Bookroo’s mission is to help kids fall in love with reading, and to make it convenient and affordable for parents to build their children’s libraries. It all started with Tayler’s valiant search for excellent books to read himself. When he came up dry when looking for a subscription service he was excited about, he and Kesler started kicking around a couple of ideas, and realized that while they themselves were avid readers, they were much more excited by the prospect of sending books to kids in order to help them FALL IN LOVE with reading, than the idea of sending books to adults. And so Bookroo was born. They invited Chandler to join them, and the idea resonated so strongly with us wives that we joined almost immediately. This brings us to where we are today. Bookroo is a family business, and is the pride and joy of 3 “brolers” (brothers who’s names all end in -ler, namely Chandler, Kesler and Tayler) and their wives (Tiffany, Jane –that’s me! and Rebecca).
At the beginning we thought a lot about how exactly to help children fall in love with reading, and we realized that we wanted to not only send excellent (and less well-known books) to aid in discovery, but also create an element of excitement and thrill. I don’t know if we’ll ever be sure who’s brilliant idea it was to individually wrap each book (our best guess is Tiffany), but I’m sure I at least was subconsciously thinking of my personal love of gifts and the adorable care packages my mom still sends me (I’m so spoiled!) when I joined in the unanimous support of the awesomeness that is wrapping. With our growth, it’s proved to be one of the biggest time challenges, but is something I doubt we’ll ever give up on. Being able to unwrap each book in a Bookroo box creates a special connection with the child, and we love hearing anecdotes for our community about how their children still remember which books came all wrapped up weeks later. Wrapping also subconsciously communicates to the children that books are exciting and worth gifting. They are of infinite and immeasurable value.
Reading and the doors it unlocks are something all of the Bookroo Crew have personal experience with. Education is highly valued in all the households in which we grew up and between us we have/are working on a total 10 degrees. I can only speak to my personal experience (you can read about Tayler, Chander, and Rebecca’s), but growing up reading was fun. We took weekly trips to the library and my parents read aloud to us, even when we were old enough to be reading our own books. In 1st grade, my mom and I set a goal for me to read 500 books that year. And I did. And it was empowering. I didn’t realize how empowering, perhaps, until I studied for the GRE with a friend, and realized that while I might not be able to define all of these fancy words floating around, I did recognize them, and could use them in context. The reading I did as a child STILL pays off. Here at Bookroo, we want to pass that passion and love for reading along to the next generation.
Thank you so much to Jane from Bookroo for telling us a bit more about the passion and heart behind their company, Bookroo. Be sure to check out the review I did on Bookroo HERE and their website HERE.
