A Magic Tree Grows in Oak Park

For 20 years, owners Rose Joseph and Iris Yipp have found new ways to ensure that Magic Tree Bookstore meets the needs of their neighborhood in Oak Park, Illinois. With a section devoted to biracial and alternative families, adoption, and special needs children, the bookstore has maintained its standing as a vital community resource. On August 27, the store's longevity and sense of community were celebrated at a grand-scale anniversary event.

"From the beginning, we planned on being a multicultural bookstore," said Joseph. "In '84 that was hard to find. Over the years, that's changed dramatically."

Joseph spoke with BTW a few days after the anniversary party, and she said she was "still recovering from the festivities." A children's musician, followed by a keyboardist, performed for a crowd of friends and customers. Joseph and Yipp served a birthday cake big enough to feed 100 and gave away door prizes donated by publishers. "Everyone had fun, even us," said Joseph.

In honor of their 20th, books and sidelines were marked down 20 percent, and the gathering helped triple sales for the night.

Magic Tree's first location was a 600-square-foot space. Five years later, Joseph and Yipp moved the store to its current location, a high foot-traffic area in Oak Park, which nearly doubled their square footage. Ten years ago, the neighboring business moved out, and Magic Tree grew to fill 1,600 square feet and was able to further develop its inventory. "We did expand a bit more in sidelines," said Joseph. "And certain genres, like fantasy, just exploded."

The store's special needs sections has been a perpetual work-in-progress and a specialty of the store. Joseph and Yipp have taken care to stock genres that might go underserved elsewhere. The section is comprised of titles that help kids cope with difficult issues such as parents divorcing, new siblings, manners, and illness. Joseph said a top seller was Tubes in My Ears: My Trip to the Hospital (Virginia Dooley and Miriam Katin, Mondo Publishing), which was excellent for children going through the process. She also added that many biracial families live in Oak Park, and Magic Tree carries books to represent that population.

The bookstore compiles a list of recommendations for each subsection of the special needs category. When a customer came in looking for books on alternative families, Magic Tree created a list of titles for him. One favorite of Joseph's is King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland (Tricycle Press), a "cute story" she said, about a prince whose parents are trying to find him a wife. None of the women are very interesting to the prince, but when one of the would-be brides brings along her brother, the prince takes notice.

The collection of lists, which the bookstore keeps in a binder for customers, grows with the needs of the community. Joseph said, "Now surrogacy is an issue. I thought, 'Oh, we don't have any books on that topic. We'll have to find some.' There are always new subjects to be tackled."

Another set of lists the store uses is the Book Sense lists. "When the Children's Picks List comes out, we put those titles on one of our display tables," said Joseph. The bookstore also uses the Adult Picks List. Joseph and Yipp deliberated about whether or not to carry adult titles. "We are a children's bookstore," said Joseph. But they decided, with all those parents milling around, to offer the moms and dads something for themselves. Magic Tree stocks almost all the adult titles on the monthly Picks list, and Joseph and Yipp are "very pleased" with customer response. Joseph said, "The list has done pretty well for us. We thought about it a long time before we created an adult table. We don't just carry the current list. We also carry old bestselling backlist. It turns over well."

Joseph and Yipp have no intention of opening a second Magic Tree. "We've been approached many, many times by people in … suburbs," said Joseph. "But we really want to focus on this location. It's not just a money-making venture. And we do have to work really hard as it is. It requires so much energy." Joseph then imagined the strain of opening another store: "The training! The hiring! My God." However, if Joseph shut the door on that prospect, she didn't bolt it. "It'll always just be this store," she said. "Well, unless someone makes a fabulous offer we can't refuse." --Karen Schechner