Anyone who has been a public school student in the past 60+ years is probably familiar with the monthly Scholastic book clubs. Some of the best moments in book discovery happened when the teacher passed out those crinckly colorful pages to browse. Now, though, Scholastic is making some major upgrades to the beloved school book clubs, just in time for back-to-school.
Some of the changes address two concerns that have been raised by both parents and educators. The first change is aimed at helping teachers gear their book offerings to the much-touted Common Core standards by pointing out which standards are met through various titles. The other change to the book club flyers, though, addresses a much longer-running issue, namely trying to meet the reading needs of a wide variety of classroom learners, all in one monthly book club flyer. Now, each flyer will be labelled as to the grade level the books are appropriate for, as well as having a separate and more comprehensive catalog each month for middle grade readers.
“We‘ve heard the growing concerns of teachers and parents about the higher standards that kids need to meet with the Common Core State Standards and, with input from our teacher advisors, we’ve created a practical solution. The grade-leveled flyers allow families to choose appropriate books that will encourage daily independent reading practice which is critical for children to build fluency and confidence and ultimately to improve reading proficiency,” said Judy Newman, EVP, Scholastic and President, Scholastic Reading Club, in a press release. “Equally important is the excitement of ordering from the Scholastic book flyer where kids get to choose and own the books they want to read and the thrill when the book box arrives in the classroom.”
Along with new features like parent and teacher labelled leveled readers, books that are intentionally designed for short daily bursts of reading consumption, and ebooks through the Scholastic Storia book club, Scholastic is not making a change to one key aspect of the book clubs that readers from as far back as 1948 will remember and appreciate: price. Scholastic’s goal continues to be providing reading material at an affordable price in order to encourage long-term literacy and love of reading.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.