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National Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday, April 25. At the same time The Story Garden, a neighborhood bookstore and gathering space for families and kids, is celebrating its one year anniversary.<\/p>\nNational Independent Bookstore Day is this Saturday, April 25. At the same time The Story Garden, a neighborhood bookstore and gathering space for families and kids, is celebrating its one year anniversary.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for the shop, located at 832 14th Street N. in St. Petersburg, came to owner Megan Kotsko when she was watching the 1998 film You\u2019ve Got Mail. Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) runs The Shop Around the Corner, a book retailer that puts children\u2019s interests, and their innate gravitation towards immersing themselves into the world of story, first.<\/p>\n
Kotsko spent 20 years teaching K-1 youngsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember watching that movie as a teacher, being like, \u2018Wow that looks amazing \u2014 how do you do that?\u2019 Especially the scene where she\u2019s doing her story time; it was so dreamy,\u201d Kotsko explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018How do you get there?\u2019 But that\u2019s where I just stopped. Opening a bookstore had been a dream, but it\u2019s just one of those dreams in passing. I never, never thought I would be sitting here at a one year event.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the seed was planted watching the movie, the catalyst for the dream-turned-reality was the building where the shop is currently located.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all began with this building. My family lives just down the street. We\u2019ve always loved this building. Even though it was falling apart, it was still charming to me. My husband and I were always saying, \u2018What could that be? What could it become?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
One day a \u201cFor Sale\u201d sign popped up in front of the space, and the questions were no longer hypothetical. They purchased the property and began revitalization efforts to turn it into a children\u2019s bookstore. The endeavor built on the strengths of both Kotsko and her husband.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thought of it was daunting, because it was so far from anything I knew business-wise. Sure, I love children\u2019s books. I love reading to children. I\u2019ve always existed in a world with children around and so that part I knew I could do, but the business side has been, honestly, the biggest struggle for me, because it\u2019s so unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Story Garden offers specially-curated books for infants, toddlers, children and teens \u201cto promote children\u2019s love for reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kotsko explains her intentionality behind the books she features at the store: \u201cI try to make sure we represent all children. There are so many new books that have been published that really do represent all children, versus some of the books that I grew up reading. So I think that piece is special. I feel like when kids walk in, they can see themselves in the books. That\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Story Garden holds weekly story times on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:15 a.m., and hosts a plethora of special events, like bilingual reading experiences (co-hosted by Tampa International School) and a recent \u201cshell-ebration\u201d of tortoises, which was accompanied by an educational talk by a beach ranger from Honeymoon Island. The store\u2019s offerings have recently expanded to include baby showers, and birthday parties for little literature lovers.<\/p>\n
Events such as Babies in the Bookstore, a meetup for caretakers and babies under 1 to play and connect, are intended to be spaces for community-building for families.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I\u2019m most proud of is that people come to our store and they want to come back,\u201d Kotsko says. \u201cThe whole reason I started Babies in the Bookstore was, as a brand new mom, I was terrified of going to the hospital and figuring out the stroller and parking in the parking garage and having to walk to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd every time I got to the babies program they were offering, it was amazing, but getting there as a new mom was really hard. So I was just hopeful to have another space in the community maybe a little less intimidating for a new mom or a new dad, whoever it is, to come to.\u201d<\/p>\n