Post: Corporate Giants Expectations and Publisher's Responses

I read "Storytelling: Are Publishers Changing the Way Children Read," by Hade. This article was written in 2002 and I found it to be very interesting. Basically, the article's main point was that commercialization has brought popular culture texts and products into children's book publishing, possibly compromising the potential for books that reflectively engage children. The author's biggest worry is that since the mass marketplace selects which books will survive, the children's books will continue to become less a "cultural and intellectual object and more an entertainment looking for mass appeal." After our class discussion, there were many opinions, which I expected. Some people agreed that toys, so to speak, were too much and they were steering the kids away from reading and towards becoming collectors of a certain figure, but others stated that the toys encourage children to read. To each is own...
The author was very convincing when he stated that recent mergers have left children's publishing in the control of large media conglomerates who expect profits between 12 and 15 percent, which is leading publishers to be more likely to turn to celebrity authored books, series books and books with television or movie tie ins. This statement is believable and leads me to believe that it is not the publishers that are changing the way children read, but someone else...the corporate GIANTS!