The Book Generation? : Sales of Children’s Volumes Soar as Stores Try to Keep Pace

When 11-year-old Roger Sachar’s two younger sisters went to a horseback-riding camp in July, the San Juan Capistrano sixth-grader stayed home.

As he told his mother, he couldn’t possibly go horseback riding: “You can’t read on a horse.”

Roger is a reader.

Indeed, to say that Roger Sachar enjoys reading is like saying that Tommy Lasorda loves linguine.

“He’s voracious,” says Mary K. Sachar, his mother. “Whenever he can, he reads.”

Roger reads when they’re driving in the car.

He reads after school--and before bedtime.

He reads while standing in line with his mother at the bank.

He even reads when he’s in the bathtub.

And when he went to a children’s dude ranch in August he packed 10 new books into his suitcase. After all, he’d be gone for a week.

So it comes as no surprise that Roger Sachar’s favorite haunt is The Reading Rhinoceros, a children’s bookstore in Mission Viejo where he loads up on Hardy Boys books, classic horror stories, sports books, history books and biographies.

“Reading is really good,” he said during a recent literary excursion to The Reading Rhinoceros. “Just by sitting in a chair and opening a book I can go any place, anywhere, any time. I can feel people’s feelings, and I can find out about things that I didn’t know before.”

Roger is one of the bookstore’s regulars, his mother buying up to 10 books when they stop by about every two weeks.

“I have a number of kids like that who just devour books, but Roger definitely reads more than a lot of kids do,” said bookstore owner Janelle Kennedy.

Families like the Sachars are one reason more bookstores like The Reading Rhinoceros are cropping up not only in Orange County but across the nation.

The year-old shop is part of the still-burgeoning phenomenon of bookstores catering to young readers, a trend that began gaining momentum in the mid-’80s and, like Roger’s reading habit, shows no sign of abating as children’s book sales continue to soar to record highs.

“It’s been booming the past five years,” said Don Robinson, owner of Half Magic: A Children’s Bookstore in Tustin. “The industry has really started to take off and publishers have realized that children’s books are now a viable entity within their line.”

Not only has the number of children’s books published in the United States nearly doubled since the early ‘80s to about 4,500 new titles a year, but the sale of children’s books represents the fastest-growing segment of the publishing industry, according to industry sources.

“It is, in fact, the major success story of publishing because adult book sales are relatively flat now, whereas children’s books have been booming and are expected to continue well into the ‘90s,” said Phyllis Fogelman, president, publisher and editor-in-chief of Dial Books for Young Readers, which has been publishing children’s books for 28 years.

Last year, Americans spent a record $1.07 billion on children’s hardback books and another $442.8 million on paperbacks, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a nonprofit research organization. By comparison, only $312.7 million was spent on juvenile hardbacks and $143.3 million for paperbacks in 1982.

A variety of reasons are given for the children’s bookstore boom, including independent booksellers having to specialize to compete against the big chain bookstores, and the trend away from dull basic primers and toward more exciting literature-based reading instruction. In California, under state schools Supt. Bill Honig’s 1985 California Reading Initiative, the state Department of Education prepared a list of more than 1,000 recommended books designed to enrich the teaching of reading and children’s literature.

But the overriding reason for the children’s book phenomenon--general bookstores also have added or expanded their children’s departments--is the simple fact that the baby-boom generation has created a baby boomlet of its own.

And many of these parents, well-educated and relatively affluent, not only have an interest in turning their children into readers, but they have the disposable income to keep their children’s bookshelves well-stocked.

“The young parents want to help educate their children,” said Sara Brant, former owner of the Children’s Bookshoppe in Newport Beach, where she still serves as a consultant. “They know they have a responsibility as well as the school, and they try to reinforce what is going on in the school.”

The Children’s Bookshoppe, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, is believed to be the first children’s bookstore in Orange County and the sixth in the nation.

The formation of the Assn. of Booksellers for Children in 1985 is a sign of the times. The national organization estimates that there are now between 400 and 500 children’s specialty bookstores in the nation.

Waldenbooks, the nation’s largest bookstore chain, launched its Waldenkids division in 1987 and now boasts 23 Waldenkids bookstores specializing in children’s books.

As Fogelman of Dial Books sees it, the increase in children’s bookstores “has been wonderful for children’s books at all levels.

“The fact is that the speciality children’s bookstores are committed to very good books, and they do a great deal of what is called hand selling: They’ve read the books and recommend them specifically to particular customers for particular children. That’s a matter of knowing the stock, knowing every book in the store. And they really do.”

Says Darlene Daniel, president of the Southern California Children’s Booksellers Assn., one of five regional groups formed in the past five years: “I’d call it a flowering of children’s bookselling.

“There is definitely a greater number of books being published each year, and there is more variety in the books. We’re seeing greater attention to multiethnic books, nonfiction as well as fiction, for infants through teens. And publishers are putting more resources behind quality printing and full-color illustrations.”

The Reading Rhinoceros in Mission Viejo, which boasts 8,000 different titles, is typical of the children’s bookstores.

Mary K. Sachar said store owner Janelle Kennedy, a former elementary school teacher, “makes it an exciting place for kids.”

“Kids are so deadened because of the TV programs they watch, you’ve got to really have something there to sell them,” Sachar said. “A store like The Reading Rhinoceros can compete and make it exciting and make it easy for you as a parent to introduce books. This is all geared to them and she (Kennedy) is excited about literature. She’ll suggest new books to keep your child’s interest piqued.”

“Obviously,” Kennedy said, “it’s our goal to turn kids onto books so they’re not spending as much time in front of the TV.”

To help attract young readers to their stores, children’s bookstore owners offer some creative promotions and events.

Half Magic in Tustin holds periodic Pajama Nights, an evening story hour in which 4- to 8-year-old customers show up in pajamas to listen to Robinson’s wife, Bonnie, a reading specialist with the Orange Unified School District, read stories.

The store also has held both a Shark Day and a Dinosaur Day with a visiting paleontologist, not to mention Animal Day, with a visiting assortment of snakes, monkeys, porcupines and lizards.

The response to all the special events has been so overwhelming, Robinson said, that they now must have sign-up sheets.

The Kid’s Place Annex in Irvine recently held a free outdoor concert with singer Linda Arnold, a children’s entertainer. The Children’s Book Cottage in Laguna Niguel has had puppet shows, Ted E. Bear and Friends Children’s Bookstore in Huntington Beach hosts a Bubble Day each summer and The Reading Rhinoceros has held creative writing classes.

In addition to book signings with children’s authors and illustrators, virtually every children’s bookstore offers story hours.

The Children’s Bookshoppe conducts story time for 3- and 4-year-olds before the store opens during the week and on Saturday mornings for older children.

Debbie Dierkes of Fountain Valley has been bringing her 4-year-old daughter, Madelaine, to the Monday morning reading for a year. Now her 9-month-old daughter, Lily, comes too.

“We come so they get the thrill of reading, exposed to all the books,” Kierkes said as she held Lily in her lap while Madelaine sat on the floor listening to employee Susan Finch read “The Best Dressed Bear.”

“This is a good atmosphere too, because everyone enjoys books,” Kierkes says. “I’m sure she (Madelaine) picks up on that.”

Unlike some parents, Kierkes is not interested in teaching Madelaine to read before she’s in school.

“I’d rather have her fall into it,” she said. “I just want her to love reading. I think if she loves it she’ll do fine.”

As a former elementary school teacher who works part time at the store, Susan Finch said that “the children who are read to from the time they are little turn out to be excellent readers.”

Robinson of Half Magic agrees. He said he is often asked by parents how to help ensure that their young children will become readers when they’re older.

“We say, ‘Read to them,’ ” he said. “We can’t express enough the importance of reading to kids. That is the best way to get your kids to like reading and get used to reading and it really gives them the edge.”

Children’s booksellers, many of whom are former teachers and librarians, feel a strong commitment to promote reading.

Daniel said many children’s booksellers take book programs into the schools and speak to organizations that are interested in “the well-being of children. They’re spokespeople for children’s book publishing.”

Since children’s books are rarely reviewed in newspapers, the 35-store-member Southern California Children’s Booksellers Assn. selects several dozen recommended new children’s books to critique. A collection of brief reviews runs twice a year as a paid insert in the Los Angeles Times’ Book Review section.

Daniel, who owns PAGES, Books for Children and Young Adults in Tarzana, said, “One of the major reasons I opened the store was I wanted to gather together a selection of very motivating children’s books and help youngsters find the adventure and excitement and pleasure of reading, along with the learning that can be found in reading.

“There’s just nothing more special than a youngster coming in and saying, ‘That book you suggested is just wonderful.’ ”

Children like Roger Sachar, of course, need no encouragement to read.

The Sachars began reading to Roger when he was 3 months old.

But even Mary K. Sachar is amazed by her son’s prodigious reading habit.

“I think ‘balance’ is a key word here he needs to focus on,” Sachar said. “We actually said, ‘You have to spend time not reading.’ ”

Roger, who talks of one day becoming a writer, a sports announcer--or President--doesn’t think he reads too much.

“I don’t think it’s possible to read too much,” he said. “Just like it’s not possible to know too much.”

Sachar, whose two daughters are not avid readers, said Roger is constantly “bugging” her to take him to The Reading Rhinoceros.

She said she felt guilty about spending $100 during a recent visit to the bookstore--until a neighbor complained about the “fortune” she had just spent on her son’s soccer shoes.

Laughed Sachar: “I just prefer to spend money on my son’s mind rather than shoes.”

Children’s First Choice

Publishers Weekly children’s bestsellers for August, 1990:

PICTURE BOOKS: 1. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss (Random; $12.95). 2. The Great Waldo Search. Martin Handford (Little, Brown; $10.95) 3. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Jon Scieszka (Viking; $13.95) 4. Find Waldo Now. Martin Handford (Little, Brown; $10.95) 5. The Eleventh Hour. Graeme Base. (Abrams; $14.95) 6. Lon Po Po. Ed Young (Philomel; $14.95) 7. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault (Simon and Schuster; $13.95) 8. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Michael Rosen (McElderry; $14.95) 9. Where’s Spot? Eric Hill (Putnam; $4.95) 10. The Great Kapok Tree. Lynne Cherry. (Gulliver/HBJ; $14.95)

YOUNGER READERS: 1. The Berenstain Bears and the Slumber Party. Stan and Jan Berenstain (Random, paper; $1.95) 2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles (Random; paper, $1.25 each) 3. Karen’s Grandmother (Baby-sitters Little Sister No. 10). Ann M. Martin (Scholastic, paper, $2.50) 4. Muggie Maggie. Beverly Cleary (Morrow; $11.95) 5. The Silver Slippers. Elizabeth Koda-Callan (Workman; $11.95)

MIDDLE READERS: 1. Baby-sitters Island Adventure (Baby-sitters Club Super Special No. 4). Ann M. Martin (Scholastic; paper, $3.50) 2. Matilda. Roald Dahl (Puffin, paper, $3.95) 3. Jessi’s Baby-sitter (Baby-sitters Club No. 36). Ann M. Martin (Scholastic, paper; $2.95) 4. Wayside School Is Falling Down. Louis Sachar (Avon/Camelot, paper, $2.95) 5. Number the Stars. Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin, $12.95)

YOUNG ADULTS: 1. See You Later. Christopher Pike (Pocket/Archway, paper; $2.75) 2. Hatchet. Gary Paulsen (Puffin, paper; $3.95) 3. Fall Into Darkness. Christopher Pike (Pocket/Archway, paper; $2.95) 4. The Parent Plot (Sweet Valley High No. 67), Francine Pascal (Bantam, paper; $2.95) 5. Seventeen Against the Dealer. Cynthia (Fawcett/Juniper, paper; $3.95)

NONFICTION: 1. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth. Earthworks Group (Andrews and McMeel, paper; $6.95) 2. Secrets of the Deep. Ingrid Selberg (Dial; $12.95) 3. Our Story: New Kids on the Block. Joseph, Jonathan, Donnie, Danny and Jordan (Bantam, paper; $10.95) 4. Eyewitness Books. (Knopf; $12.95 each) 5. The Way Things Work. David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin; $29.95)