Beth Puffer had originally planned to retire as manager of Bank Street Bookstore, part of Bank Street College in New York City, at the end of 2011, but agreed to stay on until April 27 to train her replacement. She has been with Bank Street since 1986, when it was only a 500-sq. ft. store. It is now 4,000 sq. ft. Puffer has served on the board of the American Booksellers Association and on ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council. She also helped found the New York/New Jersey Booksellers Association and was treasurer of the Association of Booksellers for Children.
Andy Laties is already gearing up to assume Puffer’s responsibilities when she retires. He has been in bookselling for three decades and is founding manager of the Eric Carle Museum Bookshop in Amherst, Mass., and author of Rebel Bookseller. He co-owned the Children’s Bookstore in Chicago from 1985 until it closed in 1996, and also ran the Children’s Museum Store at Chicago Children’s Museum. Among his plans for the Bank Street Bookstore are more hours, more social media, and more events, including a possible bus tour from the city to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
Laties’s former assistant manager, Eliza Brown, has been named manager of the Carle Museum Bookshop.
