Paper June children's book and creativity shop will host its grand opening today at 927 N. Kansas Ave. in Topeka, Kan., with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, author event and free art activities throughout the day.
Owned by Angie Grau, Paper June's mission "will be two-fold, with one half being a bookstore and the second half serving as an art studio where classes will be taught. The bookstore will also host birthday parties," the Capital-Journal reported.
Grau said her late mother, for whom the shop is partly named, inspired the reading side while her daughter, Charlotte, spurred the creative side: "My desire for this continued to grow especially when Charlotte started kindergarten in 2017 and I learned she only has art once every two weeks for 30 to 45 minutes. It was really sad because there is so little they can accomplish in that amount of time and so little that she will learn, and it was something that I know she loves and I wanted to nurture that in her and encourage it."
She added: "You can be smart and creative. You can be a good athlete and creative. It's not this mutually exclusive thing where you can only be one or the other." Grau, who selects all of the books that will be sold in the store, said she has learned a lot from her daughter about what kids look for in books.
Grau hopes to help kids build self-esteem through Paper June. "There are a lot of kids who are shy about their talents and things they enjoy because they don't hear other kids talking about it," she said. "It's just not at the forefront of what our society deems to be the most important thing. [I want to be] able to help these kids, encourage them and help them see that art can be a part of who they are."