Matt Comeskey and Emily Falloon
“We started by talking to students about what interested them…
We’d created successful literacy resources for older children and we could see there was a need for a non-fiction series for younger readers making the move to first chapter books. Books for children at this stage need to give the reader a bit of extra help to understand the information in front of them. But they also need to be really entertaining. The students gave us some awesome ideas and we dived in to plan the Pathways series. It was important to make sure the content was local and relevant to New Zealand readers, as well as global in appeal and written in New Zealand English. We developed a series for America at the same time, switching out topics. When we took mocked-up titles to a Wellington school to trial them with Year 3 students, the children were enthusiastic about Nat the Ant, a character who offers support and questions for readers. But then, a student told us that they thought the books were for ‘adults,’ and we knew we had important changes to make. We put jokes and puns into the photographs throughout each book. These gave the series real magic and also challenged students to understand word play and … to keep turning pages to find more jokes. Next, we invited a student into the office to rate the jokes. Anything that didn’t score highly was cut! We also added a fold-out ant tunnel to each book with lots of funny details for students to find. Of course, it was much more than a fun fold out: it was designed to encourage students to think about what they had read, and to predict what might come next. Nat the Ant is doing a great job scaffolding and entertaining readers and Pathways has become one of our best-selling resources. It’s also a truly home-grown series.
Maintaining strong relationships with local creators is integral to what we do as a New Zealand publisher. On Pathways, we worked closely with local authors, editors, designers, photographers, illustrators, literacy experts, students, teachers, and many others. A series like this involves a significant amount of intellectual property. Not only do we create our own in the process but we also purchase a substantial volume of third party rights … and both are fundamental to the resource’s commercial success, its cultural appeal, and success in classrooms.”
Matt Comeskey and Emily Falloon are publishers with Lift Education.