The Binding Tales Story
Situated in Hampden, Maine
Meet our family, and inspiration behind Binding Tales, Adam, Hillary, Eva, and Tyler Dow. Our family may be complete in numbers, but our growth is limitless. We love to spend time outdoors, walking, fishing, swimming, paddling, and we cherish family adventures. We read lots and lots of books and we always eat meals as a family, at the table. Time together is precious, yet there never seems to be enough of it.
So we’re building a business that places our family at the very center of everything.Ā
Eva
Eva is happiest when she is singing, dancing, drawing (like her mommy), going on family outings, playing cards or board games, losing herself in a book (she just wrapped up the Harry Potter series), and she has a wonderful balance of grace, humor, and spunk. As we get closer and closer to knocking on the door of her teenage years, we’re so proud of her… and a wee bit nervous to tackle teenage parenting in this day and age! A part of us would keep her little forever. Don’t all parents feel that way? She is our social butterfly, making friends everywhere she goes. She is a mermaid at heart who loves everything about the water. Eva and Hillary collaborated a lot on many of the Binding Tales books, a true inspiration!
Tyler
Tyler is happiest with a ball of any kind – a serious competitor to his core, taking care of the lawn, challenging himself with his speed cubes or challenging anyone around him to a good debate. Around age 5 he asked for his reward at the end of a good behavior chart to be a grounds keeper two dethatching rake. Fast forward nearly five years and he has started pushing the lawnmower around the house, he has graduated to an electric dethatcher, and is working toward attending his second speed cubing competition. Those inquisitive questions he has always lobbed our way; like, “What is the sky?” routinely require Google to help find the answer.Ā
Hillary & Adam
If you ask me if I think true love exists, or if there are soulmates in this life, I will tell you yes I do, and yes there are. Some of us are fortunate enough to find each other. In and amongst our family time, I may be felting, working on marketing my online business, or cooking a fun new recipe; while Adam may be 5 generations deep in his genealogy, out turkey hunting, cycling, or fishing in the pond. We both work very hard and do our best to set good examples for Eva and Tyler. That commitment spills over into the ways in which we embrace a life filled with adventures and time to connect.
With my love of art and a shared fascination with business, what began as a spark of an idea on the eve of a family road trip quickly blossomed into a full-fledged business plan in a matter of days. Never ones to let moss grow under our feet, we’re thrilled to focus on a rewarding venture that ties together every single corner of our life. And what a fabulous life it is!
Welcome to our journey, we hope you’ll join us for the adventure!
How This All BeganāPaperback Activity Books
I solved a struggle that faces practically every parent, especially those with children who love to draw and write stories. As our family story evolves we amass stacks upon loose stacks of pages filled with artwork, writing assignments, and the treasured chronicles of our children’s young lives.
But what do we do with the stacks of paper? One box gets filled, then another, and another. With a heavy heart and dash of guilt, we (maybe) snap pictures of pages and toss the originals, with lofty aspirations of compiling images into booksā¦ but who has time for that? Like our second child’s baby book, some projects get put on hold for another day. And then another, and another. Am I right?
So why not start with the end in mind?
Enter Binding Tales, bound paperback books that inspire and guide young authors with composition prompts and the launch points for their own illustrations.
Life, itās all about the experiences we have and the people we share them with.
Our hope is that Binding Tales helps your family capture and create memories of your own. As our story and library of books grow, we would be honored to share in the growth of your young author!
How will you preserve your story?
Even with all of the pressures of life, we make sure to carve out time together as a family. Having fun and educational activities to do together that ties all of our adventures and experiences into little paperback time capsules is awesome! The kids have a blast working on their books, we enjoy the process of helping them, and the keepsakes are priceless. We’d love for our books to become part of your story.