Real life: Jenny's travelling bookshop

From the outside, her beloved caravan may look ordinary but the inside offers young minds a fascinating world full of creativity, imagination and exploration.

Jenny travels the country with her hand-chosen selection of illustrated stories and picture books sharing the joy of reading with children and adults of all ages.

“I think if you can encourage children to listen to stories and to choose a book to read from an early age, they will have a love of books and reading for life,” explains the University of Wolverhampton graduate.

Her bespoke caravan bookshop named How Brave Is The Wren was inspired by a desire to change careers following the birth of her two daughters, Mabel in 2010 and Molly in 2013.

She had been co-director of arts and music organisation Capsule and the Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, which she had also co-founded, for 13 years but stepped down in 2012 in order to find a way to spend more time with her young family.

“My background was in the arts and I had trained in photography at the University of Wolverhampton. I also had an interest in illustration and children’s books. My husband Ben is an illustrator. So I was drawn to books with strong illustrations and graphics.

“I knew I didn’t have the overheads to start a shop, and with a young family, I knew trying to push a shop would be hard work. It would also be counter-intuitive given why I was looking for a change of career.

“I knew I would be rubbish at being in the same place at the same time every day so I came up with the idea of having a caravan,” explains Jenny, who lives in Hall Green, Birmingham, with her husband Ben and two daughters.

Jenny purchased a retro-looking Monza caravan, which dates back to the late 1970s, and she and Ben began the daunting task of converting it into her dream bookshop in 2015.

“Friends and family helped out and showed us how to do things because we didn’t really have the knowledge or the tools or a big budget. It was very much a DIY job,” says Jenny.

Her aim was to create an inviting and cosy space for families to browse for books and also where they would be able to spend a little time in comfort deciding on their purchases together.

“The inside of the caravan is really small but opening up the sides makes it look more welcoming for people to come in.

“I wanted there to be space for people that were buying books to sit and have a look at them. I wanted to create an environment where the can flick through and have a read first,” explains the 42-year-old.

But above everything else, the biggest selling point is what can be found upon the many book shelves.

These are home to a wide variety of titles that have caught Jenny’s eye and that she believes will ‘appeal to the young and the young at heart’.

“I’m personally very visually led. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover but I do like really beautiful graphics and illustrations – but the story has to be good as well.

“I like quirky stories. I think there is a tendency to think children just want straight forward stories they can understand but I think it’s good to have something a bit unusual that speaks to their imagination.

“Picture books are very engaging but it’s good to have ones with text as well. The Flying Eye Books are very good. They match really great text with great images.

“It works really well when it’s the same person writing the text and doing the images too. There is also a series called Little People, Big Dreams about women who have done something unusual or significant in history like Marie Curie and Rosa Parks. They have bite-size chapters and really striking illustrations,” says Jenny.

She tells us it’s difficult to pick her favourites but she does have a soft spot for the Moomins. “I just love them. The stories and illustrations are just beautiful,” adds Jenny, who is currently also working with West Bromwich-based arts organisation Multistory.

The book shop owner says she is often asked to make book suggestions for gifts particularly for new parents.

“A lot of people ask me to recommend books for newborn babies. While some people go for books with hardly any words, just pictures, I recommend chapter books.

“I think at that age you are trying to entertain yourself as well as they don’t know what’s going on but they are comforted by the sound of your voice. And if you haven’t read Alice in Wonderland for long time, it’s a great opportunity to do that,” explains Jenny.

Once her shelves are fully stocked, she hits the road taking her travelling shop to markets and festivals around the country such as Just So in Cheshire and Timber in Derbyshire.

How Brave Is the Wren can regularly be found at Stirchley Community Market on the first Tuesday of the month and also the Frome Independent Market on the first Sunday of the month.

As well as running an online shop, she also offers a school reading service. The caravan will be parked at a primary school and there is room for around 15 children at a time to come inside and listen to a story.

Jenny says events like World Book Day are good for helping to instil a love of reading in children.

“Reading is very important. There is the practical side of learning to read but picture books also give children the opportunity to interpret the stories in different ways. When they are young they may not be able to read the words so they might tell their own version of the story using the pictures. This can give them a love of books before they can even read properly and it’s a good life skill to have,” says Jenny.

Last year sales of children’s titles rose by 16 per cent to total £365 million. It’s a growing market that seems unaffected by technology. For many families sitting down to read a bedtime story with an e-reader just isn’t the same as doing so with a book.

“For a lot of people e-readers are useful and have a place. But kids will always need books in the physical form, I don’t think that will ever go away,” says Jenny.

One of the best parts of her days out with the caravan is meeting the browsers and customers. “I like talking to people about the books. People are always amazed by the selection of books. They are widely available but I suppose there’s something special about having a curated selection of books. There are so many lovely books out there.”

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