As a bookseller at a local indie bookstore, I think that the idea that Hade talks about in his 2002 article about how independent bookstores such as the beloved Linden Tree hand-sell our books, so that the special book can find its way to the special reader. (Hade, 2002, p. 511) This said we are at the mercies of the marketplace especially with the big five and their hegemony as the biggest children’s book publishers.
I agree that because of mass marketing as Hade says in his 2002 article, that “The corporate owners of children’s book publishing have successfully turned recreational reading into a commodity” marketplace. (Hade 2002, p. 515)
If indeed as Hade claims and I agree that “Stories are the building blocks of our thinking.” (Hade, 2002, P. 515) So it is sad that the big five publishers are ever increasingly becoming brokers or gatekeepers of our literary lives. The idea that merchandising is becoming a bigger thing than the ideas and content of the books is staggeringly frightening sometimes. I think it’s a bad thing that kids and parents that come to the Linden Tree are practically forced to give into the whims of the big five publishers.
I think that the e-book movement and digitizing of books is a great thing, not just saving trees but allowing more independent e-book publishers more access to a potentially more equal playing field both are essential for the future of the world and literature. Audio books and text to speech make literature much more accessible to many more people of all kinds.
I also think it is impossible to do adequate justice or at all replace a reading a book in physical form, not only because how much better it is for your eyes to read with indirect light (as opposed to light coming to your eyes directly from the screens we use and depend on.)
But also reading a physical book is an experience, the smell, the feel, the sounds of the page turning, at least three senses are activated in irreplaceable ways when reading using a real physical book.
We as advocates and readers, need both paper and plastic, we need the mass marketing, and our independent bookstores and our own independence of thought.
Here is some food for thought, how many of our creative images are created for us by mass marketing interests versus images created by artists simply for arts sake?
And what part of our childhoods are not for sale anymore? What is and what will be sacred for our children?
Hade, D. (Sept/Oct 2002). Storyselling: Are children’s book publishers changing the way children read? (PDF) Horn Book 78(5): 509-517.
Sutton, R. (April 20, 2012). What hath Harry wrought? (WEB). Horn Book. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com/2012/04/creating-books/publishing/what-hath-harry-wrought/.
