A bookseller on the rise of books focusing on kids and their emotions

If you’re a mum with a weakness for buying kids books (let’s face it, who isn’t?), you would probably have noticed that there are increasingly more titles helping kids understand and cope with their feelings. Popular ones include The Colour Monsters, Today I Feel Silly and Trace Monorey’s rabbit series on When I Feel …

A hit with book kids and adults alike, The Color Monster, which explores feelings and relates them to colours, is even available as a pop-up edition now.

We talk to Eileen Lim who’s the owner of Groovy Giraffe, which by the way is one of Singapore’s earliest online kids booksellers starting way back in 2012, to find out more about the popularity of these books.

Hi Eileen! Congrats on being the new owner of Groovy Giraffe. How did it happen?

I was in the media industry over 20 years before I decided to be a business owner. In December 2018, Groovy Giraffe’s previous owner informed everyone in her mailing list that she intended to shut down her business and she was looking for like-minded people who are willing to keep it going.

Children’s books are the closest to my heart and it was timely. I had bought my daughter’s first books from Groovy Giraffe - that sentimental value and the fact that I saw so many benefits of introducing books at a very young age such as raising early readers who read well, were some of the reasons I wanted to carry on the business.

Groovy Giraffe started in 2012. This is a lot earlier than many online booksellers. How do you think it's evolved since?

Groovy Giraffe started in 2012 with a dream to bring good, affordable kids books into everyone’s homes. The previous owner carried remainder titles. These are brand new but heavily discounted books because they may display shelf wear or remainder markings.

However, over the years, online shopping has become such a big business that every shopper knows where to source for books at modest price. I knew the business model had to evolve. I’m also particularly excited about new book launches and the range of social and emotional titles in recent years. I decided to keep our inventory current — I sold most of the outdated inventory at cost and donated the remaining books, in celebration of the new Groovy Giraffe’s one-year anniversary this year.

Eileen at Groovy Giraffe’s pop-up stall at Harbourfront. Hope to see Groovy Giraffe pop up again when COVID-19 rules are more relaxed.

Talking about evolution of books, we’re also noticing the increasing number of books dedicated to kids and their feelings. Why do you think publishers and parents are also paying attention to this type of books?

We’re realising that our thoughts and words have the power to shape lives. I believe if our children are nurtured with compassion, empathy and diversity from an early age, we can all be a little more tolerant and resilient in today’s world. Books which educate to empower teach children how to embody the values and qualities we all desire to live by. 

And these books about emotions are getting a lot more attention now than in the past because we are now hearing more stories of parents sharing publicly the growing pains (with loads of love regardless!) of raising children in the our generation. It is also about learning to recognise how another person is feeling, showing kindness, self-love, gratitude, respect for people and our planet. Such books explore the topics in a way all children will relate to, and help them learn the strategies on how to cope with the many challenges of life they will encounter as they grow into adulthood. Taking the time to read and listen more develops our ability to connect to one another in compassionate and meaningful ways.   

What are your personal tips for helping your kids grow emotionally and teaching them to regulate their emotions?   

At home, we allow our children to express themselves freely, without being afraid to show their emotions from a young age. I’d give my children their space be themselves, by observing their behaviour and preference on things around them first, before helping them regulate their emotions. We have many conversations daily on how they feel on things that happened in school, the toys they play, their actions and behavious, the books they read. Listening plays a big part in understanding your children’s sentiments. I encourage my children to follow their heart to go with activities which they would enjoy doing, and when they choose to behave the way they do, they’d to learn to accept the consequences. For me, we try to practice mindfulness as much as we can in our daily lives and being conscious of how I talk to my kids. For instance, I try to avoid questions like, “Who is your favourite teacher in school?”, “Do you like your friend Chloe?” where kids might get influenced to cast a preference. I prefer to say something like, “Let’s have fun with Chloe today!. I find such positive statements make a difference.

Some of the titles about kids and their big feelings available on Groovy Giraffe’s website.

Why is it so important to have books in kids’ lives early?

When it comes to reading books, if you miss the prime age, it’s going to be hard to engage them when they are older. Generally, children need not be thought how to P-L-A-Y, they would instinctively pick up toys or books, and fiddle with them. But, the W-O-R-D-S in the books, they would never be interested, or understand what they mean if you do not involve them from young.

What are your hopes for Groovy Giraffe? You mentioned you might want to return to work. How would you balance the two?

I’d like to keep the business multifaceted for any products I may choose to create/adopt/collaborate for retail and grow with in the future. I would definitely want to retain the gist of our ‘Read a book, share a story!’ tagline - ‘sharing’ and ‘paying it forward’ remain a big part of my momentum in life.

As for returning to work, I believe when the ideal job comes along, I would be able to work out the best arrangement. Whether it’s being a business owner, a salaried-employee or a mother, we all learn to strike a balance somehow. I am very lucky to have worked with understanding bosses and team mates who allowed me to take on both my role as a manager & mother effectively. My line of work is too fun not to keep it going. Tough as it may be, it’s the job satisfaction in delivering the best in all my roles which keeps me going!

Groovy Giraffe’s has more than 250 titles covering fiction, non-fiction as well as emotion and social intelligence. To see its excellent collection of social-emotion books, check out its Educate to Empower page.