Some days, you want to get in your car, drive to NYC, find an editor, and shake him or her for a while shouting, “HOW? HOW DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?? WHY IS THIS BOOK OUT OF PRINT???”
Or maybe that’s just me.
I had to go whole years coping with this feeling at least once a month during that sad, sad time when the Choose Your Own Adventure, Goosebumps, and Babysitters Club series were all out of print. It felt personal. Every other day, I’d have some kid jumping up and down happy when I’d give him the one bedraggled, multiply-taped-together Choose Your Own Adventure book we had left, and I’d have to wonder why publishers would so willfully choose not to make money. With the recent decision to republish the Babysitter’s Club series, I can now focus all my ire on the Animorphs being out of print. (Oh, yeah, Scholastic, I’m talking about you. You thought bringing back Goosebumps and the Babysitters would make me forget about the Animorphs, but I am not that easily bought. You published and marketed those things effectively, and the gaps in my collection are ALL YOUR FAULT.)
Last week, though, in my quest to find books that are Halloween-y that aren’t really about Halloween, I found a new book to be angry about: Ghost Eats It All! by Janee Trasler. It’s about a ghost (named Ghost—this is becoming something of a trend) who eats things. Each spread has a simple sentence about what he’s eating on the left-hand page, and on the facing page, we see Ghost eating the item in question. Beside him, there is Monster, licking his lips. As the story goes along and Ghost eats more things (an egg, an apple, a cake), Monster goes from hungrier to annoyed to downright angry. Adding insult to injury, because Ghost is transparent, Monster (and the reader) can see all that food right in his stomach (undigested, obviously). Finally, Monster decides to take action in an ending that is bizarre and completely right. This book is 7” square, and its size, basic sentences, food-based storyline, and focused, non-scary, bright illustrations make it just right for toddlers (and beginning readers, for that matter). For adults, that bizarre factor is also sly and pretty funny. (It is, dare I say, even slightly demented.) When I found the book and read it and fell in love, I thought, “I need to buy more!”
And you know what happened. Out of print. Also, we only own one copy, and we’re the only library in the ENTIRE COUNTY that owns a copy.
Boo.
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10 Comments
Adrienne! They said in the Scholastic librarian preview that they’re bringing Animorphs back!! Huzzah!
OH MY GOD ABBY YOU ARE RIGHT THERE THEY ARE IN AMAZON COMING OUT IN MAY!!!
I am going to have to do another post right away to alert the world.
Thank you for telling me.
Now, Adrienne, sweetie, you have to promise to only use your powers for good…
Adrienne, I don’t know you, but you are now one of my very favorite librarians in the whole world!
Tanita, Okay. [pouts a little, kicks rock on ground]
Janee, :) I am sad that I didn’t get to see Ghost’s other adventure before that went out of print as well. Sigh. My co-children’s-librarian and I do love Ghost. On the bright side, I see that you have a board book out in January (from Scholastic, no less)–I just put a copy on order!
Oooh thank you, Adrienne! I think you’ll like Benny.
You know, I have a couple boxes of Goosebumps, Animorphs and some other Scholastic kids series packed away. (Fruits of those darn Scholastic school book fairs.) They are all in good shape. I should pull them out and give them to you to look over to see if they can fill any gaps in your collection. And I might also have a copy of Ghost Eats It All, too. If I do, it’s yours. Do you want to see those paperbacks?
Patty, Yes, please, that would be FANTASTIC. Those Scholastic series do not go out of style (those old Goosebumps covers, in particular, are every bit as good as the new ones they’ve been putting on them), and gaps in the collection really bother me. I, for one, am very thankful for those book fliers, which are directly responsible for a.) advertising books to kids (and often really good ones), and b.) filling the world with barely-touched paperbacks that wind up being donated to my collection.
Oh man. Must see. Sounds great.
I think you’d get a kick out of it.