Palmer Trinity School

CAMPUS NEWS Bestselling Novels for 1972 New York Times Nonfiction Bestselling for 1972 1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach New York Times 2. The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth 3. Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins 4. August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1. I'm O.K. – You're O.K. by Thomas Harris 2. The Best And The Brightest by David Halberstam 3. Super Money by Adam Smith 5. The Camerons by Robert Crichton 4. Harry S. Truman by Margaret Truman 6. The Persian Boy by Mary Renault 5. Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution by Atkins 7. The Winds of War by Herman Wouk 6. The Peter Prescription by Laurence J. Peter 8. On the Night of the Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt Notable Books for Children and Young Adults Published in the Early 1970s 1. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (winner of the Newbery Medal in 1972) 2. Watership Down by Richard Adams (1972) 3. The Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (1972) 4. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (1971) 5. Carrie by Stephen King (1974) 8. Eleanor: The Years Alone by Joseph P. Lash 7. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (1974) 8. M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton (1971) 10. Open Marriage by Nena and George O'Neill 10. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok 6. Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary (1970) 9. Journey To Ixtlan by Carlos Casteneda 9. Green Darkness by Anya Seton 7. Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye by Kenny O'Donnell 9. Dreamland Lake by Richard Peck (1973) 10. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White (1970) Forty years ago, bestseller lists like the ones above were maintained and published mostly for the adult book buying market. Books published for children and young adults were categorized together and classified as juvenile literature. In 1972, juvenile literature made up a small percentage of the book publishing industry, with about 3,200 new titles per year. That percentage stayed constant for the next 20 years or so, before a remarkable thing happened. In 1997, Scholastic Press bought the American publishing rights to a popular novel in Britain—and as a result, the Harry Potter era began. The popularity of books written for middle and high school readers has skyrocketed. Last year, more than 36,000 new titles were released, many of them parts of the ever popular series fiction, which hooks them at book one and keeps them reading for years. Though many predict the end of reading in this evermore digital age—with electronic games, videos, and smartphones grabbing the attention of the young—the book publishing statistics tell a different tale. Reading books, both in traditional print and their electronic counterparts, is still very much a part of the culture of our students. When you get a chance, please visit the Palmer Trinity School Library of 2013. Forty years in, it is still filled with books—and most importantly, readers. W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 / 1 3 11

• Cover