View Finder: Children Enjoy a Final Day In the Cardboard Castle

The Reading Habit(at) is shedding its cocoon and growing wings, as it prepares to shut down its Oakville location, and owner Jennifer MacAdam-Miller is excited about the metamorphosis. She has plans to turn the Reading Habit(at) into a traveling version of what it already is, a place for children to experience literary playfulness.

The first stop for the Reading Habit(at) will be Joplin, Mo., in July. MacAdam-Miller is working with a United Methodist church there to set up a live version of the Nira Harel book, The Key to My Heart. 

In the book a father and son retrace their steps to find a set of lost keys. MacMiller-Adam is working to set up stations for Joplin families to visit when they read the book, with real postal workers and barbers and pizza shop workers, for every place the father and son visit.

"I like The Key to My Heart, because it's a book about parent-child connection, but it's also about normalcy and daily life," said MacAdam-Miller.

Many Oakville families are sad to see the shop go.

"We've been here a few times for story time and to get books," said Oakville parent Veronica Neuhoff. "We'll miss the story time, and just having a really cool bookstore in South County. We don't have many."

"I'll miss having a place to come with my daughter and look at books and play dress up," said Jennifer's friend Diane Carty, who brought her daughter, Elizabeth, to the final party in the cardboard castle.

While she is a little sad to see the shop go, MacAdam-Miller is excited for the new opportunities this transformation brings.

"On a national level, when I'm not a store it's going to free me up. Now I don't physically have to be there to help connect people," said MacAdam-Miller.

To celebrate the transformation, the store held a large sale and a final party, with all proceeds benefitting the Joplin relief efforts.

Check out the slideshow of the bittersweet final party inside the cardboard castle.