The ALA states, “As our nation increasingly becomes more diverse, so should library collections, staff and our nation’s social consciousness.” Being a struggling reader is challenging enough, but not being able to identify culturally with the books they are reading can also be frustrating. Thorndike Press is excited to share a large print collection curated with a special focus on diversity, which can help turn that frustration into enthusiasm.
We chose to add eleven new titles to our Middle Reader and Young Adult large print offerings—with a mix of new titles like, The 57 Bus, You Bring the Distant Near, and The Lotterys Plus One, with old favorites including The Crossover, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I personally worked with youth services librarians to develop this collection of award-winning titles that span the following categories Asian, Black, Disability, Latinx, LGBTQIAP, Multiracial, and Religion, as set out by Baker & Taylor and Kirkus in the Kirkus Collections.
“Regardless of the type of library, constituency or represented region, our nation’s library community continues efforts to provide community members with free access to diverse collections, multicultural staff, and diverse resources,” according to the ALA. Diverse titles in large print can add to your library’s atmosphere of inclusion in more ways than one. The large print font is proven to aid letter and word recognition—which leads to better comprehension for both reluctant and avid readers—providing access to books that every child can identify with. Young readers can also reap the following benefits from large print:
- Decoding: With fewer words on a page, struggling readers are responsible for visually processing less per page. This makes it easier for them to decode and leads to substantial progress.
- Fluency: Studies confirm that young readers show improved fluency as the additional white space between lines slows the eye and increases the care they take with the text.
- Comprehension: Once decoding errors are eliminated and fluency improves, young readers can focus on the meaning of the text. Full comprehension leads to reading satisfaction, which can also increase confidence.
With Thorndike Press’ large print diversity collection, struggling readers can enjoy culturally riveting titles without the frustrations and our mission to help librarians in their quest to be able to put a book in every patron’s hands that reflect that patron is complete.
About the Author
Lisa Joyce, acquisitions editor for Thorndike Press, entered publishing after a 25-year career as a public librarian. She goes to bed every night terrified that her ”TBR” pile will crush her while she sleeps, but it doesn’t stop her from adding to it daily.