Several months ago, my longtime author friend Bill Doyle told me that Scholastic had redone their lobby. It’s been almost twenty years since I lived in New York City and I’ve been to Scholastic only once or twice since then. I don’t remember what it used to look like. On 4/23/19, after a school visit in Mahopac, NY, and the day before a school visit in Manhattan, I got the chance to see how it looks now.
The focal point of its new, minimalist design is a long reception desk “composed” of rows of books by Scholastic authors; the books wrap around both sides of the desk. But the books are not actual books by Scholastic authors. Rather they are other books (of equal height) papered over with a solid-colored jacket (either orange or gray) marked only with an author’s name (no title).
And though none of my Scholastic books are mainstream bestsellers, I’m included.
Bill spotted my name front and center, second row down. Though the placement is surely arbitrary, it is an honor to be part of the desk at all; Scholastic has published many hundreds of authors over the years and all are not represented.
Weirdly, however, I saw my name on at least three spines. This is definitely an oversight, a glitch in the system; I noticed only one or two others who also appear more than once. Also weirdly: all three of my books are in the same row.
Look closely and you can see them shelved between these names:
book 1—Melinda Salisbury and Jennifer Serravallo
book 2—M.T. Anderson and Sally Christie
book 3—Daniel José Older and Richard Egielski
As I said, an honor.
The focal point of its new, minimalist design is a long reception desk “composed” of rows of books by Scholastic authors; the books wrap around both sides of the desk. But the books are not actual books by Scholastic authors. Rather they are other books (of equal height) papered over with a solid-colored jacket (either orange or gray) marked only with an author’s name (no title).
Bill spotted my name front and center, second row down. Though the placement is surely arbitrary, it is an honor to be part of the desk at all; Scholastic has published many hundreds of authors over the years and all are not represented.
Weirdly, however, I saw my name on at least three spines. This is definitely an oversight, a glitch in the system; I noticed only one or two others who also appear more than once. Also weirdly: all three of my books are in the same row.
Look closely and you can see them shelved between these names:
book 1—Melinda Salisbury and Jennifer Serravallo
book 2—M.T. Anderson and Sally Christie
book 3—Daniel José Older and Richard Egielski
books 1 and 2
book 3
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