The Reprinting Landmark Books

Why won't Johnny read?
Or rather, why won't Johnny read non-fiction? Maybe if there were more series titles out there, Johnny'd be more interested. So say two former employees of Houghton Mifflin.

They had noticed there's a strong nonfiction market for men -- adventure books such as Sebastian Junger's "A Perfect Storm" or Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." But, said Hill, "it was clear that publishers were ignoring adventure, history, and nonfiction for 10-to-15-year-old boys." Hogan said, "If you look at what men read, there was no springboard for boys. If they want to read the kind of books they will read as adults, there is nothing to lead them into that area."

The idea is that series books do better than individual titles. So they're bringing back an old series by the name of Random House Landmark Books. My concern with that wasn't too far off from that of former ALSC President Caroline Ward who said, "One of the criticisms of that series in the 1950s and '60s is that it was somewhat fictionalized to sweeten the material. There is such interest in fact-checking and documentation today. We try to avoid narrative nonfiction if it has dialogue that is conjectural."

Plus, are they not tweaking any terms at all? Cause call me crazy, but isn't one of the problems with old non-fiction its... uh... colorful view of people who aren't white?

So I looked through some of the titles we have here at Donnell. We have about 100 of them, as it turns out, with titles like, Rogers' Rangers and the French and Indian War , Captain Cook Explores the South Seas, and Balboa, Swordsman and Conquistador. My boss, for one, was very excited to hear that this is being reprinted. But will they play in Peoria?

Thanks to Mediabistro for the link.