Business & Tech

Little Joe's Adds Books for Adults

Owner plans to keep the focus on children's materials while providing a range of works—from romance and thrillers to new fiction to biographies—for adults.

The folks at Little Joe's Books in Katonah put lots of thought into the titles they carry, in the hopes of offering "just a little bit of the best of the best" to customers.

Owner Jennifer Cook and her staff kept that goal in mind when it came to establishing a new selection of books for adults. The addition follows many requests from customers looking to pick up volumes not just for children, but for themselves, too.

"The reality is, between my commuter business downstairs, and the parents who are here with their children, they're readers," Cook said.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

The store carries about 250 works for adults. The newest pieces, which are non-fictions—everything from biographies to business to cooking to history—are on display downstairs. There is also a large selection of paperbacks, mainly romances and thrillers, for light reading.

More adult fiction, which has been on sale for a few months, is available on the top floor, where the children's books are located.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Even with the recent expansion, the concentration on materials for kids at Little Joe's isn't something Cook is looking to change.

"If you just think about square footage ... which defines your focus, we have much more dedicated to children. And we love that," she told Patch. "We are not interested in changing that. We are not big enough to be a general book store."

Still, the shop is big enough to offer a great selection, according to manager Genevieve deBotton.

"The good news is that we've started with a low number," she said. "We've started with the New York Times Notable Books of 2012, and some from 2011, which isn't a huge list to work from, but we have relationships with our publishers and so we have more coming in that will represent the upcoming seasons of books."

Little Joe's opened in the fall of 2011, after Borders Books & Music in Mount Kisco closed. Before that, Cook ran a gift shop and later a consignment store out of the space.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here