About

We L-O-V-E children’s books!
That’s why we’ve spent our careers working in the children’s book industry. Collectively we’ve covered a lot of ground:
» » We’ve done buying, sales and marketing at the bookstore, chain bookstore and wholesale level (both retail and library/school).
» » We have experience in collection development; independent publishing and independent children’s bookselling.
» » We’ve reviewed books; written teacher’s guides; worked trade shows; built websites and presented at conferences.

We will put this enthusiasm and experience to work for you!

Work we do:
We’ve done all kinds of marketing projects for clients: website building, management & upgrades; catalog content and design; social media; email newsletters–if it has to do with marketing kid’s books, we’ve done it! Right now, though, our client list is very full and is keeping us too busy to take on any new work except for writing educator guides. If you’re interested in hiring us to write a guide, email Bobbie. You can see samples on this page.

Who we are:
Bobbie Combs
Bobbie visited her first children’s bookstore (shout out to The Children’s Bookshop in Brookline, MA!) just after graduating with her English Lit degree and knew she’d found her calling. While working in children’s bookstores she began writing children’s book reviews and joined the SCBWI to start figuring out how to be a children’s book author. She moved on to a job as children’s book buyer with Koen Book Distributors where she co-founded Koen Kids, the children’s book division, with colleagues Lisa Dugan and Dina Ciquero. Some years later she took her marketing expertise, added website building skills, and left Koen to work for herself–eventually persuading Laurina Cashin to join her and to start We Love Children’s Books. Although Laurina’s spirit left this planet in 2017, her sweet, quiet presence can still be felt, especially at the annual ALA awards banquet and when the newest issue of Horn Book magazine arrives.

Lisa Dugan
Trained as a teacher, Lisa visited Koen Book Distributors while working part-time at a bookstore and answered the call of children’s books, joining Koen as a sales/marketing rep but quickly sharing her energetic bursts of creative energy with Koen Kids and eventually becoming the children’s book buyer. After Koen she was the picture book buyer at Barnes & Noble before joining We Love Children’s Books. Now she also works at the wonderful Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA–when not at her desk or at the store she can be found doing yoga, taking long walks and traveling whenever she can get time off.

Desiree Rappa
The spectacular design of our websites and printed materials is all due to Desiree, our graphic designer, who can take the roughest sketch or briefest email and turn it into a work of art. She’s done work in the book industry for many years, creating catalogs, marketing pieces, book design, web graphics and websites; and she’s illustrated several children’s books to boot.