Shop Talk is an occasional feature in which fledgling independent booksellers take Q&Q into their stores and share their reasons for opening and what business has been like so far. 

Nuts and Shells Bookshop
1596 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario

Nadia Alam is no stranger to children’s books. 

The Toronto-based illustrator has been making children’s books for years, with six picture books to her credit, including her most recent title, Sarabeth’s Garage, written by Melanie Florence, which was published by Tundra Books in February. 

But earlier this year, she entered a new realm of the kids’ book business, opening indie children’s bookstore Nuts and Shells in her west-end Toronto neighbourhood. 

The store, a roughly 810 square-foot space on Dundas West in the Little Portugal neighbourhood, opened on May 7. Alam operates the bookstore with two part-time employees.  

Alam’s move into bookselling was neither obvious nor expected. 

“I came to it sideways, as an illustrator rather than a bookseller,” she says. “Two things pushed me to open, and in equal measure.”

One was her neighbourhood’s need for a dedicated children’s bookstore, which she realized firsthand as a parent. The other was the death of her father. 

“My parents are the ones who gave me my love of books, and when [my father] passed away recently, opening the store became a way to carry that forward,” Alam says. “He would have loved this shop.”

Her father’s nickname was Shelly, and her mother’s name is Zeenat, so Alam combined the two names in calling her bookstore Nuts and Shells. “The name is an homage to them both,” she says. 

Alam continues to illustrate and is currently working on a young readers chapter book for Nimbus Publishing. Conveniently, the store’s basement serves as both inventory storage space and studio. 

Alam recently talked to Q&Q about what the first months of business have been like. 

Why open Nuts and Shells in 2026? What was it about your community that inspired you to open the store?

I love the West End. This is where I’ve chosen to make my home and raise my kids. It is full of families and creative makers and small businesses and great patios and markets and ice cream shops and all the things that make a community. It has a fantastic network of independent bookstores too, but not one devoted to kids. The nearest dedicated children’s bookstore is a bit of a trip. 

How has the community and its readers responded to the store?

The community response has been incredible and so warm. That starts with my small-business neighbours, who have been so welcoming, and it extends to the authors, illustrators, and publishing folk I really admire who have stopped by. It feels a little unreal. My weekly orders keep growing too, a good problem, if a logistical one! Then there are the regulars, truly the sweetest: babies and toddlers, grade schoolers, even a couple of high schoolers. Some have taken to treating the place as theirs, which is my dream. With a little luck and resilience, I will get to watch them grow up, sell them books, and just be a staple in their lives.

How do you reach potential readers?

Foot traffic and hand-selling go far in this neighbourhood. I get a lot of customers who have been sent over by my neighbours, too: there is a real sense that I am part of a small-business ecosystem. I have a really lovely social media person working behind the scenes; I just started a newsletter; and I lean on a few local partnerships. A substantial amount of reach comes from my regular customers, parents and kids alike. Parents tell other parents, and the kids write reviews of the books they would recommend to other kids. A good recommendation goes a long way.

What are your goals for the bookstore?

I want the shop to give other people what books have always given me: a bit of calm and care in chaos. Somewhere to chill and discover good stories and amazing art, warm and welcoming enough that on a bad day you can come in and find a book to escape into. Books are how I found comfort and stability in my own childhood, and I think that was a gift.

The practical goals follow from that. I want Nuts and Shells to be a fixture people build into their week, not a place they visit once, and I want the shelves to respond to what young readers actually want to read and see. Programming is where I most want to grow: circle time, author visits, and regular kids’ events, alongside adult focused stuff. I just launched a Grown-Ups Book Club that is filling up nicely. And there is so much happening in this city’s kid-lit scene that I want to support and showcase local talent wherever I can.

What has been most surprising or unexpected about opening a bookstore or about your first few months in business?

How little of it is about books, at least at first. It’s distributors, freight minimums, POS systems, social media, so much web stuff, going through publisher catalogues, cleaning and store upkeep, and finding time to actually read what I’m bringing into the space. People hinted at the operational puzzles, but I did not really appreciate how much time and troubleshooting they would take. The number of hats I wear in a day, sometimes in an hour, is fun, albeit head-spinning.

Equally unexpected was how much I would get from meeting other booksellers, or the sheer amount of excitement and support around a small independent bookstore. There is a strange doubleness to it all – the shop feels like somewhere I have always been, even as I learn how much I still have to learn.

This interview has been edited and condensed.