Candlewick Launches Beginning Reader Series

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on February 8, 2007 Sign up now!

by Joy Bean, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 2/8/2007

This spring Candlewick jumps into the early reader market with a series of paperbacks called Candlewick Sparks. The branded titles follow in the footsteps of the long-running I Can Read titles from HarperCollins and the Step into Reading series from Random House, among many others. Each Sparks title will be 6x9 and carry a Sparks logo on the front cover and spine.

According to Liz Bicknell, editorial director at Candlewick, the impetus to start the Sparks line was "a confluence of authors wanting to try their hands at early readers. A number of our current authors wanted to write some for us, and we were getting submissions for them as well."

Bicknell says there is a distinguishing feature between Sparks titles and all of the existing beginning reader books. "We're not using controlled vocabulary," she says. "Each book at Candlewick is published individually, even if it's in a series. We doubt you'd ever see any levels on our books."

As for the name for the series, that came after much debate. Associate editor Kaylan Adair says, "We were trying to come up with something that would fit with the candle logo we already have. We wanted something that sounded exciting. 'Sparks' seemed right, and it fit with the candle theme."

The first four titles in the series are Houndsley and Catina by James How, illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay; Zelda and Ivy and Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways by Laura McGee Kvasnosky; and The Monster in the Backpack by Lisa Moser, illustrated by Noah Jones. For now, the line will consist of reprints of hardcovers previously published by the company, but going forward Candlewick may be looking to add paperback originals to the line. The company plans to release between four and six Sparks titles per year.