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"Don't buy book club editions" is one of the first commandments of bookselling. I'm not sure if comes before or after "Don't buy Readers Digest Condensed Books," but certainly it's right up there with "only Craig collects microwave cookbooks!"
When it comes to Kid Lit, however, there are some book club editions that are worth picking up. The good news about children's BCEs is that they are easy to find, making frequent appearances at garage sales, FOL sales, and thrift stores. The bad news is that many Kid Lit BCEs are made with inferior materials and rarely issued with dust jackets - and therefore are especially vulnerable to wear. It's not uncommon to encounter severely damaged bindings and text blocks with detached pages.
The two major players in this field are Parents' Magazine Press and the Weekly Reader Club. Both operated clubs for various age levels, so both published picture books and chapter books. Occasionally, non-fiction titles were produced, but as a rule these are worthless. Both of these clubs were active in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s; however, Scholastic Books now dominates the market. Parents' Magazine and Weekly Reader books are typically hardback, while Scholastic books are usually (but not always) paperback. In addition to these, Dell Yearling books, though not sold through the schools or by mail, were among the first to be published in affordable paperback editions for the home market.
Not so long ago, before the Internet, Barnes & Noble, and school book fairs, children's books were harder to come by, and, for many of us baby boomers, book club book editions were the only thing we owned. Consequently, some of these books have a nostalgic appeal that can make baby boomers' eyes mist over and convince them to dig deep into their wallets.
Another reason for the popularity (and salability) of some of these titles is that they have been incorporated into home school curricula or embedded into many a teacher's lesson plans. Now that most are out of print, eBay and used book venues are the only venues where they can be found. Also, a surprising number of well-known Kid Lit authors got their start via Parents' Magazine Press. Marc Brown, who went on write the widely popular Arthur series, and Frank Asch, who wrote the Moon Bear books, are but two examples. Collectors looking for a full run will buy book club editions because these may be the only copies available.
An aside:
Purple House Press is reprinting
many of these titles. Each time they do, the price of the respective used copy plunges. Upcoming titles are announced on their website, so if you're holding one that they plan to reissue, get it listed ASAP! I'm delighted the books are going to be available to another generation of children, but it does severely impact my bottom line.
Wende and Harry Devlin wrote the Cranberry Series for Parents' Magazine. There is a
Cranberry book for almost every major holiday; Cranberry Thanksgiving is the most common.
They also penned Old Black Witch (recall that almost any witch book is worth picking up).
Sell them alone or as a lot. They are better suited for eBay than Amazon, as are most Kid Lit nostalgia books.
Also published by Parents' Magazine Press - Miriam Young's Jellybeans for Breakfast. This is a
very small, skinny picture book, easy to overlook but very, very desirable. Take a look at prices in
various eBay stores. I sold a copy in February for $86, and it was not in the best of shape. Young
was a prolific author, but only one other of her books, Prance, a story about a carousel horse,
has attained cult status. Remember, horses are another Kid Lit flashpoint! Miss Suzy, a tale of an adventurous squirrel, is available from Purple House Press. The other Miss Suzy books would be worth listing as lots should you find them cheaply on bag day.
When listing an animal book, be sure to include the animal name (e.g. squirrels) in your title. Many people collect a certain animal or breed of animal - Scottie dogs are very popular. This will make it much easier for them to your book in keyword searches.
Eleanor Cameron is a fantasy author, best known for the Mushroom Planet series. Scholastic published some of her books in paperback back in the 1960s and 1970s. Buy any Eleanor Cameron that comes your way, paperback, hardback, ex-library copy or book club edition. Purple House Press has reprinted some of these, but they are still worth grabbing.
Scholastic issued many of Ruth Chew's books in paperback. Chew wrote fantasy, magic, and witch books, and, though single copies may not net you much, grouping several of her books can be profitable. One advantage to shopping garage sales over thrift or FOL stores is that you'll tend find a run of an author's books all in one place - an instant lot! In this case, the sum is often greater than the individual parts.
Jane Trahey, who later became an advertising executive, wrote Life with Mother Superior about
her experiences in a convent boarding school. You may recall the film based on it -
The Trouble with Angels, staring Hayley Mills. Life with Mother Superior was then
reissued as a paperback with the same title as the film. The paperback title is the more common,
so if you list the hardback, be sure to list both titles in your description. It is long out of
print and very sought after. Don't bother with the video; it's available on DVD. And unless you
aspire to be a penny book seller, don't confuse Trahey's book with the identically titled one
by adult romance writer Debbie Macomber.
By the way, children's fiction featuring nuns and convent schools is a sure seller. However, they must be pre-Vatican II nuns in full, flowing habits. No modern nuns in short skirts will do for nostalgia readers!
Speaking of nuns, another series of books with a strong Catholic theme is the Karen books by
Marie Killilea. Karen and With Love from Karen were both based on her daughter's
battle with cerebral palsy. They are quite common but are still good "bread and butter" books,
especially in hardback. Wren, a book she wrote for children about her daughter, is quite hard
to find, and even the paperback will net you $25. Also, the family owned Newfoundland dogs, and
out of this came Newf, another hard-to-fin children's picture book that appeals to Karen fans and to dog people. eBay should also be the venue of choice for Karen books.
John D. Fitzgerald's Great Brain books have recently been reprinted, but he's another author who does
very well in lots, even in the old Dell Yearling paperback editions. He also wrote some
semi-autobiographical adult books (Papa Married a Mormon) that will net you $20 to $40 on Amazon or eBay.
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