Lerner Scores with Cleary

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on February 8, 2007 Sign up now!

by Claire Kirch, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 2/8/2007

Words Are CATegorical, a rhyming grammar-based illustrated picture book series for readers ages 7-9, has quietly become a runaway bestseller for the Lerner Publishing Group. "It's like printing money," says David Wexler, Lerner Publishing's v-p for sales and marketing. "It can take up to three years to sell through a first print run," which, at Lerner, typically is 25,000 copies. "With these, it's under a year. We're always reprinting."

"It's doing well in all of our markets," says Lois Wallentine, Lerner marketing director. "[It skews more toward] educational, which is to be expected. But it's also selling in the trade, which wasn't expected. It's one of those sleepers that caught fire."

The series, written by Brian P. Cleary, a senior humor editor at American Greetings, was initially illustrated by Jenya Promitsky, and is now illustrated by Toronto Globe and Mail editorial cartoonist Brian Gable. The series was launched in 1999 by the Lerner imprint First Avenue Editions, with the release of A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink: What Is a Noun? Since Millbrook Press's acquisition by Lerner in 2004, the series has been published under the Millbrook imprint. The 11th book in the series, Slide and Slurp, Scratch and Burp: More About Verbs, is scheduled for release this March. Another book on adjectives will be released next spring, with the final titles in the series to be published after that.

To date, the 10 titles in the Words Are CATegorical series have sold a total of 2.1 million copies in both hardcover and paper, making it the bestselling series out of the 198 published by Lerner. In fact, the most popular title in the series, To Root, to Toot, to Parachute: What Is a Verb? (2001), has sold 177,000 copies in hardcover and 253,000 in paper, plus sales to book clubs, for a total of approximately 500,000 copies, not including special sales.

Wallentine described what initially was to be a "quiet series" of only three books as a "rather difficult birth," with some at the press questioning whether a market existed for books explaining rules of grammar with wit, riotous colors and unabashed exuberance. "One editor was really behind it, but others were not so sure," she explains. "It took some proving that there was a market for these books. They're just so unusual. Word of mouth, supported by all the wonderful reviews, was key."

Booksellers say that the series sells well because it's packaged attractively and fills a need in the marketplace. Sheri Hill, manager of the Blue Manatee Children's Bookstore & Decafé in Cincinnati, Ohio, said, "The titles are well conceived. They pull people in. People are also looking for help in various areas; we even have parents coming in looking for information, to help their kids. Cleary fills that need."

Clearly also writes the Math Is CATegorical series for ages 6–9, with three books already published in what is scheduled to be a six-book series. And he is the author of several stand-alone books, all published by Lerner; the latest one, Peanut Butter & Jellyfishes, will be published in April.

Perhaps Lindsay Chall, Lerner's senior publicist, summed up Cleary's success best, declaring, "Kids don't know they're learning, because they're having so much fun doing it."