About Us

Penny and her family moved to Howell in 2005, when she took the Pharmacy Manager position at one of the chains in town.  Life continued as expected for several years.  Penny fell in love with her new town and the surrounding area, she read to her heart's content with convenient local options to keep her habit fed. 

The story of Blue Frog Books begins in 2010, when the sad state of the economy caused many businesses to close their doors.  One such business was Aria Booksellers, the much loved independent bookstore that provided Howell residents with a place to show their love of literature and the community by shopping local for their books.  It was a sad time for book lovers.  But, we carried on.  There was still a bookstore closeby in Brighton!  Alas, a year later the bad news was delivered again.  Borders was going out of business, too.  It was too much!

Penny began planning.  She's a thinker, that one.  Sometimes she thinks and plans and thinks and plans until the idea dissolves and loses potency.  But this idea didn't dissolve... a bookstore is important!  Maybe not to everyone, but to the people who value a place to shop locally, to the people who love books in their physical form the best, to people who crave a place to GO talk about the books and authors they love, to the people who want the experience of book-shopping to involve more than a screen and an algorythm it is very important, indeed.

As time passed and Penny planned, she got very excited about this idea that wasn't dissolving into nothing.  This idea was building, growing and infecting those around her.  Soon, Rob was just as enthusiastic about the prospect as Penny.  So much so, that he added on services to offer to bookstore customers based on his expertise, photography and all things digital.  Book lovers are a creative lot, by nature.  Many of them are amatuer photographers.  Why shouldn't we combine our space for enlightening the mind through the words of others with a space for enlightening the mind through the artwork of others?   

Now, all they needed was a name... Through months of thinking, Penny narrowed the selection of possibilities down to two.  But how to choose?  She did what any self-respecting Auntie would do and left the decision to Rob's then 4 year-old daughter.  Blue Frog Books it is!

The store is family owned and operated by Penny Coleman and her brother-in-law, Rob Vedro.  Penny is in charge of inventory, so if there is something you think we should be stocking, let her know!  Rob is in charge of just about everything else.  He is our resident photo guru (yes, most of the photo displays around the store are HIS work) and is responsible for all the in-house large format printing.