S&S to offer religious books for kids

I just came across another news item suggesting that conglomerate publishers are starting to embrace religion. PW reports that Simon & Schuster is creating a new imprint to publish religious children's books. The article says that the Little Simon Inspirations will debut in 2008. It also notes that this venture debuts at a time when Thomas Nelson is eliminating its distinctive imprints (including its kid's imprint, Tommy Nelson) in favor of organizing around strategic divisions. This doesn't mean that Nelson is pulling out of the kid's faith market -- they're just bringing all of their offerings under a single imprint. But clearly S&S sees the market opportunity as quite large, even with a leader like Nelson already in that space.