Dad Suggests is Now a Children's Bookstore in Fayetteville, Arkansas
We have some extremely exciting news to announce. It’s something we’ve been working on behind the scenes, and now we’re ready to unveil it. Dad Suggests is now a brick-and-mortar children’s bookstore and game store in Fayetteville, Arkansas!
Dad taking one last look at the store before Dad Suggests opens in Fayetteville, AR
In many ways it’s a very natural progression from what we’ve been doing on DadSuggests.com since 2018. We started this website because we wanted to share the kids books and family games that our family loves. There’s an overwhelming amount of beautiful books and amazing games out there, and I simply thought we could be of assistance sifting through the filler.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
- Claude Monet
We wanted to make it easier for other families to discover those special books and games that are memory-makers. And now we get to continue to do that in this new and exciting way in our community!
But, if you aren’t in the area, have no fear! Nothing will change about the way our website or social media accounts are run. We’re definitely still going to show off all the books and games our family loves. But, the best part is, many of those things we love will end up having a home in our shop as well - for people to stumble upon and discover and fall in love with in a very exciting way.
Dad Suggests the store features a collection of thoughtfully-curated, quality kids books and family games. We’re only going to be selling the things we truly love, and I hope that everyone who visits will be able to feel that difference. In a perfect world, we’d like the quality of the choices to be overwhelming - so it feels like you have to flip through every picture book on the shelves while you’re there, and you wish you had more time.
My wife and I have been having a wonderful time ourselves behind the scenes - ordering copies of our very favorite picture books in the world. We’re paying special attention to beautiful backlist titles that have been family favorites for years. The end result is being surrounded by extremely high-quality children’s books that you honestly just don’t see displayed in bookstores very often.
Many of our favorite picture books and graphic novels are starting to roll in at Dad Suggests in Fayetteville, AR
Of course we’ll be keeping a very keen eye on the new releases as well, and giving all of our favorite books of the year the attention they deserve. I simply can’t wait for my first chance to build a display for our annual Dad Suggests Picture Book Awards winners! And, you know what? I might finally get my chance to print out those medals and actually stick them to physical copies of our favorite books in the store. They’ll be collector’s items in no time!
Our 10-year-old son is officially in charge of sourcing our graphic novel collection, and I think he’ll take his job very seriously. He has great taste and he’s certainly been doing his research on the graphic novels in particular. For many of these books, I’ll be able to honestly say they helped my kids fall in love with reading, and it would be an honor to be a small part of making that come true with other kids out there.
I’m also excited to have the whole family join in on hand-writing some recommendations to place next to our favorite books. That’s always been one of my favorite little touches of local bookstores, and it will feel like a tiny extension of our website. In fact, we also plan on placing a few QR codes around the store on special books and games - that lead to articles we’ve actually written about them. In other words, I just want everyone to know we really love these things.
As far as our board games are concerned, we’ve already opened accounts with some of our very favorite publishers of kids games - names like HABA, Ravensburger, LOKI, and Gamewright. When we crafted our lists of the best board games for every age, these publishers simply pop up over and over again.
But the truth is that there are tons of family-favorite board games that I have never once seen for sale in a store. Whatever the reason, I truly think it’s rare to find a well-curated collection of board games specifically for kids and families in a brick-and-mortar store - and I am beyond excited to offer that to the community.
If you’re in the area, Dad Suggests is located inside of The Shops at BrickCity - in the Evelyn Hills Shopping Center, and you can view a map and find our hours here. Our store is in the far back right corner - tucked away as cozy as can be. And I’m certainly hoping kids find it cozy too. Hopefully the easy-to-reach books, the reading nook, and the pillows see a lot of love!
I want to thank all of you for your support over the years, and for making this new exciting adventure a possibility. Thank you for reading, and for chatting about our favorite books and games with us. I can’t believe I get to now share them with my community in this new and exciting way. And I hope I get to meet many of you in the shop one day.
