Books and Happiness

When I first encountered Pumplepie, it was, I thought, a modest little business put up by a mother-and-daughter team with little hope of making it beyond a few years, the daughter then being, what, all of maybe five years old. As charitable as I might have tried to be, I judged the start-up as a cute way to keep busy during that strange time that would become a pandemic.

I was doing background research on a candidate for an award who had written well-regarded history books for young people. His books, however, were not available anymore at National, Fully Booked, or any of the other usual stores. On the off chance that I could find information on the interwebs, I did a quick search and—woohoo!—found the books on the site of an online bookseller I’d never heard of before.

I thought the business was “modest” and “little” because when mom wasn’t home, the business stopped. After I ordered the books I wanted, for example, I got an email from the momtrepreneur saying they were going out of town for a few days and could not have them delivered that week. She offered to refund my payment. Both the honest email and the refund offer were decent things to do but not exactly marks of the rapaciousness often deemed necessary for survival in the dog-eat-dog world of business. My interest was piqued, though; and fortunately, I was, as they say in Jollibee, “willing to wait.” I got the books eventually and was thoroughly delighted by both the books and the seller.

Five years later . . . we’ve forgotten about the many businesses-from-home that popped up then disappeared with the pandemic . . . but Pumplepie, mom, and daughter are still around, the daughter now being on the verge of tweenhood and reportedly actively screening the books to be stocked for sale.

This time, my first grandchild was on the way thousands of miles away in the U.S. of A., and I wanted to prepare for the baby a particular set of children’s books from a specific Filipino author. At first, one of the titles I ordered was unavailable, and Pumplepie offered either a refund, again, or a replacement title. I opted for replacement. A few days later—surprise: They had contacted the publisher who had been able to locate a single copy of the missing book which they were going to send to me at no additional cost. What remarkable extra effort and such a wonderfully generous gesture! And they didn’t stop there. The same author had recently released a brand-new book which they would make available to me if I wanted it. I definitely did. The whole package of books arrived the other day perfectly wrapped for transport to the U.S. with a short note from the Mom and Daughter . . .

Let me be very clear about the point of this long-winded note. This is an endorsement, a testimonial, and a call for support. If you have children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, if you just like kids, if you know a school or a library, if you want to support Filipino authors and small but good businesses, if you love books, and if you enjoy happiness, buy from Pumplepie Books & Happiness.