My Usborne Story

Hi! I'm Amy and I'm a book-a-holic. I've been addicted for as long as I can remember. First, it was picture books - as many as I could get people to read to me. Then, it was early chapter books - I remember a special fondness for all things Beverly Cleary and Bobbsey Twins. Of course, I moved on to Christopher Pike, RL Stine, and the Sweet Valley High books, and then I hit the hard stuff with Stephen King and Michael Crichton. Before long, I'd fallen in love with Salinger and Hawthorne, and my fate was sealed: I had become a lifelong reader.

It made sense that I became an English and Reading teacher, where I got to share my love for words with middle school students. I filled my classroom library with all sorts of reading materials across many reading and interest levels, and I scoured recommended reading lists and book fairs for new material for my students to dive into. I had a good number of Usborne non-fiction titles among those in my classroom, but I had no idea I'd one day open my own corner bookstore with their brand.

I left the classroom after the birth of my first child, and by the spring of 2014, I was homeschooling our 5 and 3 year olds while expecting our third (and final!) baby. A friend hosted an Usborne book party, and when I glanced at their catalog, I realized their "That's Not My..." series was one of my children's favorite amongst our rather vast collection, and the older non-fiction titles looked very familiar - they were updated versions of the ones I'd collected for my classroom years ago! "I love Usborne!" I thought. I never attend home parties and am not really a fan of having products pushed on me by well-meaning but over-enthusiastic acquaintances, but these were actually something I already had in my home and had very specifically added to my classroom - but I used to buy them through amazon.

Turns out, Usborne is not a fan of the amazon model of bookselling, and they quit selling their books through that channel in 2012, focusing instead on using consultants to spread the word about these quality books. I was deep in diaper-changing mode in 2012, so I completely missed this shift.

After looking through the catalog, my wishlist for building our homeschooling library was so large that becoming a consultant just made sense in order to get a discount. I have no sales minimums, so I don't have to sell YOU on the books - I can just buy them myself! But I really do love Usborne books and want to share them with my family and yours. Take a look for yourself - maybe you'll find a book or two for your kids, or maybe like me, your list will grow so long that you'll want to become a consultant, too!

If you find yourself in the latter category, you've made the discovery at the right time! Right now you can become a consultant for $69 and get the large consultant kit for the small kit price (it's usually $125, with a retail value over $370 - there are 25 books in the kit!). You can check out the kit here or feel free to email me for more info.

Happy Reading,
Amy