Fuse #8

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Didn't See That One Coming

I take back what I said. When I learned that Al Roker had paired with Scholastic Books to bring us his new bright n' shiny summer reading thingy (I think he went and called it Al's Book Club) I got all snarky and started trying to predict what books he'd do. Needless to say, and I don't think this was much of a stretch, I said he'd do all Scholastic titles. And certainly book #1 was Hugo Cabret, just as I thought. Now they've announced book #2 though, and my pet theory has taken a dive head-first out the nearest window.
The second book for Al’s Book Club for Kids is Rick Riordan’s book, “The Lightning Thief.” This is the first book in his “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series. The main character is a 12-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers that he is the modern-day son of a Greek god. For the series, Riordan draws upon his experience teaching kids Greek mythology. “The Lightning Thief,” chosen as an American Library Association Notable Book, was optioned for a feature film to Twentieth Century Fox.
Well, you can just knock me over with a feather then. That's not a Scholastic title! That's Miramax's baby. I can attest that it is also a great bookgroup book. I did it with my homeschooler group a month or two ago. It went over like gangbusters too.

So let's do a quick search here. If this announcement came out on May 18th then how many holds are on The Lightning Thief in the New York Public Library System? Survey says: 9. And five of those are for the large print edition. Perhaps Al is not the mover and shaker I supposed him to be. I remain very impressed that his Book Club is doing more than Scholastic titles, though. Very impressed indeed.

Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

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5 Comments:

At 12:32 AM , Blogger Kelly said...

Yesss...BUT, The Lightning Thief must be one of the biggest sellers in the Scholastic book fairs/book sales in schools.

Not that I'm complaining--love The Lightning Thief--but I do think Scholastic makes money off it through the schools.

 
At 12:45 AM , Blogger fusenumber8 said...

Oh ho! Good call, Kelly. Scholastic Book Fairs completely slipped my mind. Cheeky little devils, aren't they?

 
At 11:35 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

True, but Scholastic Book Fair time is pretty much over at this point in the school year (at least down here), and since it's a summer reading club, sales will be now through summer, not next fall when it's book fair time again.

 
At 3:47 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Your quick look at the holds on Lightning Thief suggests that Al is more a mover/shaker with the Large Type set than with the youngsters...

Maybe a more appropriate way to use the guy to move books is for him to do a Janette Oke / Karen Kingsbury book club!

 
At 2:16 PM , Blogger Jordan Henrichs said...

In the June Scholastic Arrow book order that 5th and 6th grade students across the nation will be taking home, teacher's can order a six pack of paperback Lightening Thief novels.

Convenient? I think deliberate.

Oh well, they suckered me into buying a set. I think Scholastic will do just fine.

 

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