Like many others in the children's and YA lit blogging world, I've been following the Scholastic Is Evil For Selling Non-Book Items Via School Book Fairs headlines for a few days. Samples:
-Scholastic Accused of Misusing Book Clubs from the New York Times, with discussion at LISNews
-Scholastic Sales Pitch Draws Criticism from the Boston Globe
-Scholastic Called Out for Selling Games in Schools from Kotaku
-Is Scholastic Abusing its Power Over Kids? from WRAL (Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville NC)
All of these make me ask a few questions, like:
Who just figured this out NOW? Hasn't Scholastic been selling non-book items in schools through its book fairs and clubs for years? I seem to remember buying my fair share of stickers from Scholastic book clubs when I was a kid.
If Scholastic is going to be accused of "abusing its power over kids," can someone tell me how much power they have, exactly?
Are publishers supposed to function at a higher moral standard than, say, toy or food companies? I have a long rant about this that doesn't really belong here, but the short, applicable version goes something like this: Scholastic is a for-profit company. Their job, above all other things, is to make money. Their job is not to act as parents or teachers or librarians. Their job is to put out products that people want to buy, which for them includes books and book tie-in products. If they don't make money, the company closes down. Publishing is a business. Children's book writers, editors, marketers, etc., are not saints, nor are they terrible people for coming up with good marketing ideas, which includes tie-in items.
Maybe I'm just as worthy of accusation of encouraging commercialism towards children as Scholastic is, but I think there are many worse things Scholastic could do than sell tie-in items for books. No one is ever forced to buy anything from these book fairs. Yes, they're fun and yes, I like a good sparkly pen and matching diary just as much as the next person, but no one has to buy anything despite the tempting layouts. Speaking from a fandom perspective, tie-in items are a darn lot of fun and encourage a level of fandom participation. Yes, younger readers can participate in fandom. What I know about child psychology can fit in...well, in something very small, but I would think there'd be some kind of learning or thought development going on when tangible book-related items are present. Or maybe that's just because I always wanted the boots and glove and cloak the girls found in What the Witch Left. And video games? Kids have always loved playing video games, and libraries are using them to encourage new types of literacy and library participation. Selling tie-in video games through book fairs is, frankly, really smart marketing. If books alone cannot make enough money for the book fairs to survive, then it's time to get creative.
-Scholastic Accused of Misusing Book Clubs from the New York Times, with discussion at LISNews
-Scholastic Sales Pitch Draws Criticism from the Boston Globe
-Scholastic Called Out for Selling Games in Schools from Kotaku
-Is Scholastic Abusing its Power Over Kids? from WRAL (Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville NC)
All of these make me ask a few questions, like:
Who just figured this out NOW? Hasn't Scholastic been selling non-book items in schools through its book fairs and clubs for years? I seem to remember buying my fair share of stickers from Scholastic book clubs when I was a kid.
If Scholastic is going to be accused of "abusing its power over kids," can someone tell me how much power they have, exactly?
Are publishers supposed to function at a higher moral standard than, say, toy or food companies? I have a long rant about this that doesn't really belong here, but the short, applicable version goes something like this: Scholastic is a for-profit company. Their job, above all other things, is to make money. Their job is not to act as parents or teachers or librarians. Their job is to put out products that people want to buy, which for them includes books and book tie-in products. If they don't make money, the company closes down. Publishing is a business. Children's book writers, editors, marketers, etc., are not saints, nor are they terrible people for coming up with good marketing ideas, which includes tie-in items.
Maybe I'm just as worthy of accusation of encouraging commercialism towards children as Scholastic is, but I think there are many worse things Scholastic could do than sell tie-in items for books. No one is ever forced to buy anything from these book fairs. Yes, they're fun and yes, I like a good sparkly pen and matching diary just as much as the next person, but no one has to buy anything despite the tempting layouts. Speaking from a fandom perspective, tie-in items are a darn lot of fun and encourage a level of fandom participation. Yes, younger readers can participate in fandom. What I know about child psychology can fit in...well, in something very small, but I would think there'd be some kind of learning or thought development going on when tangible book-related items are present. Or maybe that's just because I always wanted the boots and glove and cloak the girls found in What the Witch Left. And video games? Kids have always loved playing video games, and libraries are using them to encourage new types of literacy and library participation. Selling tie-in video games through book fairs is, frankly, really smart marketing. If books alone cannot make enough money for the book fairs to survive, then it's time to get creative.
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