On Thursday morning, Hicklebee’s sent out a distress call to its community. Without serious help, the beloved San Jose bookstore wouldn’t make it through the summer.
And the community said, “Help is on the way,” with nearly 1,000 people donating more than $80,000 in just over 24 hours to the bookstore’s GoFundMe campaign to raise $300,000 and make it to August.
“We’ve gotten so many emails and calls, notes from people arriving at the store asking if there’s anything they can do,” said Valerie Lewis, who owns the store with her sister, Monica Holmes. “This support is an enormous shot in the arm when you’re a small independent business trying to make it work.”
Since it opened on Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen in 1979, Hicklebee’s has earned a reputation as the place to go for children’s books, providing everything from picture books for toddlers to popular fiction aimed at teenagers and young adults, plus a good selection of non-book gifts. (And Hicklebee’s has a better selection of grown-up books than you’d expect).
The store’s author events have introduced Bay Area readers to writers who have gone on to nationwide or global success including Mo Willems, Dav Pilkey and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney. And, famously, Lewis has a reputation for being the first U.S. bookstore owner to tout a not-yet published book about a boy wizard by an unknown author named J.K. Rowling. The “Harry Potter” author’s first appearance at Hicklebee’s in 1998 drew fewer than 20 people; the next year, Rowling’s second visit was held at the Willow Glen High gymnasium and capped at 1,000 attendees.
Hicklebee’s also has held events aimed at older crowds, too, with sold-out audiences attending talks by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, former San Jose Mayor and U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.
But the coronavirus pandemic and Santa Clara County’s shelter-in-place orders created a problem for small businesses like Hicklebee’s that was more terrifying than one of R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” stories. While Hicklebee’s got by as well as it could on phone orders and curbside delivery, two major revenue streams — school book fairs and author appearances at schools where Hicklebee’s sold books — were wiped out when schools closed in mid-March.
Despite the financial turmoil, Hicklebee’s kept doing what it does best — getting books into the hands of kids. The store partnered with the Santa Clara County Office of Education to create the Keep Kids Reading Book Drive, a campaign that as of Wednesday had delivered bags of books to 400 families in need. On May 15, three authors — Kate Messner, Sarah Kuhn and Shannon Doleski — took part in an hour of readings on Zoom in a #WeLoveBookstores benefit for Hicklebee’s.
But Lewis said the past three weeks were painful as the store tried to figure out a survival strategy, and a meeting with its bookkeeper this week laid bare the reality: Without a $300,000 infusion of cash, there was no way for Hicklebee’s to catch up from the losses it incurred this spring.
Donations ranging from $10 to $5,000 started flowing in once the GoFundMe campaign was launched. (Go to wwwgofundme.com and search for “Hicklebee’s” to donate.) And that broad level of support is what encourages Lewis the most about Hicklebee’s future.
“Nobody knows what business is going to look like in a week or a month, but what we do know is that over the years we’ve come up with original ideas that bookstores have used around the country, and we will figure out a way to get books into the hands of children and families that works and is safe,” she said. “We’re not thinking ‘This is the end; we’re doomed.’ We’re thinking we need to catch up so we can move forward.”
Along with their financial contributions, many donors took the opportunity to share what Hicklebee’s means for their families and the community.
“I donated because a Willow Glen without Hicklebee’s would be unthinkable,” said Mimi Braatz, a Willow Glen resident who was one of several people who emailed me Thursday to let me know about the campaign. “I want my grandkids to love it as much as my children did when they were young.”
