New Girl on the Bestseller List

Perhaps the holiday spirit—and fans' seemingly insatiable desire for American Girl dolls and merchandise—had something to do with it, but girls across the country were very eager to Meet Kaya, propelling the latest historical character from Pleasant Company onto bestseller lists. Meet Kaya, by Janet Shaw, introduces a fictional nine-year-old Nez Perce girl living in 1764 in the Pacific Northwest region. It is one of six books about Kaya released last September with a total first printing of 844,000 copies (a figure that includes paperback, hardcover and boxed-set editions). Kaya joins the highly successful American Girls Collection; the books about her currently total 1.75 million copies in print.

As a multifaceted operation with a retail and consumer direct-mail division, Pleasant Company stands uniquely positioned to promote the American Girls line through its mail-order catalogues (highlighting the Kaya doll and accessories as well as the books) and its glitzy Chicago store (a New York City store is in the works). Features in USA Today, Nick Jr. and Child magazines and a mention on The Today Show also helped get the word out. But booksellers were not left out of the promotion loop; they were able to take advantage of a Kaya floor display, a trading card promotion, a drawing for a Kaya doll and an author tour that began in September and brought Shaw to Portland, Seattle and Chicago.

"We did really well with the Kaya books," said Elly Gore, children's book buyer for the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee. "We had sales similar to those of the Kit books [the American Girl character, launched in 2000]. "Since they [Pleasant Company] are a Wisconsin company, we feel a bit of a connection. And dealing with them is so nice and easy," she added. Gore and others will no doubt cheer that yet another American Girl (details are still confidential) will be launched in 2004.

Answer to "Three Questions" Is Clear

There's no question that The Three Questions (Scholastic, Apr. 2002), illus. by Jon J Muth, is racking up both solid sales and widespread praise. The picture book—about a boy who discovers the keys to living a meaningful life—was inspired by a short story by Leo Tolstoy, and many booksellers believe this version will become a classic as well. "It's just an outstanding book," says Gore. "The message is wonderful, and good for all ages. We think it's going to hold strong as a backlist title and that it will be a great book for graduation and other occasions."

Michael Jacobs, senior v-p of Scholastic's trade division, could not be more pleased about the book's success. He noted strong in-house support for the book and a steady stream of positive attention. "There were indications out of the gate that this book had real fans," he said, adding that many independent booksellers "saw how special and wonderful the book was and began to handsell it."

Though independents were "keen early on," the book has continued to pick up momentum in the chains, with Barnes & Noble featuring the book and "doing well with it, too," according to Jacobs. Also helping to get the sales ball rolling, The Three Questions received warm pre-publication reviews and early coverage in the New York Times Book Review in the form of what Jacobs calls a "stop-you-in-your-tracks" review. "We blew it up and sent it to booksellers," he said.

In other media outlets, radio talk-show host Don Imus "said something nice about the book" on-air and then Scholastic donated copies of the title to Imus's camp for terminally ill children. In addition, "Muth had lots of fans from his earlier work, including his comic book work," said Jacobs.

The only clouds over all this sunny response came in the form of a supply shortage. "We have chased this book all along," said Jacobs. "Demand has been strong and we continued to reprint. But, like many publishers reprinting overseas, we were affected by the West Coast [dock] strike and had some books stuck in port." He reported that the supply has now been replenished, and that a reprint on the way will bring the total in-print figure to 125,000 copies (from an initial run of 15,000).

Though the short supply proved frustrating for retailers last fall, many believe they will get the chance to make it up with Mother's Day, Father's Day and graduation sales. "We ran into a problem during the break between seasons, when they were out of stock," commented Gore. "It's really hard when a book is on a roll to have it come in a month later." And at Tatnuck Booksellers in Worcester, Mass., Lorna Ruby said, "We've sold 44 of them. They were out of it for a little bit, so we might have sold more."

High-Flying Chickens

Philadelphia Chickens (Workman, Oct.), Sandra Boynton's energetic picture-book musical that comes packaged with a CD (featuring performances by such celebrities as Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon) continues to make a happy flap. "We've sold tons of it and we plan to sell more—I just love it," enthused Sharon Kelly Roth, director of public relations for Books & Co. in Dayton, Ohio. "We had Sandra here in December and it was a big to-do; hundreds of people came. She explained how she had wanted to do something that could be appreciated by both adults and children."

Roth isn't alone in feeling that Boynton has succeeded in her goal. "Wow," is how Gore put it. "I can't believe how many we sold and how much fun it was to sell it. We ran out; we didn't expect it to be as big as it was."

"Big" at this point means 120,000 total copies sold, following a first print run of 87,000 and spots on both the PW and New York Times bestseller lists. "We have only realized bookstore sales so far," said Jim Eber, director of publicity at Workman. "It sold extremely well in all stores—independents, Barnes & Noble, Amazon. It shipped in October, so we have not really hit the clubs yet and it just started at the end of the year as a Children's Book-of-the-Month Club selection."

Back in October a launch party for the book at Manhattan's Central Park Zoo attracted more than 600 people and featured a musical performance by Bill Irwin and Boynton's youngest daughter. A tour to Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Cincinnati/Dayton drew large crowds as well. And media attention for the book has also been something to cluck about. Appearances on The Today Show and The Early Show on CBS had "a great effect on sales," said Eber. Stories in People and Good Housekeeping kept the good sales hatching. Plans for a fourth printing later this winter will bring the in-print total to 168,000. Talk about golden eggs....