Scholastic Corporation facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Scholastic Corporation

Logo used since 1986
The Scholastic Building in New York City, the headquarters of Scholastic Corporation
Formerly	Scholastic Inc. (1981–2011)
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: SCHL S&P 600 Component
Industry	Children's literacy and education
Founded	October 22, 1920; 104 years ago (1920-10-22), in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Founder	Maurice Robinson
Headquarters	Scholastic Building 557 Broadway, New York City, New York 10012, United States
Key people	Peter Warwick (CEO, president) Kenneth Cleary (CFO)
Products	Books, magazines, pre-K to grade 12 instructional programs, classroom magazines, films, television
Revenue	US$1.7 billion (2022)
Number of employees	8,900 (2019)
Divisions	Imprints and corporate divisions

Scholastic Corporation is a big American company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials. They create things for schools, teachers, parents, and kids. You can find their products in stores, online, and often through school reading clubs and book fairs. Clifford the Big Red Dog, a famous character created in 1963, is the company's friendly mascot!

How Scholastic Started and Grew

Richard Robinson was the CEO and president from 1975 until 2021.

Scholastic was founded in 1920 by Maurice R. Robinson near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He wanted to publish magazines for young people. The very first magazine, The Western Pennsylvania Scholastic, came out on October 22, 1920. It was only four pages long and covered high school sports and social events. It was given out in 50 high schools.

In the 1940s, Scholastic started its popular book club business. By the 1960s, Scholastic began publishing books and expanded internationally. They opened offices in England and New Zealand in 1964, and in Sydney, Australia, in 1968.

The 1970s saw Scholastic create its TV entertainment division. Maurice R. Robinson's son, Richard Robinson, became the CEO and president in 1975 and led the company until his death in 2021.

Scholastic continued to grow, buying other companies like Grolier in 2000. They also started making video collections in 2001. In 2012, they bought Weekly Reader Publishing and combined its magazines with Scholastic News.

Scholastic also developed educational programs to help students. In 2005, they created FASTT Math with Tom Snyder to help kids with multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. In 2011, they developed READ 180 to help students with reading skills, and in 2013, System 44 to encourage reading. On October 22, 2020, Scholastic celebrated its 100th anniversary!

What Scholastic Does

Scholastic has three main parts: Children's Book Publishing and Distribution, Education Solutions, and International. They are the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and educational materials for students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

Scholastic holds the rights to publish the famous Harry Potter and Hunger Games book series in the U.S. Besides these, they are well-known for their school book clubs and book fairs. They also publish classroom magazines like Scholastic News and Science World.

Some of their other popular book series include:

• Clifford the Big Red Dog
• Goosebumps
• Horrible Histories
• Captain Underpants
• Animorphs
• The Baby-Sitters Club
• I Spy

Scholastic also creates programs to help with reading and writing. They offer services to help schools improve. Clifford the Big Red Dog is the official mascot for Scholastic.

Scholastic Awards for Young Artists and Writers

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were started in 1923 by Maurice R. Robinson, the founder of Scholastic. These awards are a competition that celebrates talented young artists and writers from all over the United States.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers helps run these awards. They have done a great job of making sure the competition stays popular and reaches many young people. This helps them continue their goal of helping young people develop their creative skills.

Scholastic's Publishing Brands

Scholastic has several different publishing brands, called imprints, and other divisions:

• Trade Publishing Imprints: These are the brands that publish books for the general public.
  • Arthur A. Levine Books: This imprint started in 1996 and publishes fiction and non-fiction books for young readers. It is most famous for publishing the American versions of the Harry Potter series.
  • The Chicken House
  • Graphix: This imprint started in 2005 and focuses on graphic novels.
  • Klutz Press
  • Orchard Books
  • Scholastic Australia: This includes several smaller Australian publishers like Koala Books and Omnibus Books.
• Children's Press: Founded in 1945, this press published many educational series like the Rookie Read-About series and A True Book series. It also has a secondary imprint called Franklin Watts.

Scholastic also publishes reference books, which are books full of facts and information.

Scholastic Entertainment: Movies and TV Shows

Scholastic Entertainment is the part of the company that creates movies, TV shows, and other media. It has been led by Deborah Forte since 1995. This division handles productions, marketing, consumer products, interactive games, and audio.

Weston Woods is a production studio that Scholastic bought in 1996. Scholastic has also produced audiobooks, like the Caldecott/Newbery Collection. They have been involved in many TV shows and movies based on their books.

TV Series from Scholastic

Scholastic has helped create many popular TV shows over the years:

Scholastic TV Specials

Scholastic has also produced special TV programs:

Scholastic Films

Scholastic has also been involved in making feature films:

Scholastic Book Fairs

Scholastic Book Fairs started in 1981. These are events where Scholastic provides books and other products to schools. The schools then host the book fairs, and students and families can buy books.

Schools can choose to receive new books, supplies, and equipment for their classrooms. Or, they can get a portion of the money earned from the book fair. In 2023, book fairs brought in a lot of money for Scholastic, and schools earned over $210 million in cash and credits for their programs.

In October 2023, Scholastic tried a new way to organize books. They created a separate group for books that talked about "diversity" topics. This allowed schools to choose if they wanted to include these books or not. Scholastic said they did this because some states had new rules about what books could be in schools.

However, many teachers, authors, and groups that support free speech were upset by this. They felt it might stop kids from being able to read all kinds of stories. After hearing this feedback, Scholastic changed its mind. They announced that they would stop using the separate category. They said it was important that no child should be denied access to books, and teachers should not be penalized for offering all stories to their students.

Scholastic Book Clubs

Scholastic book clubs are available in schools in many countries. Usually, teachers help students sign up for the book club in their own classes. Sometimes, one person at the school manages the program for everyone.

When students buy books through the club, the teachers or schools earn "Classroom Funds." These funds can only be used to buy more products from Scholastic. The book clubs are organized by age or grade level, so kids can find books that are just right for them.

See also

In Spanish: Scholastic Corporation para niños

• List of English-language book publishing companies
• Books in the United States