Some kids already love to read. 📚 Others need a fun reason. We built something for both. ✨
Introducing THE CHANGING HANDS READING GUILD, our all-new summer program where reading across genres earns collectible trading cards. 🃏 It’s part challenge, part collection, part motivation to keep the pages turning. 📖
The Guild launches Saturday, April 25 (#IndieBookstoreDay) and runs through August 1.
And it's totally free. 🙌
WHAT IS THE READING GUILD? 🏰
Every book opens a new world. Join the Reading Guild and explore the Six Reading Realms. From enchanted forests and dragon-filled mountains to mysterious cities and distant galaxies, each story unlocks a new realm on the Guild map. Fill your map and arrive at The Hall of Master Readers, where every great reading journey ends—and begins again.
READERS DON'T TRAVEL THE SIX REALMS ALONE 🤝
The Fool is the base, or zero, card issued with the Guild Map. Each additional card represents a Reading Realm, or genre. Kids earn new cards by reading a book within that genre. Collect all six to unlock the final card: The Hall of Master Readers! 🏆
WHY THE FOOL? 🃏
Changing Hands’ mascot since 1974, The Fool represents curiosity, openness, and the courage to begin.
COLLECT UP TO 8 CARDS 🃏✨
0) The Fool
1) Dragon Mountain (Fantasy & Magical Tales)
2) Sleuth City (Mysteries & Puzzles)
3) The Forest of Knowing (Nonfiction)
4) The Real World (Friendship, Family, Coming-of-Age)
5) Space Frontier (Science Fiction)
6) The Night Library (Spooky Tales)
7) The Hall of Master Readers, given after journeying through the Six Realms
THE GUILD MAP 📍
Young readers place each Realm Card in its proper location as it’s earned. Completion fills the entire board. The completed board becomes a trophy, an accomplishment—and lots of fun along the way!
MEET THE ARTIST 🎨
We partnered with local artist Ash Soriano (@ashdoescomics ) to illustrate the program—and we couldn't be happier with the result.
Ash will be at our Tempe store from 10am–3pm on Indie Bookstore Day to meet young readers, doodle, sign autographs, and offer original merch. Come say hello when picking up your free Fool card and Guild Map!
The journey is about to begin ...
TOMORROW IN PHOENIX—Join Jeanna Valenti, principal of LightBox Media and certified mindfulness and mediation instructor, as she celebrates the release of her book THE YOGA OF MARKETING, a much-needed guide to painless, holistic marketing practices that align with who you are.
🗓️ 6:30PM FRIDAY, MAY 15
📍 CHANGING HANDS PHOENIX
🔥 FREE EVENT
🔗 RSVP at the link in the bio.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Valenti gives readers her time-tested formula for success, along with life-transforming principles and practices designed to improve energy, attitude, and effort.
Whether you are a yoga fan or not, Valenti's step-by-step procedures, embedded with the ancient wisdom of the chakras, show you how to approach effective marketing with ease. The Yoga of Marketing bridges consciousness, awareness, and mindfulness with the worlds of marketing and business.
Readers will close the cover with inspiration, a foundational understanding of yoga philosophy and the chakra system, practical marketing best practices, and a sense of peace about the process.
Join New York Times bestselling author Benoit Denizet-Lewis (@benoitdlewis ) to celebrate the release of his latest novel YOU'VE CHANGED—a timely, provocative, and deeply moving exploration of personal transformation in a period of roiling uncertainty. YOU'VE CHANGED investigates how we remake ourselves—and how identity, belief, and belonging shift in a world that won't stop doing the same.
🗓️ 6:30PM THURSDAY, MAY 14
📍 CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
🔥 FREE EVENT
🔗 RSVP at the link in our bio.
ABOUT THE BOOK
We live in an age obsessed with reinvention. On Instagram, in recovery meetings, through name-change petitions, lifestyle pivots, deconversion blogs, and political conversion manifestos, we're surrounded by stories of radical personal change. But what does it really mean to shed an old skin—and why do some transformations inspire us while others raise our hackles?
Longtime New York Times Magazine writer Benoit Denizet-Lewis, known for his deeply reported and psychologically rich journalism, takes us on a freewheeling, wild-hearted journey into the mystery of human transformation. He introduces us to an unforgettable array of people in flux--including psychedelic reality benders, sexual and gender transitioners, ideological shapeshifters, seemingly reformed murderers, and an octogenarian grandmother trying to change her temperament ("Better late than never!" she says)—as well as those working to engineer change: psychologists, neuroscientists, name-change specialists, even his own father, a breath and meditation teacher who once wrote a newsletter about "the art and science of transformation." Intertwined with those portraits of change is the author's own reckoning--by turns painful, poignant, and hilarious—with his misfires and epiphanies.
📣 Our May workshops are filling fast! 📣 Don't miss writing workshops, personal map-making, chanting workshops, felt participation badges with the @craftychica , and more!
🔗 Link in bio for details and registration.
✍ PUBLISHING OR SELF-PUBLISHING:
WHICH ONE'S RIGHT FOR ME?
with Robrt Pela
FRI, MAY 15 | 7–8:30 PM
CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
📍🗺️ PERSONAL MAP-MAKING
with Jen Urso
THURS, MAY 21 | 6–8 PM
CHANGING HANDS PHOENIX
✍ HOW TO BUILD A WRITING PRACTICE
with Robrt Pela
SAT, MAY 23 | 5:30-7 PM
CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
🗣 CHANTING WORKSHOP
Tapping into the Power and Expression of our True Voices
SUN, MAY 24 | 4–5:30 PM
CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
🏅 FELT PARTICIPATION BADGES
with @craftychica
WED, MAY 27 | 6-8 PM
CHANGING HANDS PHOENIX
#changinghands #changinghandsbookstore #changinghandsevents
📚Happy New Release Tuesday, book people! It's giveaway time! Just let us know in the comments which book you'd you'd most like to take home with you. It could be yours, on us. We’ll draw one winner at random on Friday afternoon.
👀 Link in bio to see the books in list form—and to shop indie, of course!
👉🏽 TO ENTER: (1) follow @changinghands , (2) let us know which book you're most interested in, and (3) like the post.
👉🏽 REMINDER: You must be following @changinghands in order to win!
BONUS POINTS if you tag a bookish buddy.
BONUS BONUS POINTS if you share to your stories.
#ChangingHands #ChangingHandsBookstore #BookGiveaway #FreeGiveaway #freebooks #giveaway
🌸 Mother’s Day is almost here! 🌸
From candles to cooking, crafting to gardening; we’ve got the perfect gift for every mother figure in your life. Whether they love to create, unwind, or dig into something new, you’ll find something thoughtful waiting for them here.
Don’t forget, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 10th 💐
Stop by and let us help you find something they’ll truly love.
#MothersDay #GiftIdeas #ShopLocal #ThoughtfulGifts #CelebrateMom
✨ Just in time for Mother’s Day ✨
We’re so excited to introduce a beautiful new soap line from Pacha Soap Co. 💛
These handcrafted, natural soaps are more than just a treat for the senses, they’re part of something bigger. Pacha is on a mission to redefine what it means to be an ethical business, creating products that support well-being and empower communities around the world through sustainable, long-term solutions.
Thoughtful, luxurious, and meaningful, these soaps make the perfect gift for the moms (and mother figures) who deserve a little extra care. Stop by and find a scent she’ll love.
#MothersDay #ShopIndie #EthicalGifts #PachaSoap #GiftIdeas #SelfCare
Join acclaimed author Joanna Ruth Meyer (@gamwyn ) to celebrate the release of WHEN THE LIGHT RETURNS, the sequel to WHILE THE DARK REMAINS where a deposed king and the powerful captive of a corrupt queen join forces in a sweeping fantasy of romance, magic, and redemption. In conversation with local author, Karen Chow (@kchowrites ).
🗓️ 7PM TUESDAY, MAY 12
📍 CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
🔥 FREE EVENT
🔗RSVP at the link in our bio.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The long winter dark has been banished for good, and the mountain palace of the late king should be a sanctuary for Ballast Vallin, who has just assumed the throne. Instead, it's a torment. Held to account for the sins of his father, Ballast must relinquish his crown and all claim to Daeros, the kingdom for which he risked so much. Worse, Brynja--his father's former captive, the woman he loves--is the one who forces his hand.
Disgraced, Brynja is sent to Iljaria, a kingdom imbued with ancient magic. There she finds herself at the mercy of Queen Valrún, and is forced to aid in the queen's quest to claim all the magic long thought irrevocably bound to the gods.
But then a shocking revelation about Ballast's past brings him to Iljaria--and to Brynja. Together, amid secrets, magic, and betrayal, they must challenge the power-hungry queen to a battle that could ruin the world or remake it. For Brynja and Ballast, their most invaluable weapon is hope.
Books, bath bombs, and a good brew. 📖💖🛁 We have everything you need to build the perfect Mother's Day gift! Stop by to shop our curated collection of great reads, natural soaps, bath bombs, and tea infusers. ✨
#MothersDay #ShopLocal #ChangingHands #BookishGifts
From the bassist of the Grammy-nominated band the @theavettbrothers , Bob Crawford (@bobcrawfordbass ) presents, AMERICA'S FOUNDING SON, an accessible and entertaining biography of our nation's greatest public servant and original political maverick John Quincy Adams. In conversation with Chris DeRose.
🗓️ 7PM MONDAY, MAY 11
📍 CHANGING HANDS TEMPE
🎟️ Tickets available at the link in our bio.
ABOUT THE BOOK
During the tumultuous period between the era of the Founding Fathers and the disunion of the Civil War, John Quincy Adams was the man standing in the breach. After an unsuccessful presidential reelection campaign, he was left reckoning with his political legacy. But Adams would be dragged back into the fray in ways he never expected, pitting him against the slavocracy and Southern congressmen and solidifying him as a key ally to the antislavery cause.
America's Founding Son tells the tale of Adams's turbulent government career and his evolving views on slavery. Adams, along with lesser-known abolitionists Benjamin Lundy and Theodore Weld, found himself at the center of the coalition that leveled the first blow against slave power in the United States. The battles they fought would be foundational in the push for emancipation to follow. An entertaining deep dive into an under explored period in American history, America's Founding Son shows how John Quincy Adams and the grassroots activism of the 1830s and '40s shifted American politics forever.
📚 It's a *massive* New Release Tuesday, book people. Time for another giveaway! Let us know in the comments which book you'd you'd most like to take home with you. It could be yours, on us. We’ll draw one winner at random on Friday afternoon.
👀 Link in bio to see the books in list form—and to shop indie, of course!
👉🏽 TO ENTER: (1) follow @changinghands , (2) let us know which book you're most interested in, and (3) like the post.
👉🏽 REMINDER: You must be following @changinghands in order to win!
BONUS POINTS if you tag a bookish buddy.
BONUS BONUS POINTS if you share to your stories.
#ChangingHands #ChangingHandsBookstore #BookGiveaway #FreeGiveaway #freebooks #giveaway
