A New Class of Grad Gifts
By John A. Sellers, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 5/22/2008
While Oh, The Places You’ll Go! may still hold the crown as the king of graduation gifts, several new gift editions of picture books—some with brands as familiar as Dr. Seuss—are hoping to stake a claim of their own, with Curious George and The Little Engine That Could among the familiar faces appearing in new gift editions this spring.
Although some grads at the high school or college level might prefer a check to accompany their diploma, Alison Morris, children’s book buyer at Wellesley Booksmith in Wellesley, Mass. (and PW blogger), says that picture books definitely have gift appeal. “I do think that people like to give a nice, classic gift book,” she says, acknowledging that nostalgia may play a role.
Like many bookstores, Wellesley Booksmith sets up a display each spring, containing a mix of adult and children’s titles (both in gift and regular editions) that they believe make good gifts. “One benefit to a picture book is that it doesn’t feel like a burdensome book,” she says. “They don’t have to read how to find a job or how to make it in the marketplace.”
With 8.3 million copies sold to date, Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (1990) is a valedictorian of sorts in the graduation market. According to Random House, half of the book’s annual sales occur between the months of April and June. Random House supports the title with a marketing campaign each graduation season, including floor displays and print advertising.
According to John Adamo, senior v-p of marketing at Random House Children’s Books, the challenge has been to continue to improve on the title’s perennially strong sales. To that end, this year the house is using graduation as a hook to re-familiarize readers with other Seuss titles. A “Moms, Dads, and Grads” print campaign will promote Seuss’s Hop on Pop and P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? (first published under Ted Geisel’s Beginner Books imprint) in conjunction with Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Random House is also working to build the Seuss brand in other ways. “We’re trying to carve out little promotional opportunities throughout the year,” Adamo says, adding that the recent Horton Hears a Who film, tying The Lorax in to Earth Day and the Grinch’s popularity in the run-up to Christmas all contribute to increased brand visibility and sales.
The Freshman Class
Curious George is among the brands making a play for the graduation market this year. Curious You: On Your Way! features new text by Kathleen W. Zoehfeld, as well as H.A. Rey’s artwork from the original Curious George books. For Mary Wilcox, v-p and editorial director of franchise publishing at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Curious George seemed like a clear candidate for a graduation gift book, for the breadth of the character’s fan base as well as his personality. “There seemed to be a connection [between] following one’s curiosity and following one’s bliss.”
Houghton has been encouraged by the strong early reception for the book, which pubbed on April 1. “We’re up to 100,000 [copies] in print and on our third printing,” Wilcox says. “For being only six weeks in, we’re very happy with the response.” The “for graduates of all ages” sticker on the book’s cover is removable, so the book can stay on shelves year-round.
Just as Houghton Mifflin hopes that grads will identify with Curious George’s inquisitive nature, Penguin is counting on the familiar “I think I can” message to propel sales of I Knew You Could: Celebrate All the Stops in Your Life by Craig Dorfman, illus. by Cristina Ong (Grosset & Dunlap). The 2003 book, modeled on Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could, became a bestseller—and a favorite graduation present—upon its publication. “For the fifth anniversary, we wanted to do something special,” says Emily Romero, v-p of marketing for Penguin Young Readers Group. “So we created a special gift edition with a more gifty, nostalgic cloth cover with foil. We really wanted it to appeal to both children and adults.”
Romero contends that the book’s message makes it ideal for the market. “Who doesn’t know ‘I think I can’?” she says. “It’s the mantra for self-motivation and encouragement. Taking that and applying it to all the changes in a young person or an adult’s life seemed like a natural gift book for us.”
Though it doesn’t come from an established series, a new gift edition of Marla Frazee’s Walk On! A Guide to Taking the First Step, originally published in hardcover in 2006, also arrives this season. The book follows a baby’s first attempts at walking, with instructional text (“Make sure the path ahead of you is clear,” is paired with a spread showing the toddler in a corner with a perilous-looking living room looming ahead.) The hardcover gift edition, which pubbed last month, features a smaller trim size, new subtitle and a redesigned cover; Harcourt has announced a 30,000-copy first printing.
The changes are meant to make it clear to consumers that the book is for a broader audience, says Jennifer Haller, v-p and assoc. publisher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books (the previous subtitle had been A Guide for Babies of All Ages). According to Haller, Harcourt also saw this as an opportunity to bring Frazee’s work to a larger market. “She has such great support among librarians, teachers and certainly booksellers,” she says. “We wanted to introduce her to people who might not have seen her art before.” Although this and the 2006 edition of Walk On! are both in hardcover, Haller says she doesn’t believe the gift edition will steal sales from the original book, noting, “Both have a place in the market.”
At Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., children’s coordinator and book buyer Jan Dundon says that the store sells plenty of children’s books as graduation gifts, including Oh, The Places You’ll Go!, Only One You by Linda Kranz (Rising Moon, 2006) and Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illustrated by Jane Dyer (HarperCollins, 2006). Of these newer offerings, she says that Walk On! and Curious You: On Your Way! are already “doing very well” at her store. “I think Walk On! really has legs and we will be seeing that one [in the future],” she says, adding that Curious You “will do well for those who had fond memories of Curious George.”
Morris at Wellesley Booksmith hasn’t yet seen as much movement with this new crop of gift books. “They’re starting to sell, but slowly,” she says, adding that, at times, having to stock both classic and gift editions of various books can put a bookseller in a tough spot. “People want to give the copy that looks like the familiar edition they know and love, so you’re battling with yourself to make sure you have them both in stock.”
Time will tell if these books and future challengers can dethrone Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, but most publishers agree that these books needn’t be pigeonholed as only books to be given alongside a cap and gown. As Penguin’s Romero puts it, the goal is for a title that transcends the niche market: “for life’s changes even beyond graduation.”
Curious You: On Your Way! by Kathleen W. Zoehfeld, illus. by H.A. Rey. Houghton, $12.95, 978-0-618-91975-8 all ages
I Knew You Could: Celebrate All the Stops in Your Life by Craig Dorfman, illus. by Cristina Ong. Grosset & Dunlap, $12.99, 978-0-448-44813-8 all ages
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. Random, $17.99, 978-0-679-80527-4 all ages
Walk On! A Guide to Taking the First Step by Marla Frazee. Harcourt, $9.95, 978-0-15-206528-7 all ages
