It is the madeleine of Proust of all those who were schoolchildren, the companion suffered by those who are still: the vacation notebook. At the time when the first families go on vacation for the summer, after three months of school at home more or less well lived, will the parents make the choice to take it in their suitcases or leave it in the rays this exercise book, intended to refresh the learning of children before the start of the school year?
The publishers bet on the first hypothesis and they were right. For the week of June 17 to 23, in the top 20 GFK / "Books Weekly" all genres combined, six Passeport (Hachette Education) and two Nathan vacation notebooks are present. Or, eight notebooks out of the twenty titles on the list. Parents therefore do not shy away from these fun and educational books.
"It is even quite the opposite!" install Carola Strang, director of the extracurricular department at Nathan Jeunesse. We meet a dynamic and precocious demand. From the beginning of June, purchases started while traditionally the peak is between the end of June and the whole of July. I think this year will be exceptional. With these three months without going to school, plus the two months of summer vacation, it is even more important this year for parents not to break the thread with learning, "said the manager.
In a large area in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne), Léa is looking for a notebook "from 6th to 5th", as well as that "from CP to CE1" for her two daughters. “The third trimester was very complicated, especially for my oldest child who was going through her first year in college. I do not want her to have an apprehension at the start of the school year when she enters 5th grade saying that she does not have the level ”, worries the mother.
"It was crazy, we were even out of stock"
“We did what we could to accompany him with the school at home, but the parents are not teachers. It reassures me to buy this vacation notebook and my daughter also I believe, the other, on the other hand, sighs already, ”laughs Lea. "From CP to CE1" is also what Kader is looking for his son. "I will buy it but I will not be on its back like I was for home school. He will do exercises from time to time, but they are also holidays for everyone, "insists the father.
The holiday notebook therefore remains, since its creation in the early 1930s, a summer essential. And despite the profusion of applications in this field, this flagship of extracurricular publishing holds the shock and even proves to be a surprisingly stable market. Between 4.3 and 4.5 million copies are sold from one year to another, all publishing houses combined, and this for ten years.
Why has it worked so well from generation to generation? Carola Strang lists. “The child revises at his own pace, but not in the usual school mode. He can do it independently. It is cheap. We pick up screens with this paper support, and with it, no connection problem, quips the manager. Many children love the vacation notebook. It is not necessarily punishment. It is also the signal for the holidays when we see it appear on the shelves, like sunscreen. "
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By launching into extracurricular this year in January, the Flammarion editions had a hollow nose. "It was a trial run and we are far above our expectations," concedes Bénédicte Roux, literary director of Flammarion Jeunesse editions. The “Je suis en CP” collection has indeed grown with the launch of a reading method and three linked notebooks on basic learning (writing, reading and arithmetic), from 5 years old. The containment, which could not have been anticipated, thus gave rise to a peak in sales in March-April.
“It was crazy, we were even out of stock for a month and a half. It was clear that the parents did not want their children to lose ground during this unprecedented period. This collection, based on Montessori pedagogy and enriched by the contribution of neuroscience, is currently continuing to sell very well ", adds the manager who prefers to speak of" support notebooks ", which implies a life going well beyond the summer and can be bought all year round. Same trend at Nathan Jeunesse with the collection "I understand everything" which met "a huge success" during confinement.