Blue Marble Celebrates 30 Years
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By Claire Kirch -- Publishers Weekly, 6/25/2009
The Blue Marble, a children’s bookstore located in Ft. Thomas, Ky., in the Greater Cincinnati metro area, celebrated its 30th anniversary with an in-store celebration Saturday, June 20 that brought in 150–200 customers. Seventeen local authors and illustrators—Marie Bradby, Mary Kay Carson, E. Charlton-Trujillo, John Fleischman, Will Hillenbrand, Kaza Kingsley, Barbara Libby, Loren Long, Edith Pattou, Linda Sanders-Wells, Tamara Schmitz, Ellen Schreiber, Anne Shelby, Linda Leopold Strauss, Christina Wald, Connie Wooldridge and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer—spent the day mingling with customers, who received a 30% discount on the purchase of any books written or illustrated by them. The daylong celebration culminated in a catered dinner at the store for 60 people, including the day’s featured authors, past and present store employees, a few sales reps, and friends of the store from the community.
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Will Hillenbrand signing books at the Blue Marble. |
The Blue Marble was founded in 1979 by Tina Moore, in a 900-square-foot space. In 2004, after Tina suffered a stroke that affected her speech, her husband, Peter, a retired mathematics professor, assumed the management of the store, which contains an inventory of 30,000 titles in a 3,500-square-foot retail space. The store currently employs six people, besides the Moores.
