Jackie De Leo Talks Graphic Novels and Middle-Grade Books with Vox

Scholastic Publisher and Chief Merchant Jackie De Leo was recently featured in a Vox article about the next generation of middle-grade books, and the rising popularity of graphic novels. The article also references data from the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report^TM, underscoring how reading behaviors are shifting among today’s kids.

De Leo spoke about how graphic novels are helping combat “the decline by 9” phenomenon that occurs, when many kids stop reading for fun after the age of 8.

Over the last few years, kids have shown an unquenchable thirst for illustrated books, graphic novels, and manga. De Leo pointed to Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man series, which has helped kids across the world interested in reading again.

“Dog Man is full color — so immersive,” De Leo told Vox. “There’s these fun parts about the physical book, too, where you actually have to flap the pages and it makes an animation reel.” More importantly, she said, the books are funny. “Kids like things that are funny, and we were giving them some pretty serious things for a while — books for adults packaged as middle-grade books.”

To read the full story, click here: The promising race to get kids reading again