Turning pages through time: St. Paul’s Red Balloon Bookshop celebrates its 40th year
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It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday in St. Paul, and nearly 20 toddlers, babies and their grown-ups are seated among the shelves of children’s books at Red Balloon Bookshop, ready for storytime. For the next half-hour, they will listen and sing and dance along to an exuberant mix of stories and songs.
Nicole Pugliese of Minneapolis says she comes every week with her 2-year-old granddaughter “for a really fun, sweet time, to be with people and hear stories and sing songs in a great environment.”
A few snack-munching families down the row, Leah Locke of St. Paul has her 9-week-old daughter wrapped, sleeping, against her chest, while her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter perches next to her. It’s a time of life when leaving the house takes maximum effort, but Locke says today, everything worked out: “I looked at the calendar and I looked at the clock and I said, ‘Hey, let’s do it.’”
Red Balloon Bookshop owner Holly Weinkauf can hear the stories and the kids’ excited reactions from her office in the building’s loft.
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“I just love the genuine, true excitement when a kid walks in and, you know, sees a book from one of their favorite series, or sees a book on something they are so into.”
Red Balloon turns 40 this week — old enough that some of those original customers now bring their kids and grandkids.
Michele Cromer-Poire and Carol Erdahl opened the store in 1984, amid a thriving indie bookstore scene in the Twin Cities and a “whole language” reading movement that stressed good stories for kids. But its success was never guaranteed.
“When I bought the store in 2011,” says Weinkauf, “it was when eBooks were coming on the market. And I remember so many people saying to me, why are you doing this now? You know, books are going away. And I even remember talking to Carol and Michele about that, and I just remember them kind of laughing and being like, yeah, yeah. We heard the same thing when books on tape came out.”
The store has gone on to weather competition from Amazon, the closure of a number of major retailers on Grand Avenue, and the pandemic.
Looking back on COVID, Weinkauf says with a sigh, “Oh, boy. Well, we worked really hard.” But, she also recalls with gratitude how the community showed up to support local stores.
Red Balloon continues to see a larger online business compared with pre-pandemic times. The store continues to be a common stop for local authors launching new books. This year, Red Balloon was a finalist for Publishers Weekly’s Bookstore of the Year.
Red Balloon will celebrate its 40th with a series of events this week: special birthday story times on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, a soiree Friday evening and a big party Saturday.
There will be a storybook costume parade, face painting, discounts and live music with Joe Mailander of The Okee Dokee Brothers. The store will also be gathering donations for its Red Balloon Connects Fund, which works to improve kids’ access to books.
Saturday also includes the big reveal of their new store poster. They commission a new one from a local illustrator every five years. This year’s poster is by Drew Brockington, creator of the graphic novel series “CatStronauts.” (If you haven’t heard of it, ask an elementary-schooler.)
The next six weeks of holiday shopping are the biggest time of year for bookstores. If it’s been a while since you popped into a children’s bookstore and you’re not sure where to start, Weinkauf says, “We got you. The holidays are one of our favorite times at the bookstore because we’re just constantly helping customers, making those recommendations. And our favorites are those folks who come in who are like, I don't know, point me in a direction.”
A Red Balloon bookseller will ask a couple of questions about the reader's age and likes, and help you get a good book into the hands of a child — just as they’ve been doing for 40 years.