We launched Rapunzel and watched to see if other publishers would print large too. They did not. Everybody went smaller--this was right when the Wimpy Kid books started blowing up. That size, or thereabouts, became the golden size for middle-grade books.
One theory was that kids thought of large books as picture books--in other words, large books were for little kids, little books were for large kids. Middle-graders want to be anything but "little kids."
The middle-grader graphic novel shelf shrank to fit the smaller-sized books. Some of these shelves were too small for Rapunzel.
In the end, the alternate cover idea didn't take, and we stuck with the old, classic covers.
Now you know the story! What do you think of the new small versions?
2 comments:
Princeton Public Library has Rapunzel and Jack shelved in juvenile graphic novels, so they have lots of equally tall companions on the shelf--interesting to see that they're shelved with general fiction elsewhere...
Good thing you know a librarian!
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