To Be Continued . . .

September 2007 Special Sections

All kids have their favorite book series, but it often isn’t until much later in life that they realize the importance of those series in their growth as readers. As the characters and conventions of a beloved series become more familiar with each installment, there’s a happy side effect: reading speed and comprehension skills get a boost.

“This is what happened to me with the Nancy Drew series,” recalls author Lynn Jonell (Emmy & the Incredible Shrinking Rat). “Once a series is over, a child’s appetite for reading has increased at the same time as the difficulty has decreased. That’s a recipe for creating good readers.”

Familiarity and continuity have always drawn young readers to books series and it often keeps them reading in a way that stand-alone stories don’t.  Employing reassuringly similar storylines, familiar and compelling characters, and a tradition of plot twists and cliffhangers that tease kids into eagerly awaiting the next volume, series hold the key to drawing even the most reluctant readers to books.

“The depth and breadth of a series can create much more of a connection between the characters and the reader,” says David Levithan, editorial director of Scholastic Press. “Kids love series because when they hear a good story, they want it to continue.”

Vicki Palmquist of the Minnesota-based Children’s Literature Network credits series books and serialized comic books for her early voracious reading habits. It’s the constancy of characters and settings that keep kids returning to their favorites, she says: “Readers grow to love or revile [the characters], and the setting becomes as comfortable as our own homes, except you never know what’s behind that door you haven’t opened yet.

The Early Years
Although “series” is a term sometimes used to describe any book with a connecting book (Louisa May Alcott’s popular Little Women and its sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys, for example), it more often encompasses chapter books that continue with a similar set of characters or with the same setting for five or more books. Early examples include the Little House on the Prairie series  and the Anne of Green Gables books. At their most pronounced, series can encompass dozens of books published for many decades—some penned by several authors or ghostwriters.

For a sense of how children’s series took root and evolved over time, it’s helpful to start with the wildly successful Nancy Drew series (see “5 Classic Series That Have Endured”). The Nancy Drew books were the genius of Edward Stratemeyer whose Stratemeyer Syndicate churned out more than twenty-two different children’s book series, with separate titles aimed at boys and girls. “[Before Nancy Drew], all of his girl series featured girls who grew up and got married,” says Melanie Rehak, author of Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her. “He got letters from girls saying that they were reading boys’ books after the [girls series] characters got married because they just didn’t care what happened then.”

In answer to those complaints, Stratemeyer devised the character of Nancy Drew, a bright, inquisitive, plucky teenage sleuth—one of the first intelligent, independent female protagonists featured in children’s books. “They were an instant success, so much so that the series was written about during the time in flabbergasted terms,” Rehak says. “It was an amazing thing that it went on to outsell every single series, including boys’ books.”

The Nancy Drew books, like many of the other series during the early part of the century, were mysteries. Series books of this era also contained much role modeling of appropriate conduct. By the 1950s, though, the children’s book business had to compete with television and other forms of entertainment and polite, clean-cut characters stepped aside for daring, spirited, even troubled heroes and heroines.

The underdog, the outcast, and the orphan took center stage in series like C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, the Time series by Madeleine L’Engle, the Fudge books by Judy Blume, and the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary. By the end of the twentieth century, series expanded to include schoolyard tales, science fiction, and horror. And then came a dark-haired wizard named Harry Potter.

Post-Potter
Harry Potter created a groundswell for the fantasy genre, but was also the first children’s series to appeal equally to adults and kids. Despite serious competition, even within the fantasy genre, Harry Potter is still far and away the most popular children’s series ever published (see “The Making of a Blockbuster” on page four).

Competition though has come from such diverse series as The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park, The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. Riordan’s Olympians series has at times even surpassed Harry Potter on the bestseller charts. The first book, The Lightning Thief, was selected by The Today Show for its summer reading group and will be made into a movie directed by Chris Columbus.

“I didn’t consciously set out to write a children’s series,” says Riordan, who credits his son’s interest in Greek mythology for spurring the story of Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old dyslexic boy who discovers he’s the son of a Greek god.

But the former teacher admits that he was “very conscious of the fact there needed to be another series out there for kids to enjoy. Kids would read [Harry Potter] fourteen times before picking up another book. There was room out there for more fantasy.”

Somewhere in the middle of writing The Lightning Thief, Riordan knew he wanted to continue the story in the guise of a series. He had always preferred reading series and as a teacher he found young readers of fantasy also tended to like series. “The familiarity of a series is something they come back to again and again,” he says.

Riordan’s third-grade son counts himself a fan of the popular Magic Tree House fantasy series by Mary Pope Osborne. The books follow Jack and Annie, who travel to different places and times by opening the books they find in a magical tree house; so far, they’ve visited ancient Pompeii, the Arctic, the Titanic (pre-sinking), even the moon. Since the first book was published in 1992, the series has sold more than 40 million copies and been on The New York Times bestsellers list roughly the same amount of time as the Harry Potter books. The latest installment, Monday with a Mad Genius, was published last month.

“I started with eight books—that was as many as I had in me,” Osborne says. “Then I started visiting kids in schools. I would talk about the series and have them vote on places they wanted the [characters] to go. I got tons of letters and the enthusiasm inspired me to do more. I got so excited about all the possibilities. I’m now up to forty Magic Tree House books.”

Another series aimed at young readers (seven and up) is the Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. It tells the story of three siblings coping with their parents’ divorce while out-maneuvering faeries, goblins, and other spritely creatures. The series launched in 2003 and includes five chapter books, most recently Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles: The Nixie’s Song released this month.

“One thing I really focused on was making a book pitched younger than a lot of the fantasy coming out at the time,” says Black whose previously published fantasy novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, and just-released Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale are aimed at teenagers. “We wanted to make this accessible to younger readers.”  

Black and illustrator DiTerlizzi, who hails from picturebooks, met in the middle to create the petite editions, which run about 10,000 words each and with the shorter, more condensed story arcs that are increasingly popular with publishers.

How Authors Choose Your Adventure
How do series authors manage to keep their books fresh over the course of several books? Strong characters and convincing settings often help hold together multiple plots and editions.

“One reason the series is a joy to write is because I change the environment with every book,” says Osborne who sends her characters to different lands and times in each book. “I don’t think I could have done it if I were writing about same place each time.”

“The characters are everything,” says Black, who stays fresh by working on multiple books at the same time. She wrote Ironside, for instance, while also working on a Spiderwick book.

Aging characters is another way authors keep things interesting. “I knew I wanted to take Percy from age twelve to age sixteen,” Riordan says. “I didn’t want him to get much older than that because that’s the age group I know.”

Riordon uses foreshadowing to give readers room to imagine their own scenarios for the characters, but also to keep them coming back. “I’m pretty evil with cliffhangers,” he says. “The second and third books have satisfying conclusions, but include little teasers. The main trick with a series is keeping it fresh and knowing when to end it.”

If a writer wearies of the characters, readers will invariably sense it. “It’s important to say, ‘This is the end,’ and end on a high note,” Riordon says. “The last thing you want is Percy Jackson number 25—oh, here comes the minotaur again.” Which may explain why Riordon’s Olympians series will end with book number five, due out in the spring of 2009.