Book Expo '98: Plush Toys, a New PBS Show, and a Pediatrician
Staff -- School Library Journal, 7/1/1998
Dr. Robert Needlman is a Cleveland-based doctor with a simple, yet powerful, message: Pediatricians can help librarians and booksellers get books into children's hands.
Needlman, who founded the Reach Out and Read (ROAR) initiative while at the Boston Medical Center, most recently spread word of his efforts at BookExpo America (BEA), the country's largest book trade show, held May 28 to June 1 in Chicago.
Having spoken to children's librarians at two national library conferences, Needlman, whose ROAR project now promotes reading in about 225 health clinics and doctor's offices nationwide, turned his attention to children's booksellers.
"In clinics, parents wait for a long time, often as much as 45 minutes," said Needlman. Yet that time is seldom used to expose children to reading, he explained. He saw a tremendous opportunity being lost, especially since young children visit their doctors frequently. That realization put Needlman on the road to convince book people to work with pediatricians to read aloud and give away books in waiting rooms.
Current research on the brain shows that children don't pick up language skills by simply hearing words on TV, for example, but through give-and-take in conversation, said Needlman. Even an audiotape or performance is not as valuable as an adult who asks questions and listens to a child's responses about a book.
The contrast between Needlman's missionary zeal and the glitz of the exhibit floor was striking. Purveyors of stuffed Babars, bath mitts, and even books with sheets of peel-off candy attached shared space with children's publishers showing their books for fall. Several publishers brought along authors and illustrators, such as Leo and Diane Dillon from Scholastic and Edward and Rebecca Emberley from Little, Brown. To drum up publicity for his new PBS children's show, Christopher Cerf of Sesame Street fame attended the convention's Literacy Fair, an effort to link together early reading initiatives. Scheduled to start airing in the fall of 1999, Between the Lions is set in "a vast, magical library"and is hosted by the lions that flank the main New York Public Library. The show's aim is to improve the reading ability of children from age four to seven.
Zooming up in age, a program called "Biblio-Palooza: Reaching Generation X" brought booksellers and publishers together to discuss how to appeal to the often fickle teen, especially those who live outside the mainstream.
To make bookstores relevant to these YAs, John Valentine at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, North Carolina, recommended combing non-mainstream book reviews, such as the Voice Literary Supplement. He also suggested using Loose Cannons, a catalog from Koen Book Distributors.
Slightly more than 25,000 in the book business--including 500 librarians--came to McCormick Place for the event, co-sponsored by the American Booksellers Association (ABA) and the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Association Expositions & Services, an organization owned by Reed Elsevier, SLJ's parent company, operates the show.
The return of a handful of major publishers that had snubbed ABA by not attending in 1997 drew notice. Random House, Simon & Schuster, and several other houses resurfaced, albeit with smaller booths than before. A lawsuit brought by ABA against the publishers for giving chain bookstores allegedly illegal discounts had triggered the exodus.--R.O.
