Ah, summer. For adults, 'tis often the season for catching up on leisure reading. For kids, it's usually a different story. While many youngsters would like nothing better than to be at camp or just goofing off during their break from school, the summer months often bring required or suggested reading lists from teachers. Many times parents are eager to encourage reading during summer vacations as well, hoping their children will not get out of practice before school starts up again. So, how can publishers and booksellers help these families out? PW recently asked a number of them how they planned to promote reading this summer.
Several children's book publishers are putting their publicity and promotions departments in high gear to reach young readers and their parents over the coming months. In some cases, promotions or programs are not necessarily linked to a summer reading theme, but are launched during the summer months to take advantage of the vacation buying season. Hyperion's new paperback imprint, Volo, gets a boost with the launch of the Lost Treasures series of reissued novels including such titles as The Kellyhorns by Barbara Cooney and The Great Cheese Conspiracy by Jean Van Leeuwen. Each Lost Treasures book has an introductory price of $1.99. Value-added bind-in materials will jazz up copies of the first three Madison Finn middle-grade titles (volumes 1 and 2 feature an "e-cabulary" computer screen cling; volume 3 comes with a CD-ROM) and the Barkley's School for Dogs chapter books will contain trading cards. In addition, young pet lovers can enter the Barkley's School for Dogs contest, sending in photos if they look like their dogs. Details are available in the first two books of the series.
InnovativeKIDS will offer an in-store event kit spotlighting its new Now I'm Reading series for beginning readers. The books, for kids ages 4—7, are written by an educator and focus on phonics skills. Each title contains 10 small books housed in a CD-like case, a parent guide and incentive stickers. The event kit features flashcards, puzzles, stickers and a Now I'm Reading certificate. McGraw-Hill Children's Publishing hopes to appeal to beginning readers as well, with the debut of the Mercer Mayer First Readers Skills and Practice series, a line of paperback trade books adapted from McGraw-Hill's Open Court classroom curriculum for reading.
Award winners and acclaimed fiction favorites are usually a staple of summer promotions, and such is the case at Penguin Putnam. The Winning Summer Reading 72-copy display is currently available and features $2.99 digest editions of Newbery winners and Honor Books, including The Westing Game by Ellen Baskin, A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck and A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer. A Hot Books for Cool Reading series, with a 72-copy display, goes on sale June 4 and serves up $2.99 digest editions of such favorites as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and Lyddie by Katherine Paterson. Penguin Putnam has just released value editions—several novels by one author bound into one volume—by some popular summer reading list authors as well, including Lloyd Alexander, S.E. Hinton, T.A. Barron and Eva Ibbotson. Ibbotson fans can hear the author read a chapter from her new novel Dial-A-Ghost when they call a toll-free number (888-422-2462, from July 1—August 17) that is printed on bookmarks that will be available in early July.
Penguin Putnam's Mad Libs series, which has proved to be a great traveling companion for kids, is available in a five-title Mad Libs Fun Pack for $9.99; for single Mad Libs titles, a buy-one-get-one-free offer continues. A Middle-Grade Sampler gives readers a taste of such new novels as Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz and By Lizzie by first-time author Mary Eccles. Next month Penguin Putnam releases a Family History Kit (an activity kit for store and classroom use) that will talk about researching family history. Featured titles include The Gawgon and the Boy by Lloyd Alexander and Patricia Polacco's latest picture book, Betty Doll.
Something witchy is brewing at Candlewick as the publisher prepares for the Friday, July 13, release of the YA novel Witch Child by Celia Rees. If retailers order a "witch's dozen" books they will receive a 13th copy free. Candlewick is also shining the light on its burgeoning Growing Up fiction line with a Review a Candlewick Novel and Get One Free promotion. Young readers may submit a review of any Candlewick novel that bears the special candle symbol and receive a free book in return (the freebies are chosen by Candlewick). Booksellers may obtain an easel-back order-form display for this campaign.
There may be no new Harry Potter book this summer, but magical beings are still the order of the day for summer promotions from Harcourt and Walker. With a minimum order of three copies of The Wizard's Dilemma, the latest in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane, booksellers will receive a promotion pack from Harcourt. The pack contains 25 buttons with the catch phrase "So you want to be a Wizard? Ask me how!" along with 25 bookmarks and an easel display promoting all the Young Wizards titles. Walker is hoping to grab summer readers with the reissued Newbery Honor novel Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl, and has produced a poster of the new jacket art by Leo and Diane Dillon.
Joiners will have something to cheer about as Pleasant Company rolls out the American Girls Club Kit for booksellers. The kit contains an event planner with ideas for games, crafts and activities, and enough bookmarks, buttons, nametags and activity booklets for 30 children. A poster and shelf-talker are among the items that booksellers can use to publicize their American Girls event.
Golden aims to build a strong summertime following for its licensed-character activity books with a "Summer Splash" grandstand display featuring titles inspired by Scooby Doo, the Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants. Other seasonal campaigns include national promotion of the Road to Reading and Road to Writing books aimed at beginning readers and writers. The line will receive major support from tie-ins with Target, Kmart, Books-a-Million and Barnes & Noble.
Olivia the pig makes a splash in Simon & Schuster's "Catch Olivia this Summer" floor display. It ships with six Olivia beach balls, six Olivia sticker sheets and an Olivia riser. The summer months gallop on with a Marguerite Henry 70-copy floor display, highlighting specially priced ($2.99) editions of such Henry classics as Misty of Chincoteague and King of the Wind.
For the third year in a row, S&S will again team up with the National Amusements cinema chain for Bookworm Wednesdays. In the 15 participating markets nationwide, children ages 6—12 are entitled to free admission to a local screening of select family films throughout the summer, in exchange for submitting a book report to the cinema box office. Free admission extends to children under six, parents and legal guardians. This year's films run between July 11 and August 25, and include such family fare as Chicken Run (July 11) and My Dog Skip (July 18). Children who submit book reports receive goodies including books from S&S and candy, and are eligible for a grand prize drawing for one year of free movie passes.
Pocket Books is generating summer heat of its own with a Full House Buy Two Books, Get One Free! promotion and summer campaign spotlighting TV tie-ins from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Dawson's Creek and other popular programs on the WB network. On the Bookstore Front
Most booksellers PW spoke with, both from chains and independents, have found a tried-and-true formula for handling the summer reading season: find out which books local schools are recommending/requiring and get them in stock. "We prepare a brochure that tells teachers what services we will provide for them and we ask that they give us their lists as soon as possible so we can get those books in," said Patricia Brick, children's buyer at R.J. Julia in Madison, Conn. "I'm in the middle of it all now, and as I look at these lists, I keep thinking I wish I could have read this stuff in school," she commented. "There are lots of fun, terrific books like Holes and titles by Brian Jacques. No Silas Marner."
"Summer is a really busy time for us, which is great," said Sharon Hearn, owner of Children's Book World in Los Angeles. "We have the local schools send us their required reading lists so we can stock the books and make it easier on parents and students.
"Aside from required reading," Hearn added, "we get lots of people coming in looking for diversions—stacks of books they can take on vacation with them. We sell lots of middle-grade novels and titles for car or plane travel, like maze books and crosswords. We also display some summer-oriented titles like camp journals, and lots of geography-type things for families who are traveling."
Borders obtains reading lists from local schools and stocks and displays those titles students will be looking for, according to spokesperson Kendra Smith. The company is also planning some other summer promotions, but was not able to release details at press time.
The Parable Group—a marketing association for more than 300 Christian bookstores—will blast into summer with Reading Rocket Ride, the group's third annual summer reading program. This year's outer-space theme is inspired by the Mars Diaries series by Sigmund Brouwer, published by Tyndale Kids, the reading program's major sponsor. Parable and Tyndale hope that the outer-space theme will encourage children from preschool through eighth grade to read during the summer months. The top five readers from each participating Parable store will then be eligible for the grand prize drawing for a trip for four to the Kennedy Space Center. Smaller prizes will also be given away throughout the campaign. As an added incentive for older kids, fourth- through eighth-graders can enter a national writing contest sponsored by Tyndale Kids; the winning entry will receive a school visit/one-day writing workshop from Brouwer.
As Memorial Day—the unofficial start of summer—approaches, it seems publishers and booksellers are getting prepared for the lazy, hazy months ahead, to meet the needs of those reading for credit or just for fun. Here's to a happy reading season!
