Kidsbooks

While most independent bookstores are sadly going the way of the dodo, Kidsbooks keeps on going strong. This Vancouver fixture focuses on books for kids of all ages, and founder and co-owner Phyllis Simon attributes their success to the “inexplicable magic of reading a book and turning the pages.” She goes on to say, “It must speak to some deep-rooted emotional experience; it's something about making the hand to eye connection. I don't know what it is, but it's there and it's not going away despite all the dire predictions.”

Phyllis, who opened the original Kidsbooks on 4th Avenue in 1983, is now passing on her love of reading to a second generation of Vancouverites. “Some I recognize and others tell me it was their favourite place when they were a kid, which is pretty exciting for me,” she says.

Kidsbooks moved to its current West Broadway location in 1987 and then opened a second store in Edgemont Village in 1995 and in 2007,  one in South Surrey.