Book Show, Inc. was founded in 2001 by Mimi Levin Lieber. As a passionate and devoted advocate for children's literacy for over three decades and an experienced sociologist, Mimi pioneered the use of "focus groups" to tailor marketing strategies to particular consumer audiences.
In the late 1970's, Mimi applied these innovations in market research while developing the now familiar L'Eggs concept for Hanes Corporation. Mimi later tested consumer demand for books in supermarkets as well, under the very successful "Starbooks" product name. After Sara Lee acquired Hanes, the company opted to drop all non-core businesses. Nevertheless, the outstanding success of Starbooks provided an early kernel of inspiration for what has now become The Book Show™.
The expanded vision of
the present project is largely due to Mimi's indefatigable zeal
for nurturing youngsters' love for reading, and for bringing quality literature to a wider
audience. Following her work with Hanes, she became a member of the New York Board of Regents
for fifteen years, and then, in 1997, founded Literacy Inc.,
(LINC) a non-profit organization that
promotes early literacy for children from low-income families.
From her undertaking with Literacy Inc., Mimi gained the insight to recognize these families'
strong desire to develop a book culture starting in the home. And she identified two challenges
that needed to be met in order for this desire to be fulfilled: children's books were not
readily available in their neighborhoods, and the prices at bookstores were prohibitively
expensive. Thus in answer to the demand, "Where are the books?", The Book
Show™ was born.