HarperCollins Children’s Books has announced the launch of Shelf Stuff, a digital community for young readers. Following the success of the publisher’s Epic Reads brand for teens and YA lovers of all ages, which was launched in 2012, the new platform aims to reach middle grade readers and inspire connections based on favorite children’s books and authors.
The Shelf Stuff website features exclusive videos, games, sweepstakes, quizzes, infographics, and more content tied to books by bestselling and award-winning authors such as Katherine Applegate, Soman Chainani, U.S. Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, and Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly. Kids can also follow Shelf Stuff on YouTube and Instagram. Recent videos include Book Talks and games of Would You Rather? with favorite authors; Blindfold Drawing Challenges with children’s illustrators; a Jokes About Books series; and more.
Ann Dye, director of marketing at HarperCollins Children’s Books, is leading the middle grade marketing team in creating content for Shelf Stuff, while also working with the digital, publicity, and school and library marketing departments to shape the brand. Dye told PW about the impetus for the project: “We thought there was a real opportunity in the marketplace to reach kids in a new and exciting way that we hadn’t seen elsewhere. There are a lot of things competing for kids’ attention, and we wanted to step outside the box of traditional marketing efforts to take all of the amazing content we have and reformat it in a way to bring in young readers and celebrate books in every way, shape, and form.”
