Gone are the days when children's books were almost exclusively imaginative works like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Goodnight, Moon." Nowadays almost anything goes as writers, artists, and publishers experiment with both form and content. Sadly, with precious few exceptions, this new openness has had a fairly disastrous effect. There's a new genre in children's books, "junk books, those written for the sake of profit rather than art. These books rely on gimmicks, celebrity authors and movie-tie ins, rather than satisfying stories and illustrations, to attract readers.
While sorting through a recent batch of books sent to me for review, this unsettling trend became painfully apparent. Of the 130 recent publications I'd piled on my dining room table, 15 weregimmick books. Most of these have a toy quality to them and vary vastly in terms of quality and design excellence. On the bottom end were several cheap paperbacks, like the one that came with temporary tattoos. More artful offerings were Orgami Inspired by Japanese Prints by Steve and Megumi Biddle (Viking, $22, all ages), an elegant origami folding book complete with multi-colored papers, and David Hawcock's The Amazing Pop-Up Pull-Out Space Shuttle (DK Publishing, $19.95, ages 4-10), a masterpiece of paper constructions for those youngsters who lust for space adventure.
Nine of the 130 books were by celebrities. Many arived with colorful glossy promo sheets bragging about huge advertising budgets and campaigns. These
books signal their publishers' belief that in today's market well known names sell better than well told stories. Recent books by musician Mary Chapin Carpenter, Stanley "Tookie" Williams ( the co-founder of the L.A.'s Crips gang), the Dilley Sextuplets, and Marian Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund -- may net talk show focus, but they offer little between the covers to keep a reader's attention.I was surprised by the narcissism of some of these books. Jane Seymour entered the marketplace with two thin books, "Splat" and "Yum," whose feline characters are based on the actresses' real life family. The singer Michael Bolton's equally unenaging fairy tale, "The Secret of the Lost Kingdom," features a hero who looks astonishingly like ... Michael Bolton!
There were 15 books in the category I call reincarnated. The marketing strategy seems to be: If it sells well once, it will sell well again. A picture book might become a board book, or a plush character is packaged with a book to amp up appeal. Often books that have a history of enduring sales are brought back in a new form. Winnie-the-Pooh, Beatrix Potter characters, Curious George, and Narnia heroes have all fallen victim to repackaging. Laura Ingalls Wilder must be rolling in her grave knowing 18 new books based on her work came out in just one year.
Tie-in books are a fast-growing niche as publishers target kids who are more consumers than readers. I uncovered 11 tie-ins connected to television shows including Teletubbies, Ninja Turtles, The Muppets and Wishbone. Ally McBeal's Dancing Baby even has its own book. Other books are tied to familair products. In my stacks I found two Tonka and one Cheerios board book. Mr. Potato Head, Lego books, and Playdough books have also made recent appearances.
Movies are big book launchers, too. Disney took the lead with multiple books about Anastasia, Mulan, and characters from "A Bug's Life", "Armageddon", and "Mighty Joe Young". Lucas competed with books on "Amistad", "Star Wars" and a whole catalog promoting "Prince of Egypt" books. And let's not forget the titles featuring Jackie Chan and Leonardo Di Capria. On second thought, let's try and forget them.
Last but not least, I found six serial books. Collecting these books is kid-cool, so series like Nascar, Xtreme mysteries, and danger.com, Internet thrillers operate on the child greed. Each hopes to hook kids and then equal the sales success of the Goosebumps phenomena.
Altogether I found 60 junk books in my 130 sample, close to 46% of the total. Affirming my suspicions only led me to another question. What's driving this trend? I imagine several factors. First, consumers want to get the most for their money. Second, most adults know little about children's books, so in the overwhelming flurry of the 5,000+ new books released yearly, they look for anchors. They find them in the the sure-to-succeed gimmick books, the recognizable name of celebrities, the familiarity of reincarnated, tie-in, and product books, and the know-quantity of series books. Junk books are a safe bet.
Last year I heard an impressive speech about the enchantment of children's books by Stephen Roxburgh, the editor of Front Street Books. Once a golden-haired boy of NY publishing, Roxburgh fled the ranks and started his own publishing company because he believed in art more than sales. "Books are not toothpaste", he commented as he spoke about how industry homogenization is squeezing out the books driven by creative muses.
Sadly, this sales-driven market place is rapidly pushing out the more artful books. Editors consult chains about salability before they accept a manuscript. Writers and illustrators dedicated to the art and craft of creating children's books find their books remaindered so quickly it's making their heads spin. Marketing finds it easier to push junk books because the public understands them. Like toothpaste, they vary only slightly in flavor, packaging, and additives.
With the glut of junk books, children's book awards becomes all the more important. They are artistic anchors. Though I've disagreed with choices in some years and pouted because my favorites don't win, I have never questioned the aesthetics or quality of a Caldecott, Newbery, Coretta Scott King awards. On February 1, a new crop of suggestions came to us when the prizes were announced. For young adults, there's the new Newbery, Holes by Louis Sacher (Farrar Straus Girous, $16.00; ages 9-13) and the Coretta Scott King novel, Heaven by Angela Johnson (Simon &Schuster,$16, ages 11-14). Picture book awards showed dedication to non-fiction. The Caldecott prize was captured by Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs, illustrated by Mary Azarian (Houghton Mifflin,$16, ages 6-10) and the Coretta Scott King award for illustration went to I see the Rhythm, illustrated by Michele Wood, with text by Toyomi Igus (Children's Book Press, $15.95; ages 5-9) .
There are also a slew of honor books; these lists are easily obtained from most bookstores and libraries. Altogether the committees have given us fourteen new award-winning books. They almost tied the number of books in some of my junk categories. Maybe there's still hope.