The Story Garden, located at 832 14th St. N., is the creation of Megan and Jason Kotsko. It will be St. Pete’s only children’s bookstore and is scheduled to open by Halloween 2024. The quaint, 800-square-foot building once served as a neighborhood grocery store in the 1920s.
Megan remembers how she and Jason would often look at the abandoned grocery store across the street from their house and imagine what it could become – maybe a small cafe, a cozy reading nook, or maybe even another grocery store to revitalize the area. But no one came and nothing changed.
Megan, a former kindergarten and elementary school teacher, has been a stay-at-home mom for the past five years, taking care of her 3.5- and 5-year-old children. She wondered, “Should I go back to being a teacher? What should I do next?” Megan realized there was no children’s bookstore in St. Pete. Meanwhile, the old grocery store across the street was falling into disrepair.
“I want children to own property…”
When Story Garden officially opens around Halloween, the front of the store will have a full merchandising section offering dolls, stuffed animals, coloring books and more. The back of the store, which takes up about a third of the total space, will be reserved for children’s events. There will be a child-sized stage for readings, classes, programs and author visits.
The store will carry books for children ages 0-13, organized by age. Books for younger children will be placed on the lower shelves, while those for older children will be on the higher shelves. “I want children to be able to choose the books they select,” Megan says. This type of store organization encourages that ownership and gives children the opportunity to select their own books and stories.
Play me a story at your local children’s bookstore
Until the bookstore officially opens, The Story Garden is running a few pilot programs at the Run and Play Kids Café (3950 Central Ave.). The current program, called “Play Me a Story,” offers children and their parents or caregivers an engaging reading experience. It includes an intensive story time with movement, repetition and dialogue, followed by appropriate play activities. “It starts with a story,” Megan says, “and then they act out the story and bring its meaning into their own lives.”
You recently read Mix it, a story about color mixing. After the reading, the children participated in various color mixing activities, including art projects and building with colored blocks. The entire program costs $25, but the reading is free. The program lasts one hour, with 20 minutes devoted to reading and 40 minutes to play. You can purchase tickets in advance through the website.
Story Garden owners Megan and Jason seem to be doing the same for the kids. It starts with a little story – in their case, a daydream about what an abandoned 100-year-old grocery store might be – and then, Megan says, “they act out the story and make the story relevant to their own lives.”
Follow The Story Garden on Instagram here.
