Reviews of OurShelves. (Book Store) in Portland (Maine).

OurShelves

92 Reviews

92 Comments

Book store

Childrens book store

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Information of OurShelves, Book store in Portland (Maine)

Discover the opening times, the location, contact, popular times, photos and real reviews by internet users.

This place has a very good rate, they treat their customers well and you’ll feel welcome, super recommended

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Open hours of OurShelves

Reviews of OurShelves

Eliza Ruel

I highly recommend OurShelves! I first subscribed to the Sunshine board book box before my daughter was born because I was eager to check it out. I decided to pause my subscription because I wasn’t sure how many board books we would want. Well, our family enjoyed reading this collection of books soon after our daughter was born, and we’re back for more. At almost a year, she absolutely loves the books and pulls them from her shelf MANY times a day to read independently and together. The stories are lovely, and it makes rereading books in a single session much more enjoyable for me! Now that she is pointing at the pictures it is so clear how much she is taking in. I’m glad to have books that represent our world. I feel it’s sometimes hard to find diverse books that are about everyday life rather than historical events and people, especially in durable board book form, but OurShelves curated such a collection. I’ve now resubscribed because it’s clear we would like to add to our bookshelves! Communication with OurShelves has always been incredibly helpful and friendly, too!

Erica Daloia

I highly recommend OurShelves! As a mother of a biracial son and a mental health counselor I very much appreciate the variety of cultures, perspectives, and representation of different types of families that are seen in these books. Having them delivered quarterly is perfect for us to build our library without being overwhelmed by too many books. We have been getting the sunshine box and my 1 year old loves the books- often choosing them for his bedtime stories- and they have been favorites for months! We are excited to try the rainbow box next!

Jessica McCoy

Customer friendly and kid approved! Our kids love the books they receive from their treehouse subscription box. Our kids have loved some of the books so much, they have gifted some of the books to others, including their school. It’s great to get a book about another culture. It always brings up great questions from the kids and it turns into a wonderful learning opportunity for all of us.

Maggie Walser

Our family loves Ourshelves. I thought we had a pretty good home library until we joined Ourshelves - we've never had a duplicate book! I'm so happy that my kids are hearing and reading stories about other kids and families with backgrounds and experiences that are different than ours. And the cherry on the sundae is that the customer service is friendly, personal, and absolutely fantastic.

Jacqueline Pleet

I purchased book boxes for my 2 sets of grandchildren and have been so happy with them! 2 of my grandchildren have significant intellectual challenges. I had been looking for books with stories that would represent families with children like them and really couldn’t find any. After contacting OurShelves about such books I decided to order the sets for the children and quickly realized that just introducing them to the wide range of humanity would help them see that we all have challenges. The books are of very high quality and present a good variation of diverse stories. I think these books are so important for any child’s social and emotional development. When I last visited with my granddaughter who has a communication disorder she insisted that I read “Mr. Watson’s Chickens” to her at every meal and despite her not being able to express herself to me she listened and looked at every page so intently and lovingly. It brought such joy to my heart! I highly recommend OurShelves.

Molly Bucy

We have loved having the OurShelves subscription for our two year old! The books are excellent and diverse. The customer service is quick, responsive, and very friendly. Highly recommend for your child or as a gift!

Anna G

We LOVE OurShelves! Our home library makes us so happy, because not only do we find books with characters that are like us, but we find so many with characters that are different from us! Those "mirrors" and "windows" have been important to my children's social and emotional development (especially because of precautions and safety measures due to the pandemic). Our family is one mom and one dad, and even though we thought we had been doing a good job explaining that there are all kinds of families, OurShelves helped fill in the gaps. Actually seeing and reading books with different families, people, and cultures, made abstract concepts and ideas of "others in the world" concrete for my children. It even empowered my kindergartener to decide to speak up to her teacher who had been using a greeting that didn't include everyone. After speaking up, her teacher no longer used that greeting and found more inclusive and welcoming ways to start their school day. OurShelves also has wonderful customer service!! Anytime that I've had a question or concern, I was contacted quickly by friendly folks who are passionate about diverse books! Thank you, OurShelves!

Amanda Miller

We have been subscribed to OurShelves for two years, since our little one was just a newborn! We love that our bookshelf is continually full of books representing a wide variety of people. The books are well chosen and high quality, and some of our little one's favorites!

Sandy Phan

My daughter and I love reading OurShelves books together. With everything happening and attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion across the country, I am so thankful to be able to expose my daughter to diverse perspectives and stories through these beautiful books!

Courtney Eiseman

I recommend OurShelves to everyone. I am a cishet woman (she/her), former preschool teacher/current stay-at-home mom/stepmom to an autistic kiddo and LGBTQ+ loved ones. And I hoard books. I AM THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC. 😂 But really, these books should be on every shelf because they are representative of the beautiful diversity our children experience. I didn’t have exposure to “other” identities as a child, and I swore that my own child(ren) would never experience a time when they would feel uncomfortable about meeting people who are different from them. Thank you, OurShelves, for curating amazing books that my son loves and wants to read over and over, and which represent people he loves and people he has yet to know.❤️

Melissa Struck

An OurShelves subscription is a wonderful investment. We have been surprised and delighted with every shipment, and my sons constantly ask me to read books OurShelves has sent us. My almost 5 year old's favorites include "Jabari Jumps," "The One Day House," "Max Found Two Sticks," and "Yaffa and Fatima: Shalom, Salaam." OurShelves also introduced us to the ROSA series, which my younger son really enjoys. It makes me happy that my boys are engaging with characters from different backgrounds and family structures.

Glynnis O'Donoghue

Such a wonderful subscription. We look forward to getting these high quality, beautiful books every few months. So many stories that we might miss otherwise. And excellent customer service!

Jacqueline Stevens

I absolutely LOVE OurShelves! As a busy parent, I am thrilled to have this subscription box of beautiful books that are picked out for my son and sent to my door. Having diverse books in my home is something I strive for and I used to spend so much time looking for them, only to be sometimes disappointed with their story quality when I received them. With OurShelves, they are thoughtfully doing this for me and I feel like they have taken a huge task off my plate! The books are always excellent and my two-year-old son just can’t get enough, these are his favorite books! I also am VERY impressed with how responsive, pleasant and helpful Alli is! Seriously, get a subscription box, you will not be disappointed!

Andrew Bouvier-Brown

I never find the time to post reviews, frankly. It's a rare product that will make me excited or disappointed enough to motivate me to actually do it. But OurShelves is more than awesome enough to motivate me. Families are so much more diverse in real life than in the (current) world of children's literature. Kids deserve to grow up seeing themselves and their loving families reflected in the stories they love. Conversely, the more a story reflects the diverse world they really live in, the more likely they are to love it, and learn great lessons from it. Moreover, I want my kids to grow up *expecting* their world to always be a diverse, loving place. This OurShelves subscription is going to make that job so much easier. We've received one box, and my kids are already in love with the books (My kid even tells me, in a somewhat surprised tone, that I do a good voice for the penguins who feature in one of our stories). One of the titles was such a joy to read I got a little choked up reading it the first time (I was glad I read it once by myself so I didn't cry during bedtime!) What's so very clear is that the staff who run OurShelves are very, very in tune with their customers. When you sign up, you're encouraged to reach out and let them know if there's anything in particular you'd like to share about your family, so they can try to seek out and find the perfect books for you. All I can say is-- do it! I wasn't sure what to expect but the founder reached out to me quickly and had all kinds of great ideas for things, she basically made a custom box for us, which in my opinion is going way above and beyond. We then ordered a box for some friends of ours and she did the same for them! We prepaid for a year subscription, and we're so glad we did. If you are looking for a lovingly curated box of books that reflect and celebrate a diverse, loving world, then you will be too.

Melanie Klein

We are so grateful my aunt gifted us a subscription to OurShelves! My kids love these books- but maybe more (or at least equally) importantly, I love them too! i'm thrilled to introduce my kids to a diverse group of stories and authors, and the books are actually good! which is so important when your kids ask you to read the same story for the 1,000th time;) Can't recommend this highly enough!

Quincy Bulin Ege

Only good things to say about OurShelves! There couldn't be a better mission, and I love that I learn new things from the books you send my daughter too. Your book subscription doesn't just make me a better mom for building a diverse bookshelf and teaching my daughter about how the world looks outside our family—it makes me a better person as well.

Danielle Gagnon

OurShelves has been such an amazing addition to our book collection. My 3-year-old loves to read, and I love that we're able to surround him with diverse stories that he may not have been exposed to otherwise. He is always so excited to get the shipment, and all of the books have been incredible stories and are continuing to be some of his favorites. When I moved and changed my address right around the time of a shipment, the owner of OurShelves even personally reached out to ensure we received our books. Such amazing customer service. We love OurShelves so much!

Brady Jones

We love OurShelves! We get a mixed box every quarter...one book for my 6 year old, one for my 4 year old, one for our baby. It's of course always fun for the kids to receive mail, and we almost always sit down and read all 3 right away. I also love how OurShelves are simply GOOD STORIES that happen to have underrepresented protagonists and side characters in them. I really think I see a difference in my kids' behavior after reading them. For example, we just got a book called *Clive and His Babies* (about a little boy who loves to push two baby dolls around). Since reading it, I see my 18 month old and my 4 year old have been seeking out baby dolls to play with. Highly, highly recommend this either for your own family, for a personal gift, or even for a gift to a local or school library.

Emily Caldarelli

My three year old loves her diverse book boxes! They are consistently her favorite books and the ones that she goes for in her bookshelf. It's been so great to take the pressure off of me to research at length and find diverse books (I still do this, but not with such urgency!) We look forward to our books arriving regularly every few months. I can't say enough about OurShelves. If you're thinking about purchasing a subscription I'd highly recommend it!

Cilicia Wong-Lopez

Our family has really enjoyed this book subscription. The books are very well chosen and are full of beautiful stories and illustrations that bring our children into the worlds of kids and families from so many diverse backgrounds. The books from these boxes are consistently at the top of the pile for bedtime stores that are read over and over. Thank you for making sure these stories are shared, OurShelves!

Kaylynn McAllister

I've subscribed for over a year now. We get three books every three months. My son is almost two years old and he loves when we get new books in the mail to read! One of his all time favorite books is Baby Goes to Market. We love introducing him to all types of people, cultures, languages, and family dynamics. This subscription has helped us do that. I believe when you sign up, you set age preferences and topics you are interested in, as well as frequency. We only receive board books, because paperback just wouldn't survive 😂 Ourshelves is overall a great service to help add diverse books to your library! Wonderful customer service as well!

Mike Temkin

Our granddaughter, who is now three years old, has been receiving OurShelves Diverse Kids Books for the past year and consistently looks forward to each delivery of new books. Her parents love the observations being made by their daughter from the storylines and illustrations in each book and the conversations and questions which the books' inspire. The books allow my granddaughter to be aware of a wide community of people from all walks of life - the art of not just good books, but the power of significant literature for young readers.

Yvonne Takane

We've been happy customers for over a year. We started with the Sunshine Box and are moving up to the Rainbow Box for our 3 year old. OurShelves does a wonderful job at picking out diverse, age-appropriate books. The board books have been great quality and really interesting reads. The book subjects vary - some are bilingual (we've received several books in Spanish and some Native American languages), some focus on body positivity, some showcase other cultures, some feature different types of families - but all are easy, fun reads.

Gwyneth Perry

My whole family has been impressed and delighted by our first year subscribing to OurShelves for our now almost 2-year old. They provide books with beautiful illustrations or photographs that are fun to read out loud and cover the full range of toddler interests (naming/finding objects, rhyming stories, just looking at pictures of other real babies). All with diversity in mind and on the pages!

Allison Dodson

We absolutely love OurShelves books! They spark thoughtful conversations with our 3-year old daughter and the stories have become favorites we reach for again and again. Thank you for curating a collection of heart-warming stories that invite us to explore, celebrate, and honor our beautiful differences!

Ana Luiza Morais Soares

I got to know OurShelves at the bookriot website with a long list of very good book subscription for kids. OurShelves caught my attention through their mission statement and originality. I first signed up for Rainbow/3 books/quarter payment just to try it out. I LOVED IT! My daughter picked up the books they sent every.single.night for a month (yes, we do have plenty of other options). I am an anthropologist, immigrant, and Latina, and presenting diversity to my daughter at a very early age is really important to me as I believe that this is one of the ways to social justice! Due to the pandemic, we had to cancel our subscription and Alli sent a personalized message addressing that issue and trying to help. The message was so moving that we re-evaluated our budget and decided for the yearly subscription. They have the best customer service ever. I cannot wait for the next box!

Kristen Kohlmeyer

Our family has been loving OurShelves book boxes! The selected books have been fun, engaging stories with diverse characters that have helped broaden my children's understanding of the world they live in and all the beautiful people and families that we share it with. I also love that OurShelves is working to make diverse books more accessible with their dual mission of working with publishing companies to advocate for these stories to be put out into the world. Thank you for all of your hard work!

Allison DiPietro

My family absolutely loves this subscription! We've had it since our son was just 3 months old, and the books have been lovely. They're always age appropriate, and as he gets older (he's a toddler now), he still enjoys even the "little baby" books (it's fun to point out items and name them). A couple of these books have become bedtime requirements now, and we're so glad they are diverse and show our son how unique and wonderful we all are. "Love in the Wild" is our current favorite, and I love the art!

Angella Hould

OurShelves does a great job of picking books that feature main characters you don't often see in mainstream book boxes (BIPOC, LGBTQ+ peeps, etc), and they often represent refreshingly wide points of view, writing styles, and languages. It's really cool. And these books are just super fun children's books, they are some of my daughter's favorites!

Larissa Fomuke

OurShelves is AMAZING! I love that they are really making more diverse books available for kiddos. My son and I are SO excited whenever the package comes in the mail. The books they chose will really open his eyes to the world and influence his learning. The books are also really entertaining! He LOVES reading them and always requests them:). Keep up the FABULOUS work and we can't wait for our next arrival!

Amy Clark

I gave OurShelves books to my cousin who was 4. She really enjoyed the books and so did her mothers. The books were fun and they illustrated issues in an informative and age-appropriate way. They read the books together as a family and they now have a shelf full of books that they read over and over.

Christina Schoppert Devereux

OurShelves is changing the way publishers think about children's books with characters from diverse backgrounds and with diverse experiences by proving that the market exists, in plenty, for these books. By subscribing to OurShelves, we are sending a clear message to publishers that we want more stories that show (but don't problematize) the incredible diversity of this country's children and families. This is a brilliant, beautiful business, run by an amazing woman (Alli Harper) who has experience creating large-scale systems change, passing laws, and lovingly parenting small children. My children, ages 6, 4, and 1, adore their OurShelves books, and I love reading the books with them!

Emilee Booth

My son has been receiving OurShelves boxes for a year now, and we both absolutely love them. I really appreciate how much care the curation team puts into choosing books that not only feature diverse characters and inclusive stories, but that are also always really GOOD books. We've tried other book boxes, but the hit rate for this one is so much higher, and I have really loved the conversations that we have about the books we read. With this last box, I switched from a 3-book box to a 5-book box because we have loved everything we've received so far, and we were not disappointed. My son has insisted on reading all 5 books every night since we got them. The other day he came home from school with a creation he had made that he said was "the wrap that Sis wears in "Bedtime Bonnet."" He wanted to wear it while we got ready for bed. And every time we read "I Am Every Good Thing" he asks me to tell him what "worthy to be loved" means. Even if your child, like mine, has no problem finding books with characters that look like him or families that look like his in them, there is enormous value in this subscription. It is helping prompt the kinds of conversations that I want to have with my child but don't always know how to start, and helping him grow into a thoughtful, curious, and empathetic person.

Kirsten Jacobs

We've loved having a subscription (wonderful books we may not have otherwise learned about!) and have been so impressed by the personalized customer service! Highly recommend!

Rachel Lerberg

OurShelves has been such a wonderful find for my family! We value diversity in all of its forms and want to share that value with our kiddos (ages 1.5 and 4). OurShelves makes fulfilling that goal a little bit easier, which is AWESOME. Our subscription brings us three beautiful books quarterly, and getting the OurShelves package is like having a mini literary Christmas – we love it! The stories and illustrations in the books are always the highest quality; many have earned our family’s label of “classic.” My favorite so far is “My mommy, my mama, my brother and me,” a gorgeously poetic story of what a coastal family (that happens to have two moms) finds on their regular seaside walks. I highly recommend OurShelves – it’s super rad, and helping to make the world a better place!

Odessa Addison

We love the books from OurShelves. They are books with diverse characters but they are also great stories that my kids love to hear. The books we receive in our boxes have fast become some of our favorite stories to read.

Emily Linquist

I love OurShelves! The books they send have fun, creative, loving, and inclusive stories. I appreciate the how strong and diverse the characters are. I believe these books will play a vital role in helping my child to feel fully free and loved in being herself - whomever that may turn out to be, and to support others in doing the same.

Karen Woods

We love our subscription to OurShelves! I am an educator and a mom and I have been exploring the ideas of “window and mirror” books over the past year. This TED talk by Grace Lin was especially formative in my thinking about diverse books. Soon after watching this I saw OurShelves advertised - it was love at first sight. My 5 and 6 year old children have especially learned a lot from reading books with the theme of gender identity. They particularly liked When Aiden Became a Brother and we just lent it to a friend who was struggling to find books that featured trans-gendered characters as she talks to her 5 year old about the topic. Not only do I appreciate the diversity in the characters and themes, but also in the authors and illustrators! I LOVE the mission of OurShelves to use consumer power to advocate to publishers that we need more diverse books. The customer service is also amazing! I appreciated the recent email I got that followed up on all of my questions from a survey I filled out. That is something you can’t get from many places. I look forward to buying future subscriptions for my own family and as gifts!

Ash Holland

OurShelves is amazing! Not only do they help us share our love of reading inclusive books with our family and friends, they also have incredible customer service. Every time we've ordered books from OurShelves, Alli and Doug have gone our of their way to help us. They are kind, generous people who are doing such important things for inclusive literacy. We'll definitely be buying from them again!

Jenna Barham

I have a quarterly box with a mix of books for 2-5 and under 2 so both of my kids have a new book or two to enjoy. The book selection we have received is terrific. The books are vibrant, loving and varied stories that introduce cultures and characters we don't typically see in our library currently. I especially love that they bring forward a wide array of different identities through stories that aren't centered on that identity, necessarily, as much as just inclusively portrayed so my kids are able to just see characters that make up the real blend of differences among people in life off the page. Outside of the books, I've found their service support to be top notch. I sent an email to do a mixed age box and they were prompt to respond and get me sorted. The contact process for any assistance is super simple. Any question or issue I've brought forward has been answered with a very pleasant, personable touch and they have sought out check ins to ensure their book selections are fitting the need, that I'm satisfied, etc. I definitely recommend if you're in the market to diversify your home library or just want to find a great book box for your kiddos.

Colleen Aziz

OurShelves is an excellent company and product for parents looking for quality books for their children, featuring diverse characters and stories. We got books that featured main characters of color, written by authors of color, and books about LGBTQ families: populations that are often not represented in the common books we see. The company is easy to work with and very compassionate and kind. We love it so much I just ordered a subscription for our nephew!

Ephraim Kent

We love OurShelves so much that it’s become our go-to gift for anyone with kids. Thoughtfully curated books, with a wide cast of characters and varying levels of identity as the main theme, that are MY favorite to read as well as the kids.’ My rhyme & fact-obsessed 7yo loves My Mommy, My Mama, My Brother, and Me. My anxious 8yo must have requested Saturday every night for at least two months, and it totally helped him process things not going to expectation, and my 5yo still sleeps with The Bread Pet. And of course we had to resume keeping a sourdough starter and baking bread on the regular. We’ll be customers until we age out—but we hope you keep adding levels so that never happens!

Mikaela Bayless

We have loved OurShelves! We moved to an area that is fairly limited in cultural diversity so one way we are combatting that for our 4yo and 1yo is through books. I love that my 4yo picked out Mommy's Khimar for us to read at bedtime the other night and that he connects with the little girl in the book when she dresses up as a superhero which is something he loves to do to!

Jill Okun

I received the 3 box subscription from OurShelves as a baby shower gift. I have cherished each book. They are interesting, diverse, and inclusive. The service that OurShelves is providing is so important -- important for children to have books that reflect themselves and their communities, and also to familiarize children with families and communities who are different than their own. These curated book boxes do a masterful job communicating what I want my daughter to grow up knowing: diversity makes us stronger, smarter, and kinder -- and who doesn't want more of that in the world?!

Jackie Lindsey

Such a unique set of books! We've just graduated from the babies group to the 2+ group this month, and the books in our subscription remain wonderful, warm, and diverse. They are books that I'll be proud to pass along to other kids in my community once (if!) we outgrow the stories.

Audra Stolz

I bought my year long subscription for my child as an ongoing Christmas/birthday present for both him and myself. My family and I love books and were very intentional about our baby bookshelf. Our child needs to know that no matter how you look, whether different or the same, that you are worthy of being in a story! Each shipment I would get a little kick out of something that would relate to my life in a unique way (random pictures of baby wearing, a book that had a page about emotions when we were going through some big toddler feelings, a market so similar to one we encountered while visiting our sister in the Peace Corps). As a parent and as a social worker, I cannot recommend OurShelves enough!

Anne Sommer

My husband and I subscribe to OurShelves, and have the books sent to our beautiful granddaughters, ages 7 and 3. We heard about this great service on a podcast, and thought it was a super idea. The books are curated and grouped by age. While we like the diversity part, we also like the fact that the stories aren’t about the disability/diversity, but rather those differences are just part of the story. The 7 year old especially can detect (and rejects) books that preach/moralize, so this is an important piece. We want to pass on our love of books and reading to them, as well as expose them to values such as love, empathy and compassion. This is an easy and effective way to do this. Our daughter and son-in-law love the books, too! The six of us give OurShelves 5 out of 5 stars!!!

Lauren Marks

This is a one-in-a-million service and so glad I am able to share this with my kids. Now I get to see their bookshelves filled with many of my childhood favorites and these incredible new additions too. Many of these books help reflect and resemble our family dynamics in ways we wouldn't find in a traditional bookstore and other books that give my kids windows into other family dynamics as well, ever humanizing never editorializing. Highly recommend!

Ruth Grace Wong

I subscribe to 3 books a quarter for my toddler, and it's everything I wanted and more. I'm so glad we can get high quality books featuring people from different backgrounds, without me having to spend any time doing research. My favorite pick so far is Ninos Mindful Rest & Relax, where you wiggle your toes, bend them tight, and relax, and repeat with different parts of your body. It makes *me* feel more relaxed when I read it to my toddler and do the actions. Thank you Ourshelves team.

Krista Staley

We've been so thrilled with our OurShelves subscription. We've gotten some beloved family favorites - we all LOVE to read and look at the beautiful art in Thank you Omu and have A Different Pond in heavy rotation for bedtime. I am not sure we would have found these treasures on our own - thank you to OurShelves for the wonderful service. It is so much fun to have a box of surprise books on the porch and even better that they have diversified our shelves.

Sarah Lentz

We still really love our subscription after years of receiving books. We talk about social justice issues a lot in house and your books give us great areas to explore further. But I also love that so many of the books you include are just beautiful stories with beautiful characters—that aren’t experiencing oppression rather just finding joy in the world. I think this does so much to really set the tone for the roles that BIPOC and LGBTQ folks play in the world now and in the future. I also love that the books you send aren’t just the well known best sellers—those are great too—but they are books I wouldn’t easily find on my own.

Faith Hvisdas

This is a wonderful service. I work for a public school system, and we were looking for more diverse books for our students. I decided to try Ourshelves. I did not expect to get the level of individual service that I received. Alli Harper is a warm and dedicated professional. I love that she will personally speak with me about my students' current needs and interests. This is a great service for a school, library or any child who loves to read.

Lisa Corey

My daughter and I love this subscription box. Thank you for curating such thoughtful and diverse stories. We’ll be seeing this through for many years!

Leighann Breeze

We heard about Ourselves from a NY Times article and decided to try it out by ordering Christmas gifts for all our nieces and nephews: a book subscription set that comes in the mail every 3 months (so the kids keep getting Christmas gifts all year round)! Everyone loved them, it was a huge hit! Even my sister, who is an elementary school teacher, raved about the quality and originality of the books received. As for customer service: I had made a mistake on one of the orders (accidentally placed it as a one-time gift instead of year-long subscription) but I had written a gift note that said "merry Xmas all year round!" ... Well, I received a call later that morning from OurShelves to make sure I was getting what I wanted and rectify my mistake. Oops! But thank goodness they saved me! All around a great company, great service, and great products!

Sommerville B. Johnston

I have given a subscription to OurShelves multiple times and the kids (and adults!) in my life are loving the book selection, the illustration, and most importantly, the content! This is a gift with meaning and purpose. I have also been in touch with staff directly when I have questions and have found the service to be personal, prompt, and human focused.... what a delight!

Rose White

I got a subscription to OurShelves for my kid when it was introduced; we are a multi-racial, two-moms family. I wanted my kid to have books about lots of people, showing lots of people. He has LOVED it, and we recently renewed for another year.

Carrie Bennett

Living in a small town in Wyoming, our kids have limited exposure to lots of things. Given this, it's especially important to us that our kids experience the richness our diverse world and its people beyond what we see here at home. Since travel is expensive, we need great books! The books we receive through Our Shelves normalize and elevate people and life experiences that our kiddos might otherwise miss out on. The books are beautiful and fun. I also love knowing that our purchases are helping put positive pressure on the publishing industry to be more inclusive. All kids should see themselves and their stories represented in beautiful literature. Our Shelves helps make that a reality.

Melissa Poulin

My children and I receive so much joy from our OurShelves subscription, discovering artists and stories we might not otherwise have found. My children ask to read these titles over and over again. OurShelves has given us hope and connection during a difficult, isolated year.

Barbara Haake

As a mom of a preschooler, and a teacher of about 30 preschoolers, I am very satisfied with my subscription to OurShelves. I actually got two memberships, one personal and one for my students, and it has definitely been a worthwhile investment. I am a lover of classic fairy tales, and early in my career I tried to expose my kiddos to “the classics,” but it didn’t take long to feel that, with only these standards, something was missing from my students’ experiences with literature. I also began to recognize some of the problematic aspects these limited stories presented to a modern and diverse classroom. My school places a lot of emphasis on multiculturalism and diversity, and finding stories that reflected this for my students was sadly challenging and time-consuming. OurShelves has made this part of my job much easier. I love that my students can see children who resemble them presented in different; contexts, modern, imaginary, and folk tale, as well as scientific. Broadening the scope of where my students can identify themselves within their own library gives me hope and confidence that they will then broaden the scope of where they will place themselves in their lives and communities as they grow older. And I am so grateful that my daughter will see these stories that fall outside the realm of what I would know to reach for. OurShelves is an invaluable resource for this teacher/mom, and I think every school and library should have more stories like these in their selection.

Brittany Erez

OurShelves is awesome. We have loved the beautiful, whimsical, inclusive stories we’ve received. Having this curated for us ensures that our kids are getting exposure to a fuller range of people and their experiences - we believe this matters in creating loving new citizens of our world! And this way it doesn’t fall to me to try to discover these books - all that work is done by OurShelves, and I’m grateful.

Eleanor Delewski

We could not be more thrilled with this subscription. Customer service responded to us right away : we have kids aged 1-9 in our house and they quickly built us a custom box with books for all three ages. Our first box included a bilingual book, several books featuring main characters who are black or children of color, a book featuring a LGTB family and a board book about PRIDE. Our kids LOVED the books and wanted to read them over and over. They are already asking when the next box will arrive.

Jen Belanger

I'm so glad I found OurShelves, and been able to broaden my sons' horizons with these inclusive stories. Being white folks in a rural town in Maine, my sons don't get to experience a lot of diversity first-hand just yet. I'm so glad to have this small way to open their eyes to the greater world around them. It's opened up rich conversations in our house, and a number of these books have already become family favorites - and they are books we might never have found on our own. The Founding Membership was well worth the cost, and has been the Christmas gift that keeps on giving... We love opening the new shipments and exploring all of the beautiful stories curated in OurShelves.

Erica Frenkel

We received a subscription as a gift and my 2.5 year old has made me read her the 3 books we received every night since they arrived (over 2 weeks!). In fact, we had been eyeing one of them online and it was sold out elsewhere and then...it showed up in our box! Would DEFINITELY recommend OurShelves.

Saemi Ledermann

Wonderful subscription service. The books were well selected and offered us an ability to identify more inclusive readings that we would not have found ourselves in our local bookstores in Washington D.C.. Excellent customer service; I also plan on gifting subscriptions to my friends.

Molly Davis

Our family loves the beautiful, diverse books we received from OurShelves! They offer many different age-range options to tailor to your child's needs at different price points, making it accessible to all different families.

Melanie Nanke

Our kids love the books! I love seeing what's in our box!

Erica Smith

I love this subscription book box, and Alli is so wonderful and easy to communicate with. Our family adores getting our quarterly box and seeing books that show the many different ways of making a family. The books are beautiful, diverse in content and topic, and some of them are already making heavy rotation (Little Red Stroller, A Plan for Pops).

Jordan Dunn-Small

This is such a fun subscription! My 3 and 6 year old are always excited to open the box and check out their new books. The stories and images are beautiful and inclusive. In the last week, we've had multiple bedtime story requests for ROCKET SAYS LOOK UP! and HARRIET GETS CARRIED AWAY, and my personal favorite is LITTLE NIGHT/NOCHECITA. I love the concept of kids being exposed to diversity through books - this is such a needed and appreciated service!

Mary Trompeter

Our books recently arrived and they are beautiful! I am just thrilled and can't wait to share these wonderful stories with my students this year. It is my goal that every child in my classroom can see themselves in the literature we read, while also seeing into the lives of those around them. The books that you picked for us will help me do just that. Thank you! Mary Trompeter 1st Grade Teacher, The Bryn Mawr School

Kathryn McCarthy

Our white, christian boys, are growing up with a Mom and Dad in an affluent suburb of San Francisco. They NEED to be exposed to a wide variety of people and families through books. They need to see people who don't look like them, or pray like them, as positive role models. Different ways of life need to be normalized for them. Our boys love these books, and we love that OurShelves is making it so easy for us to build a high quality library of diversity for them.

Matt Boone

My whole family loves these books! Our boys are 5 and 3, and with so many children's books centering around construction vehicles or animals, this is a welcome addition to our library. We're introducing them to stories about other people, cultures, families, and kids who are just like them even if some things about them are different.

Mechelle Weyand

I just want to say well done! I've subscribed to many children's book services and this one is by far the best. You can tell a lot of thought has been put into the selection of books. I am beyond satisfied and I hope that Ourshelves continues to deliver such great messages to our children in the form of insightful and relevant literature.

Lisa McDonnell

Absolutely wonderful books! It's so great to have diverse children's books on our shelves. We love reading them, and highly recommend the subscriptions!

Jennifer Enslen

I would definitely recommend your company to anyone who will listen!! The prices are fair, the subject matter is relevant, and the customer service is outstanding!! I had a unique payment question, and received an answer and solution within 24 hours! Our subscription was a gift, and they received it quickly, and loved all of the books inside. Thank you, OurShelves!!

Megan Bryan

My wife and our two daughters have enjoyed these books immensely! It’s so refreshing to see words and illustrations on paper that represent so many walks of life. These books have become a part of our daily routine and we thank you!

Michelle Therrien

I've encouraged all my friends to order a subscription -- I love the dual mission, and the quality of the books is great! We just got our first box of 3 yesterday, and our 6-year-old triplets were so excited to read! I always felt like I had to work too hard to FIND books like this, and now someone is doing the work for me...one thing off my plate!

Madeleine Elfenbein

A consistently wonderful selection of well-curated books at a very fair price. So glad to have these books in our lives! We've been subscribers for the past nearly three years, and we just moved up to the next age level of books as our kid learns to read.

Katie Kuhl

Wonderful experience top to bottom! We had both the baby/board book order and the PreK book order and loved them both. Excellent customer service and communication as well. Highly recommend!

Sahra Sellers

This is an amazing service! I got an annual subscription for my child's preschool last year and they tell me all the time how amazing the books are. Just renewed for another year and honestly I can't imagine any better gift for a school!

Sarah H

Every child is born with an expansive and loving heart and mind. Ourshelves nurtures children's hearts and minds and helps us, as caring parents, friends, and family members, make manifest the world we want to see. This is a wonderful organization with a brilliant mission. Consider your subscription or gift more than a purchase - it's a way of changing the culture, asking more of publishers, and creating more possibilities for peace, love, equality, and acceptance.

Alicia Aguayo

I am so excited about this service! My family is multi-racial and multi-cultural and it is so hard to find books that reflect this kind of family experience, so I am thrilled that this service exists. We got our first box of books and loved it and I can't wait to see what we get in the second box. I look forward to my children growing up with this service.

Kelly Batstone

My son loves the books. They are high quality, inclusive and age appropriate. OurShelves is wonderful!

Sarah O'Callaghan

The books selected for us were awesome. It's sometimes disappointing or overwhelming to go into stores and try to find stories that both reflect our community AND are interesting to read. I could read these books over and over and still enjoy them.

Kim Campbell

The book selection is really lovely, always stuff I wouldn't have heard of otherwise, and I've recommended the subscription to a few other friends and they all love it, too. First-rate products and impeccable customer service!

Aliya Hess

Great books and great conversations I have had with my kiddos as a result of these unique books!

Rowan Mangan

Brilliant service! Can't recommend highly enough. Not only a great concept, but I've had customer service that goes far above and beyond what I would have expected. Do yourself and your kids a favor and subscribe to OurShelves.

Abigail Robinson

The books are beautiful, well written and show a great range of diversity. My daughter loves that the families look like ours.

Jeanne Forbes

My granddaughter loves, loves the books! They are beautifully written and illustrated and she is excited the images of familiar faces

Lauren Whitlow

We love this subscription! The books are age appropriate and so unique! Excellent customer service, too.

Elizabeth Bateman

We love this book club! Some of our favorite books have come from them.

Abby Maurer

I love this subscription book service! Such beautiful children's books that illustrate the inclusive values that I want to teach my son.

Megan Mawe

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