Great Libraries & Bookshops - Advent Calendar Card

Great Libraries & Bookshops – 24-Door Calendar for Book Lovers

A hand-illustrated 24-door calendar of 24 famous libraries and bookshops: find the hidden doors and guess the great reading room behind each one.

Step into the greatest library you can imagine. A ladder rolls past soaring shelves, green lamps glow over the reading tables, two stone lions guard the steps and a librarian stamps books at the desk.

Hidden around the scene are 24 little doors: a tiny door is hidden on a book cart, a globe, a clock, a balcony or a lamp. Behind each one is a famous library or bookshop, from the Bodleian and the Long Room to Shakespeare and Company. Every day for 24 days, find the door, open it and guess.

How it works

1. Find the door. Search the picture for today’s number.
2. Open it. A hand-drawn picture is waiting inside.
3. Guess. Guess the library or bookshop and where it is.
4. Check the answers on day 24. All 24 places, with the city and country, listed on an illustrated answer sheet in its own envelope.

Why readers adore it

• A dream trip for book lovers: Oxford, Dublin, New York, Prague, Porto, Buenos Aires and more.
• Real buildings you can visit: a bookish bucket list.
• Hand-illustrated artwork: a magnificent atrium with a hidden door on every ladder and lamp.
• A gift for librarians and booksellers: a love letter to their world.
• Screen-free and sugar-free: a daily peek at the world’s best shelves.

Perfect for: Librarians, booksellers, book collectors, travellers, teachers and every reader who has ever been moved by a reading room.

What’s included

• 1 illustrated 24-door calendar, A4 landscape (21 × 29.7 cm / 8.3 × 11.7 in), with 24 perforated doors
• 1 illustrated answer sheet
• 1 illustrated “The Answers” envelope to keep the solutions secret until door 24

Good to know

• Buildings are illustrated without signs or logos. The calendar contains no food or treats.
• The text is in English. Younger children may need a grown-up to help open the small paper doors.