Wild Rumpus children's bookshop, Minneapolis, Minn., "is the kind of store most people would wish they had as kids. It's loud and vibrant, and unlike most bookstores, live animals roam between the towering bookshelves. Tourists make the store a must-see stop on their Minneapolis trips and locals bring their out-of-town families," Minnesota Monthly reported in a profile headlined "Wild Rumpus is a Bookstore Come to Life."
Co-founder Collette Morgan said she didn't want to follow business conventions, but rather design the store specifically for kids, with "the miniature front door, the canoe breaking through an icy lake on the ceiling, and reading nooks with overstuffed poufs and child-size chairs make the store look like something out of a child's imagination," Minnesota Monthly wrote.
"But I didn't want to work without animals," Morgan said, noting that for bookstore regulars, encountering animals is commonplace,with a menagerie that includes a ferrets, cats, chinchillas, a tarantula, birds, a few fish, and a chicken.
"Reading early on in life opens horizons," she added. "The store gets kids to read outside the box. It makes them better people."