In Store: Tales for Tots

Alphabet Soup Children’s Books casts a spell on local children, and on adults who are kids at heart.

Photography by Andrew Waits for City Arts.

A wooden toy that turned into a real boy lives here. A precocious pig named Olivia lives here, too. There’s a very hungry caterpillar who calls the place home, and a silly old bear who is always on the lookout for honey. The house is Wallingford’s Alphabet Soup Children’s Books, one of the last remaining children’s bookshops in Seattle.

It’s a quiet Saturday morning, the rain softly clattering on the windows, as owner Janet Cavallo stocks books inside. “I’ve always loved children’s books, and I’ve always wanted my own business,” she says. “This is a labor of love.” She loves all the books she stocks, whether Boxcar Children titles or The Caboose Who Got Loose. One of her favorite books of all time is Miriam Young’s Miss Suzy, the tale of a little gray squirrel and her toy-soldier friends. Pippi Longstocking is something of a hero to her. She adores Doris Burns’ Summerfolk.

Cavallo, an East Coaster who has been in Seattle for seven years, looked at various neighborhoods in the city before deciding to open her shop in Wallingford in November 2004. “It just felt perfect.” It was on a main street, it was a good size and it looked like a little house. It’s filled with books big and small for kids young and old. Top sellers include Where the Wild Things Are and stories by Richard Scarry, but there is enough variety that every child can find a favorite. There’s a section for pirates and one for Golden Books. There’s a section for Beverly Cleary titles and another for “divorce and other tough stuff.” There’s one for Newbery award winners and another on lakes, rivers and ponds.

“Being able to do something I’m passionate about is a dream come true,” Cavallo says, sitting behind a desk festooned with colorful bookmarks that kids can take home with them. “I want to share that.” She shares it through musical events, too. Recess Monkey and the Not-Its have performed there. Caspar Babypants (Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America) has rocked the tots there as well. “I love the sense of community the musical in-stores inspire,” Cavallo says. “I think a love of books and of music go hand in hand, so the concerts are a perfect complement to bookselling.”

Fun and magic is what Cavallo hopes to infuse in the people who walk through the door. Whether it comes from playing with the giant giraffe toy or from listening to the music of Harmonica Pocket or reading Goodnight Moon for the first time, magic happens in a little house on a busy street, where Pinocchio looks out the window inviting you in. •

Alphabet Soup Children’s Books
1406 N. 45th St., 206.547.4555,
alphabetsoupchildrensbooks.blogspot.com