By Hannah Barricks
Photography by Crystal Wise
If you ask Shelley Lowe how she ended up running an independent bookstore in Fort Worth, she’ll say it all started with two nicknames and a whole lot of heart.
Monkey and Dog Books, tucked into a sunny space off the city’s cultural corridor, is Lowe’s dream come to life. To her, it’s a community hub, a childhood memory and the culmination of her lifelong love of literature.
“I thought Fort Worth needed an independent bookstore,” she says. “And I love children, and I love children’s literature. So, I thought I’d try it.”
She started with just a children’s bookstore. That was 12 years ago. Since then, the shop has grown beyond children’s books. About five years in, Lowe’s regular customers began asking for adult titles, so she started stocking them — but not in the store at first. She kept the books in the back of her car and doled them out as she saw people.
“I felt like a traveling salesman,” she laughs.
Since Lowe’s vagabond days, Monkey and Dog Books proudly serves readers of all ages.
A former Latin teacher with a Texas teaching certificate, Lowe taught in Daphne, Alabama, and at Highland Park High School before following her entrepreneurial dream. She always knew she wanted to be either a mother or a librarian — or, if life allowed, both. When the opportunity came to open a shop inside Festivities, a local party store, she jumped.
“I had to be scared for a little while,” she says. “And then I decided, OK, I’m just going to try this. And here I am!”
Entrepreneurship looks good on her, or maybe that’s the effect of her bright, book-filled storefront, which hosts weekly story times, book fairs, author visits, and four active book clubs — three for adults and one for children in grades 3 through 6. Every July, Monkey and Dog Books organizes a citywide “Find Waldo Local” scavenger hunt, partnering with 25 Fort Worth businesses to hide a cardboard Waldo figure in their shops. Children receive bingo-style cards on July 1 and spend the month searching for Waldo at participating locations, collecting stamps along the way. The event ends with a celebratory party on Aug. 1.
For Lowe, it’s about more than books — it’s about connection. “Books have been my friends when I didn’t know anybody,” she says. “They help me meet people and when I’m blue or need a little escape from something. They have meant so much to me all of my life.”
That emotional bond with books shapes everything Lowe does, from curating her shelves to mentoring her staff. She encourages her employees to learn every aspect of the business, and many have stayed with her for years. “They’re part of the family,” she says.
Lowe’s own story is a literary one, named after the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
“My dad read Shelley’s poetry to my mom on the banks of the Brazos River when she was at Baylor,” she says.
The couple decided to name their first child Shelley right then and there, the first spark of many that led to the creation of Monkey and Dog Books.
Inside, every shelf and corner tells a story — not just through the titles they hold, but through the way Lowe uses them to bring people together. She collaborates with nearby businesses, such as Match Point Coffee, and advocates for Fort Worth’s literary identity with big-city publishers.
What keeps her going, even when small business ownership is tough, is the city she loves.
“I love Fort Worth. I don’t know what’s not to love about Fort Worth,” she says. “It’s in my heart with everything I do.”
It’s clear that for Lowe, running Monkey and Dog Books isn’t just a job — it’s a calling. A calling to raise readers, nurture a neighborhood, and remind us all that sometimes, the best stories are the ones we live.