and AR dots.
- [17:58]
Peter H. Reynolds
And kids gather around fields in schools forming giant dots with like 500 kids with a drone shot. You know a kid, right?
- [18:07]
Kate
Yeah. I was going to ask you. I mean, with millions of participants, you guys must receive a ton of feedback. So I wonder if Paul and Peter, you guys, could give us your favorite feedback from a teacher and your favorite feedback from a student.
- [18:20]
Paul Reynolds
That's an awesome, awesome question. Yeah, I mean, I remember one Sunday, I was making my tea and my phone is dinging, dinging, ding. And it's usually Peter checking in. Being twins, we were like checking in all the time. And then I look at my phone and it's Facebook. And I'm getting this little message. I'm, hello, I'm a teacher from the jungles of Borneo. And I'm thinking, like, maybe this is a scam. But she. She was a teacher in the jungles of Borneo, and she had heard about the DOT and she said she is trying to. Her mission is to find creative ways to educate kids about the environment. And in Indonesia, a lot of the rainforests and jungles are being cut down for farming. And she was trying to get the word out to the Ministry of Education and her students about what she was saying. She said, do you mind if I call it the Green dot? Like, my project would be the green dot project. So we became fast friends, and Nora is a very dear person. I'll send you a little clip of the kids in Borneo who are all wishing us a happy DOT day. I ended up helping get her Fulbright scholarship in the U.S. she's getting her PhD. Part of her graduate studies was actually to do a DOT day project in Africa.
- [19:39]
Peter H. Reynolds
When I heard about the town called Cozad, which is in Nebraska. Nebraska. Lovely state. Cozad, Nebraska. They. The whole town celebrates it. That. That was lovely to hear.
- [19:52]
Paul Reynolds
That's when it jumped the tracks out.
- [19:53]
Peter H. Reynolds
Of just a school thing.
- [19:55]
Paul Reynolds
Suddenly this town totally got it. Like, no, actually, everybody's invited, right?
- [19:59]
Peter H. Reynolds
And so businesses were involved and the town hall and the mayor and they. The library awards someone in their community with a. A copy of the DOT book and the make your mark award. And so they find someone in the community who is have using their talents, time, creativity and creativity to. To make Cozad a more amazing place.
- [20:23]
Charlie Gibson
So, Peter, what. What developed, I guess you could say, if you'll excuse the expression, was a kind of a dot joggernaut.
- [20:30]
Peter H. Reynolds
Yeah, of course. I just, in my mind, I just thought, saw this little dot rolling down the hill. It's like a snowball rolling down and gets bigger and bigger and bigger all by itself. And it just kind of picks up speed. And so, yeah, we're super excited for International Dot day, which we say 15ish, right? September 15thish. Because you could do the day before, the day after, the week after. Some schools are doing it, you know, month long. And then some schools say, do you know what? We love this theme so much. We're just going to. We're going to do it the whole year long, which gives us great joy to think that if we can sprinkle some creativity, some that magic into. Into schools and that every day, not only the kids, but the staff is also being inspired to. To use that. That amazing thing up there is called imagination, which beats AI any day, I'm just gonna say.
- [21:24]
Diane Steverson
Yeah, so it is.
- [21:26]
Paul Reynolds
It's exciting for us, Charlie, the. The international part, you know, for us, we. It's cool that it swept across the United States, but when it jumped the gates internationally, and it usually is, it's from our experience, it's, you know, a couple of teachers, three teachers who band together. There were a group of women in Poland who we only found out about this after we saw. After they reached out to us and they said that they had been celebrating for a number of years. And they sent us a little map. It was 2019, and they sent us a map of all the dots with numbers of students who had, you know, participated east to west, north to south, the entire country of Poland. So they're like those. The women in Poland are our next ambassador recipients. We want to say thank you to all the teachers and all the librarians who actually had to fight a good fight to shelter some time in the great system of education to say creativity matters.
- [22:29]
Kate
Speaking of numbers, Peter, how many dots would you say you've drawn at this point?
- [22:35]
Paul Reynolds
That is an awesome question.
- [22:36]
Peter H. Reynolds
That is a lot. A lot, yes. Many, many, many dots.
- [22:43]
Paul Reynolds
It's thousands, right? Thousands at this point.
- [22:46]
Charlie Gibson
Yeah, Lots of dots. Lots of dots.
- [22:50]
Peter H. Reynolds
That sounds. That might be my next book, Charlie.
- [22:53]
Kate
Well, Peter and Paul Reynolds, may we be the first to wish you a happy international.day 2025. And just to underline how people can get involved Peter and Paul Reynolds do have a website set up for teachers, community organizers, senior center organizers, or listeners just like you who want to try and spark some creativity. It's international.day.org O R G Again, it's international.day.org and if that went by too quickly, we'll make sure to include the website link in our episode description.
- [23:30]
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- [23:41]
Peter H. Reynolds
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- [23:44]
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- [23:46]
Peter H. Reynolds
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- [24:06]
Diane Steverson
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- [24:15]
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- [24:51]
Charlie Gibson
Yeah, I think it's a wonderful idea. And, and as they point out, it's it. It really has all kinds of applications. I mean you just need to get started on something, whether that be a kindergartner, first grader in drawing, or whether it's an architect working on a 60 story building. I mean it's a. You just need to start somewhere and you need something to spark the creativity that, as Peter and Paul point out, is in all of us. Maybe not me.
- [25:18]
Kate
Well, I mean, but that's exactly what they're talking about. I think when you're a kid, blank pages are really exciting, right? You look at a blank page as all sorts of possibilities and as you get older, the blank page gets more and more intimidating. Getting started gets more and more intimidating. I think it's what holds people back from writing. It's what holds People back from drawing. It's what holds people back from lots of things. So. So we encourage you to not to be too intimidated by blank pages. Give it a shot. Just because you can't doesn't mean you can't. It means, as Ms. Nori used to say, maybe you can't yet.
- [25:52]
Charlie Gibson
Well, we do have a bookstore. This week it is Abalapic Books. Say that five times fast. Abalapix Books in Crystal Lake, Illinois. And needless to say, we're going to get into why that's the name of the bookstore. Diane Steberson is the owner of Abalapic Books. And, well, it is an interesting story how they got there. We had a chance to talk to Diane.
- [26:19]
Kate
Diane Steverson. It is a pleasure to have you in the bookcase. Real pleasure. Abalavic's Books in Crystal Lake, Illinois. I gotta ask, even though I know it's on your website, and I got a real kick out of reading the whole letter about it, but I gotta know, where did the name come from?
- [26:33]
Diane Steverson
One of my daughters, when she was in sixth grade, she had a boy in her class who says to the teacher one day, do you want to hear my spy name? And the teacher's like, sure, whatever. And his spy name was Abalabix Chabotnabal. So she came home and told this story. And we just thought it was the funniest thing we'd ever heard. And so it just kind of hung around in our family. And when the girls got a little bit older, they could stay home by themselves when we came home. He's my ex husband now, but my husband and I, we'd come home, knock on the door into the house, and they'd say, password. And the password was Avalabix Chabotnaval. So we had it in our family for a long time. And when I was looking for a name for the bookstore, I couldn't think of anything literary that wasn't already taken. So I read an article that said, name it after something that resonates with you. So Abolabics Svartnobal always resonated with us. So I shortened it, obviously to abolabics. And I thought it would be fun to see little kids try and say abolabics. But it's equally as fun to see adults try and say abilebics.
- [27:35]
Kate
Now, why did you choose Abalabics over Chabot Nabal? Inquiring minds want to know.
- [27:41]
Diane Steverson
I, you know, I did. I didn't do this on purpose, but it turned out to be very accidentally intelligent Abolabics. Puts me at the top of any alphabetical list. Unless you're Aardvark Bookstore. I am pretty much. Or a number, actually, numbered bookstores end up before me on a list, but I'm pretty much at the top.
- [28:04]
Charlie Gibson
Diane, paint me a picture, a word picture of Abba Lovick's books.
- [28:10]
Diane Steverson
Well, this will be easy. On our front door or the window beside our front door, we have a big sign with a picture of George, our bookstore dog. And it says, welcome to the Midwest's most fragrant, most colorful bookstore and the home of George, the original bow tie wearing lap dog. So when people come in, they comment, number one, on how good it smells, number two, how. How brightly colored it is. My bookcases are blue. In the kids section, they're green and the walls are yellow, all, you know, muted colors, not right bright. And then there's George. When you walk in, George is right there. So, yeah, those three things, I think especially the color of the bookstore makes it seem really, really different.
- [29:00]
Kate
Although, that being said, you don't usually have people starting with smell. So I've got to know, why does your bookstore smell so good?
- [29:08]
Diane Steverson
I.
- [29:08]
Kate
It.
- [29:09]
Diane Steverson
It's something that I liked. I like fragrances, But I also took a workshop, a Paz and Associates workshop on how to open up a small independent bookstore. And one of the things, one of the. It was a very minor article, but one of the articles we read was how fragrance is very subtle but very. It creates a mood. And there's like, I can't remember the percentage, but people spend more money when they're in a place that smells really good and it's really comfortable. I was like, okay, then. That's an easy one.
- [29:46]
Charlie Gibson
So how long have you been in business?
- [29:48]
Diane Steverson
Almost four years. It'll be four years in October.
- [29:51]
Charlie Gibson
And what was it? What crazy notion settled into your head that you wanted to open a bookstore?
- [29:58]
Diane Steverson
Well, the Barnes and Noble in our town closed in 2019. They up and left. They were obviously you guys, I'm sure, know, going through an upheaval around the end of the teens. And I just, I was dumbfounded. I was like, we. How do you have a town without a bookstore? We have a used bookstore. We have a great library, but we didn't have a new bookstore. Maybe I'm just, like, wildly optimistic. But I just thought, I just thought I could do it. I just thought, you know, Crystal Lake needed a bookstore. I got all the demographics from, like, the local county about how many people buy books. And I'm like, well, that's a Lot of people. And if I can just have a portion of that, I should be fine. Um, so. And I. And I. I don't know. I mean, I just knew I had a passion for books, so I knew a lot of people out there had a passion for books. So I just kind of got an SBA loan, crossed my fingers and jumped in.
- [31:01]
Charlie Gibson
So what's been the most rewarding part of this, Diane?
- [31:05]
Diane Steverson
Oh, I. The people. I mean, honestly, some of the conversations we have in the bookstore and just talking to people every day about how books affect their lives, you know, a lot of how nonfiction books affect people's lives and give them information that they need for something. I will say the most rewarding thing that I can think of is one day we have a couch in the bookstore, and if you sit on the couch, George will jump up on your lap. So one day this woman came in, and her father had just passed away, and her mother was very, you know, down in the dumps. And the woman met George, and she sat on the couch, George stepped up in her lap, and she says, I need to bring my mom in here. She needs a little joy in her life. And she came in a couple weeks later, brought her mom.
- [31:58]
Peter H. Reynolds
Her.
- [31:58]
Diane Steverson
Her mom sat down, George jumped up in her lap, and her mom smiled. And the woman said that she hasn't smiled in months. And that was. That was huge to just be able to provide that space. There's a new concept now where people are talking about third spaces, and that's. We want to be a third space. We want to be not your home, not your work, but a safe place that you can come, you can relax, you can talk, you know, just a comfortable welcoming and welcoming for everybody. Space.
- [32:30]
Charlie Gibson
Diane Steverson, Abalapic Books in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Thank you for joining us. A wonderful name to a bookstore. You can find it on William street, right? Part of the Brink Street Market Shopping Center. It's right there. And I thank you for being with us.
- [32:46]
Diane Steverson
Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
- [32:49]
Kate
What a great name. What a great name.
- [32:51]
Diane Steverson
Thank you.
- [32:52]
Kate
Although I would have considered Shaboort Nabal. Again, I think your alphabetizing is a good thought, but I also, I really like Chabort Nepal.
- [33:05]
Charlie Gibson
Aboletics Books in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Crystal Lake is just a little bit west, northwest of Chicago, and it's nice. They now have a bookstore. It's high up in the alphabetical list. Abilepics.
- [33:17]
Kate
Let me ask you this, dad. If you could name a bookstore or whatever you wanted to name it, what would you name it.
- [33:23]
Charlie Gibson
Oh, boy. I would want to have a name, something that suggested a warm place. I want a fireplace in my bookstore and I want comfy chairs around it. And I want you to be able to come in and pick up a book. So give me a name that reflects that.
- [33:42]
Kate
The Warm Hearth. Fancy Hearth.
- [33:44]
Charlie Gibson
I'll take it. I'll take it.
- [33:47]
Kate
Oh, yeah, sure. Okay. All right. So the Cozy Hearth books. And if I'm just gonna get to name it after my favorite word, it would be like Flibberty Jibbit books.
- [33:57]
Charlie Gibson
The same way animal Epics came by its name. By next week, I will have a better suggestion for you as to what I would name my bookstore. But for now, I'll take the warm the Cozy Hearth. Let's do the Cozy Heart.
- [34:10]
Kate
Cozy Hearth. The Cozy Heart.
- [34:12]
Charlie Gibson
Anyway, since we talked to Peter and Paul Reynolds, an interview that was adapted for Good Morning America, we don't have a coda from them, but we will again make you familiar with the folks who work on this podcast. And then I will add a little coda.
- [34:28]
Kate
The book Case with Pete and Charlie Gibson is a production of ABC Audio and Good Morning America. It is edited by Tom Butler of TKO Productions. Our executive producer is Simone Swink. We want to make mention of Amanda McMaster, Sabrina Kohlberg, Arielle Chester at Good Morning America and Josh Cohan from ABC Audio. Follow the bookcase wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to listen, rate and review. If you'd like to find any of the books mentioned in this episode, we have them linked in the episode description. This is Kate and Charlie reminding you as you go back to school or get little ones ready to go back to school that we want you to what?
- [35:05]
Charlie Gibson
Make your mark.
- [35:10]
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