An article in the Wall Street Journal recently claimed that to get boys to read, you’ve gotta give them blood and guts. Here at Stone Arch Books, we understand the balance between what boys want and what kids want. Our (proven, kid-tested) method of getting boys to read simply consists of publishing books that contain elements boy readers are looking for—action, sports, humor, adventure, and just a pinch of irreverence. At the same time, we’re publishing books that librarians and teachers and parents can be comfortable with.
In the WSJ article, Jan Harp Domene, the president of the PTA, asks why boys won’t read the classics, like Tom Sawyer and books written by Jules Verne and stories from Greek mythology. Our answer: they will, if the package is cool, the format is right, and the book is presented to them as something fun—not something they’re being forced to read. Our Graphic Revolve books (which include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, two Jules Verne sci-fi classics, and next season, will include stories from Greek mythology) combine a format boys love (graphic novels) with content teachers, parents, and librarians can feel confident about.
Do we have to publish “gross” books to appeal to kids? Of course not—but sometimes it’s fun, like our Jimmy Sniffles books about a boy with a super-powered schnozz, our retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and the sure-to-be-classic Boy Who Burped Too Much. But even these books are safe—not gory. Boys, however, won’t even notice the lack of blood . . . they’ll be too busy reading. And that’s the point.
Showing posts with label industry news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industry news. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Kids Are Still Reading
Reading is still alive and well, reports a new Scholastic study. According to the study, 62% of kids like to read and think reading for pleasure is important. While the percentage of kids who like to read decreases as kids grow up, even 55% of teenagers ages 15-17 like or love reading.
This is great news for parents, teachers, librarians, and people like us, who are invested in getting kids to read (and loving to read, too!).
Perhaps one of the more interesting findings of the study was that when kids don’t spend time pleasure reading, it’s because they’d rather be doing other things or because they don’t have enough time to read due to schoolwork. Kids also reported that they don’t spend more time reading because they have trouble finding appealing books, but there’s good news—when Scholastic published its last report in 2006, the number-one reason kids chose not to read was because they couldn’t find books that appealed to them. In the 2008 report, that answer moved down to the third most-frequent response.
So what does this mean for us? It means we—as parents, educators, and book lovers—are still creating a love of reading in children. We’re still writing, illustrating, and publishing great books—maybe even better books now than before. We’re on the right track, and kids are still reading.
This is great news for parents, teachers, librarians, and people like us, who are invested in getting kids to read (and loving to read, too!).
Perhaps one of the more interesting findings of the study was that when kids don’t spend time pleasure reading, it’s because they’d rather be doing other things or because they don’t have enough time to read due to schoolwork. Kids also reported that they don’t spend more time reading because they have trouble finding appealing books, but there’s good news—when Scholastic published its last report in 2006, the number-one reason kids chose not to read was because they couldn’t find books that appealed to them. In the 2008 report, that answer moved down to the third most-frequent response.
So what does this mean for us? It means we—as parents, educators, and book lovers—are still creating a love of reading in children. We’re still writing, illustrating, and publishing great books—maybe even better books now than before. We’re on the right track, and kids are still reading.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
GUYS READ – IT’S UNSTOPPABLE!
Jon Scieszka has created a monster—a joyful, galumphing juggernaut called Guys Read. Ever since he launched his website, Scieszka has inspired teachers and librarians across the country to start their own Guys Read programs. On March 25th I was able to attend an all-day workshop on Scieszka’s brainchild, hosted by the Hennepin County Libraries and Stone Arch Books as part of the PLA preconference. The workshop couldn’t have been better organized. After Scieszka gave the opening remarks, we heard from public policy makers, politicians, lawyers, public librarians, mentors, fund-raisers, and parents of Guys Read programs from around the US. Their message was clear, focused, and overwhelming: Guys Read is a success. Boys want to read and will read if given the right material.
Scieszka warned us that we need to learn the language of boys. Boys think differently than the majority of librarians (whom he characterized as predominantly female and mostly middle-aged). One female librarian echoed Scieszka from her own experience, saying she had learned what not to say to a boys’ reading club. “Never ask them how they felt about the story,” she cautioned. “A lot of young boys don’t know how they feel about anything. Instead, ask them what they would have done if they had been in the story.” Boys prefer the hands-on, feet-on, jump-on approach. One librarian said his boys’ group created rituals to start and end each meeting. They have a march and a chant, and carry a flag created by one of the boys’ moms. Another club leader said he sometimes spends half the time playing football with his readers. The point is to make a Guys Read group fun, to teach boys to associate books and reading with pleasure and excitement. “This is not school,” says Scieszka. “There are no quizzes, no questions, no grades.” We also heard the responses from parents and grandparents, how reading had changed the lives of their boys.
During one of the breaks from the workshop, I wandered over to the chaotic PLA exhibit hall where the booths were being assembled, including ours. I visited with Heather Kindseth, Stone Arch Books’s creative director. As we talked, Jon Scieszka walked down our aisle. I stopped him and told him how much I enjoyed his books. Just an hour earlier he had mentioned that when thinking about books for boys, he paid attention to two things: the spine couldn’t be too thick, and the cover had to be eye-grabbing. He said he could tell, just by looking at the Stone Arch books, that we were on to something. “This is exactly what boys will want to pick up and read,” he said. Then he asked for one of our catalogs.
Scieszka has been made the first National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress. Spend a minute with him and you’ll know why. He’s approachable, he’s smart, he’s funny, and he’s passionate about getting kids to read. And Guys Read is an idea that anyone with an interest in boys and books can get behind. You can’t stop it. As Dr. Frankenstein said about another literary monster: “It’s alive!”
--Michael Dahl
Editorial Director, Stone Arch Books
Scieszka warned us that we need to learn the language of boys. Boys think differently than the majority of librarians (whom he characterized as predominantly female and mostly middle-aged). One female librarian echoed Scieszka from her own experience, saying she had learned what not to say to a boys’ reading club. “Never ask them how they felt about the story,” she cautioned. “A lot of young boys don’t know how they feel about anything. Instead, ask them what they would have done if they had been in the story.” Boys prefer the hands-on, feet-on, jump-on approach. One librarian said his boys’ group created rituals to start and end each meeting. They have a march and a chant, and carry a flag created by one of the boys’ moms. Another club leader said he sometimes spends half the time playing football with his readers. The point is to make a Guys Read group fun, to teach boys to associate books and reading with pleasure and excitement. “This is not school,” says Scieszka. “There are no quizzes, no questions, no grades.” We also heard the responses from parents and grandparents, how reading had changed the lives of their boys.
During one of the breaks from the workshop, I wandered over to the chaotic PLA exhibit hall where the booths were being assembled, including ours. I visited with Heather Kindseth, Stone Arch Books’s creative director. As we talked, Jon Scieszka walked down our aisle. I stopped him and told him how much I enjoyed his books. Just an hour earlier he had mentioned that when thinking about books for boys, he paid attention to two things: the spine couldn’t be too thick, and the cover had to be eye-grabbing. He said he could tell, just by looking at the Stone Arch books, that we were on to something. “This is exactly what boys will want to pick up and read,” he said. Then he asked for one of our catalogs.
Scieszka has been made the first National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress. Spend a minute with him and you’ll know why. He’s approachable, he’s smart, he’s funny, and he’s passionate about getting kids to read. And Guys Read is an idea that anyone with an interest in boys and books can get behind. You can’t stop it. As Dr. Frankenstein said about another literary monster: “It’s alive!”
--Michael Dahl
Editorial Director, Stone Arch Books
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Girl (Super) Power!
Recently, Newsweek and the Guardian featured articles on the surge of women and girls in comics, both as creators and as readers. At Stone Arch Books, we’ve already started supporting this fast-growing trend. In fact, the Guardian included an interview with Stone Arch author Trina Robbins.
Robbins has written for Wonder Woman and Powerpuff Girls comics, Scholastic, Marvel, and Disney. She has translated Japanese manga into English, and has written award-winning books on comics for girls and superheroines. Her book, The Great Women Cartoonists, was named one of the top ten books on comics in 2001 by Time Magazine. In the Guardian article, Robbins expresses her excitement for the surge, stating, “There are more women creating comics than ever before. I hope it'll get even better.”
Stone Arch would like to see this happen as well. That’s why this season we’re offering even more graphic novels created by female writers and illustrators, which feature even more female protagonists.
Robbins’s newest graphic novel for Stone Arch, Freedom Songs: A Tale of the Underground Railroad, follows a 14-year-old girl named Sarah during her grueling journey out of slavery. The book is sure to satisfy any girl’s (or boy’s) appetite for comics and will be a welcomed addition to every Black History Month reading list.
Check out our website for other graphic novels your girl readers will love.
--Donnie Lemke
Editor, Stone Arch Books
Robbins has written for Wonder Woman and Powerpuff Girls comics, Scholastic, Marvel, and Disney. She has translated Japanese manga into English, and has written award-winning books on comics for girls and superheroines. Her book, The Great Women Cartoonists, was named one of the top ten books on comics in 2001 by Time Magazine. In the Guardian article, Robbins expresses her excitement for the surge, stating, “There are more women creating comics than ever before. I hope it'll get even better.”
Stone Arch would like to see this happen as well. That’s why this season we’re offering even more graphic novels created by female writers and illustrators, which feature even more female protagonists.
Robbins’s newest graphic novel for Stone Arch, Freedom Songs: A Tale of the Underground Railroad, follows a 14-year-old girl named Sarah during her grueling journey out of slavery. The book is sure to satisfy any girl’s (or boy’s) appetite for comics and will be a welcomed addition to every Black History Month reading list.
Check out our website for other graphic novels your girl readers will love.
--Donnie Lemke
Editor, Stone Arch Books
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Hugo Cabret: The Shape of Things to Come?
Last year at the SCBWI conference in New York, I was in the audience when Brian Selznick presented his amazing The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a Novel in Words and Pictures. He first spoke about how he was inspired by silent films, especially those created by the Lumiere brothers of France. Then he showed a nonstop montage of images from Hugo (lasting at least 20 minutes) accompanied by atmospheric orchestral music and, of course, ending with a famous shot of the David O. Selznick mansion, which featured in the credits of many Hollywood classic films (the director is a cousin of Brian’s grandfather). When the “film” was over, there was a collective gasp, and then a standing ovation.
Graphic novels today seem to take most of their inspiration from current mainstream cinematic effects. Selznick showed his audience that any powerful visual medium can spark and trigger an idea, a plotline, a character, or a scene. That’s one of the reasons I was thrilled to hear that Hugo won the Caldecott: Selznick has redefined the novel that tells its story “in words and pictures.” At Stone Arch Books we have two copies of Selznick’s 20-pound tome on our shelves, one for Design and one for Editorial. Hugo makes us look at all of the art that surrounds us on a daily basis, and re-think how it can help us make our books more exciting and more affecting, and speak to reluctant readers in ways we never thought possible.
--Michael Dahl
Editorial Director, Stone Arch Books
Graphic novels today seem to take most of their inspiration from current mainstream cinematic effects. Selznick showed his audience that any powerful visual medium can spark and trigger an idea, a plotline, a character, or a scene. That’s one of the reasons I was thrilled to hear that Hugo won the Caldecott: Selznick has redefined the novel that tells its story “in words and pictures.” At Stone Arch Books we have two copies of Selznick’s 20-pound tome on our shelves, one for Design and one for Editorial. Hugo makes us look at all of the art that surrounds us on a daily basis, and re-think how it can help us make our books more exciting and more affecting, and speak to reluctant readers in ways we never thought possible.
--Michael Dahl
Editorial Director, Stone Arch Books
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Comics in the classroom?
Not such a crazy idea anymore!
In an editorial today, the New York Times championed something that’s very near and dear to our hearts: Comic books in the classroom. Buoyed by a recent article about the Comic Book Project and the Maryland Comics in the Classroom initiative, the editorial posits that comic books (and by extension, graphic novels) have an important place in education. In fact, the editorial states, “The pairing of visual and written plotlines that [comic books] rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers.” We’ve been saying this since our first graphic novels hit shelves in Spring 2006, so it’s nice of the Times to catch up! We’ve got a make-your-own-graphic-novel page (opens PDF) that students love, which is a great supplement to any of our graphic novels and a fabulous learning tool for the classroom.
There are sure to be many more articles like the two in the Times--here's to getting kids to read with the kinds of books they love.
In an editorial today, the New York Times championed something that’s very near and dear to our hearts: Comic books in the classroom. Buoyed by a recent article about the Comic Book Project and the Maryland Comics in the Classroom initiative, the editorial posits that comic books (and by extension, graphic novels) have an important place in education. In fact, the editorial states, “The pairing of visual and written plotlines that [comic books] rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers.” We’ve been saying this since our first graphic novels hit shelves in Spring 2006, so it’s nice of the Times to catch up! We’ve got a make-your-own-graphic-novel page (opens PDF) that students love, which is a great supplement to any of our graphic novels and a fabulous learning tool for the classroom.
There are sure to be many more articles like the two in the Times--here's to getting kids to read with the kinds of books they love.
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