New Kids’ Store Launches in New Jersey
By Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 9/25/2008
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Sparkhouse Kids, a toy store in
South Orange, N.J., houses a children’s bookstore, SOMe Book Nook.
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Back in July, when Marietta Barral Zacker heard that Mike Casaren was opening Sparkhouse Kids, a toy store in South Orange, N.J., she met with him and told him about her dream of opening a bookstore in town. He suggested that the two team up and that she open a store within his store, on the condition that the bookstore would be ready to go by mid-September.
Zacker said she was able to pull together the bookstore, SOMe Book Nook, in just two months by reusing plans that she had made more than a decade ago when she first contemplated opening a children’s
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Dionne Warwick (r.) was one of the first authors to visit, seen here with co-author David Wooley (l.); Mike Casaren, owner of Sparkhouse; and Marietta Barral Zacker, owner of SOMe Book Nook.
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bookstore, that one in Atlanta. It took a bit more effort to line up authors and illustrators for last week’s grand opening, but she landed legendary singer Dionne Warwick, who made the bookstore the first stop in her national tour to promote her first children’s book,
Say a Little Prayer For You (Running Press), written with David Freeman Wooley and Tanya Bolden, illustrated by Soud.
Although the two stores are separate, Zacker and Casaren have already begun to cross-merchandise books and toys, as well as coordinate events. Zacker also runs an art gallery for children’s book illustrators in the space.
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