Mixing books and toys

The Scholastic Book Clubs are a popular way for teachers and parents to encourage children to read. Selling inexpensive books for children at school book fairs has been a successful marketing tool for Scholastic and has been welcomed by adults and children. Now a group called the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is accusing Scholastic of "using its classroom book clubs to push video games, jewelry kits and toy cars." The group maintains that one third of the items listed in Scholastic's brochures are not books or are books that include non-book elements. As librarians and teachers are well aware, mixing books with other items has become standard policy for many publishing companies. Is this practice exploiting children, as the campaign group suggests or is it merely taking advantage of the added value a non-book item can add to a book? This is not a subject that has been studied widely and it would be difficult to approach through research. Librarians will have to make their own choices about whether where to draw the line when books are mingled with other commercial items. Choices are never easy, but that's what makes us professionals.