Scholastic is a global book publishing company known for publishing educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents, and selling and distributing them by mail order and via book clubs and book fairs. It also has the exclusive United States' publishing rights to the Harry Potter

Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

 book series. Scholastic Inc. is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books.

In the 1970s, Scholastic Press was well-known mainly through their Scholastic Book Clubs, a mail-order service dealing in children's books, and their magazine publications aimed at youths: Wow (preschoolers and elementary schoolers), Dynamite (pre-teens) and Bananas (teens).

Scholastic has grown its business most recently by acquiring other media companies, including Klutz

Klutz Press

Klutz Press is a publishing company started in 1977 and acquired by Scholastic Inc. in 2002. The first Klutz book was a how-to guide titled Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which came provided with juggling beanbags attached in a mesh bag. The book was created by three friends who graduated from...

, the animated television production company Soup2Nuts

Soup2Nuts

Soup2Nuts is an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder, Loren Bouchard, Brendon Small, Jody Snider, and Amanda Normoyle. It is known for its animated comedy series...

, the K–12 educational software publisher Tom Snyder Productions, and most significantly the reference publisher Grolier

Grolier

Grolier was one of the largest U.S. publishers of general encyclopedias, including The Book of Knowledge , The New Book of Knowledge , The New Book of Popular Science , Encyclopedia Americana , Academic American Encyclopedia , and numerous incarnations of The Electronic Encyclopedia .Grolier was an...

, which publishes the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia and The New Book of Knowledge.
In 1920, Maurice R.