Introducing ABC Children’s Group Manager Shannon O’Connor

This week, Shannon O’Connor joined the ABA staff in the newly created position of ABC Children’s Group Manager. As such, she will be the association’s point person for children’s booksellers and, working closely with other ABA staff members, will oversee the management of the ABC Group’s programs, including children’s bookseller educational offerings at both the Winter Institute and BookExpo America, the ABC Silent Auction, the Author Tea and Speed Dating events at BEA in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council, the annual ABC Best Books for Children Catalog, and other projects.

O’Connor comes to the association with a thorough knowledge of and passion for children’s bookselling. She has had a love for bookstores and reading for as long as she can remember. When she was in fifth grade, she moved to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, from Quebec, Canada, and the local bookstores —Booktenders’ Secret Garden Children’s Bookstore and Gallery and The Doylestown Bookshop (formerly The Village Green) — quickly became two of her favorite places in the world.

Shortly after graduating from Penn State Schreyer Honors College with a degree in Secondary English Education, O’Connor began working at Doylestown Bookshop. “As soon as the choice was mine to make, I decided to spend all of my time in a bookshop,” she said.

After a year of frontline bookselling, O’Connor took an editing job, but she missed the bookselling world. Within a year, she was back at Doylestown Bookshop as the children’s buyer. “I spent three fantastic years buying and bookselling with some of the best people I know,” she said.

Last year, O’Connor began working in a local school, where she provided support for autistic students and taught seventh-grade English. After a year, however, she wanted to be back in bookselling.

“Are you starting to see a trend?” she said. “Despite the most amusing antics of my students, I missed the book world. As I led a class through the indie-sponsored book fair at my school, there was a moment — as I lovingly straightened piles of paperbacks and played matchmaker between books and students — when I knew I had to make a change. I am so glad to be back amongst the pages, illustrations, and the ISBNs, even if I’m approaching them from a slightly different direction.”

O’Connor is thrilled to be with members of the ABA staff, working on the behalf of independent booksellers.

“The passion of the people that work at ABA stands out to me,” she said. “Everyone is very dedicated, and it’s clear that each member of this organization understands what is important to indie booksellers. Perhaps that is because so many of us have stood in those shoes at one time or another.”

O’Connor is especially excited to devote herself to indie children’s booksellers, who, she is certain, have “one of the most challenging — and most rewarding — jobs in the world.”

Although she won’t be inside a bookstore all day, supporting those who are is the next best thing, O’Connor said. “Working for ABA is more than a job for me — I am supporting a cause that is so very close to my heart.”

Shannon O’Connor can be reached at (800) 637-0037, ext. 6651, or via e-mail.