In an airy warehouse in Vernon Hills, workers pack educational toys designed to bring children joy and expand their worlds. Plastic apples that can be taken apart to understand fractions, a toy cash register and a kit with a purple stethoscope are stacked on blue metal racks, waiting to be shipped to a budding elementary school CEO or doctor.

The orderly buzz of workers driving forklifts and the routine whirring of a conveyor belt belie the fact that Learning Resources and its sister company, hand2mind, have been in the eye of a storm trying to adapt to tariffs. The companies produce around 50% of their products in China.

When the Trump administration’s tariffs on goods from China shot up in April from around 20% to around 104% , CEO Rick Woldenberg, who has a law degree from the Unive

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