Twin Cities Business Listing

Wild Rumpus is a one-of-a-kind independent children’s bookstore. In 2022, the bookstore celebrated its 30th Anniversary of providing their expertise on kids books to Twin Cities families and booklovers. Step inside this Linden Hills store front and and let your child’s imagination go wild.

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Where the (Not-So) Wild Things Are

Besides a catalog of books geared toward children and a friendly staff, they boast a menagerie of domestic and exotic pets. There animals change over time, but cats, mice, lizards, chinchillas, tarantulas and birds call the store home. According to the store’s newsletter, What’s the Rumpus?, the store’s most-recent chicken (not the one pictured below), Neil Spiel, decided to retire to a nearby hobby farm in 2021.

Once a year, in the late spring, the animals get their annual vet check up. Families are usually invited to come watch.

Fun Facts: Often described as a “magical place,” Wild Rumpus based the interior design and animal-friendly atmosphere of the store on the children’s book, The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer; and, of course the name, is a quote from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Meet Your Favorite Children’s Book Authors

Like any good bookstore, Wild Rumpus offers author events, readings and story times. They are not quick to get these up on their website or out in press releases, so I recommend getting on their email list. Many author events are held on Saturday at 11am, so you could just show up and see what is happening. This might be best with a plan for exploring the Linden Hills neighborhood (read more about that below).

Tail Time Story Hour

Tail Time, the popular Monday morning story hour, is held weekly from 10:30 to 11am. It is geared toward toddlers and preschool-age kids, but if you have older kids at home, you can bring them too. The store can get pretty crowded, so we recommend coming a little early. Actually we recommend arriving at 10am, when the store opens.

Wild Rumpus suggests scheduling large groups for a separate story time. They’ll toss in a brief tour of the store.  Call the store to learn more.

Wild Rumpus Trolley Story Times

A couple times a year, Wild Rumpus offers their popular trolley ride story times. Several other bookstores do this now, too, but I think this is the bookstore that started the trend. At least they were the first I saw do it. This also tends to be the most popular of the trolley story hours, so they’ve used various methods to fairly distribute tickets — from lottery systems to limits on tickets.

Whichever method they use to  distribute the tickets, they are gone too fast to promote. If you are interested in attending one of these programs, I, again, recommend subscribing to their newsletter so you can get the details early.

The Outside World of the Wild Rumpus Neighborhood

Wild Rumpus is located in the beloved Linden Hills district of Minneapolis. If you are up for an afternoon of exploring, Anne has more details and suggestions for restaurants and family fun in her article, Family Fun Idea: 5 Spots to Stop in Linden Hills, Minneapolis — including stops at Great Harvest Bread, Sebastian Joes Ice Cream & Dunn Brothers for snacks, Heartfelt Crafts, Pinwheel & Play Toys (in the old Creative Kidstuff space) to shop, trolley rides and more.

Also, speaking of trolley rides, one of the Como-Harriet Streetcar trolley stations is in Linden Hills. Even if you are not attending a story time, you may be able to ride the trolley.

A Parent’s Review of Wild Rumpus Bookstore

There’s this little bookstore hidden in Minneapolis. It’s a quaint little place where the books are numerous as are the animals! Let me introduce you to Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers.

Located in the Linden Hills neighborhood not far from Lake Harriet, Wild Rumpus is a dream.  It’s the place where you can pull up a chair or a bench and just read without any distractions.

No, forgive me. That’s not what I meant. There are plenty of distractions. Mostly coming in the form of  little beasts. Including a 2 chickens who are welcome to roam the store freely, 2 cats who have the same privileges, 2 ferrets (who are nicely caged), a lizard named Spike, a tarantula, a chinchilla, 3 cockatiels, 2 doves, and a rat. The rat lives in a cage under the floor boards.  You can see him through a glass window in the floor. And no, I couldn’t walk over him without getting the heebie jeebies and nervously gagging and shuddering. (Note: The Animals of Wild Rumpus have changed over the years since this article was originally written, but the bookshop continues to have a menagerie.

But when there are good books to be had, nothing can stop you! You will read and read.  And Wild Rumpus has plenty of great books! Kyla was in heaven with books surrounding her floor to ceiling.  (Who am I kidding?  I was in heaven!)  Jack was in heaven with a gazillion nooks and crannies in which to hide. (I on the other hand kept losing him!  I wasn’t too worried since the store wasn’t that big.)  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  It’s perfect just the way it is.

This was one of my favorite parts of the store.  Recycled Books.  Read: Used books.  And while they were a dollar, I was able to leave the store having spent only $2.  1 dollar for sugary treats and 1 dollar for a young reader’s abridged version of Jane Eyre.  Sweet Girl will begin to read the classics before you know it.

Tori roamed around the store toggling back and forth between seeking out animals and reading books.  She could have spent 4 hours there and not been ready to leave.

And yet when it was time to go, everyone had had such a fulfilling experience, that we all left with smiles on our faces (and the promise of candy in the van)!

Highlights of Wild Rumpus Books:

• the animals.  The favorites included:  the cats for the girls, the lizard and the birds for Dash, and the chickens for Jack.  He would chase them behind the counter any chance he got.  He even walked away from the counter with me, waited for me to turn my back, and darted back over then when I did. He was a little stinker!
• the books.  For being a small, locally owned bookstore, their selection of books was incredible.  Literally, books were floor to ceiling
• the coat rack.  When you walk in the door, there is a place to hang your jackets so that you can enjoy the store without wearing a hot coat or lugging it around.
• the door.  An adult door had a small child-sized purple door built into it.  It was perfect.

Disadvantages of Wild Rumpus Books:

• the parking leaves much to be desired, especially in the winter.  It’s only street parking, so once we parked, we had to walk quite a ways to get to the store. However, that could also be due to the fact that I don’t have parking assistant in my car and it’s been 17 years since I took my driver’s test and had to pass that part.  Now, I just circle the block until I find a spot big enough to fit into! Or park a long ways away.
• Swanky. Linden Hills is a very swanky neighborhood. However, I did not feel out of place once in the store. The store is so down to earth that I felt like everyone else.

I would recommend Wild Rumpus to anyone who loves books, young or old, who has children, young or old, and who wants the ultimate book heaven adventure.

This parental review was originally written by Gianna Kordatzky on Dec 5, 2013

Useful Links:

• Contact Wild Rumpus via email: info@wildrumpusbooks.com
• Upcoming Events on the Wild Happenings Page
• Meet the Animals and find videos of their antics.
• Scroll to the bottom of their home page to sign up for newsletters
• Facebook is another good source for author events and trolley information
• Rain Taxi Literary Calendar. You can choose just Children’s & Young Adult Events.