Toon Books
Predecessor | Francoise Mouly, Art Spiegelman |
---|---|
Imprints | Toon Graphics |
Owner(s) | Raw Junior |
Official website | toon-books.com |
Toon Books is a publisher of hardcover comic book early readers founded by Françoise Mouly. With titles by such creators as Geoffrey Hayes, Jay Lynch, Dean Haspiel, Eleanor Davis, and Mouly's collaborator and husband, Art Spiegelman, Toon Books promotes its line as "the first high-quality comics designed for children ages four and up".[1]
History
The concept for Toon Books came to Mouly when her son Dash was learning to read, and his first-grade teacher assigned him "easy readers".[2] Appalled by the lack of appeal of the educational material, Mouly instead spent time with her child and armloads of French comic books.[3] In fact, one of the first Toon Books releases was Agnès Rosenstiehl's Silly Lilly,[4] a.k.a. Mimi Cracra, a comic-book character familiar to millions of French toddlers.
After proposing the Toon Books idea to major children's books publishers from 2004 to 2007, and being rejected because the proposed books didn't fit existing categories, Mouly returned to her roots as a self-publisher — she had founded her small press,
2008 saw the launch of eight titles, featuring star authors (such as
In fall 2012, Toon Books released its first Toon graphic novel, The Secret of the Stone Frog, by David Nytra. Two years later, Toon Books launched an imprint called Toon Graphics aimed at readers eight and up.[8]
Distribution
When it first launched, Toon Books was distributed by Diamond Books, a unit of
TOON in the classroom
Attitudes towards comics have radically changed since the 1954 Congressional hearings where they were denounced as the cause of juvenile delinquency. They are now touted by progressive librarians and educators as an effective tool for children to discover the pleasures of reading.[11][12] As Art Spiegelman said, "comics can be a gateway drug to literacy".[13]
In the absence of any model or precedent, Mouly developed her own methodology to make sure the TOON Books would be well adapted to beginning readers' needs. She consulted with educators as she developed each individual book but also took rough drafts of the stories to schools, taking notes while watching children read.
Toon Books have been greeted enthusiastically by librarians, teachers, and parents looking for material for early readers. Early on, the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, embraced Toon Books as part of the Maryland Comic Book Initiative.[17] Other states' school systems are now considering Toon Books for their own Comics in the Classroom initiatives.[citation needed] The books are part of Renaissance Learning's Accelerated Reader Program and have been assigned Reading Recovery and Lexile levels, all of which are firsts for comics for young children.[14]
The Toon Books website offers free online learning tools for both students and educators. Downloadable lesson plans and activity sheets provide teachers with leveled lesson plans for kindergarten through third grade. Other tools include free online readers, videos, and games.
The free "CarTOON Maker" invites readers to make their own cartoons. The online Readers Theater teaches educators how to get students to perform TOON Books. On the Toon site for kids, early readers can make paper puppets, watch videos, and learn "CarTOON" lessons from master cartoonists.
The TOON Leveling System
The TOON into Reading program is divided into three levels:[18]
- Level 1 — first comics for brand new readers, recommended for Grades K–1. Contain 200–300 easy sight words, short sentences, usually one character, a single time frame, and 1–2 panels per page. Example: Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons[4]
- Level 2 — easy-to-read comics for emerging readers, recommended for Grades 1–2. Contain 300–600 words, short sentences and repetition, a story arc with few characters, and a few panels per page. Example: Benny and Penny in Just Pretend[19]
- Level 3 — chapter-book comics for advanced beginners, recommended for grades 2–3. Contain 800–1000 words in long sentences, a story that takes place in a broad world with shifts in time and place, chapters, and opportunities for the reader to make connections and speculate. Example: Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework[16]
Awards and honors
In 2009, Stinky, written and illustrated by
Liniers' Good Night, Planet won the 2018 Eisner Award for Best Publication for Early Readers,[21] and Ivan Brunetti's Comics: Easy as ABC won the same award in 2020.[22] Toon Books have been nominated multiple times for that same award since the award's inception in 2012, including the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020.
Bibliography
- Benny and Penny in Just Pretend (Geoffrey Hayes), 2008
- Otto's Orange Day (Frank Cammuso & Jay Lynch), 2008
- Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons (Agnès Rosenstiehl), 2008
- Stinky (Eleanor Davis), 2008
- Mo & Jo Fighting Together Forever (Dean Haspiel & Jay Lynch), 2008
- Jack and the Box (Art Spiegelman), 2008
- Luke on the Loose (Harry Bliss), 2009
- Benny and Penny: The Big No-No! (Geoffrey Hayes), 2009
- Little Mouse Gets Ready (Jeff Smith), 2009
- Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker (Geoffrey Hayes), 2010
- Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework (Nadja Spiegelman & Trade Loeffler), 2010
- Silly Lilly in What Will I Be Today? (Agnès Rosenstiehl), 2011
- Patrick in a Teddy Bear's Picnic and Other Stories (Geoffrey Hayes), 2011
- Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking (Philippe Coudray), 2011
- Nina in That Makes Me Mad! (Hilary Knight & Steven Kroll), 2011
- Chick and Chickie (Claude Ponti), 2012
- Zig and Wikki in The Cow (Nadja Spiegelman & Trade Loeffler), 2012
- The Shark King (R. Kikuo Johnson), 2012
- A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse (Frank Viva), 2012
- Maya Makes a Mess (Rutu Modan), 2012
- Benny and Penny in Lights Out! (Geoffrey Hayes), 2012
- The Secret of the Stone Frog (David Nytra), 2012
- Barry's Best Buddy (Renée French), 2013
- Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas! (Philippe Coudray), 2013
- Otto's Backward Day (Frank Cammuso with Jay Lynch), 2013
- The Big Wet Balloon (Liniers), 2013
- Hearts (Thereza Rowe), 2014
- Tippy's Night Parade (Lilli Carré), 2014
- Benny and Penny in Lost and Found (Geoffrey Hayes), 2014
- Flop to the Top! (Eleanor Davis and Drew Weing), 2015
- We Dig Worms! (Kevin McCloskey), 2015
- Written and Drawn by Henrietta (Liniers), 2015
- Ape and Armadillo Take Over the World (James Sturm), 2016
- Good Night, Planet (Liniers), 2017
- Adele in Sand Land (Claude Ponti), 2017 (originally published in French as Adèle et la pelle in 1988)
- Comics: Easy as ABC (Ivan Brunetti), 2019
- A Trip to the Top of the Volcano with Mouse (Frank Viva), 2019
See also
References
- ^ "About Toon Books", Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine Toon Books website. Accessed Nov. 23, 2008.
- ^ a b c MacPherson, Karen. "Comics for New Readers", Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Scripps Howard News Service) (April 14, 2009).
- ISBN 978-1-77056-351-3.
- ^ ISBN 9780979923814.
- ^ Hansen, Liane (September 21, 2003). "It Was a Dark and Silly Night..." NPR. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
- ^ "Toon Books Awards and Honors", Toon Books website. Accessed Mar. 13, 2014.
- ^ Reid, Calvin. "Toon Books: Comics for Kids", Publishers Weekly (Nov. 16, 2007).
- ^ Alverson, Brigid (2014-05-02). "Toon Books Adds Imprint for Older Readers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2014-10-13.
- ^ Publishers Weekly staff. "Candlewick Partners with Toon Books: New imprint launches in October", Publishers Weekly (Sep. 09, 2010).
- ^ Publishers Weekly staff. "Toon Books Switches Distribution to Consortium". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
- ^ Lyga, Allyson A. W. "Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers: Owly. Buzzboy. Pinky and Stinky. Who are these guys? And why aren't they ever on the shelf?", School Library Journal (March 1, 2006).
- International Reading Association) (November 2002): "In an increasingly visual culture, literacy educators can profit from the use of graphic novels in the classroom".
- ^ Higgins, Tim. "The Importance of Being Art Spiegelman", The Morning Call (Nov. 17, 2010).
- ^ a b Audio interview with Mouly on WKCR-FM, archived on the Teaching Graphic Novels blog (June 12, 2009)
- ^ Solym, Clément. "Casterman et Toon books, les BD bilingues anglais-français", Les Universe du Livre L'Actualité (07/06/2009).
- ^ ISBN 978-1-935179-02-3.
- ^ Hudson, Laura. "Comics in the Classroom: Thanks to a new generation of educators, the school and library markets keep on growing", Publishers Weekly (Jan. 06, 2009).
- ^ "Toon Books Level Correlations", Toon Books website. Accessed Mar. 13, 2014.
- ISBN 9781606865309.
- ^ Press release. "Geoffrey Hayes, wins Geisel Award for "Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!"", American Library Association website (Jan. 18, 2010).
- ^ "Eisner Award Recipients 2010-Present, San Diego Comic-Con International".
- ^ "SDCC '20: The 2020 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award winners, The Beat".