For Boise couple, children’s books are a mission. Their new store is open on Saturdays.
For 11 years, Greg and Tiffany Nielson ran their children’s book business out of their garage.
The couple, owners of Idaho Book Fairs, go to schools across the state and sell to students at book fairs that typically last a week.
As the company expanded — the Nielsons now serve about 100 schools in Idaho and recently moved into Utah — the couple found they needed more storage space, and they leased a building on the Boise Bench.
With that, they decided to open a store: Idaho Book Fairs Warehouse Store. It will be open one day a week, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays. Opening day will be Dec. 22.
Students and their parents can peruse through racks of more than 2,000 books at the building at 1515 S. Wilson St., just north of the Hillcrest Country Club.
“We’re not a typical bookstore where they might have 20,000 books,” said Greg Nielson, who noted it is the largest children’s bookstore in Idaho. “We concentrate on the best of the best.”
The Nielsons talk with librarians at the schools they visit to see which books get checked out most often and which books students talk about. They also keep track of the best-selling children’s books as tallied by The New York Times.
“The Wimpy Kids book diaries are really popular, ‘Dog Man,’ ‘Smile’ and ‘Sisters, Magic Treehouse,’ ” he said. “We carry a lot of Brandon Mull books. Those are the most popular in Idaho, and we try to carry every one of his books.”
The books are sold at retail price. Portions of the money spent will go to schools that host the company at the book fairs.
The quality of children’s books are as good as they’ve ever been, Nielson said.
“There’s a lot of really good children’s books out there,” he said. “A lot of authors are putting an emphasis on children’s books. They get the kids excited and engaged in reading.”
Boise Weekly first reported on the store.
This story was originally published December 21, 2018 at 2:16 PM.
