Children's Book Publishing (Scholastic)

Children's book publishing is one of the fastest growing parts of publishing. It's a lively part of consumer publishing and is split into different age categories, like baby books, books for toddlers and preteens and even young adults.

The first publishing house I have researched is Scholastic, mainly because when I was a kid (and even now) I read a multitude of their books, from the Heartland series by Lauren Brooke and all of author Maggie Steifvater's books (the Shiver trilogy, the Scorpio Races, the Raven Boys and the Lament series). Scholastic targets all ages of children, and also publishes educational books for schools. Scholastic tries to encourage literacy by hosting book clubs and fairs and trying to spread the message that 'reading is rewarding'.

Screenshot from the Scholastic site

A book fair is where a portable 'library' is taken to schools and actual libraries so that kids can go and choose books to buy. This is really great way of making literature more accessible to children, as it's not always possible for them to go down to their local WHS's or Waterstones to browse.

What is a Scholastic Book Fair?

A Scholastic Book Fair is a wonderful reading event held in your school for everyone to enjoy. We supply you with mobile bookcases packed with the very best books to sell to your pupils to help them develop a life-long love of reading. [1]

 Book fairs are also themed to help garner interest, and schools are given compeitions and activities based on each theme to get children more involved.

To contact Scholastic, there are a number of possibly useful details on their 'Contact Us' webpage (http://www.scholastic.co.uk/contactus). From this I have decided to contact the company via email, through their children's book email adress.

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am currently an undergraduate student studying Illustration at Cleveland College of Art and Design. For one of my studio modules we are required to research publishing companies and I wondered if you could answer some questions (typed below) needed for this?

Many thanks,
Sophie Babur



1. Has children's book publishing increased in popularity over the past four years?
2. If so, why do you think this is?
3. How important is illustration in children's books and why?
4. Have book fairs become more popular in recent years or not?
5. How important are book fairs to encourage children to read and how successful are they in general?

 Hopefully a member of staff will answer these questions as they will be useful to know about, especially questions 1, 2, and 3.

[1] Scholastic, 'What is a Scholastic Book Fair?' http://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/what_is?nt=t
 (31/3/2014)