For Readers Who Need No Excuse: Alibi Books

Alibi Books in Glenview, Illinois, is a six-year-old testament to family synergy. Sisters Lori Kraft and Sheri Zalewski are the store's co-owners and their mother, Roberta Kraft, helped plan the store and works there as well. Alibi specializes in mysteries and also carries general fiction, bestsellers, and children's books, in a space measuring under 1,000 square feet.

The two daughters and their mother always wanted to open a business and have always loved books. They had lived in Glenview, 30 miles north of Chicago, for many years, and thought that a new bookstore could thrive in the downtown area of the community of 30,000, two miles from any other bookstore. A Caribou Coffee, two doors away, made an in-store cafe unnecessary, and Alibi's owners are happy to let customers bring their drinks into the bookstore.

Running a fairly small store and having limited time for reading and researching new books, Lori Kraft has found Book Sense extremely useful. Both the Book Sense Picks and Bestsellers offer customers and staff good information about books, not readily available anywhere else, she explained.

Kraft includes a Book Sense Trivia Quiz in each store newsletter to highlight a book that "deserves some notice, but we may never get a chance to read." In a recent quiz, the Book Sense question was, "Colin Firth stars as Vermeer in a movie version of which Tracy Chevalier book (which was a Book Sense 76 Pick twice)?"

Alibi has adopted the Book Sense gift card program enthusiastically.

Kraft said, "We, and the customers, like it. We still let people know that we will redeem gift certificates purchased previously, but we see that when people find out that we now offer the cards, they are very pleased." --Nomi Schwartz