J S Peters & Son Ltd. have been involved in library supply and general bookselling since 1935 with the opening of their first shop in Moor Street, Birmingham, by John Sheldon Peters. The company is still owned by the Peters family, being wholly owned by Malcolm Peters and his two sons. Malcolm retired in 2009 and his son Rhydian replaced him as chairman. In January 2011, Ray Dyer was appointed Managing Director of the business. In 1992 a subsidiary, The Kit Shop, was launched to supply furniture to libraries and schools. In 2012 Peters Bookselling Services and The Kit Shop were rebranded as Peters Books & Furniture, with both aspects of the business brought under one roof at 120 Bromsgrove Street, Birmingham.
Services
Peters has an unrivalled showroom of over 30,000 children’s books, including a one-of-a-kind Accelerated Reader showroom containing over 11,000 AR-quizzed books, as well as a furniture showroom. These showrooms are open for visits from schools and libraries. Peters’ team of qualified children’s librarians read and review every book held in stock in the showroom. They also offer a bespoke selections service to help customers select books, as well as a range of book packs covering various topics across the curriculum and to support reading for pleasure for 0-18 year olds. Peters also have a jacketing and labelling service for books for schools and libraries, including everything from plastic jackets to Book Band and Accelerated Reader labels.
Peters Book of the Year
In 2010 Peters launched the Peters Book of the Year award. Nominations are selected by Peters’ own in-house children’s librarians, with the criteria that the book be classed as a children’s book and have been published during the nomination year. Schools and libraries nationwide can get involved in shadowing the awards and the voting is done through several channels – in the showroom, online, and by post. The winner is announced the following year. In 2012 the awards grew to encompass best picture book and best fiction book, and in 2014 the fiction award was further split into junior and teen categories. Originally named to reflect the year in which the books were published, in 2014 the decision was made to name the award after the year in which the winners were announced, hence the 2014 award became the 2015 award.
