What's happening to Scholastic?

When I was a kid (a long time ago, or so it feels these days), one of my favorite things at school was when we would get the latest Scholastic books order form. I loved reading as a child and still do to this day. Let's put it this way. My OTHER favorite thing at school was "I Love to Read Week". Perhaps the only thing that got me as hyper as reading was when we got an assignment to write a creative story. Ah, if only I had been smart enough to go on to study English Lit in college, my youth was full of signs as to what my major should have been. Alas. 

Anyway, naturally I was looking forward to getting Scholastic forms when my oldest daughter started school too. We've created a reading monster, my husband and I, and she loves books as much as we do so she's always eager to order a few books. Honestly, if we let her, she'd probably order every single book they have.

Scholastic has changed though. It's not quite the same as it used to be once upon a time, and I hate saying that since it makes me sound really old ("back in MY day, our book order forms were better!"), but it's true. When I was a kid, from elementary school all the way through high school, Scholastic sold BOOKS. Plain and simple books. There was something for every level of reader, and plenty of choices. 

These days there are still many books to choose from but there are two other options as well. There are the "book with cute, somewhat affiliated toy" selections and the highly aggravating "hey, this isn't a book at all!" selections. They are royally getting on my nerves. 

In all honesty, I don't mind the books that come with a toy too much. They kind of feel like the Happy Meal of the literary world, but it's not too bad. I'll only order these books if I know that they're something my daughter truly wants to read. I won't order something that's designed for two reading levels below hers when I know she really just wants the accompanying toy. However, last year I bought her a Backyardigans book because it was at an appropriate level and she already had a few books in the series that she loved, so I didn't mind that it came with three figurines. In a way, it worked out well since she then used the figurines to act out the story. 

What fills me with rage, though, is that group of items that aren't books at all. In the last form sent home - which I have open in front of me for reference - there are items such as: 

• Disney Princess Movie Camera
• Klutz Nail Art
• Cut-out Paper Airplanes
• Flower Kitten Stationary Set

And this was a good month, because previous months have had far more than just four non-book items to purchase. They sell toys, jewelry kits, rubber stamps, and more. Don't get me wrong - these are all perfectly acceptable things in and of themselves. My daughter would love the nail art kit, being very girly. She would love the stationary set, and you could almost argue that it's still literary since it's for writing, but it's ten bucks and comes with very little in the way of supplies. 

My problem with these items is that they're NOT BOOKS. They aren't for reading. And isn't that what Scholastic is supposed to be about? It's a company that is meant to promote literacy, a love of reading, by providing BOOKS at really excellent prices. They range from fun fictional tales to non-fiction books about science. Scholastic is a great company and I still love them but I think that when they start offering $30 movie cameras they may have jumped the shark. 

I'm not the only one who feels this way either. There's even a website with a petition that you can sign to tell them that you want them to stop selling non-book items and get back to their roots - their wonderful reading roots. 

In the meantime, it's not even up for debate in our household. When my daughter brings home the forms, we look through and there is absolutely no chance that I will order her any of the toys. She actually really wanted the stationary kit. Instead, I convinced her to order five books (including one about weather because we're Canadian eh? And Canadians LOVE to talk about weather!) and that weekend we went to the dollar store and for the same price Scholastic was asking, we put together our own little stationary kit with about three times the supplies. 

If she wants books to read, no problem! If she wants toys, sorry, but she'll have to wait for a special occasion and go to Toys R Us. 

Original Canada Moms Blog Post. Sherry Osborne can also be found blogging at her own place, Chaos Theory when she's not walking around with her nose stuck in a book.