In the fourth quarter ended May 31, revenues at Scholastic rose 7%, to $508.3 million, and operating income rose 13%, to $53.5 million. For the fiscal year ended May 31, revenues rose 2%, to $1.6 billion, and operating income rose 9%, to $15.8 million.

Peter Warwick, president and CEO, called Scholastic's 2025 fiscal year results "solid," and pointed to the "continued strength in children's book publishing and distribution," which combined with "successful execution and disciplined cost management, helped offset macroeconomic pressures on school spending, which continued to impact the education division."

In the fourth quarter, children's book publishing and distribution revenues rose 9%, to $288.2 million. Consolidated trade revenues jumped 19%, to $97.3 million, reflecting the popularity of the fifth book in Suzanne Collins's Hunger Game series, Sunrise on the Reaping. The gains came despite "continued pressure on consumer spending in the retail book market." Collins's book also helped Scholastic's international sales, which increased 9%, to $76.8 million, despite unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates. Book fair revenues rose 5%, to $177.8 million, "reflecting higher fair count." Book club revenues dropped 9%, to $13.1 million.

The fiscal year gain of 2% came primarily from "the contribution of 9 Story Media Group, recorded in the entertainment segment, higher revenues from new releases in trade publishing, which offset softness in the overall retail market, and strong performance in book fairs. These gains were partly offset by lower supplemental product sales in education solutions."

Warwick said that the "global success of Sunrise on the Reaping... showcased Scholastic's unmatched leadership in creating enduring children's book franchises." He added that the recent merger of trade publishing, book fairs, and book clubs into a unified Children's Book Group "will unlock even more opportunities to deepen engagement with kids and families across all channels...

"We are entering fiscal 2026 with strong momentum, which will include the November release of the next title in the best-selling Dog Man series and a growing slate of content development and production commitments."

Scholastic noted again that it is considering sale-leaseback transactions for the office and retail space it owns in New York City as well as its distribution center in Jefferson City, Mo.

In the first half of the year, Bookshop.org has grown 65% over the same period last year and said it had its "largest ever mid-year profit pool," distributing $1.89 million to independent bookstores across the U.S., which is a 67% increase over July 2024.

Since its launch in early 2020, Bookshop.org has given more than $40 million to U.S. bookstores and $50 million globally "despite a challenging retail landscape." The number of bookstores in Bookshop.org's network numbers 2,471, another all-time high.

The company also proudly noted that it had sales of $1.5 million during the four days of its Anti-Prime Day campaign (July 8-11), which was double last year's results. The campaign also attracted 24,000 new customers.

All the numbers, Bookshop.org said, "reflect that, despite monopoly retailers like Amazon, there is still a space for local bookstores, and a values-driven model can outperform the market."

In advance of its grand opening on August 16, the Raven's End: Books and Fine Art opened for a limited time in Oil City, Pa., the Derrick reported.

Located at 17 Central Ave., the Raven's End carries general-interest new and used titles, with an emphasis on local authors; it is also an art gallery showcasing the work of local artists. Alongside those items, customers will find apparel, coffee mugs, bookmarks, and more. The shop has a downstairs space called the Aviary Lounge, featuring study tables and comfortable chairs. 

While owners Chris and Nancy Osborne don't expect to be fully open for roughly another month, they opened from July 23 to July 26 during Oil City's annual Oil Heritage Festival.

Robert W. Fuller, "who crusaded against what he defined as rankism--the denigration of society's outcasts and underachievers as 'nobodies'--even though he himself, as a physics professor, college president and prolific author, was indubitably a 'somebody,' " died July 15, the New York Times reported. He was 88.

Robert W. Fuller

In 2017, he facetiously thanked President Trump for "giving rankism a face--his own scowling, mocking face"--to become "the poster boy for rankism and for jump-starting a Dignity Movement."

Fuller was a math and physics prodigy "who never graduated from high school and never earned a bachelor's degree (though he obtained advance degrees)," the Times wrote. He was 15 when he entered Oberlin College, and 33 when he returned to become the college's youngest president. 

A self-described "citizen diplomat," he arranged exchanges between Soviet and American scientists to foster better relations during the Cold War. He started the nonprofit Hunger Project with singer, songwriter, and actor John Denver and EST founder Werner Erhard to challenge "systems of inequity that create hunger and cause it to persist." He also helped start Internews, which aimed to help journalists develop free and fair media coverage.

In many of his books, Fuller wrote that rankism "manifests itself perniciously in many ways. They include, he said, lifetime academic tenure, which insulates college faculty from accountability to students and administrators, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons," the Times reported.

His first book, Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank (2003), had blurbs from Betty Friedan, Francis Fukuyama, and Studs Terkel, who called it a "wonderful and tremendously important book."

Fuller's other books include All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (a sequel to Somebodies and Nobodies, 2006); Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism (with Pamela Gerloff, 2008); Religion and Science: A Beautiful Friendship? (2012); Genomes, Menomes, Wenomes: Neuroscience and Human Dignity (2013); The Rowan Tree: A Novel (2013); and Questions and Quests: A Short Book of Aphorisms (2016).

Insisting he had nothing against hierarchies, Fuller "espoused what he described as a dignity movement, the goal of which was to achieve a 'dignitarian society.' Its platform was encapsulated in a manifesto that paraphrased Marx and Engels: 'Nobodies of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your shame,' " the Times wrote.

in a q&a with himself on his blog, Fuller warned that rankism "stifles initiative, taxes productivity, harms health and stokes revenge.... We do believe that once you identify a problem, it's solvable," he wrote. "What I haven't mentioned is that solving old problems reveals new ones. From you we learned 'it takes a village.' Going forward, it's going to take a galaxy."

Posted on Instagram by Storytime Bookshop, Kennewick, Wash.: "We are open today and the air conditioning is on! Come R E A D!"

"A fluffy end to Dog Days today!!" the store chalkboard at Skylark Bookshop, Columbia, Mo., promised, and then followed through with the day's highlight: "Humane Society kittens today!"

At Chronicle Books:

Allyn Savage has joined the company as trade sales coordinator.

Erynn Im-Sato has joined the company as senior sales manager, Amazon and digital

Emily Malter has been promoted to sales manager, e-commerce and digital merchandising.

Emma Hill has been promoted to associate marketing manager, children's.

Emily Paik has joined the company as sales, marketing & publicity assistant.

Jennifer Bravo has joined the company as social media assistant.

Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy by Christopher White (Loyola Press).

Today:
Today: Hilton Carter, author of The Propagation Handbook (CICO Books, $35, 9781800653108).

The View repeat: Tamron Hall, author of Harlem Honey: The Adventures of a Curious Kid (HarperCollins, $19.99, 9780063244849).

Tamron Hall repeat: Lakeysha Hallmon, author of No One Is Self-Made: Build Your Village to Flourish in Business and Life (Dey Street, $29.99, 9780063315891).

Jennifer Hudson Show repeat: Jordan Chiles, author of I'm That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams (Harper Influence, $27.99, 9780063443402).

Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ocean Vuong, author of The Emperor of Gladness (Penguin Press, $30, 9780593831878).

Tomorrow:
Good Morning America: Frankie Celenza, author of EAT: Easy, Affordable, Tasty: 100 Recipes with All of the Flavor and None of the Fuss (Union Square & Co., $29.99, 9781454955917).

Kelly Clarkson Show repeat: Danny Ricker, author of Wow, You Look Terrible!: How to Parent Less and Live More (Hyperion Avenue, $26.99, 9781368110914).

Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier) and Benjamin Hollingsworth (Virgin River) will join Jana Kramer in The Christmas Ring, based on Karen Kingsbury's upcoming book. Deadline reported that the movie, from Karen Kingsbury Productions, stars Kramer "as the widow of a U.S. Armed Forces member, looking for her missing family Christmas ring when she meets a charming antiques dealer (Hollingsworth), whose father might unwittingly have the lost heirloom."

Directed by Tyler Russell from producer Natalie Ruffino Wilson's adaptation, the film will premiere in theaters on November 6 via Fathom Entertainment. King's book is being released October 21.

Kingsbury described the project as "a Christmas love story like those of days gone by. I've always loved the Christmas classic movies--While You Were Sleeping and Miracle on 34th Street, Holiday, and You've Got Mail. It's time to give people an unforgettable Christmas love story in theaters. This is one they will want to watch every year."

Swift River by Essie Chambers (Simon & Schuster) has won the $15,000 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, which is given to an emerging African American fiction writer, celebrates the legacy of the late Ernest Gaines, and is sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

Organizers commented: "Set in 1987 Massachusetts, Swift River follows Diamond Newberry, the only Black teenager in her rural town, as she unravels family secrets that reshape her identity and connection to generations of African American women. A coming-of-age story that explores themes of belonging, loss, and generational memory. The novel has been hailed as 'poetic and propulsive' (NPR) and 'funny and poignant' (the New Yorker)."

Swift River was a Today Show Read with Jenna Book Club pick, won the 2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction  and the  Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

"Winning an award bearing Mr. Gaines' name is deeply humbling," Chambers said. "His stories, rooted in truth and community, continue to guide writers like me who strive to reflect the lives of people often left out of the literary landscape."

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The Artist by Lucy Steeds has won the £5,000 (about $6,720) 2025 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. The company wrote, "An intoxicating tale of art, love and secrets set across a sun-drenched Provençal summer in 1920, Steeds's masterly debut revolves around a fabled, reclusive painter, an aspiring British journalist set on penning a piece on him, and the artist's seemingly unworldly niece Ettie who harbors an explosive secret. Blending mystery and slow-burning romance with lush, cinematic prose and exquisite characterization, The Artist is an absorbing study in monstrous egos, self-discovery and the power of art, filled with dexterous detail for the senses."

Bea Carvalho, head of books, Waterstones, added: "From a shortlist of six stunning books, The Artist stood out for its atmospheric, sensory prose, and its headily evocative sense of time and place. Lucy Steeds is a writer of staggering, rare talent: she is able to conjure vivid brushstrokes, sticky heat, and the smells and tastes of Provence, through words on the page. This is a gorgeously claustrophobic novel to be fully swept away by: The Artist has something for readers of all tastes and heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice."

LibraryReads, the nationwide library staff-picks list, offers the top 10 August titles public library staff across the country love:

Top Pick
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (‎Tordotcom, $24.99, 9781250357465). "This refreshingly sweet and short tale is about a group of AI robots who band together in friendship to support each other--and along the way they open a wonderful little restaurant for the humans who survived a devastating war. This novel is the hopeful kind of science fiction we need right now." --Diana Tixier Herald, LibraryReads Ambassador

The Battle of the Bookshops by Poppy Alexander (Avon, $30, 9780063436619). "This charming literary-themed novel is about a young woman determined to save her great-aunt's beloved bookshop from extinction by the shiny new competition--which also happens to be run by the handsome son of her family's rivals. This is a great read for those who enjoy enemies-to-lovers romance." --Karen Troutman, LibraryReads Ambassador

The Blonde Who Came In from the Cold by Ally Carter (Avon, $24.99, 9780063386976). "Two former covert agents wake up handcuffed in a shed, then start a globe-trotting trip down memory lane as they escape and try to figure out who's behind it all and what they want. This fast-paced, bantery rivals-to-lovers, second-chance romcom adventure works as a sequel and companion to The Blonde Identity." --Julie Graham, Yakima Valley Libraries, Wash.

What Hunger: A Novel by Catherine Dang (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781668065570). "This gripping coming-of-age horror novel follows Ronny, who's entering high school when tragedy strikes her family. This is followed by an assault that alters her world. Forced to move forward, she must navigate the complexities of family life and a new school while carrying the weight of her trauma." --Dominique Brown, Tinley Park Public Library, Ill.

The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas (Harper, $30, 9780063442238). "Alice and her husband Kyle are watching her sister Tasha's children when the worst happens: they are attacked, leaving Alice in intensive care and Kyle dead. Was the target actually Tasha? This novel is full of suspense and secrets, and has great twists that will leave readers guessing." --Magan Szwarek, LibraryReads Ambassador

The Locked Ward: A Novel by Sarah Pekkanen (‎St. Martin's Press, $29, 9781250349514). "Georgia has been accused of murdering her sister, and her adoptive parents have her locked in a psych ward. The only person she asks to see is her biological twin, who she has never met. The twists and turns will have readers breathlessly rushing through the final pages." --Kaite Mediatore Stover, Kansas City Public Library, Mo.

The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar (Ace, $30, 9780593952306). "Anatole is a hairless magician tasked with getting the princess to fall out of love with Pito, a lowborn scribe, so she can proceed with her arranged marriage to a prince. A cozy fantasy novel brimming with Sachar's classic humor." --Michelle Morris, Fort Worth Public Library, Tex.

How to Be a Saint: An Extremely Weird and Mildly Sacrilegious History of the Catholic Church's Biggest Names by Kate Sidley (Sourcebooks, $19.99, 9781728277417). "Readers will love the gruesome, weird, and goofy stories while they learn about Catholic miracles, martyrs, and traditions. With lively humor, Sibley covers the lives of saints, Medieval European history, and the past and current process of canonization." --Migdalia Jimenez, Chicago Public Library, Ill.

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire, $27.99, 9781250398659). "Vera's life was perfect until a catastrophe so gruesome and unlikely that it resembled something out of a horror movie hit, causing her to question everything. Readers follow Vera as she is recruited by a secret government agency to help make sense of the events of that day four years ago and reset the scales of fate." --William Ives, La Crosse Public Library, Wis.

The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine (Sourcebooks Landmark, $27.99, 9781728276915). "Maria's husband disappeared nearly 30 years ago, and now she's ready to tell her story. Enter Thea, an editor on the brink of career collapse. Arriving at Maria's country farm in an odd arrangement of secrecy, Thea will have to pick through Maria's story in order to save her career. A fun, fast read." --Andrea Galvin, Mt. Pulaski Public Library, Ill.

In Patricia Lockwood's head-spinning second novel, Will There Ever Be Another You, a writer gingerly moves past family tragedies but becomes mired in ill health.

Lockwood's debut novel, No One Is Talking About This, was on the Booker and Women's Prize shortlists and won the Dylan Thomas Prize. Both books are effectively third-person autofiction; this sequel picks up after the death of the author's niece in infancy from a rare genetic disease. Still raw and reeling, the family heads overseas, hoping a vacation will be restorative. "As soon as she touched down in Scotland, she believed in fairies," the novel opens. This sets the scene for a chronicle of delusion and the unexplained.

The exceptional chapter "The Changeling" documents a clutch of symptoms, as Patricia becomes increasingly alienated from her body. She has had a fever for 48 days; she has trouble controlling her limbs. "I'm concerned about the weakness in your legs," a neurologist says. But this seems more like a mental health crisis. "It was strange to know that when something was really wrong with her, no one would be able to tell." Memories of her brother PJ's suicide attempt suggest an explanation. "I think you became psychotic because of your Family History," someone else offers.

Things keep getting weirder. There is some use of the second person, but the narration mostly shifts into the first person, employing a welter of biblical and literary allusions ("Shakespeare's wife was asking to see me. She wanted to buy my brain, but how to explain that it was no longer worth anything?"). An Anna Karenina-themed tangent feels endless. "I was having a Protagonist Problem: I could not move, or make anything happen" until a trip to Paris for a conference.

Although this doesn't live up to the iconoclastic humor of her poetry (Motherland FatherlandHomelandsexuals) and memoir (Priestdaddy), Lockwood is a queen of one-liners. For instance, in Scotland she remarks on "the lamentable story of Irn-Bru," a Scottish soda with a new recipe. "The taste, a pink electrocution of the tongue, was indescribable--and there was a version that was more so?"

As pictures of disordered minds go, this is striking, but also challenging to slog through. It's difficult to find concrete details to latch onto, at least between the bookends of the trips. It's not, perhaps, how newcomers should encounter Lockwood's genius, but still essential for her fans. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck

Shelf Talker: Patricia Lockwood's curious second novel, an autobiographical sequel to No One Is Talking About This, depicts a writer experiencing a mysterious illness and simultaneous mental breakdown.