Children's Books at BookExpo America

By Diane Roback -- Publishers Weekly, 6/5/2008

There’s been some doom and gloom about the state of the publishing industry, in various post-BEA writeups, but not on the children’s side of things. Just look at the fall season. Right after the convention ended, based on bookseller response there, Little, Brown announced that it would increase the first printing of Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn to 3.2 million copies, for the August 2 release. Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr comes out on Sept. 20 with a 2.5 million first printing. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Three quarters of a million copies for the latest Artemis Fowl novel. 500,000 copies for the new Jamie Lee Curtis picture book. 350,000 copies for Cornelia Funke’s Inkdeath. A million copies of If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Another million copies for the High School Musical 3 junior novel. You get the picture.

Nikki Giovanni and Sherman Alexie at BEA.

Every bookseller we saw at the show was excited about the fall season, and raved about the various events they’d attended and authors they’d met. There were some convention hall logistical challenges, however: children’s publishers were spread between the two halls, the larger children’s divisions exhibiting with their adult counterparts in the South Hall, and the children’s-only companies, from Scholastic and Candlewick down to the smallest houses, in the West Hall—and a long hike in between. “You needed bread crumbs to find the children’s displays,” said Ellen Mager of Booktenders Secret Garden in Doylestown, Pa., “and I wish I’d gotten to see more—some books I never did find!”

It was the first BEA for Jilleen Moore of Square Books Jr. in Oxford, Miss. “I was at first overwhelmed by the enormity of the convention center,” she said. “The folks to whom I sell books, nor my coworkers, would never believe the publishers’ expense and energy for the few titles they push. It gives me more confidence in my publisher representatives when they try to sell me a title they are excited about.”

At Thursday’s annual meeting of the Association of Booksellers for Children, executive director Kristen McLean reported an upward swing in membership: 591 in total, 241 of which are stores, a number that has increased by 40 in the last two years. Many of the new members are general bookstores; membership is now online, which greatly streamlines the process. On the board, Dara LaPorte of Politics & Prose was reelected for a full term as treasurer; Antonia Squire of Kepler’s replaces Linda Higham of The Storyteller, and as a publisher board member, Melanie Chang of Little, Brown is replacing Lori Benton.

As part of the ABC’s New Voices program, first novelists Cecilia Galante (The Patron Saint of Butterflies, Bloomsbury) and Marie Rutkoski (The Cabinet of Wonders, FSG) spoke about the inspiration behind their books. Galante, who was raised in a religious cult, and whose book is set in one too, told how important “voice” is to her as a writer. “When you were disciplined you weren’t allowed to cry. I’d scream my head off when it happened to me,” she recalled. “That’s all I had—my voice.” Later she learned that the beatings would stop sooner if she didn’t cry, so “that resonant stubborn child faded into the background.” Life in the cult wasn’t that hard, she said, because it was all she knew; “the much harder thing was to leave, and to assimilate into mainstream culture.” Discovering The Catcher in the Rye proved an important turning point, Galante said. “It was like someone reached out and said, ‘I see you,’ helping me find my voice again.”

Rotkoski stated that from an early age, “I loved a good story.” After reading aloud a “particularly awful” story she had written in graduate school, her professor posed the question, “Why do we write? What’s so important about what we do?” She didn’t have a good answer for him at the time, but it provided her with good food for thought. The idea of her novel, which came to her while she was supposed to be finishing her dissertation, was to show “different ways of seeing.” In her story, 12-year-old Petra discovers that her clockmaker’s father’s eyes have been stolen, and then enchanted, by the prince he created a clock for; Petra travels to Prague to restore them to her father. Rotkoski’s mother was blind for a number of years, so the idea was close to her heart. She also talked of resisting the urge to write fiction while pursuing a career in academia: “I turned a blind eye for many ears to my hopes and dreams of becoming a writer.” Her first novel pubs in October.

There were many programs and panels on Thursday at the ABA’s Day of Education, and more throughout the weekend. “I thought there were ample learning possibilities,” said Hicklebee’s co-owner Monica Holmes, “even for old veterans.” The Book Sense Book of the Year Award was given to Brian Selznick, at Thursday night’s Celebration of Bookselling, and the two Pannell Award winners, for excellence in children’s bookselling, were feted in the same evening: Kepler’s Books and Magazines in Menlo Park, Calif., and The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt. (And speaking of Flying Pig, the store’s co-owners, Elizabeth Bluemle and Josie Leavitt, were PW’s guest bloggers throughout the convention; be sure to check out their blog posts here.

The Children's Book and Author Breakfast on Friday morning was a memorable event for all who attended; click here to read our coverage.

Authors autographed baseballs for guests at a memorable party at Dodger Stadium, hosted by Random House.

As always, publishers threw parties and dinners for booksellers, so they could meet the authors and hear about their new fall projects. For Mager, a highlight of the show was attending Random House Children’s Books’ party on the field at Dodger Stadium. “Seeing our store names ‘up in lights’ was just amazing!” she said. “Add the baseball signed by all their authors—a great and clever event!”

Holmes thought that the Speed Dating with Authors event was “exceptional,” adding, “The authors and illustrators that presented were terrific and I wanted to grab every galley and run and hide until I finished them all.”

Suzanne Perry at Secret Garden Bookshop in Seattle loved the 39 Clues party that Scholastic threw for Rick Riordan on Friday night. “Besides getting to meet and have an in-depth conversation with my idol, David Levithan,” she said, “it was the best themed party of the weekend, what with the caviar, chocolate fountain, photo booth and dance floor, complete with the slide show of images from the imagination of the (yet-to-be) book.”

And on that dance floor, she said, the “entire posse” of Seattle bookseller attendees “boogied until DJ quitting time.” They were: Judy Hobbs, Rene Kirkpatrick and Rene Holderman from Third Place Books, Lauren Mayer from University Bookstore, Jaime Temairik from First Edition Media Services, and Christy McDanold from Secret Garden. “Just proving Seattle kids’ book people really know how to boogie,” she added.

For Moore at Square Books Jr., the highlight of the show was “meeting many of my favorite authors: Sherman Alexie, Judy Blume, M.T. Anderson, Trenton Lee Stewart, Art Spiegelman, Jeff Smith, Jon Scieszka. It was incredibly exciting. And it was equally delightful to meet some new independently published authors, such as Bernette Ford who wrote Ballet Kitty, which is seated high upon the ‘pink’ shelf at Square Books, Jr., along with Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious.”

Moore also talked about sharing with other independents at the show the philosophy she teaches to all new booksellers. “Selling books is like fishing,” she said. “You find a book you really love and figure out a way to make people want that book and thank you for it. A good book, well illustrated, packaged and thoughtfully represented in the hands of a loving bookseller, will get readers hooked every time. All booksellers need to do is find books they love, figure out what works, throw it out there and enjoy reeling in the readers.”

We wish all children's booksellers a good fishing season.

What follows are writeups of three of the children’s panels, among the many BEA panels aimed at children’s booksellers. (And don't miss our BEA photo album, showing all the visual highlights from the weekend's events. Click here to see it.)

Big Read Update

Sunil Iyengar, director of research and analysis at National Endowment for the Arts, presented the empirical findings from the NEA’s 2007 report on reading trends among Americans, followed by NEA literature director David Kipen’s presentation of the NEA Big Read initiative to restore reading to Americans’ cultural lives in Saturday morning’s “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence” educational session. According to Iyengar, the news is pretty grim: Americans—especially teens and young adults—are spending less time reading, resulting in an erosion in reading comprehension skills. These declines have serious civic, social, cultural and economic implications, Iyengar declared, “which has implications for our democracy,” as “good readers make good citizens,” with 84% of proficient readers voting, as opposed to 53% of below-basic readers. Also, 43% of proficient readers volunteer their time, compared to 16% of below-basic readers.

There was a silver lining to Iyengar’s grey cloud, however: nine-year-olds read more often each day than ever before. In fact, the reading level of nine-year-olds stands at the highest since 1971, the first year the test was administered to them. Kipen described himself as Pollyanna to Iyengar’s Cassandra, observing an “incremental reversal” of the decline as he described the success of the Big Read program, which has grown twenty-fold since its debut in 10 communities in 2006; it’s been implemented in 200 communities this year. In addition to a grant from the NEA to support the community reading initiative, each participating community receives a collection of materials about the selected title developed by a team of “20 English major” literary experts. The materials include readers’ guides, teachers’ guides and audio guides for each book.

Launched with four American classic novels in 2006, the Big Read list includes 21 novels, and Kipen said they’re beginning to include more international titles and contemporary works, and want to branch out into poetry and nonfiction in the future, after getting the fiction selections “right.” Promising “an exclusive,” Kipen unveiled the latest books to be added to the list: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien; an Edgar Allan Poe anthology that has yet to be specified; The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder; and Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. “The ultimate goal, Kipen said, “is to give the residents of America’s cities and towns something more interesting to discuss than the weather.” —Claire Kirch

Books to Film

Children’s and YA titles containing fantastical elements will continue to be sought out for adaptation into film, and graphic novels for television, a panel of producers and acquisition agents agreed at the BEA “Children’s and YA Book-to-Film Market” session, which was attended by more than 100 people. Emily Parker, managing director of rightscenter.com, moderated, and panelists included Bob Levy, Alloy Entertainment; Riley Ellis, YA & children’s literary scout, 20th Century Fox; Eddie Gamarra, The Gotham Group; and Fiona Kenshole, v-p, development acquisitions, LAIKA, an independent production company in Portland, Ore.

“For us, Percy Jackson is the next Harry Potter,” Ellis said. The movie adaptation of the Percy Jackson novels, currently being developed by 20th Century Fox, is scheduled for release in 2009. “Fantasy is visual,” she added, noting that graphic novels are “great” for story boards, with a format that streamlines the adaptation process. Ellis recalled how her colleagues “cheered” when Hugo Cabret came under consideration for film adaptation. “We could show the illustrations,” she recalled, “It was a hot property.”

“It’s always exciting, watching a book leap into life” as it’s adapted for the screen, Kenshole commented, describing the painstaking process of adapting Neil Gaiman’s Coraline into an animated film.

While buyers are always interested in frontlist, or, as Gamarra called it, the “next new thing,” the four panelists noted that backlist titles also are considered for adaptation, though, in such cases, sales figures are an essential factor.

“If you can go into a meeting and say, three million people have read this book and at least some of them will see the movie,” Ellis commented, “that helps.” Twentieth Century Fox currently is producing Ramona, based on the classic Beverly Cleary novels.

But, Gamarra countered, books with low sales figures but with a “big story” sometimes “defy all odds” and are sought out for adaptation, such as The Devil You Know, which Gamarra called “so special, so magical, so film-friendly.”

Sometimes books that are bestsellers fail when adapted for the screen, Levy commented, recalling that an Alloy property, Pretty Little Liars, which succeeded as a series for YA female readers, disappointed when developed into a television series. —Claire Kirch

The Gen Z Reader

What is reading now? and What is it going to be? Those were the twin questions posed at the BEA panel on reading for the generation born after 9/11. All the panelists concurred with Tim Ditlow, publisher of Brilliance Audio, that reading transcends the medium. Added Scholastic editorial director David Levithan, with a nod to digital downloads of audio books and e-books, “As publishers, if we don’t adapt we’ll die. We’ll become as obsolete as the music industry. Ten years from now, if not sooner, they’ll be downloading 75% of books from the Web. The moment you can read a book on an iPhone or iTouch, it will change. The big challenge is the Napster challenge.”

That challenge could already be here. On October 16, Ditlow is taking John Green’s new hardcover, Paper Towns, and “blowing it out” in multiple platforms, including audio CD and MP3. Still, said Lisi Harrison, author of the Clique novels, the authenticity of the voice and the strength of the story will continue to be the determining factors for what teens read. “No matter what the medium is,” she said, “kids will always respond to a great story.”

For Charlie Schroder, v-p of marketing and development at Candlewick Press, “What’s interesting about this generation is they can engage with characters and embed them in their lives.” A character can be in a book, a movie, a TV series, a reality game. Anastasia Goodstein, founder and editor-in-chief of Ypulse, agreed and pointed to the flap over how the Gossip Girls television series is broadcast. Teens prefer to watch it over the Web, which meant they miss the ads paid for by the show’s sponsors.

Undoubtedly changes in platforms will impact retailers. Schroeder envisioned successful booksellers as being even more curatorial than they are today. And, she noted, we haven’t touched on print-on-demand. There is going to be some triage, predicted Scholastic’s Levithan. “The market will shrink.”

Whether making their stores community centers, as successful children’s bookstores have already done, will be enough to ensure their survival is not clear. Some publishers were bullish about the chance to increase sales through more platforms. “If you open up content a lot more, you’re going to help retailers,” said Ditlow. He would like to see the YA novel equivalent of mix tapes with snippets of the printed word, audio and graphics that could be passed around via widget.

Despite the fact that sales of vinyl are on the rise, as moderator Kristen McLean, executive director of ABC, pointed out, that’s not necessarily a predictor that there will be a large backlash by young people against the march of technology. There was much nodding from other audience members when Australian publisher Cynthea Weelings, CEO of Ausmed Publications, said that young people in her country, which has a population of 20 million and very few independent bookstores, are ready to embrace reading by iPhone. “It’s countries like Australia and Japan, and Asia that will drive this forward,” she said. —Judith Rosen