New Orleans Bookshop Getting Back to Normal

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Jan. 26, 2006 Sign up now!

by Bob Summer, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 1/26/2006

Five months after Hurricane Katrina, Maple Street Children's Book Shop in New Orleans is finally getting back to what manager and co-owner Cindy Dike describes as "something closer to normalcy."

According to Dike, the shop's customer base began returning in November when the city's private schools started reopening. "But since then 18 charter and public schools have reopened," she adds, "and there are lots of children in town now. Actually we had a surprisingly good Christmas, all things considered, although our yearly sales were down, since we were closed until October 17 and business was slow until Christmas buying started. There was a big emphasis in New Orleans on shopping locally for Christmas to support local businesses."

Problems in receiving orders via UPS and other carriers have been resolved, now that delivery service has been restored in New Orleans. And as of this month the shop fully resumes its weekly Saturday morning Story Times featuring local storytellers reading from books or such other activities as crafts and singalongs. Larger events will return in February, with autographing parties for Betty G. Birney (The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs/Atheneum, The World According to Humphrey/Puffin, and Friendship According to Humphrey/Puffin), and illustrator Jean Cassels (Groundhog Stays Up Late/Walker). "Jean lives in New Orleans," Dike says. "But Betty is coming here to do some school programs, and we learned she would like to come to the shop for a signing from a cousin of hers who lives here."

Another assist to the 32 year-old shop's recovery arrived earlier this month when Dike and co-owner Rhoda Faust, founder of Maple Street Book Shop next door, received a $10,000 grant from the Idea Village, a New Orleans-based nonprofit corporation that provides financial support to area small businesses. Fortunately the circa-1890 cottages which house both shops were not structurally damaged by the storm, leaving the grant to be spent on business development. "The $10,000 was equally divided between the two shops, but Rhoda and I are still considering possibilities on how to spend the money for best results."

Meanwhile, Dike is gearing up for Mardi Gras, which this year falls on February 28. "Although Mardi Gras will be reduced this year for obvious reasons," she says, "we're already getting customers coming in looking for Mardi Gras books. In fact, the demand started last fall when children began returning to the city and wanted to send a book on New Orleans back to the schools they had attended while away. They always asked for a Mardi Gras book, which tells you how important Mardi Gras is to people from here."

So what are her recommendations? Pelican has three that are always popular, Dike says: Jenny Giraffe's Mardi Gras Ride by Cecilia Casrill Dartez, Gaston Goes to Mardi Gras by James Rice and Mimi's First Mardi Gras by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore.