Costco Connection - November 2007

book
beat

Go, State!

Aimee and Naren Aryal

Publisher Mascot Books
is a start-up all-star

KEITH BARRACLOUGH

By Hope Katz Gibbs

BACK IN 2002, Aimee Aryal was a mom on a mission. She and her husband, Naren, had just taken their 2-year-old daughter, Anna, to watch their college alma mater, Virginia Tech, play a football game. On the way out of the stadium the toddler made a request: “Mommy, I want a book about the Hokie Bird.”

The Hokie Bird, of course, is Virginia Tech’s mascot. And the idea of taking home a

souvenir sounded like a fine idea to Aimee, who graduated from the university with an accounting degree in 1993 (Naren graduated in 1992). But once inside the campus bookstore, she realized there was no such book to be found.

So on the way from Blacksburg back to their house in northern Virginia,

Aimee wrote one.

The book, Hello, Hokie Bird!, quickly became a favorite of Anna’s. And it gave Naren an idea. He’d been practicing law for about a decade, working mostly for high-tech start-ups. But after the dot-com bust, his prospects were looking grim. So after reading Hokie Bird to Anna for the umpteenth time, in 2003 he and Aimee—both Costco members— formed Mascot Books. Naren then persuaded Virginia Tech to grant Mascot Books a license to publish Hello, Hokie Bird! and asked a fellow Virginia Tech grad, Sarah Meadows, to draw the illustrations.

Within three months, all copies of the children’s book were sold out at three campus bookstores. Ditto for the stock at the Barnes & Noble store near Virginia Tech. Naren knew Mascot Books was going to be a winner. In fact, soon after their second daughter, Maya, was born, Hokie Bird was listed in 13th place on the bestseller list for Barnes & Noble’s southern region.

Naren quickly approached other colleges to write stories about their mascots, and in the last three years Aimee has written 45 books, including Hello, Nittany Lion! (Penn State) and Let’s Go, Irish (Notre Dame).

Then he decided to try the concept with professional sports teams. He pitched his idea to several former pro baseball players and asked if they’d be official authors of the books. “They went wild for the idea,” says the young

The Costco Connection Region-specific titles from Mascot Books are available in most warehouses.

“Give yourself permission to get the most out of your life. If you’re spending all your time scrubbing corners with a toothbrush, you’re kind of missing the point. Taking shortcuts doesn’t mean shortcutting the end result.” MEREDI TH / PAPERBACK _—_Sandra _LeeAvailable mid-November