Thursday, November 16, 2006

A novel approach to reading: Big Guy Books

A small group of entrepreneurs has assembled a series of photojournalist fiction books under their own label:
About Us - Big Guy Books

...Big Guy Books, Inc, is built on the belief that literacy is a birthright for every child. But in a world of highly visual, fast-paced video entertainment, we are losing a generation of young children to growing masses of “reluctant readers.” It is our mission to create books that are stimulating and engaging enough to recapture these children and instill in them the joy of reading and the thrill of learning.
The Time Soldiers series looks like a winner in our home. The photographs/cgi effects are very engaging, and the narrative is quite well done. They're worth a look for the reluctant reader. I hope they succeed -- and that they manage to stay independent for a while.

Update 12/9/06: We bought the T-Rex (book 2) softcover -- and the pages fell out on first reading. It's a thin glue binding strip. I'll see how the publisher responds to my email, in the meantime if you buy one of these books, buy hardcover and buy at a bookstore where you can check the binding

Update 12/23/06: Big Guy Books quickly offered to swap my paperback for a hardcover, and I was ok with that -- just didn't have time to do it. Then they sent me the hardcover anyway, and a bit more. Really, it was more than was needed to mollify me. Turns out their printer was incompetent and they've since fired them. They promise the problem is fixed in the newer books, but if you're buying the early books I'd recommend either hardcover or buy them from a bookstore where returns are simple. Not all the early softcovers are defective, but you may not be able to spot the problem printings right away.

2 comments:

Maddy said...

thanks for the 'Big Guy Books' link [not very good at navigating yet] A local/ independent too!
Cheers
http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com

JGF said...

You're welcome! The books are very male oriented ("big guy"), but that fits with the distribution of autism and severe adhd too ...