Owner of Wishing Tree Books works to bring literature to all communities

When Janelle Smith worked at the Children’s Corner bookstore and Auntie’s Bookstore, she enjoyed finding the right books for customers.

She knew the right book can change someone’s life.

Now that she owns her own store, she has been doing this on a grander scale.

“The dream was the books,” Smith said. “But now we can support people in so many ways.”

Smith opened Wishing Tree Books in the South Perry District in 2019, something she had wanted to do since she was a girl.

She has donated countless books to different organizations around Spokane. Grant Elementary School, Odyssey Youth Movement, Maggie’s Place, Family Promise, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, Franklin Elementary School, The Community School and World Relief Spokane have all received literature from her.

“That’s the exciting part to me: trying to figure out all the ways to be there for people and bring them together,” she said.

Smith believes it is vital to get children interested in reading at a young age. Thus her store needs to offer diverse titles and topics that kids from any background can enjoy.

This is something Melissa Bedford, executive director of the Spark Central station, knows very well. The nonprofit in Kendall Yards offers free access to educational programs, resources and technology to many, but not exclusively, low-income families.

Though it is just blocks from the Spokane Public Library, Bedford said the monthly book donations from Smith help get children reading stories to which they can relate for the first time.

She too struggles to find relatable literature.

At Wishing Tree, Bedford found “Eyes That Kiss in the Corner.” The story follows a young Asian girl who realizes her eyes don’t look like her peers’ which are big and round. Instead, hers look like her mother’s and grandmother’s. Their eyes kiss in the corner.

With the help of her matriarchs, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self-love and empowerment.

Bedford, an Asian American woman with Chinese and Filipino ancestry, was moved by the children’s picture book.

“I cried the first time I read it because I finally saw myself in a book, and I’m an adult woman,” she said. “It shouldn’t take me 30-plus years. That’s why it’s so important for kids and Janelle recognizes that.”

Perhaps it was her stint as a kindergarten teacher or because of her recognition of the rarity of adolescence-centric stores, but Smith long wanted to open a bookstore for children.

“There’s so much in a child’s book that can bring so much to their life and it seems diversity in books is getting so much better so everybody’s able to find themselves,” she said. “Plus, there’s a million studies that show how the potential for success in life among kids who grow up without books is hindered.”

Workers know this at Maddie’s Place in the South Perry District, a nonprofit that works with mothers for their babies experiencing withdrawal due to prenatal substance exposure.

“That’s what we try to teach the parents,” Sarah Thayer, chief administrative officer, said. “Just listening to their voice as they show pictures makes those connections for a love for reading and learning – that’s what starts at all.”

Melanie Kimball, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Informatics, conducts research on adolescent literacy. Repeatedly her studies show children who find reading a pleasure have a much easier time understanding and learning math, geography, history and every other academic subject.

Meanwhile, the American Library Association estimates that there are 27 million functionally illiterate adults in the United States, many of whom are the parents of young children.

“This helps explain why 34% of fourth-graders in this country can’t read a simple, age-appropriate poem,” Kimball said in a release from the University of Buffalo.

Thayer said Smith is making a lasting impact on children through her community involvement.

“If you don’t start somewhere, then children may never love to learn,” she said.

Almost every book at Maddie’s Place was donated by Smith. Not only children’s literature but also material for recovering mothers. For them, she has given self-help and inspirational books that mothers at the nonprofit often utilized, Thayer said.

“I think she’s giving so many kiddos and families an opportunity they would not have otherwise,” she said.

Exposing children to books at a young age is just the first step in getting them to love reading. The work continues into young adolescence when they are burdened to find books that interest them.

Smith is working on this front as well.

This year, workers at Wishing Tree and community members helped all 340 students at Grant Elementary receive an individually wrapped book for Christmas.

Grant Elementary is a Title I school, meaning the federal government recognizes that many of its students come from poverty.

And the books students received were not overstock or old titles that didn’t sell.

Each student wrote down either a book title, or an area of interest on a paper ornament that hung on a Christmas tree at the bookstore.

Customers could then pick an ornament and purchase a book for that child, either at Wishing Tree or elsewhere.

“Janelle is kind of a conduit,” Bedford of Spark said. “She’s not just about books. She’s a connector and builder of communities and does it through books.”

Smith’s work at Grant is one example of her helping children and young adults to find books they connect with, which can be difficult – especially when they are still discovering major aspects of their identity.

This is why Smith makes an effort to offer titles and an environment that is welcoming to all, something Ian Sullivan, executive director for Odyssey Youth Movement knows is impactful.

“Her donations help keep our shelves stocked with LGBTQ+ books, identities, authors, etc.,” Sullivan said. “She’s a big advocate for making sure that we get those stories and that representation in the hands of our young people.”

The South Perry District nonprofit promotes equity for youth in the Inland Northwest. The organization also puts on Pride In Perry, a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community in the South Perry District.

In addition to donating literary examples of all sexualities and genders, Smith also pitches in for the event.

“All the businesses in the area chip in but she goes above and beyond,” he said. “Wishing Tree goes all out to create a space that makes our people really feel seen, heard and appreciated – and that’s just huge.”

Sullivan said Smith is eagerly willing to offer her space for different events like storytelling for children and her workers patiently help kids find books that they will enjoy, he said.

One of these workers is Sharma Shields. The Spokane-based author worked at the bookstore during its first three years of operation and experienced the “incredible leadership” of Smith, she said.

In addition to working in independent bookstores around the state and as a writing education specialist at the Spokane Public Library, Shields has published three works. Her novel, “The Sasquatch Hunters’ Almanac,” won the Washington State Book Award.

She said in addition to Smith’s work collaborating with community organizations, her diverse book selection is impressive and demands a level of intentionality that is uncommon at other stores.

In one instance, she is reminded of a woman who owned a bookstore in Alaska who visited Wishing Tree.

“She mentioned the diversity of titles we had and how she could never do that because of where she was at,” Shields said.

She thought that was a mistaken perspective.

“Diversity is everywhere. It’s all around us. And if you are choosing to ignore it, that’s actually doing a lot of harm rather than uplifting children and their ability to interact with people that are different from them,” she said. “Thankfully, Janelle does share that perspective.”

Shields said a store like Wishing Tree is more important now than ever.

“Across the country, books are being banned that almost exclusively harm writers of color or queer writers,” she said.

Though titles that are subjected to bans from school libraries may in fact include difficult topics, Shields finds them no less important. In fact, some of the books she connected with most as a girl and young woman were difficult to read.

She particularly liked books by Hans Christian Anderson, which were subject to book bans.

“I loved how there were so many of his stories that centered around girl characters that were in very difficult situations and had to be brave and strong to fight their way through them,” she said. “Sometimes they thrived at the end and sometimes, like in the original Little Mermaid, they died.”

Being exposed to these stories helped Shields later in life.

“Books introduce us to new ways of being. They can connect us to one another and to ourselves. And that can literally save people,” she said.

“The work that Janelle is doing, her contribution to the neighborhood and to greater Spokane is boundless.”