Deep in a Glendale strip center, between a catering joint and a vacuum-repair store, there is a pleasure palace of sorts, and not the kind for which that city is known.
“The Bookies” is a wonderland of children’s books, a place so brimming with titles that, as one regular put it, “it seems to be metastasizing.”
“It’s like books grow in here overnight,” says owner Sue Lubeck, Denver’s Willy Wonka of kids’ literature. “We worry one day we won’t be able to open the front door.”
After sending her youngest to kindergarten in 1977, the mother of three launched the business in her Denver home for teachers and parents to browse, only by appointment. Once her whole home had swelled with floor-to-ceiling titles, she moved to a shop on Sixth Avenue, which she also outgrew.
“The Bookies” has expanded twice in 20 years at its current spot on East Mississippi. When Barnes and Noble opened around the corner, Lubeck sent a cake welcoming her competitor to the neighborhood.
Herself a slow and only occasional reader, she has a talent for helping kids find what they’re looking for.
When Judy Blume was the rage, she stocked up on “Freckle Juice.” When kids whined for “Where’s Waldo,” she carried hundreds. And when “Harry Potter” was in short supply, presto, “The Bookies” had it.
“Whatever looks good, I buy,” she says.
Starting, of course, with the “enduring books” like “Pat the Bunny” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.” And how-to books on topics ranging from potty training to studying for CSAPs. And books on becoming a big brother or sister, understanding the Holocaust or explaining to pals the real deal about your parents’ same-sex marriage.
For kids wishing to read up on Barack Obama, Lubeck has several titles. For those coping with death, there’s a whole section. And for parents desperate for advice, she carries a motherlode.
Lubeck stockpiles tomes on imps and princesses, pirates, knights and their steeds. She sells fairy tales illustrated, fairy tales translated and fairy tale reduxes, including my new favorite, “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs,” as told by “A Wolf,” who ought to know.
She’s even got a paperbook on pink foods, in case you’re interested.
While Lubeck strains to name her favorite title, she’s quick with the one that irks her most — “Walter the Farting Dog,” for which she also sells a flatulent stuffed animal to match.
“I have trouble even saying that word,” the former East High School prom queen, 74, says with a blush. “But I’ve learned there’s a customer for every book.”
So, too, is there a Bookies staffer for every question. Lubeck’s crew of former teachers and librarians of a certain age are quick with tips for customers shopping for out-of- town kiddos they barely know.
Charlotte DeLoy, 64, has spent 22 years of Saturdays and Sundays weaving her web of ideas for gift-givers who can’t tell “Goodnight Moon” from “Good Night, Gorilla.” She and her colleagues joke that someday, they’ll start a nursing home for Bookies.
“You feel like you’re somebody’s best friend there,” says Nancy Peterson, a 30-year regular.
Since publication of the kids’ series “Fancy Nancy,” the Bookies have started referring to Peterson by the same name. They even suggested that she take to wearing a feather boa like the main character.
“It’s pink and fabulous,” says Fancy Nancy Peterson. “And it’s what I wore for my 64th birthday.”
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
