Scholastic Corporation () is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, parents, and children. Products are distributed via retail and online sales and through schools via reading clubs and book fairs.

Clifford the Big Red Dog ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' is an American children's book series about the adventures of a precocious girl named Emily Elizabeth and her titular pet: a giant, red-furred dog named Clifford. It was first published in 1963 and was written by N ...

, a character created by

Norman Bridwell Norman Ray Bridwell (February 15, 1928 – December 12, 2014) was an American author and cartoonist best known for the ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' book series. Early life Bridwell was born on February 15, 1928, in Kokomo, Indiana, to Leona and ...

in 1963, serves as the company's official mascot.

History

Scholastic was founded in 1920 by Maurice R. Robinson near

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, to be a publisher of youth magazines. The first publication was ''The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic''. It covered

high school sports Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. The distinction is made between amateur sporting participants and professional sporting participants, who are paid for the time they spend competing ...

and social activities; the four-page magazine debuted on October 22, 1920, and was distributed in 50 high schools. In the 1940s, Scholastic entered the book club business. In the 1960s, international publishing locations were added in England (1964), New Zealand (1964), and Sydney (1968). Also in the 1960s, Scholastic entered the book publishing business. In the 1970s, Scholastic created its TV entertainment division. From 1975 until his death in 2021, Richard Robinson, who was the son of the corporation's founder, served as CEO and president. In 2000, Scholastic purchased

Grolier Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Acad ...

for US$400 million. In February 2012, Scholastic bought

Weekly Reader Publishing Weekly Reader Publishing was a publisher of educational materials in the United States that had been in existence for over 100 years. It provided teaching materials to elementary and secondary schools that was used by more than 90 percent of that c ...

from

Reader's Digest Association Trusted Media Brands, Inc. (TMBI), formerly known as the Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA), is an American multi-platform media and publishing company that is co-headquartered in New York City and White Plains, New York. The company was ...

, and announced in July that year that it planned to discontinue separate issues of ''

Weekly Reader ''Weekly Reader'' was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as ''My Weekly Reader''. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed-i ...

'' magazines after more than a century of publication, and co-branded the magazines as ''Scholastic News/Weekly Reader''.

Company structure

The business has three segments: Children Book Publishing & Distribution (Trade, Book Clubs, and Book Fairs), Education, and International. Scholastic holds the perpetual US publishing rights to the '' Harry Potter'' and ''

Hunger Games ''The Hunger Games'' is a series of young adult dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The first three novels are part of a trilogy following teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, and the fourth book is a prequel set 6 ...

'' book series. Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and print and digital educational materials for pre-K to grade 12. In addition to ''Harry Potter'' and ''The Hunger Games'', the company is known for its school book clubs and book fairs, classroom magazines such as ''Scholastic News'' and '' Science World'', and popular book series: ''

'', ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually ...

'', ''

The Magic School Bus ''The Magic School Bus'' is an American edutainment media franchise that includes a book series, a TV series, a streaming series, and video games. Each of the stories within the franchise centers on the antics of a fictional elementary sch ...

'', ''

Captain Underpants ''Captain Underpants'' is an illustrated children's novel series by American author and illustrator Dav Pilkey. The series revolves around two fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, living in Piqua, Ohio, and Captain Underpants, a ...

'', ''

Animorphs ''Animorphs'' is a science fantasy series of children's books written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, writing together under the name K. A. Applegate, and published by Scholastic. It is told in first person, with all ...

'', ''

The Baby-Sitters Club ''The Baby-Sitters Club'' (also known as BSC) is a series of novels written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic between 1986 and 2000, that sold 176 million copies. Martin wrote the first 35 novels in the series, but the subsequent nove ...

'', and ''

I Spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

''. Scholastic also publishes instructional reading and writing programs, and offers professional learning and consultancy services for school improvement. Clifford the Big Red Dog serves as the official mascot of Scholastic.

Marketing initiatives

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923 by Maurice R. Robinson,

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization which manages the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, a competition which recognizes talented young artists and writers from across the United States. Scholastic Art & Writin ...

, administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, is a competition which recognizes talented young artists and writers from across the United States.

Imprints and corporate divisions

Trade Publishing Imprints include: * Arthur A. Levine Books, which specializes in fiction and

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

books for young readers. The imprint was founded at Scholastic in 1996 by Arthur Levine in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The first book published by Arthur A. Levine Books was ''When She Was Good'' by

Norma Fox Mazer Norma Fox Mazer (May 15, 1931 – October 17, 2009) was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults. Her novels featured credible young characters confronting difficult situations such as family separati ...

in autumn of 1997. The imprint is most notable as the publisher for the American editions of the '' Harry Potter'' series by

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

. In March 2019, Levine left Scholastic to form his own new publisher. Scholastic will retain Levine's back catalogue. *

The Chicken House The Chicken House is a publishing company owned by Scholastic Corporation, specialising in children's fiction. Founded in 2000 by Barry Cunningham and Rachel Hickman as Chicken House Publishing, it was bought by Scholastic in 2005. It has intro ...

* Klutz Press *

Orchard Books Grolier was one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including '' The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Acad ...

*Scholastic Australia made up of Koala Books, Margaret Hamilton Books, Omnibus Books, and Scholastic Corporation.

Children's Press

Children's Press (spelled from 1945 to 1996). Founded in 1945 and originally headquartered in 1224 West Van Buren Street,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

until its acquisition by

in 1995, this press published various publications such as the Rookie Read-About series, A True Book series, Young People's series (''Young People's Animal Encyclopedia'' by

Maurice Burton Maurice Burton (28 March 1898 – 9 September 1992) was a British zoologist and popular science author, who produced many natural history encyclopedias and books including a skeptical treatment of the Loch Ness Monster. Early life and educatio ...

, ''Young People's Science Encyclopedia'' and ''Young People's Science Dictionary'' by the staff of National College of Education (now

National Louis University National Louis University (NLU) is a private university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has locations throughout the Chicago metropol ...

), ''Young People's Illustrated Encyclopedia'', and ''Young People's World'') and also has a secondary imprint, Franklin Watts. It had a slogan "Childrens Books Are Important", with the heptagram with a slogan encircling it served as the press' alternate logo from 1945 to 1970. In 1995, Children's Press became a division of Grolier, moving from its original headquarters in Chicago to

Danbury Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. It became an imprint of Scholastic Corporation five years later in 2000.

FASTT Math

In 2005, Scholastic developed FASTT Math with

Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...

to help students with their proficiency with math skills, specifically being multiplication,

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

, addition, and subtraction through a series of games and memorization quizzes gauging the student's progress.

Scholastic Entertainment

Scholastic Entertainment (formerly Scholastic Productions and Scholastic Media) is a corporate division"Welcome"
. Scholastic Corporation: About Scholastic. Retrieved 2012-04-20. led by Deborah Forte since 1995. It covers "all forms of media and consumer products, and is four main groups – Productions, Marketing & Consumer Products, Interactive, and Audio."

Weston Woods Weston Woods Studios (or simply Weston Woods) is a production company that makes audio and short films based on well-known books for children. It was founded in 1953 by Morton Schindel in Weston, Connecticut, and named after the wooded area near h ...

is its production studio, acquired in 1996, as was

Soup2Nuts Soup2Nuts (sometimes referred to as Soup2Nuts Studios, and formerly part of Tom Snyder Productions) was an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder. The studio is known for its animated comedy series, its use of Squigglevision, a techni ...

from 2001 to 2015 before shutting down."Media & The Mission"
. Scholastic Corporation: About Scholastic. Retrieved 2012-04-20. Scholastic has produced audiobooks such as the Caldecott/Newbery Collection;
English language teaching: listening practice. Scholastic Corporation. Retrieved 2012-04-20. Television adaptations such as ''

'', ''

Clifford's Puppy Days ''Clifford's Puppy Days'' is an animated children's television series that originally aired on PBS Kids from September 1, 2003 to February 25, 2006. The prequel to the 2000–2003 series ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', it features the adventures o ...

'', ''

Maya & Miguel ''Maya & Miguel'' is an American animated children's television series produced by Scholastic Productions with animation by Starburst Animation Studios and by Yeson Entertainment. It aired on PBS Kids Go! from October 11, 2004 to October 10, 2007 ...

'', ''

WordGirl ''WordGirl'' (stylized as ''W✪RD GIRL'') is an American children's Flash animated superhero television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ' ...

'', ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

'', ''Puppy Place'', and feature films such as ''

The Indian in the Cupboard ''The Indian in the Cupboard'' is a low fantasy children's novel by the British writer Lynne Reid Banks. It was published in 1980 with illustrations by Robin Jacques (UK) and Brock Cole (US). It was later adapted as a 1995 children's film ...

'', ''

Tuck Everlasting ''Tuck Everlasting'' is an American children's novel about immortality written by Natalie Babbitt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1975. It has sold over 5 million copies and has been called a classic of modern children's literature ...

'', ''

Clifford's Really Big Movie ''Clifford's Really Big Movie'' is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film based on the PBS Kids TV series ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', itself an adaptation of the book series of the same name by Norman Bridwell. This film was directed b ...

'', ''

The Golden Compass ''Northern Lights'' (titled ''The Golden Compass'' in North America and some other countries) is a young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published in 1995 by Scholastic UK. Set in a parallel universe, it follows the journey of Lyra Be ...

'', ''

'', '' Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie'', '' Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween'', '' Mortal Engines'', ''

'', and ''

The Bad Guys A bad guy or villain is a type of character in fiction and other narratives. Bad Guy or Bad Guys or ''variation'', may also refer to: Film * ''Bad Guy'' (1937 film), a film starring Virginia Grey * ''Bad Guys'', a 1986 film starring Adam Bald ...

''. It will produce ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...

'', ''

Voyagers! ''Voyagers!'' is an American science fiction television series about time travel that aired on NBC from October 3, 1982, to July 10, 1983, during the 1982–1983 season. The series starred Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce. Opening narration Pl ...

'', ''

My Secret Identity ''My Secret Identity'' is a television series starring Jerry O'Connell and Derek McGrath. Originally broadcast from October 9, 1988 to May 25, 1991 on CTV in Canada, the series also aired in syndication in the United States. It was later shown ...

'', '' Charles in Charge'', and the upcoming film ''Trunks.'' In 1985, Scholastic Productions teamed up with Karl-Lorimar Home Video, a home video unit of

Lorimar Productions Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisi ...

, to form the line Scholastic-Lorimar Home Video, whereas Scholastic would produce made-for-video programming, and became a best-selling video line for kids, and the pact expired for two years, whereas Scholastic would team up with leading independent family video distributor and a label of

International Video Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until ...

Family Home Entertainment Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California. History The company was founde ...

, to distribute made-for-video programming for the next three years.

Book clubs

Scholastic

book clubs Book club may refer to: * Book discussion club, a group of people who meet to discuss a book or books that they have read ** Literature circle, a group of students who meet in a classroom to discuss a book or books that they have read * Book sal ...

are offered at schools in many countries. Typically, teachers administer the program to the students in their own classes, but in some cases, the program is administered by a central contact for the entire school. Within Scholastic, Reading Clubs is a separate unit (compared to, e.g., Education). Reading clubs are arranged by age/grade. ''Book club operators'' receive "''Classroom Funds''" redeemable only for ''Scholastic Corporation'' products.

Scholastic Parents Media

Scholastic Parents Media publishes the '' Scholastic Parent & Child'' magazine. The group also specializes in online advertising sales and custom programs designed for parents with children aged 0–6.

Criticism

In July 2005, Scholastic determined that certain leases previously accounted for as operating leases should have been accounted for as capital leases. The cumulative effect, if recorded in the current year, would be material. As a result, it decided to restate its financial statements. A significant number of titles carried are based on media tie-ins and are considered lacking in literary and artistic merit by some critics.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1920 establishments in Pennsylvania American companies established in 1920 Book distributors Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Book publishing companies of the United States Children's book publishers Companies listed on the Nasdaq Education companies established in 1920 Education companies of the United States Educational publishing companies Mass media companies of the United States Multinational companies based in New York City Multinational publishing companies Publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1920

History

Company structure

Marketing initiatives

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Imprints and corporate divisions

Children's Press

FASTT Math

Scholastic Entertainment

Book clubs

Scholastic Parents Media

Criticism

See also

References

External links