Feature Story
Kevin Coolidge Creates a Totally Awesome Adventure Series for Kids by Melissa Fales
Forget foraging through garbage cans for tidbits of food. The raccoons in author Kevin Coolidge’s books have much better things to do with their time. Coolidge has devoted a whole series to the adventures of this trio of masked brothers called The Totally Ninja Raccoons. “They’ve realized that they have the potential to be something special,” says Coolidge. “They’ve chosen to become ninjas. Ninjas for hire.” Coolidge has always been a voracious reader and he amassed a large collection of books over the years. When he and his wife, Kasey, also a bibliophile, first moved in together, their separate collections overwhelmed their apartment. “You can never have too many books, but you can have not enough book shelves,” says Coolidge. 28
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The couple sold some of their books online, but when a choice storefront opened up downtown in their hometown of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania 11 years ago, they decided to use their castoffs to open a used bookstore. “We had 3,000 books for sale to start,” Coolidge says. “At first, a lot of genres were not represented. We didn’t have any romance novels because neither one of us is particularly interested in them, but over time we responded to our customers and began offering what they were looking for.” Coolidge says running From My Shelf Books and Gifts is a dream come true. “Ask any book lover. They’ll know that feeling when you love a book so much you just have to tell someone about it,” says Coolidge. “Well, that’s part of my job. I love to match people up with a book they’ll have a hard time putting down.”