'Everybody has a story about Kids Ink': Local bookstore owner retires after 39 years

Indianapolis Star

15-07-2025

Shirley Mullin likes to ask adults what book changed their life. Some just shrug. A few say the Bible.
But many say they became a reader because of a book a teacher read aloud to them decades ago.
That's what happened for Mullin, 80, in her rural Nebraska schoolhouse in rural Nebraska where her second grade teacher read 'Little House on the Prairie' to the class. When the teacher finished reading the series, the students begged her to read the books again — and she did.
Mullin went home and played 'Little House on the Prairie' with her siblings on their family farm, where she was convinced Laura Ingalls Wilder had lived before her.
'It came alive,' she said.
Mullin has spent her career making children into readers, first as a kindergarten teacher, and then a librarian and then the owner of Kids Ink Children's Bookstore on North Illinois Street. She's worked to put books in kids' hands for more than 40 years — and now she's retiring.But the store is not closing. A mother-daughter pair has purchased it from Mullin and plans to carry on her legacy.
Kids Ink is a small shop, nestled between storefronts in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. Colorful books line the shelves from floor to ceiling, with wooden puzzles, stuffed animals and Playmobil toys tucked between titles.
Mullin opened the store in 1986 after a visit to Waldenbooks in the Glendale Mall to buy one of her favorite baby books, 'Goodnight Moon." She said when her own children were growing up, they ruined at least one copy each.
So when the bookstore chain didn't have the title on hand, she made a decision.
'If they cannot keep that book in stock, I'll just do it myself,' she said.
Almost four decades later, Mullin jokes about what a great business decision that was. Impulsive though it was, it worked.
The store hosts story times and author visits. Every summer, Kids Ink participates in the area's 'Where's Waldo' competition for kids to spot Waldo dolls in local shops to win prizes.
'They know my kids, they know my family,' said Lindsay Donaldson, a regular customer who lives nearby. 'We just love it.'
Five years ago, the staff helped her pick books to teach her son how to read. Today, they remember he likes historical fiction and stories with dragons.
The store has been around long enough that some kids who grew up going to Kids Ink now bring in their own children.
'Everybody has a story about Kids Ink,' Wendy Fitzgerald said.
And now Wendy and her daughter Kate will be telling stories of their own. The older Fitzgerald moved to Indianapolis from Wisconsin in February to be close to Kate and her 18-month old granddaughter. One of the first places Wendy visited in her new neighborhood was Kids Ink.
A day after Wendy bought her house in Indianapolis, she was let go from her job. Four days later, Kate was let go too. So in June when Wendy heard Kids Ink was for sale, she reached out to Mullin.
After what Mullin's lawyer said was the simplest and shortest property sale he'd ever seen, the Fitzgeralds became the new owners of Kids Ink.
Mullin has always worked with children and books. Before Kids Ink, she was a kindergarten teacher and a librarian, and then taught children's literature at what was then IUPUI. She reopened the library at Riley Hospital for Children and ran it for almost a decade before she opened Kids Ink.
Running a store, she learned, was not the same as working in a library. Mullin wanted to give children books, not sell them.
So Mullin found ways to share books with kids who couldn't afford them. She received grants to donate books to Indianapolis Public Schools and other schools around the state. During Christmas, she set up a giving tree for customers to buy books for kids.
'It's just so amazing when they get a first book,' she said.
A few years ago, Kids Ink received hundreds of thousands dollars from a private donor to gift packages of books to 900 immigrant children in Wayne Township. The best part, Mullin said, was choosing the books herself. She included an age-appropriate atlas in each child's package so they could look up their homeland.
Mullin has spotlighted several Indiana-based authors over the years. Troy Cummings, a children's book author and illustrator who lives in Greencastle, said it seems like every author, teacher and librarian in the state knows Shirley.
Cummings remembers the first event he attended at Kids Ink, where kids brought drawings of monsters emulating the creatures in his own books. He sees Kids Ink as a 'launchpad for creativity,' a place for kids to realize the joy to be found in reading.
'It should feel like playing,' he said. 'It should feel like you're getting away with something.'
Mullin hand picks what the store stocks — the 'great old books,' quality nonfiction, works by local authors, books on parenting and potty training.
'It's not unusual for Barnes & Noble to call and say, 'We have a customer wanting books on whales, do you have anything?'' she said. 'Well yeah, we do.'
Mullin has also tried to appeal to diverse clientele over the years. Kids Ink stocks stories with LGBTQ+ characters and every display includes books about children of color.
'Most librarians and most teachers, they understand that the kids need to see themselves in a book,' Shirley said. 'And they're not going to see themselves in a book if they don't see kids like them.'
The Fitzgeralds are eager to carry on that mission. Especially in the current political climate, Kate said, it's important to give kids books that prepare them to go to school with kids different from themselves.
'This is their chance to build their empathy,' Kate said. 'Reading a book is the closest that you'll get to being in somebody else's shoes or feeling feelings that you've never felt before.'
Mullin's family worked at Kids Ink from the start and many of her staff became like family to her. Two of her children (both of whom are now authors) worked there for years.
In the back of the store, the white walls in the bathroom are scribbled with signatures and notes of affection from authors who have visited Kids Ink. The small room features signatures from Cummings, John Green and hundreds of others.
The tradition began almost 30 years ago when Mullin's family repainted the bathroom. Her baby son's footprints were painted and stamped on the wall, and the rest of her family signed their names, she said.
Some of the staff have worked there for decades. A teacher, Kathy Taber, came to Kids Ink for book recommendations in 1992 and started working part time. When business was slow, she and Mullin would just sit and chat.
'She cared about each and every one of us that worked there,' Taber said. 'Not only was her knowledge so great, but you know, she just cares about us and what's going on in our lives, which makes her very special.'
Many other employees have also been with the shop for more than 20 years. That's part of the reason, Taber said, that it was hard for the staff to hear Mullin would be retiring.
'It'll be different, because you know — Kids Ink is Shirley, or Shirley is Kids Ink, to us,' Taber said. 'But it's a well deserved time for her to retire. You know, she's got plans.'
Mullin will garden and continue to speak at local library events. She'll devote time to what she calls her "forever research project," a dive into her family history during WWII.
Mullin said she doesn't know how she feels about retirement yet as it's only been a few weeks. She's mostly been "untangling" things so far.
'For me, it feels a lot like ripping off a Band-Aid,' she said. 'But that's okay. I was ready for it. I was ready for it before it happened.'