While the ending was a smidgen pushy in Dear Bookstore, the overall feeling is well done. The illustrations by Geneviève Godbout set the tone that Emily Arrow has presented, well and are a great push for getting readers into brick and motor independent stores. Due mid March 2025, I read Arrow’s book via an online reader copy.
The poetic nature of things starts off like any other book you have read about a bookstore. And if you are not paying attention, you will miss the transformation of when it starts to be a new story. It still sings the praises of books, bookstores and the people (and dogs) there, but we are now moving forward in time. This is where it starts to get a bit heavy. Not heavy in the subject but heavy in the feeling of the text. Still, it is a lovely book and a fun one to tell you how you can get some wonderfully delightful books into your life and your child’s life. 
The illustrations are soft, clever, not overly busy but not lacking in details either. There is a dreamy quality to them as well. Colors are pastel and light, but have a lightness (a “literally” in the way light hits colors to pop and the “figuratively” as they seem physically light and could float). 
However, there is a code at the end that you can scan to give you the words and music of the song that inspired the book. I know that there are still some people who they are not for, such as some people who don’t like to use them, and there are still a few of us who don’t know how! Therefore the words and music should have been included in the book itself. But besides that, it is a good book for most ages to be read too or the slight older reader to do solo.
