As most of you probably know, we are the owners of Tall Tales Books in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. Our bookstore specializes in quality books for children and young adults. We opened our store in August 2009 for no other reason than we wanted to do something we loved and get good books into the hands of the children in our community.
Early in our relationship, we began discussing what it was that we wanted to do career-wise. Drew has always wanted to own and run his own business (probably something to do with his inability to take orders from anyone) and both of us have always loved books, particularly children's books. We are the kind of people who keep buying books even though there is a large, teetering tower of them stacked up on our bedside tables. Opening a children's bookstore seemed like a great idea, especially since Victoria didn't really have a specialized children's bookstore anymore.
We kicked around the idea for a while, but we didn't really have the concrete vision of what we wanted to do until inspiration came into our lives in the form of our dear daughter Emma in July 2008. We began reading to her almost right after she was born and never looked back.
Once we started to venture into local bookstores as new parents, we realized that the children's book experience that we were looking for really didn't exist in our community. All the bookshops were cramped or overcrowded (forget taking a stroller into some of them), definitely didn't feel family friendly, and were full of terrible books based mostly on licensed characters. From that point on we knew what our vision was for our bookstore: open-spaced, bright, fun, comfortable for all ages, and most of all a place where the young and old could come and enjoy really good books.
It's tough to operate a small family-run business. It means long hours for little or no pay. So why are we working our tails off and sacrificing so much to make it happen? This is more than just a job for us. Nothing makes us happier than hearing about how much a child loves to read or that the suggestion we made has become the number one request every night before bed. The life-long love of reading is such an important thing and is something that you can't take away from someone. We want to nurture that love of reading and inspire imaginations for years to come.
And above all else, kid's books are fun. How can you argue with that?
Now go share a book with your kids...
For more information about Tall Tales Books and their amazing Hero Society program, visit their website www.talltalesbooks.ca. You can also follow them on Twitter and "like" them on Facebook.
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