Children’s Book Publishers Think ‘Outside the Book’
Wells continues, “You have to get [the kids] involved. And if you don’t think kids care [about the Web], then how do you explain the e-mails that complain about a new character not having a Web site yet?”
Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Book Fairs—which partners with schools around the country to host more than 120,000 book-sale events annually—says the J.K. Rowling site and the Scholastic Harry Potter site are popular because, “kids love the games, the additional material about the authors, videos, and all the different interactive elements online that extends their book experience. … In addition to sites for specific titles or authors, Scholastic has an online book club called Flashlight Readers … an entire community of readers engages with one particular book for a period of time through this site.”