Finding fresh new reads is an ongoing quest for anyone who loves books. But there's also something very comforting about opening a book and catching up with a familiar friend, be it an author or character. That's why publishers spend so much energy providing readers with more of what they want—and why there are so many series, trilogies and sequels on bookstore shelves. "In general, I think kids and young people do like more of the same," said Christy McDanold, owner of Secret Garden Bookshop in Seattle. "I call it MOS syndrome," she continued. "Once something has caught on, there's usually a lot of excitement for the next installment."
In trying to gauge such excitement, we rounded up several of this season's most- anticipated offerings and asked booksellers for their take on which titles have generated some springtime buzz.
Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares
Who doesn't love a great pair of jeans? Well, that's just part of the story that first hooked readers in Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Delacorte), back in 2001. Her tale of the sister-like bond between four 12-year-old friends—and the pair of amazingly flattering jeans they share—quickly became a hit. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood followed in 2003 to sate a growing legion of fans. The first two books (in all editions) have nearly two million copies in print to date, and a feature film adaptation from Warner Bros. is scheduled for release this June.
Now comes Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood (Jan. 25 laydown; 250,000-copy first printing). Readers were given a sneak peek last month when excerpts from the new book appeared in the paperback edition of The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. Also in December, Random House shipped 3,000 countdown easel displays for the new book and an additional 200 paperback displays, all of which included a "The Third Time's a Charm" charm for consumer giveaway, as well as information on a national consumer contest whereby kids could enter to win a trip to the movie's summer premiere.
To try to reach tweens and teens, www.sisterhoodcentral.com featured a text-messaging ad campaign. Each text message sent via the site or through the banner ads includes a footer encouraging fans to buy the book or enter the contest. Brashares kicked off a 10-city national tour last week, beginning in New York City.
"The friendship theme is the [books'] main appeal and, of course, all the things that girls go through," said Elizabeth Bluemle, co-owner of Flying Pig Children's Books in Charlotte, Vt. "There aren't that many realistic upbeat books about friendship out there." Jody Shapiro, owner of Adventures for Kids in Ventura, Calif., is looking forward to the title as well. "It's a book that moms and kids will both enjoy," she said. "It's a juicy summer read with a built-in audience, and the other two will sell again, too."
Lisa Dugan, children's book buyer at Koen Book Distributors, offers a similar assessment. "The characters in those books feel so real to me, very authentic," she said. "They have problems that readers can relate to. She [Brashares] really hit the nail on the head; they are the perfect summertime books."
And Judy Bulow, children's buyer for Tattered Cover stores in Denver, said: "We like them a lot. Each one seems a little bit different and they are still really fresh. Everyone will want to see the next one."
Shredderman: Meet the Gecko by Wendelin Van Draanen
With her popular Sammy Keyes mystery series (Knopf) about a cool girl sleuth, Van Draanen has proved adept at creating memorable characters who have a knack for uncovering the truth. In the Shredderman quartet (also Knopf), which debuted last year with Shredderman: Secret Identity, the author gives boys their due, introducing Nolan Byrd, a brainy fifth-grader with clever, often high-tech, problem-solving abilities. The third book, Meet the Gecko, is hitting shelves this month with a 25,000-copy first printing; the first two books combined have 90,000 copies in print.
Since cyberspace plays a prominent role in the Shredderman stories, the Internet seemed a perfect place to market the book. Random House designed a boutique site, www.shredderman.com, that offers updates on the books, quizzes and activities. When the fourth and final book, Enemy Spy, is published in May, the site will feature an interactive Web game for kids.
Van Draanen toured extensively in spring 2004 when the series launched, giving the titles plenty of exposure. And this spring, she'll receive a Christopher Award for the books.
According to Dugan, "The series is really taking off for us. I don't know if this third book will be the one to really break it out, but people are interested."
"Shredderman is at a great age-level," Shapiro said. "The books are snappy, refreshing and they have less toilet humor than some of the books that appeal mostly to boys. They're more about problem-solving." And McDanold noted, "These books have been kind of a surprise for us. They've done really well. She's a terrific writer and her books are always popular."
The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich
In 1999, Louise Erdrich published her first novel for children, The Birchbark House (Hyperion), about an Ojibwe family living on a Lake Superior island in 1847. The book, often compared in feel to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, was inspired by Erdrich's own Ojibwe heritage and was a National Book Award finalist. Now, six years later, Erdrich has a new book and a new publishing house. The Game of Silence, which continues the story of Omakayas and her Ojibwe family, will be released in May by HarperCollins with a first printing of 100,000 copies.
Though the move to Harper marks a switch of sorts, the majority of Erdrich's adult works have been published at the house. "Louise Erdrich is one of the most talented and admired writers today," said Susan Katz, HarperCollins Children's Books president and publisher, of the new arrangement. "We at HarperCollins wanted to be her overall publisher and are thrilled to publish her works for both adults and children."
Booksellers expressed excitement at the book's release as well. "I loved The Birchbark House," Bluemle said. "It's been big in our community, and they will want the new one. I know that some booksellers get upset about adult authors coming into the children's field, but she did it beautifully." And Bulow noted, "Probably more than anything, this is the one [sequel] I'm looking forward to."
Erdrich has said this is the second in a trilogy about Omakayas, to be followed by a trilogy about Omakayas's son, and then a final trilogy about her granddaughter, which, in all, will cover a 100-year-span of the Ojibwe Nation.
Shrimp by Rachel Cohn
When readers left wild-child Cyd Charisse at the end of Cohn's first novel, Gingerbread (S&S, 2002), the teenager was headed back to her mother's San Francisco home after an eye-opening summer with her father in New York City. The book was featured in many teen magazines and on teen-oriented Web sites. To date there are 50,000 hardcover copies in print along with 125,00 copies of the paperback. In Shrimp (S&S, Mar., 35,000-copy first printing; reprint of 5,000 copies ready to ship simultaneously with initial quantity), Cyd readjusts to life on the left coast and tries to win back her diminutive surfer boyfriend—the Shrimp of the title.
Cohn has struck a chord with teens and has said that readers (especially vocal on www.rachelcohn.com) were the inspiration for this latest work. "We have some hard-core Rachel Cohn fans who will clamor for [the sequel]," said Bluemle. "They like the rawness of Cyd, the quirky, not-all-perfect parts. They identified with her prickliness." At Secret Garden, McDanold said, "One of our booksellers really likes Rachel Cohn, and she'll booktalk the title to new people. Gingerbread is on one of our regional choice lists, which kids select and libraries focus on, so that will help, too."
For Bulow, the demand is largely staff-driven. "Gingerbread was very popular with the booksellers here, so I ordered Shrimp based on that. However, the jury's still out."
Papa, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse, illus. by Barbara Lavallee
Few things are more reassuring to a child than hearing affirmation of a parent's love. And books on the topic sell like hotcakes as shower and new-baby gifts. That has certainly been the case for Mama, Do You Love Me? by Joosse and Lavallee, a tender picture book set in Alaska, that was published by Chronicle Books in 1991. Since that time, the book has sold more than one million copies and been translated into 15 languages. A board book version, published in 1998, has sold 250,000 copies.
In June, Mama will be joined by a companion volume, Papa, Do You Love Me? (75,000-copy first printing), which features a lush African setting inspired by the author's and illustrator's trips to Africa and extensive research into the Maasai culture. Joose and Lavallee will travel together on a five-city tour.
"That combo of author and artist is very appealing. I think that will make it stand out, even though there have been so many Papa/Daddy books lately," said Shapiro.
Josie Leavitt, co-owner of The Flying Pig, is happy to have more titles of this ilk. "We have more and more dads coming in looking for special books that they can share with their kids," she said. "The art in the first book is so lovely and the story is a slightly different take on the mother-baby theme. I'm excited to see the new one."
Of course, this is just a sampling of what's in store in the coming months. Before we know it, people will be buzzing about the big books for the fall. Sequels already on the radar screen: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Scholastic/Levine, July 16); If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff, illus. by Felicia Bond (HarperCollins/ Geringer, July); Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure by Georgia Byng (HarperCollins, July); Eldest by Christopher Paolini, the followup to Eragon (Knopf, Aug.); Olivia Does Christmas by Ian Falconer (Atheneum/Schwartz, Oct.); and Inkspell by Cornelia Funke, sequel to Inkheart (Scholastic/Chicken House, Oct.)
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What is it? A new series based on Nova's Ark, a 1999 picture book by David Kirk. To be published by Callaway (trade titles) and Grosset & Dunlap (mass market titles). The books, which follow a young robot and his metallic animal friends in their adventures through the galaxies, are created using 3-D computer-generated imagery.
