Welcome to the Red Hen Bookshop’s website! I am the owner and chief multiple hat wearer (not like Bartholomew Cubbins’ hats though) of the Red Hen Bookshop, Laura Gibbons. I live and work in the Hannibal/New London, MO area, and was raised by avid readers; as a result I have been one myself for as long as I can remember (somewhere around second grade…). I live with a small zoo, populated by cats, dogs, lizard, guinea pigs, and maybe an owl and some moles and rabbits, as well as my two “little chicks” and my husband.
I was inspired to start the Red Hen in 2016 once it became clear that keeping the chicks in books was going to be a monumental challenge, as the area lacked a good resource for diverse children’s books. Thus the Red Hen was born from a need seen, and a seed planted waaaay back in second grade, with my first encounter with the folk tale The Little Red Hen (my favorite telling is found at The Gutenberg Project) and her determination to do what she thought ought to be done. The business has and will continue to shift as needed- for now we are solely online, with occasional appearances at vendor fairs in the area. The current future outlook includes a bookmobile to reach some more rural areas in this corner of the state, so stay tuned!
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to talk books, I can be reached through the Contact page- I do have a lot of plates in the air, so I may not reply until Saturday or Sunday. I appreciate your visit and your patience as we re-work this whole crazy thing!