From a snowy scene in Canada to a warm beach in Hawaii, Wichita product is a hit

This holiday season, Wichitan Kelley Donner’s interactive outdoor children’s storybook “If Mice Pulled The Sleigh” by Bill Barnsley is being shared everywhere from snowy paths in Newfoundland to a warm beach in Hawaii.

“It amazes me,” Donner said of how popular her permanent reading displays have become.

They’re also at places like a horse stable where children with disabilities visit and on a military base.

Donner had been a children’s author and illustrator for years but then found a way to grow her business and bring joy and education to a lot of children through outdoor storybooks that are placed along paths.

She and her brother, tech entrepreneur and mentor Mark Janzen, formed the Storybook Co. in summer 2024 to capitalize on the trend of sharing children’s books on outdoor panels along paths, one or two pages at a time, at various locales.

The concept “really started to take off during the pandemic,” Donner said.

It was through her book “School Is More Than A Building” that she learned that school librarians were taking apart two or three copies of the book to create one story along a path.

Frames staked in the ground hold a laminated page or two that a child can read before continuing on to the next page down the path.

“I thought, wow, it’s unfortunate they have to take apart two to three books to do this,” Donner said.

The concept was new to her at the time, and she decided to make do-it-yourself versions for schools.

“That proved to be really successful.”

Despite positive feedback from librarians, Donner said eventually they said, “Can’t you just sell us the already laminated finished edition?”

So she began doing that. Her market has expanded to more than 30 states and Canada.

“It’s been growing a lot.”

Donner sells primarily to schools, libraries and parks.

Along with the framed pages of stories, she includes interactive features.

Children might be encouraged to answer funny questions, give each other high-fives or take part in an imaginary sword fight like the characters in the book. Sometimes, kids might be encouraged to run from one panel back to another for some physical activity, too.

You can learn more at StorybookWalk.com.

In January, Donner is starting a podcast called Storybook Detour in which she’ll interview authors and illustrators whose work she features on the reading displays.

She’ll add QR codes to the displays to link to the podcast and additional resources.

January also is when her next catalog of books is published.

Donner has three sons, two of whom — Max, 11, and Lukas, 14 — have helped illustrate just a bit. They created the picture for the book “An Elf Erased My Picture.”

Max, Lukas and their older brother, Jonas, 16, are an important part of Donner’s work, she said.

“They give me lots of inspiration for stories.”