S & S to CBC: We’re Baaaack!
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2008 1:31:00 PM
What a difference a year makes. Simon & Schuster (S & S) has rejoined the Children’s Book Council (CBC) after withdrawing its membership last January.
“We like the direction they’re going,” says Rick Richter, S & S’s president and publisher of children’s books. “They’re really taking seriously the potential role they could have in the book retail community. I think they’re making some real strides.”
Richer specifically cited the CBC’s decision to host Children’s Book Week in May instead of November to better coincide with “retailer needs.” The CBC’s collaboration with the Library of Congress to create America’s first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature was another positive step in the right direction, Richter says.
As it turns out, the honor went toJon Scieszka, who wrote The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! (1999), The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (1992), and the new Truck Town series for preschoolers and kindergarteners—all of which are published by Simon & Schuster.
“It’s less about our specific author,” Richter says about having Scieszka being named ambassador. “And it was more about the fact that the children’s ambassadorship had been talked about for a long time—and that it was actually accomplished in cooperation with the Library of Congress.”
Just twelve months ago, Richter said S & S was taking a hiatus from the CBC because it was disappointed with its outdated marketing and technology.
But Richter says applying a “little pressure on the CBC to deliver really tangible results” seems to have worked. “What I had conveyed is that we were looking for real measurable things that we could look back on and say this has been accomplished for the good of the industry.”
And Richter is pleased with Robin Adelson as the CBC’s new executive director. “They’ve got a new spirit,” he says. “It’s results oriented, and I think it comes at a time when all children’s publishers are under increasing pressure for results.”
Adelson, who took over as CBC’s executive director just as S & S pulled out, says she’s “grateful for the vote of confidence and signal this decision represents.” S & S announced its decision to rejoin on January 25 and is in the midst of filling out its paperwork.
There’s still no news, however, about whether Little, Brown—which withdrew from CBC a few years ago—is coming back.
“We have not received confirmation that they are returning or when they will make that decision,” Adelson says.
