After reading a particular regional children’s board book one too many times, I decided my home of Philadelphia deserved better.
I’m a journalist who spends my days obsessed with how places develop identity and share that with people to live, work and thrive. I’m also the father of two young kids in the city’s Fishtown neighborhood. I also happen to have a close friend who is a talented illustrator and a new mother herself (Hi Sara Scholl!).
I wanted to create a simple board book that would keep young kids engaged, amuse grown-ups and actually contribute something to a region’s identity. I was working on the alphabet with my pre-schooler, who responded best to fun environments where she could tie visuals to sounds and letters.
As dead-simple as it is, the ABCs framework had been used for just a couple states and cities around the world, along with some industries and hobbies. I made a list of kids publishers that seemed to produce a similar vibe, did hours of research of contacts and processes at those firms. Then I led outreach.
On Sept. 28, 2025, my first kids book launches, and can be pre-ordered at PhillyABCs.com.
Below I share some other background, lessons and insights for later.
Here’s a roundup:
- Aging books for kids is a hotly contested debate. Our book has quirky additions that are clearly targeting grown-ups, so I kept the rhyme scheme super simple and Sara played up the colors and illustrations to attract a range of kids.
- Licensing is a thing! Mister Softee, SEPTA and Jason Kelce proudly joined us, but Questlove, Gritty and Wawa opted out for this first edition. We hope to bring them for a future edition.
- Collaborating creatively is famously tricky. Sara and I squabbled about all sorts of things! In the end we produced something better, but there are absolutely elements I would have done differently.
- Place-based narratives come from authentic intention. I was obsessed with squeezing in as much tiny bits of culture as I could.
- Artwork I’m especially proud about influencing: I was stubborn about how our Philly-style pretzels would appear, and I made sure my kid was in a particularly designed El.
- Nothing is more helpful than reading a book to a group of kids. My two young kids shaped the book a lot, including when they got most bored, but reading to a group of kids was even more helpful. The key is often adults are there too.
- Regionalism always caps how far a given book can travel, but you can play for becoming the standard — which is what Sara and I wanted: To contribute a must for every Philadelphia household and our proud diaspora.
- You quickly have to adjust expectations for what time you have for all the fun promotion: I wanted to do a live-person Philly accent tournament of people reading our book, and launch a social video stream of Philly content but I just didn’t have the time — this isn’t my full-time job and with kids and life it just isn’t possible. Lots of good ideas couldn’t be used