Vinyl, Verse, and the Magic of Storytelling

Little Listener’s Crate

I remember one summer in Baton Rouge. The kind where the humidity hangs like a silk scarf around your neck, and the afternoons feel like slow jazz — all rhythm and heat. I was 9, sprawled on my grandmother’s cool living room floor with a sweaty glass of Louzianna tea in one hand and my favorite cassette playing in the background. I didn’t know then that what I was doing was soundtracking a memory. But even now, decades later, if you press play on Sade’s "Cherish the Day", I can feel the pages of my book fluttering in the fan’s breeze and hear the hum of stories in my bones.

It’s funny how the small things — a melody, a voice, the way a book opens — can shape an entire world for a child. That’s why I created The Little Listener’s Crate. Because I believe summer isn’t just for vacations and melting popsicles — it’s for immersive journeys. For building the inner libraries of our children with music and meaning.

You see, I didn’t grow up with wealth, but I had riches. The kind found in books where beetles became brave explorers, and poems held your hand through grief. Where a soundtrack made you feel like the main character. And if we’re honest, don’t all of us — children and grown-ups alike — just want to feel like the hero in our own story?

So what happens when we curate that experience for the next generation?

Enter: Vinyl & Verse for Young Minds — our very first Little Listener’s Crate.

Inside? A plushie that invites imagination. A crate packed with Black-authored children’s books that speak courage, love, and wonder. And the secret sauce? A hand-selected playlist to wrap it all in feeling. Because a book should feel like a memory. And music? Well, that’s just the emotional glue that binds it forever.

Vinyl & Verse for Young Minds

We aren’t just giving children stories — we’re giving them a symphony. And in a world of constant noise, isn’t that what they deserve? Not just entertainment, but enchantment. Not just words, but wonder.

I created this for the kids who, like my son, dream big. The ones who narrate their adventures while jumping on couches. The quiet ones who find solace in stories. And especially the ones who haven’t yet discovered the magic of turning a page with a melody playing nearby.

My hope? That one day, a child will be sitting in their own grown-up apartment, hear a certain tune, and be swept back to the summer of 2025 — when they held a beetle plushie in one hand and the whole world in the other.

Because in the end, storytelling isn’t just what we read or hear. It’s what we feel.

And this summer, I want every child to feel like the story was written just for them.

With vinyl, with verse, and with love —

April Sheris

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Now accepting pre-orders for the first limited run of the Little Listener’s Crate. Only 150 available. Reserve your child’s summer journey today.