Kids' Comics for the Classroom
This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on March. 28, 2006 Sign up now!
By Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 3/28/2006
Driven by the growing educational appeal of comics to teachers, librarians and parents, Innovative Kids, a children's book packager and publisher that specializes in products that combine toys and reading, is launching Phonics Comics, a line of phonetically based easy-readers designed as comic books and aimed at tiered levels of reading ability.
Innovative Kids is a 16-year-children's publisher based in Andover, Mass., and founded by Shari Kaufman, its president and publisher. Kaufman says the company's specialty is "hands-on reading products that grab kids and get them to read. People usually look at our products and ask, 'Is it a toy or a book?' " The combination seems to be working. IK has created products such as Groovy Tubes Books, an information game with toy pieces and a related book and poster, which have sold more than 800,000 copies; and the Amazing Game Board Book series, with more than 500,000 copies in print. IK's unusual products have proven to be very popular among kids and parents.
IK will release the first four books in the Phonics Comics series in May. Phonics Comics are 24-page comic books, with three stories each. The books are designed for different reading levels and are aimed at beginners (simple sentences, sound-out words), intermediate readers (varied consonant combinations, longer sentences) and advanced readers (complex vowels, multisyllabic words and more challenging stories). The company has a patent pending on the series.
The books are very simply designed by IK's in-house design team (rather than by comics professionals) and come with a phonetically decodable text designed in conjunction with literacy professional Elizabeth Jaffee. The first four titles will be Duke and Fang, the story of a boy and his super-powerful dog; Meet the Sparkplugs, in which an alien robot family moves to Earth; Super Sam, gross stories about a funny and weird character; and Twisted Tales, fractured fairytales for a new generation.
Kaufman cautions that the books are not meant to teach reading by themselves but are intended to supplement classroom material and help teachers get kids' attention. "They're for kids who need a little extra to get them involved in reading. They're aimed at reluctant readers and combine a simple text with fun," said Kaufman. "The words can be sounded out, but there are also picture clues and other elements of traditional beginning readers." Kaufman said the company will expand the Phonics Comics line based on its reception in stores.
Although IK started out packaging kid's books for other houses, for the last six years the house has published books under its own name. IK distribution and fulfillment is by Time Warner. The house will publish 42 titles this year and plans nearly 60 next year.
Kaufman said she started the company to take advantage of some of the ideas she used to get her own son to start reading. "If you ask a kid to choose between a book and a toy," she said, "80% of them will want toys. Basically we try to trick them into reading by turning toys into fun books."
