Are you sure this is the Dr Suess book club?
May 14 '00
If you're a parent, I'm sure you've seen the ubiquitous ads for Grolier's Dr. Suess bookclub: "8 free books plus this adorable backpack/book rack/t-shirt!" Well, I'm one of the parents who succumbed to the offer. I figured if I hated the books, I'd cancel after making the minimum purchase.
I really loved Dr. Suess as a child, so I didn't really even think about the cancellation policy. After all, I'd be getting two more Dr Suess books every month, right? What could be wrong with that? Unfortunately my lack of attention before joining this club led to some disappointments.
First of all, after that initial "free" shipment (for which of course you still pay shipping and handling) you get two books each month, which including s&h runs you about $13.(Note: these are 1998-1999 prices, which may have increased since then.) Now, two hardcover books for $6.50 each isn't exorbitant, but it's not a great deal, either.
The thing is, you keep getting those two books until you have, as the Grolier people say, the complete set. After we had a hefty collection of some forty books, I began to wonder when the set would be "complete." I finally called Grolier's customer service number (at that time, a toll call) and they mailed me the list of included titles.
The complete list included over sixty titles! That's not something they tell you in any of the advertising. I'm sure many people sign up their kids and then forget about it, because you can have them automatically bill your credit card. But if you just keep letting these books come into your house, you will soon have a collection with some Suess but a lot of other authors, too.
That was my first big surprise, and ultimately, disappointment, with this book club. It does include many of Suessian favorities, including Hop on Pop,One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,Green Eggs and Ham,both "Cat in the Hat" books, and Fox in Sox. There are also several titles written by Theodore Geisel under the pen name Theo LeSieg, and the classics Go,Dog. Go! and Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman.
However, there are several volumes of the Berenstain Bears and the Berenstain Letter books, both of which I detest for their inane content. But at least I'd heard of them! I also have several books by authors I had never seen before, of mixed quality.
Grolier does have a policy that you can examine any volume for 10 days, and then return it at their expense if you decide you don't want to keep it. I actually took advantage of this a few times, but with two small children, it's frankly too much of a hassle to do this on a regular basis. You would be amazed at how quickly those 10 days fly by, and then it's too late to return.
The "at our expense" issue can be handled in one of two ways: you pay, and then send them a note telling how much the postage was and they will reimburse you. Or, and this is the route I took, you can call them and they will send you a postage-paid label for the return. Sometime in the last year they converted to a toll-free number, so at least it doesn't cost you any more to get the labels, but you do have to call promptly, and then hide the books until the labels come. In my house, any children's book within reach is fair game!
The books themselves are scaled-down versions of the same books you find at regular bookstores. That it to say, they are physically smaller. The publisher did not use any techno-magic to shrink the image to fit the new page size, either: they cropped the pages.
Imagine, if you will, in The Foot Book, that the creature who is illustrating "Feet in the morning" with a morning jog, has no head. Other characters have no feet, or the tails have been lopped off, or the tips of feathers are truncated. As a parent, I find these incomplete illustrations very annoying, but too be honest, my kids have never noticed. I doubt they ever will. But this is probably how Grolier makes a profit off these books: they simply cost less to produce because they consume fewer materials.
Other than their size, the books are relatively tough. The stock is good quality and can stand up to a little bit of chewing (not a lot!), and the bindings are holding up well at 2 years and counting.
Overall, I'm not unhappy with the club, but I do wish they were more forthcoming about the actual size of "the complete set" and what the contents were. I wish I had been more conscientious about sending back the books I disliked, because now I am forced to read them to my kids when they ask. (I suppose I could just give them away, but the kids will notice their absence!) As with most bookclubs, you end buying stuff you wouldn't normally purchase at a store, although you probably do spend less overall, even with the shipping and handling.
Customer service steadily improved during the time I was a member. As mentioned above, Grolier now has a toll-free number, but you still have to hunt around to find it. Their website offers easy access to the current titles list in each club, so you can check it out before you decide to join. None of that was available when I first became a member. It does seem that Grolier is committed to improving their service, and they are to commended for that. Whenever I had to call their support line, my question or issue was always handled professionally. I had no trouble canceling my membership when I finally decided I wanted out.
Another factor to consider before joining is that once you are in Grolier's database you will be contacted approximately every six to nine months with "special offers" to join other book clubs. The Magic Castle Reader set, the AlphaPets, Alice in Bibleland... I have received free introductory volumes to all of these clubs, and rejected them all on the basis of their style and content. Now, those books I have simply put away to donate to charity. My kids never saw them so they don't know they are missing anything.
It continues to amaze me how many "children's authors" write down to their audience. So many of these books are patronizing, or so heavy-handed with their morals that it would be torture for me to read them to my children. In this respect, the Dr. Suess book club is far superior, because (with the exception of the Berenstain books) at least the Suess volumes respect their audience.
An alternative to purchasing the Suess books through this club or at a regular bookstore is to look for special "bundle packages" at the warehouse stores. I have seen them at Sam's Club and at Costco. The consist of three titles wrapped together and sold for a pretty reasonable price. The price per volume is a bit higher than the Grolier club cost, but the books themselves are larger. If you can find sets that include the titles you want the most, then you are probably better off taking this route.
Oh, by the way, Grolier hooked us again, this time on it's CD-ROM Living Books. The free title was Dr Suess's ABCs, and it is so charming, and my son is so completely captivated by it, that I said OK. But the CDs are a bit pricey so I will be much more diligent about returning titles I don't care for!
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Epinions.com ID:
QuietI
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Member: Joan Hedman
Location: Chandler, AZ
Reviews written: 89
Trusted by: 70 members
About Me:
Busy. Life. You know.
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