Today we’d like to introduce you to Omar and Kimberly Finley.
The Listening Tree is a children’s bookstore created to perpetuate a love of literacy and learning in our global community. Located on Candler Road, owners Omar and Kimberly Finley, founded The Listening Tree to introduce the Black Voice into the American lexicon. Their children prompted them to focus on putting books that educate and inspire in the hands of young readers from toddlers through teens, especially Black youth.
Omar and Kimberly were frustrated with the book choices for their own children and decided to establish a company called Our Story Books Publishing. They wrote a book called “A World Of Our Own: The Beginning”. This book beautifully illustrates the first seven days of God’s creation! They sold 500 copies in less than 90 day’s and realized that they should continue writing children’s books for black children. While writing their 2nd book, “A World of Our Own: Noah The Righteous,” they noticed that their pace of writing children’s books wasn’t fast enough to provide consistently good books that depicted black children at the center of the story.
That frustration became the birth of The Listening Tree! The Listening Tree also boasts a Young Entrepreneurs Program that is already serving our young people, ages 8 – 16, in Decatur and Atlanta and teaching them how to own and operate their own businesses. The Listening Tree also serves the national and international community through its B-Boys and B-Girls Book Club! The B-Boys and B-Girls Club is designed to ensure that every child receives a minimum of 12 age and gender appropriate books per year that will challenge, teach and inspire him or her to excellence in every field of human endeavor! Each month every child receives a book along with a newsletter and access to a parent-controlled members-only online community/virtual classroom.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road less traveled is NEVER smooth. We consciously decided to carve out a new industry that focuses solely on providing responsible representation of black children, youth and young adults. We’ve navigated around the obstacles by remaining child-centric in all that we do! Our decision is constantly challenging, as well as exhilarating because we are raising a standard that will give the world healthier reading choices in black children’s literature.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Listening Tree – what should we know?
At The Listening Tree, we’re most proud of our commitment to customer service and satisfaction. Our B-Boys & B-Girls Book Club gives our members and parent’s a first look at our constantly growing inventory of culturally relevant literature. We’ve set ourselves apart in several ways. We’ve developed a curriculum of entrepreneurship that’s real, relevant and responsive to the ideas of our best and brightest children. We provide literature and media that represents the black world in a more Interesting and realistic light than the traditional media outlets. Lastly, we do a 100% review of every book and video that we put on our shelves! The Listening Tree is truly a gift waiting to be discovered!
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Customer Service.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Listening Tree
2308 Candler Rd
Decatur GA 30032 - Website: www.listeningtreebooks.com
- Phone: 404-312-8825
- Email: inquiry@listeningtreebooks.com
- Instagram: @thelisteningtree
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelisteningtreebooktique/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thlisteningtree
Image Credit:
Jack Manning (Jaxon Photo Group), Kimberly Finley, Omar Finley
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
