Grant funded by author James Patterson will help local bookseller give his family a ‘good Christmas season’

This holiday season local playwright and bookseller Rob Gibbs will be able to give his two young daughters the Disney princess Christmas they’ve always dreamed about, thanks to a little help from best-selling author James Patterson.

Gibbs, a La Crescenta resident who’s worked at Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse since it opened in 2007, recently learned he was one of 149 independent bookstore employees across the nation chosen to receive a “holiday bonus” from the internationally acclaimed novelist.

“I was very happily surprised,” the floor manager said of the $1,000 gift. “It will facilitate a good Christmas season for my family and probably help with some bills — it will be very helpful.”

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Patterson put up $250,000 of his own money this year for the express purpose of recognizing the hard work of independent booksellers, many of whom continue steadfastly in a profession that’s often overshadowed by digital monoliths such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and hundreds of retailers offering books at a bargain.

The author’s effort is part of an ongoing personal mission he’s established in recent years, with the help of the New York-based American Booksellers Assn., to pledge his support for independent bookstores and their employees.

“These grants and bonuses are my humble acknowledgment of some of the terrific work taking place in libraries and bookstores,” Patterson said in a statement last year on the program. “Here’s to communities supporting their bookstores and libraries. Here’s to a country that makes reading a priority. Here’s to flourishing libraries and booksellers, and to a joyful holiday season.”

Flintridge Bookstore was awarded a grant from Patterson’s purse in 2014 to help out with special events. So when owner Peter Wannier learned this year’s prizes would be awarded to individual employees, he immediately nominated Gibbs.

“If people are looking for qualities in a bookseller, he has them,” Wannier said. “For one thing, you have to be unflappable, that’s probably No. 1, and have a good interaction with customers. You have to know the literature, and Rob’s a reader, always was.”

Gibbs — a former graduate student who specialized in Shakespeare and Renaissance drama at Mary Baldwin College and who’s written for TV and the theater — professes a broad taste in literature that runs from nonfiction to science fiction.

It’s exactly the kind of palate booksellers must cultivate if they are to be able to recommend books to customers who come in shopping for themselves or others, he figures.

“We offer a service to people that you can’t get online, as good as the software and programs may be,” he said, explaining computer algorithms can make A-to-B recommendations but often fail to tease out what it is readers like about a particular book or author. “It sort of takes a person to make those leaps.”

Gail Mishkin, who handles marketing and events for the store, said she was pleased to learn of Patterson’s plans to honor bookstore employees individually.

“They’re not in it for the money, they’re just doing it for the literature,” she said. “I think it’s great.”

And while much of Gibbs’ bonus will go toward colorful Disney-themed gifts for his daughters, the real gift is just being recognized by his employers, and a literary giant like Patterson, for a job well done.

“I appreciate the recognition of the value of what we do here,” he said. “It’s incredibly generous.”

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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine