And they think this will work?

The NY Times has an article today about how Scholastic books is trying to create the next book phenomenon, now that Harry Potter is done. They have it all planned out to include on-line components, game cards and other merchandise. The books will be written by a string of different writers. It is all planned out, by committee. As someone who has read a lot of kids books, and still does, I have to say that this sounds incredibly dumb. You can't MAKE a good series - it just happens. I suppose they don't really care if it is any good...they just want to sell books and make a lot of money. Blech.