Business

Scholastic’s pangs

Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, fell 13.9 percent, to $26.75, after posting a deeper quarterly loss, hurt by a shrinking appetite for “The Hunger Games” trilogy.

The fiscal third-quarter net loss widened to $20.1 million, or 63 cents a share, from $10.3 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier. Sales tumbled 19 percent, to $380.5 million, in the period ended on Feb. 28.

The New York publisher blamed the shortfall on lower-than-expected orders of “The Hunger Games,” a dystopian novel about teens forced to fight to the death.