Our Story
My name is Pat Oldroyd. In addition to being a mom and grandmother, I’m a children’s bookseller. In fact, I’ve been in the business for nearly 25 years. It all started when my sons were in elementary school. Disappointed by the lack of good Canadian kids books in the school library and no visits by authors, I decided to get involved. I established an author visit program and fundraised to place many new books in the school library. Ready to return to work after a break when my kids were young, I was asked to join the children’s department at Munro’s Books of Victoria, one of the leading independent book stores in Canada. Eventually I ran the department for many years, selecting books for the department, helping parents, grandparents, teachers and librarians pick books for their children and organizing author and book events. After ten years at Munro’s, I was asked to help develop and run a book department for a local children’s educational store. After five years, I was itching to do something else and the idea for Marmalade Books was born. My husband Jamie and I started the business in September 2016. We are thrilled to curate monthly boxes for children which include the best books being published today in Canada, the UK, Australia and the US. Hundreds of books are being published every month and I love poring over them and picking the ones I believe are outstanding. We do this because we love getting the best books into little hands and hopefully we can help start kids on a lifelong journey of loving to read.
Who is Marmalade? Marmalade is our wonderful cat. He loves to read… well ok, he likes to lie on top of me while I read – preferably in the sun. He’s a cat with a great personality who is constantly at my side, so he’s always there to lend a paw.