Two Dos Pueblos High School teachers are giving the community a new kind of lesson: how to chase a dream, start a business, and bring people together—all from a trailer full of books.
Samantha Mooneyham and Alison Bogatz are the co-workers turned co-owners of All Booked Up, Santa Barbara’s only mobile bookstore. The pair officially opened their business on May 8, 2025, after months of planning and building.
The bookstore, housed in a converted trailer, specializes in romance and fantasy novels, though the selection is constantly evolving. Mooneyham curates many of the titles, with Bogatz crediting their “awesome selection” to her knowledge and love of books.
“Mrs. Mooneyham is probably the most voracious reader I know,” Bogatz said.“She curates most of our selection and keeps finding new and interesting and great things to read.”
The idea for the bookstore originated when Mooneyham and math teacher Alissa Block, who now helps run the business, would swap TikToks about mobile bookshops.
“We would send reels and Tiktoks to each other about people starting their own bookstores or mobile bookstores … and be like ‘This is so much fun, we should totally do this,’ but neither of us would have gotten it off the ground,” Mooneyham explained. “We usually eat lunch in [my classroom] together. Ms. Bogatz came over [to my class], and we told her one day, and then Ms. Bogatz texted me that night, saying, ‘How hard can it be? Let’s do it.’”
Already being a business owner, Bogatz took charge of the logistics, from IRS paperwork to event scheduling. The trailer itself was renovated by hand, with the two teachers painting, building shelves, and doing physical labor on their own. In doing so, family support was essential.
“Our families, like Mr. Mooneyham and my husband, they were our number one fans,” Bogatz said. “They helped us get everything going and drove to Fillmore to buy the trailer. They watched our kids so we could paint and build bookshelves.”
In the early days, Mooneyham and Bogatz said it took a lot of asking around to secure spots for their pop-ups, and they were grateful for the local businesses that “took a chance on them” and allowed them to collaborate.
“I do think Santa Barbara has been the secret sauce to us being successful. The small town aspect of being here, [has been] that people are happy to help us and have been on our side,” Bogatz said.
“There’s a lot of small businesses here, and they’re all extremely happy to help other small businesses,” Mooneyham added. “I don’t think that would be the case if we were in a big city like LA.”
For Mooneyham and Bogatz, the mobile bookstore is more than just a side business. The two said they see it as a way to foster community and promote inclusivity through literature.
“The teacher in me always wants to foster that love of the written word, but I think it always comes back to: we want people to remember that we’re part of the community, that we want a space where people are safe and comfortable,” Bogatz said. “There’s a space for you at the table, there’s a chair for you to pull up, and hopefully we provide that for people — for everyone, our Central Coast, for our community.”
The pair stays busy juggling teaching, parenthood and their small business. They attend weekend pop-ups throughout the county and share updates of their whereabouts and products on social me
dia. In addition to selling books, they are launching a community book club Sept. 10, with monthly meetings scheduled ahead.
Long-term, Mooneyham and Bogatz hope All Booked Up grows into a brick-and-mortar bookstore with a café and play space for children, while still keeping the mobile trailer for pop-up events.
“We want to serve our youngest customers and create a space that fosters a love of literacy and then a place for anyone of any age to come and meet and talk about books and just build a community together,” Bogatz said.
For now, the bookstore on wheels continues to roll through Santa Barbara County and beyond, reminding readers of all ages that stories can travel anywhere.
