and new books alongside hundreds of educational toy items. It’s a family-focused, learning-centric store. Gottwals Books has all the popular books that can be found at bigger bookstores and online, all with competitive prices. They also offer teacher and military discounts, buy college textbooks, and have a homeschool room in the Byron store. They run an innovative kids summer reading program, and they are constantly looking for ways to give back to the community. For the 2017-2018 school year, they gave away 6,000 copies of a picture book called First Day Jitters to every first grader in Houston, Peach, and Bibb counties. They did the same for 2018-2019 with the book It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. These giveaways are in addition to a variety of other literacy initiatives they support. Gottwals Books celebrated their 12th anniversary in March 2019. Going forward, Shane said they will continue to look for new franchise locations nationwide but haven’t really made any predictions about what the next 12 years will bring, based on what God has done over these last 12. “We just assumed it would be Abbey’s little bookstore. Our original goal was that she could eventually work five days instead of six each week, and I would keep a day job,” he said. “Our expectations were just blown out of the water. When you pray for specific outcomes, be careful. You might be trying to limit what God can do.” HCL
Hometown Living At Its Best
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