Scholastic Inc.

According to the recent Kids & Family Reading Report, 99% of parents think their child should read over the summer, and parents also think their child should read 11 books. Today, Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, together with LitWorld, an international literacy organization,  are making sure every child reads books this summer with the Scholastic Summer Challenge, a fun and friendly reading competition that motivates kids to read every day throughout the summer months to avoid the ‘Summer Slide’.

Today Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced the launch of Scholastic Learning Zone, a platform through which teachers, students, and school administrators in international markets can access Scholastic’s growing portfolio of quality digital instructional programs with single sign-on.

With all the upheaval in bookselling over the past decade -- the surge in online ordering, the multiple challenges faced by brick and mortar booksellers, and the squabbles over e-book pricing -- you would think the book industry was in crisis. But sales figures suggest otherwise. Increasingly, this churning appears to be an integral feature of a steady process of transformation in the digital age.

The Association of American Publishers released 2012 sales figures, showing a substantial increase in overall totals. Sorting out the numbers (there is additional data on the AAP website), the net gain was 7.4 percent over

Samantha Smith will join Scholastic UK on May 20th as Fiction Publisher. Samantha is currently Editorial Director at Little Brown, where she has worked with authors including P.C. and Kristin Cast, Chris Colfer and Stephenie Meyer.  She will report to Hilary Murray Hill, MD of Scholastic Children’s Books, who has overall responsibility for Scholastic’s trade publishing in the UK.  

Hilary commented, ‘‘Samantha’s appointment will enhance our exceptional editorial team and take the Scholastic fiction list forward in new directions.  I am absolutely delighted that we will be working together”. Samantha said, ''I'm thrilled to be joining Scholastic. It's a house with a brilliant publishing history, one that I very much grew up with, but that remains a vibrant and dynamic part of children's publishing today and is incredibly well-placed to meet the challenges of the market going forward. I'm looking forward to working with the in-house team and their outstanding authors.”

Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today announced an agreement with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, one of the leading publishers of children’s books, to offer a selection of their popular titles on Storia®, the classroom-based, teacher-recommended ereading app for kids. The collection of books, from picture books to young adult novels, will be available for purchase by teachers and parents on Storia, through Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs beginning in late Spring 2013.

The American education system should be benefiting enormously from the e-book revolution, but it isn't. Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the major children's literature and textbook publishers are screwing up.

We hear all the time that the U.S. education system is in need of major reform and that other countries are leaving us in the dust. Education reform is a big subject and can be extremely controversial. But changes in the way children's books are supplied and sold can make a difference, and those changes shouldn't be controversial at all.

Bookish (www.bookish.com) a one-stop, comprehensive online destination designed to connect readers with books and authors, launches today, providing visitors with exclusive content and insider access to A-list writers. Notable launch stories include: A joint interview with legendary crime fiction writer Michael Connelly and prize-winning suspense author Michael Koryta, revealing that Connelly had begun a book centering on a school shooting prior to the tragedy in Sandy Hook. The article also features juicy tidbits about both Connelly and Koryta’s upcoming books: www.bookish.com/connelly

Book Business spent the last two days soaking up the publishing wisdom on display at the Digital Book World conference at the Hilton New York.

You can check out twitter, @bookbusinessmag, for the full play by play. Below are some highlights.

-Following the Children's Content in Context breakout session on Wednesday, we got to exchange a few quick words about our mutual love of the Android platform with none other than LeVar Burton, who was at the session to support Reading Rainbow CEO Asra Rasheed. "I'm a nerd," explaind Burton during the session with regard to his affinity for the Google mobile OS.

E-books may finally be catching on with the toughest of customers: young people.

A report commissioned by children's publisher Scholastic Inc. finds that 46 per cent of respondents aged 9-17 had read an e-book as of 2012, compared to just 25 per cent in 2010.

We know that Barnes & Noble has the technology to process ebook transactions in its stores, and with a new holiday promotion the company announced Thursday, we’re seeing more ways that technology can work. Between December 20 and 24, customers who go to a Barnes & Noble physical store and buy an ebook from a list of 20 qualifying ebooks — including The Hobbit, Life of Pi and the entire Hunger Games trilogy – can “instant-gift” another ebook on that list for free.