The children's-only publisher expands on its ABCs
This month marks the 10th anniversary of Charlesbridge Publishing, which began a decade ago with an initial list of five alphabet books by Jerry Palotta. Today, Palotta's witty alphabet books on airplanes, yucky reptiles and icky bugs have sold more than a million copies. With The Jet Alphabet Book, published in February, the series now has 18 titles in print.
That a children's publisher should pay so much attention to the ABCs comes as no surprise, especially given that Charlesbridge is the trade arm of Charlesbridge Publishing Inc., a closely held company located in Watertown, Mass., that provides support curriculum materials. Founded in 1980, it is itself about to celebrate its second decade.
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| "My PHILOSOPHY IS slow, steady growth," says Mary Ann Sabia, shown here (center) with the Charlesbridge staff. |
Mary Ann Sabia, v-p and associate publisher of Charlesbridge, who has been with the company since the beginning, credits the whole-language movement as the catalyst for creating a trade operation. "In the late '80s, at the height of the movement," she explained, "Charlesbridge recognized the need for quality nonfiction books for schools."
Although the whole-language movement has since quieted down and many schools are once again embracing phonics, Sabia is still bullish about the future of Charlesbridge and its fusion of education and entertainment in picture books. "People are settling into a mix of traditional and whole-language approaches," she said. "I think picture books in the classroom are here to stay." In the past year or two, Sabia said she has noticed a new form of whole language, what she refers to as "whole math," that brings together math and literature in a picture-book format. Charlesbridge has tried to stay on top of this trend with books such as Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander, illustrated by Wayne Geehan, which originated in the educational division before being published in a trade edition in February.
According to Colleen Murphy, director of promotions and publicity, with 150 titles in print, Charlesbridge has long since outgrown its small press beginnings. She described the company as a midsize publisher that occupies a unique niche. "There's no publisher like us," she said. "The other houses our size have backing: Candlewick has a parent company in England, Boyds Mills has Highlights."
Sabia attributed Charlesbridge's ongoing success, in part, to the M&M's counting book series, which was introduced five years ago. "That's the series that got the Charlesbridge name out there," she noted, adding that 1997's Alice and Greta: A Tale of Two Witches by Steven J. Simmons, illustrated by Cyd Moore, was another strong seller for the company. It was also one of the company's first books in the Talewinds storybook imprint, and will be reissued in both a paperback and Spanish-language edition in July.
Sabia is also pleased with Charlesbridge's two-year-old partnership with SHAKTI for Children to publish multicultural titles such as Children from Australia to Zimbabwe: A Photographic Journey Around the World by Maya Ajmera and Anna Rhesa Versola, with a foreword by Marian Wright Edelman. Both Charlesbridge and SHAKTI donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales of the books in this series to support programs benefiting girls around the world. The newest SHAKTI/ Charlesbridge book, Extraordinary Girls by Maya Ajmera, Olateju Omolodun and Sarah Strunk, is due out in August. The book profiles 60 unusual girls, from Alexis Brown of the U.S., an advocate for hospitalized children, to award-winning swimmer Nhemia Velasco of the Philippines.
Other forthcoming titles that Sabia hopes will spark sales are The Official M&M's Book of the Millennium and the company's first ever book-and-plush kit, The Last Straw by Fredrick Thury, illustrated by Vlasta van Kampen, a Christmas story about a cantankerous camel that carries the wise men's gifts to Bethlehem.
This fall, Charlesbridge is also offering anniversary specials on selected titles and series; for example, it is giving a 50% discount on orders of seven or more copies of Ellen Jackson's Turn of the Century, illustrated by Jan Davey Ellis, and free freight on orders of 30 or more books in the popular Animal Close-Up series.
Despite Charlesbridge's impressive growth -- sales have been in the double digits for each of the past 10 years -- Sabia is determined that the company not grow too large, too fast. "My philosophy is slow, steady growth," she explained. "Two years ago, we started doing 20-25 books a year. That's our plan for the next few years. And we have comments from accounts that they like our manageable lists of 12 books a season. None of the books gets lost."
