A New Chapter A rescued bookstore provides a training ground for people with autism.
By Gwen Moran •
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Ellen Zimiles was walking through downtown Maplewood, N.J., over Labor Day weekend in 2008, when she noticed a disturbing sign hanging in the town's local bookstore. It said that unless someone took over the bookstore by November, it would close.
Distressed at the potential blow the closure would deal to the community, which was already suffering from the recession, Zimiles suggested to her husband, Jonah--who had recently graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and was planning to start a vocational training center for people with autism--that they purchase the store.
