Children can easily find entertainment by playing video games and watching television. But does this make it right to constantly put a youngster in front of a screen to pass the time? Tim DiMacchia wants children to read more. So he founded Read About Me, a company offering personalized books to young children.
“Our goal is to get children to embrace learning sooner and become more attached to wanting to read,” says DiMacchia, a resident of Santa Clara who was born in Ohio.
According to DiMacchia, Read About Me has been operational for a little over a year. DiMacchia conceived the idea for the company some time ago and conducted a preliminary investigation on how this business could work. Then he took care of some licensing requirements to allow Read About Me to sell personalized books featuring figures in pop culture, such as Scooby-Doo, Garfield, the Flintstones, and characters from Looney Tunes.
Some books offered by Read About Me come in a variety of languages, including French, German, Italian and Spanish. Read About Me also offers books with consideration to different religions and cultures, with topics such as Jewish holidays, Jesus, and Kwanzaa.
“Around the holiday season, our Christmas books are popular,” DiMacchia says. “For boys, things like our Batman books have been popular. Girls like the Ballerina Princess books. Both boys and girls like the Sesame Street books.”
Although books from Read about Me are not carried at bookstores, DiMacchia acknowledges that the children’s book business is doing well.
“The children’s books business has grown considerably,” he says. “If you walk into a children’s bookstore, you see all sorts of children’s books.”
Customer response to Read About Me’s products and promotional efforts have been favorable.
“Feedback has been very positive,” DiMacchia says. “We noticed within a day or two from our [promotional mailings sent earlier this year], we’ve been getting orders. Everybody that has ordered a book has been very positive and has enjoyed the books. Sometimes a book is so popular, we might be backordered for a few weeks.”
“People say their kids love our books,” he continues. “It’s the whole personalized thing. People might have a child who doesn’t enjoy reading but when they see their name or their pet’s name in the book, they attach to the material quicker.”
Visit www.readaboutme.com or call 1 (800) 974-2606 for more information.