Thrive
St. Pete children’s bookstore celebrates its first birthday
The Story Garden sells specially-curated books for infants, toddlers, children and teens.
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.
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’ve Got Mail. Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) runs The Shop Around the Corner, a book retailer that puts children’s interests, and their innate gravitation towards immersing themselves into the world of story, first.
Kotsko spent 20 years teaching K-1 youngsters.
“I remember watching that movie as a teacher, being like, ‘Wow that looks amazing — how do you do that?’ Especially the scene where she’s doing her story time; it was so dreamy,” Kotsko explains.
“I thought, ‘How do you get there?’ But that’s where I just stopped. Opening a bookstore had been a dream, but it’s just one of those dreams in passing. I never, never thought I would be sitting here at a one year event.”
While the seed was planted watching the movie, the catalyst for the dream-turned-reality was the building where the shop is currently located.
“It all began with this building. My family lives just down the street. We’ve always loved this building. Even though it was falling apart, it was still charming to me. My husband and I were always saying, ‘What could that be? What could it become?’”
One day a “For Sale” 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’s bookstore. The endeavor built on the strengths of both Kotsko and her husband.
“The thought of it was daunting, because it was so far from anything I knew business-wise. Sure, I love children’s books. I love reading to children. I’ve 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’s so unknown.”
The Story Garden offers specially-curated books for infants, toddlers, children and teens “to promote children’s love for reading.”
Kotsko explains her intentionality behind the books she features at the store: “I 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’s really important.”
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 “shell-ebration” of tortoises, which was accompanied by an educational talk by a beach ranger from Honeymoon Island. The store’s offerings have recently expanded to include baby showers, and birthday parties for little literature lovers.
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.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that people come to our store and they want to come back,” Kotsko says. “The 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.
“And 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.”
