When Shireen Dodson first suggested the idea of a mother-daughter book club to her daughter, Morgan, she expected the nine-year-old to resist the idea. But Morgan -- "the kind of girl who reads in bed with a flashlight" -- immediately loved the plan.
That was two years ago. Next month, HarperPerennial will publish, as an original trade paperback, The Mother-Daughter Book Club, a guide for others who want to start a similar group.
Mother and daughter Dodson, who live in Washington, D.C., started an extremely successful reading group; the Washington Post ran a feature story on the club, and Shireen, who is the assistant director of the Center for African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution, was besieged with phone calls from other mothers seeking tips on how to start their own mother-daughter reading club.
"It was a very simple idea," said Dodson, who hit upon it while searching for a way to prevent her relationship with her daughter from deteriorating as Megan grew older. "But it really makes a special place for you and your daughter to go, and that place transcends your relationship."
It's also an idea that reflects the concern that young women are in trouble, as evidenced by Reviving Ophelia's two-year reign on national bestseller lists and the recent publication of Andrea Johnston's Girls Speak Out (Scholastic), which includes an introduction by Gloria Steinem. Across the country, mother-daughter book clubs are sprouting up in places as diverse as Raleigh, N.C., and Chappaqua, N.Y. In addition, books such as Great Books for Girls by Kathleen Odean (Ballantine) and Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14 by Erica Bauermeister and Holly Smith (Penguin) are providing guidance on book selections for such groups.
All of this made the folks at HarperPerennial "extremely excited" about acquiring the book at an auction last July, according to publicity director Susan Weinberg. "I immediately had a vision of the book -- how to publish it, how to market it -- it was all there," she said.
And so now Weinberg finds herself marketing "a real feel-good book that every bookstore can get behind." With a budget of $50,000 and "a substantial first printing" Weinberg plans to focus on point-of-purchase, with a glossy brochure aimed at booksellers, a six-copy counter display and postcards that can be mailed to customers. In addition, Dodson will undertake a 10-city tour; in-store mother-daughter events are planned all over the country, and religious organizations, literacy groups and the Girl Scouts of America have expressed interest.
And, of course, there was a natural choice for a launch date: April 24, Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Mother and daughter Dodson will begin their day with an interview on "Good Morning America" and then will launch their book tour at Borders Books &Music at the World Trade Center in Manhattan. "After that, there's Mother's Day, and then people have all summer to plan their book groups before we start up our second round of marketing in the fall," said Weinberg. Next up: a series of reading guides for books -- such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn -- selected by mother-daughter book groups.
