Mr. Mopps' Children's Books

Hello everyone- we hope you are all doing well and hanging in there. We've been getting a handful of messages inquiring whether we are going to open this week for curbside pick up. We aren't- for a few reasons: We have taken the opportunity during the closure to proceed on the next phase of construction in the book shop to make our mezzanine wheelchair accessible and open up and build out another section *under* the mezzanine. This closure is a perfect opportunity for it- w...e'd have to close periodically and kind of randomly for different stages of that project. We won't be going to Mr. Mopps' (in it's entirety) to work at all while the construction crew is working on that in an effort to practice social distancing. Another is that part of the shelter-in-place mandate so far has been that we can sell existing merchandise, but not receive new shipments, so our inventory- especially at the book shop, where we generally order things in ones and twos- has gotten pretty spotty. (out of chunks of series and stuff like that). This may change though. I haven't looked in to it yet, but I assume that being permitted to do curbside pick up also entails being able to receive shipments again. Yet another, and probably the most important one to me, is that we aren't yet comfortable with the potential risks to everyone at Mr. Mopp's with bringing staff back to the shop, and only Jenny or I can work at any given time while the other is with our son. We've done that a bit for deliveries, and it is sloooow going but we'll probably get back in to doing that again after the construction project is done. We appreciate everyone reaching out and we wish it was easy or simple to help you all, but to the end of offering curbside service starting this week, it's not quite possible yet and we are a bit apprehensive to do so even when it is. We'll keep everyone posted as things develop over here. In the meantime, it is still possible for us to special order books to be shipped to your house through the a distributor we work with. One of our fantastic booksellers, Amanda, is handling that from home and she's happy to look in to getting any book you like- and even make recommendations. She can be reached at [email protected] . If you'd like to stay in the loop about toy delivery and possible curbside service in the future, email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you when we resume service to that end. Thanks for thinking of us. We really really miss you all and hope that you and your family are safe, healthy, and not going too crazy. We really can't wait to see you again. <3 -Devin (and Jenny)

Hello, everyone- we hope this finds you and your family well. These are strange and scary times we are living in right now. We've always thought of Mr. Mopps' shoppers as friends of the shop, and we think about allayouse guise a whole lot. We get a lot of emails and messages and calls from people wanting to support the shop, asking whether or not we can still offer curbside service. We can't. We'd love to, but we understand why. And in having been stubborn about being old fas...hioned-y and wanting to strictly offer Mr. Mopps' as more of an experience (and not so much as "just" a vehicle of commerce- yeah, I know. I'm crazy), we don't have the infrastructure for web ordering or shipping in place. Believe you me, though; I'm kicking myself REAL hard for that right about now. We are looking in to some stuff, but it will be a while before we can set anything like that up. Even with all this "free" time these days, we are still super busy trying to keep our son engaged and active and also still dealing with the administrative aspects of running the shop. Without interacting with you, it seems all we do is pay bills to a ghost shop. Not to doom and gloom out- we are optimistic that we will be able to make it through this. For now, our rent has been deferred, but we still have a ton of other overhead with vendors and insurance and stuff and missing months of sales is going to make this challenging. We will no doubt make a big deal out of any progress we make in terms of offering online service, so you'll hear about that if it happens. In the meantime, we *are* able to have a distributor we work with dropship books to you, and not just kid's books either. Feel free to message or email us if you are interested in details about that. It's a bit slow going, but hey, where's the fire? We aren't going anywhere. We also can charge over the phone for gift cards which we will hold on to for you until we reopen if you like. I wish we had some kind of great news for you, but I'm glad that we don't have terrible news. We're hanging there and we hope you are too. We miss you all. Your messages, emails, and calls of support touch us very deeply and we can't wait to see every single one of you again. Oh, also, in case you missed it, for all of you Moppsters who ask what we are listening to at the shop, we've made this public playlist that has most of it. I've been adding a couple of hours to it every week since we started it a couple of months ago, and it's getting up there. As of today it's up to 1,436 of our favorite songs! (). It's in heavy rotation at the Mopps residence. Seriously, though. We miss you all. So, so much. <3 -Devin (and Jenny)

Unfortunately, in accordance with the shelter in place mandate, Mr. Mopps' is closed until April 7th (or who knows? We'll see how this shakes out). We are looki...ng in to whether or not it is possible to continue to provide pick-up service, although that's not looking good either. We will update our social medias and website to reflect any changes to that end. If you'd like to get in touch, we will be checking all messages everywhere periodically. We love you, persons. Hang in there and be safe. We hope to see you as soon as we can. #shelterinplace #berkeley #toyshop #childrensbooks #independentbookstore #covid_19

Looks like we're going to have a long few weeks (if not more) ahead of us all, and in this time of social distancing, we need stuff to do perhaps more than ever.... At @mr.mopps.toys and @moppsbooks, we hope to serve you and help with your diversion and entertainment needs for as long as we can. Feel free to call the shop for more details about our curbside pickup program. Stay safe, everyone. And hang in there.

And now for something completely different. We don't really do books "for parents", but we wholeheartedly cosign on Peggy Orenstein's work. We love her (she's rad), we loved Cinderella Ate My Daughter, we love Mrs. Dalloway's, and as parents of a young boy, we are totally going to this event. Peggy's books are thoughtfully researched, insightful, enlightening, and eye-opening. If you have a boy in your life, you may want to check this out as well. <3 (Devin) This Wednesday ni...ght! Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore brings you Peggy Orenstein, Author talking about her new book, Boys and Sex. "Drawing on comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists, academics, and experts in the field, Boys & Sex reveals how young men understand and negotiate the new rules of physical and emotional intimacy. Orenstein dissects so-called locker room talk; how the word "hilarious" robs boys of empathy; pornography as the new sex education; boys' understanding of hookup culture and consent; and their experience as both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence. By surfacing young men's experience in all its complexity, Orenstein is able to unravel the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important realities of young male sexuality in today's world. The result is a provocative and paradigm-shifting work that offers a much-needed vision of how boys can truly move forward as better men." -->Linking to an article with a little more about Peggy and her new book in the comments.

Heads up: Mr. Mopps' Children's Books *and* Mr. Mopps' Toy Shop will be CLOSED this week from Wednesday January 8th through Friday January 10th. Why, you ask? Well, we are expanding yet again! Kind of. Over the next couple of months we are having work done intermittently to open up under the mezzanine for another section and to INSTALL A WHEELCHAIR LIFT! (We're pretty excited about that part.)... As a shop that emphasizes representation, accessibility is a big deal to us and we are suuuuper happy to finally be able to move forward to that end. This project is pretty big, but will be broken up in to clusters to minimize the overall impact on business so we can continue to provide you with amazing books for kids while we work on achieving our goal. So the bad news is that we will be closing every once in a while so that another phase of this whole thing can be worked on, but the *good* news is that when it's finally done, we can begin offering the kind of community-based programming we've been dreaming of like story times, book clubs, author events, classes, and craft days that are accessible to EVERYONE. We'll try to be as communicative as possible as the project develops and timelines firm up, so if you'd like to stay in the loop, follow us here on Facebook for updates and scheduled closures. Thank you all so much for all the support you've given us through this move. I know we say it all the time, but we literally can't do what we do without you and it means the world to us. And with your continued support, we will just get better and better. Thank you thank you thank you.

Six years! Here's a flashback to the grand opening. It's only been a month in our new location and yet it feels like a distant memory being in our previous tiny home at all. Thank you so much for all of the support over the years- it means a lot to us. We really can't stress that enough. You literally make it possible to do what we do.

Mr. Mopps' Children's Books in Berkeley is hiring! After our big move, we are finding that we are doing a bit better than we thought we would. And while that's a good problem to have, we need help. We're looking for booksellers- either with experience, or with a knowledge of and passion for children's books and a desire to provide excellent customer service and foster great relationships with our amazing customers. If you'd like to work at one of the best bookshops for kids a...round, we'd love to hear from you. Please email your resume copied and pasted in an email (we won't be opening any attachments) to mrmoppsjobs[at]gmail.com. Feel free to tell us a little about yourself and a few of your favorite authors, illustrators, or titles as well if you like so we can get to know you a bit better. And if you know anyone who may be interested, feel free to pass this on. Thanks! We hope to hear from you soon. <3

Well, we did a thing. And that thing was move. Click through to see some pics of the new shop! And feel free to follow us on Instagram if you like.

There's a lot going on in our neighborhood for families now. Check out this sweet write-up of family oriented businesses on our block and in the surrounding area!

Okay, this is awesome. We've got new neighbors! Tracy is a dear old friend of the shop and we are so excited for her new project, Hands-On Invent Create Discover! <3

Neato! Check out this handy dandy eclipse simulator to get a timeline and visual representation of what the upcoming eclipse on the 21st will look like from your very own zip code (or whatever zip code you may be in that morning)!

What a pleasant surprise this morning. Turns out there is a new Primus album, and this video was just released featuring animated artwork from Ul De Rico's beautiful, psychedelic 1978 book The Rainbow Goblins! I happen to have been a fan of both Primus and The Rainbow Goblins in my *ahem* teenage years. So this is pretty awesome to me. -Devin