City Heights' first children's bookstore has opened on El Cajon Boulevard, where in addition to a wide variety of English-language books, it will offer selections in Spanish, Somali, Arabic and Vietnamese.

R.E.A.D. Books was founded with $83,000 in seed money from San Diego State University and sells new books at discounts of 20 percent to 50 percent.

Customers will be sipping Vietnamese iced coffee and Mexican hot chocolate at cafe tables as soon as the store gets its coffee cart up and running. They also will be invited to use the store's four laptops.

Yesterday, Lisa Douglas, a teacher at nearby Hoover High School, browsed for summer reading while her 8-year-old son, Dylon, selected "Where's Waldo?" books.

She said she typically orders books online from Amazon.com, but if she and her son want to browse, she heads to Borders in Mission Valley. Living in Oak Park, it will be much more convenient to stay south of Interstate 8, she said.

"I was so excited when I heard they were putting a bookstore in," Douglas said. "We'll be up here a lot."

The store is at 4275 El Cajon Blvd., in a building owned by the San Diego State University Foundation. This summer it will be open weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and closed Saturdays and Sundays.

The bookstore was opened by SDSU's City Heights Education Collaborative and is expected to sustain itself financially. The university, San Diego Unified School District and San Diego Educators Association are partners in the organization, and Price Charities provides some financial support.

Chuck Korkegian, the director of the bookstore, said he will take requests and recommendations for books the store should carry.

"I'm making and tailoring this store to take care of the community that lives in City Heights," he said.

Yesterday, a customer suggested that he stock a few copies of SpongeBob SquarePants. Korkegian, who had only recently learned of SpongeBob's existence while he was touring the San Diego County Fair, promised to order a supply of books about the lively, sponge-bodied character, who has his own show on Nickelodeon.

He plans to eventually stock 20,000 titles. Among them is the wildly popular Harry Potter series. He also will stock adult reading materials, including Spanish books on parenting and nutrition, and a supply of teaching materials.

Korkegian said he's excited to be able to give back to the community after retiring from a career in the book business, including a long stint at SDSU's bookstore.

"It takes a community to really assist a child to become successful," he said.

After just two weeks in the community, the bookstore has already developed a fan base. Seven young children stop by the store each afternoon to read books and talk with the employees, the director said.

There's nothing more pleasing to Korkegian, who grew up a poor immigrant from Canada and whose family didn't own books. He wants to help change the lives of City Heights children, many of whom are also immigrants.

"I have an emotional investment in it," he said.