About Our Store

This article comes from Booksense.com
Written by Karen Schechner

Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop: A Kid-Friendly Haven in Southern California

May 21, 2008

When Judy Nelson and her husband, Byron, built a location for their children's bookstore, Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Book Shop, in La Verne, California, they made it as inviting to kids as possible. "The current location looks much like a home from the outside, with a lawn, flowers, and bay windows," said store manager Andrea Vuleta. "The interior of the bookstore is contemporary, with carpeting and tile, in shades of blue with red and yellow. It is very kid-friendly with benches for reading and play tables."

Judy Nelson, a former occupational therapist, was inspired to become a bookseller by the pleasure she found in reading with her four children. "I discovered the joy of enjoying books together and we spent a lot of our time visiting libraries and bookstores together," she said. "We became book junkies. When the kids were all in school and I started thinking about returning to work, I knew that owning a children's bookstore would be a dream come true."

Now, two of the Nelson's four children, Laura and Pat Nelson, work in the business' book fair division and will take over most of the responsibilities for the entire business by the end of 2011.

Mrs. Nelson's opened in 1985 in a 1,200-square-foot space in nearby Covina. Several years later, Judy and Byron Nelson moved the store to a 6,000-square-foot location they built on a busy street that links the historic downtowns of three older cities, La Verne, San Dimas, and Claremont.

Of the store's 35,000 titles, middle-grade fiction is the biggest category, followed by picture books, and easy chapter books. State-driven curricula also play a role in Mrs. Nelson's book selections, which meet the needs of neighborhood teachers and parents who are home-schooling their children. Toys make up about 35 percent of the business, with that percentage increasing over the holiday season. A series of baking kits -- including ones for making pizza and pretzels -- from Sassafras is a top seller.

Mrs. Nelson's contributes generously to its community. "Once or twice a year, we 'clean house' and donate older merchandise in the form of books and toys to several local charities," said Vuleta. "Each holiday season, we work to provide books to organizations that work with children. Our book fair branch gives back a percentage of sales to the sponsoring schools, either in cash or a larger percentage in books. Last year schools received about $85,000 from us in book fair earnings."