There’s got to be a term to describe that like. Extremely specific era of children’s literature where all the books were novellas printed on low quality paper, pumped out on a near monthly basis, and made for series that sometimes stretched into hundreds of books
Animorphs. Goosebumps. Bailey School Kids. Babysitter’s Club. Magic Treehouse. Series that plague public libraries and second hand book stores to this day. A genre that was nearly wiped out overnight by the success of Harry Potter, and the newfound desire for kids to read long form literature
It was like pulp fiction for kids
The Scholastic Age
i wrote my MS in book publishing thesis on this, so like for anyone actually interested i have the real answer. it actually wasnt wiped out by harry potter. this era is referred to in the publishing world as the near death of ya/childrens lit. that’s WHY it was on such low quality paper and why they had series with so many freaking books every single month. it was the final stage of cash grabbing before publishers p much accepted the genre was dead. that also contributed to why hp was rejected so many times, not bc jk is some underdog, but because literally no houses were picking up ya books. and it wasnt a newfound desire for long form. kids/teens had been yelling for years for more long form literature that actually reflected their struggles but the old assholes didnt wanna listen as always. arthur lavine, that old fuck who edited hp, wasnt gonna pick hp up either but his daughter or granddaughter literally begged him.
ps. it also was literally pulp fiction bc pulp fiction it gets its name FROM that low quality paper you were talking about. its got more wood bits and other less desirable stuff in it so its processed less which saves money and less desirable which also saves money. thats also why it has the best smell bc its the most tree and the least bleach
my dad likes to call the stretches of time where you’re not creating “dreaming periods” and says that they’re meant to allow you to absorb all of the beauty, life, and inspiration from the things around you so that when you’re able to create again, you will have fanned your spark back into a flame. sometimes its hard to see those moments as anything but stagnation, but he always says that they’re natural and healthy and needed—things that should be embraced rather than feared.
