7/25/2019 The New Yorker Editor Who Became a Comic Book Hero

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The New Yorker Editor Who Became a Comic Book HeroThe amazing tale of a determined art director who harnessed the powers of the greatestillustrators around the world to blow kids' minds

Comic books? Educational? The very idea is comical to anyone familiar with the 1954 Senatesubcommittee investigation that linked uvenile delin!uency to horror and crime comics" The#oliticians dealt the industry a staggering blow that it overcame only after su#erheroes$ #lus cornyteens like %rchie and a rascal named &ennis$ came to the rescue" Still$ comics are seldom associatedwith literacy" 'ut (ran)oise *ouly started Toon 'ooks #recisely to get more young #eo#le reading$and thinking$ and en oying the #rinted word$ lushly illustrated and handsomely bound as well" +,t-ssomething they will hold in their hand and they will feel the care we #ut into it$. *ouly says"Schools are catching on$ s#icing u# reading lists with Toon titles /40 #ublished so far " *oulyacknowledges she-s #utting teachers in a bind that is sort of funny2 +Can you imagine having to gosee your #rinci#al and say$ 3,-m going to s#end money on comic books -. The EditorsSmithsonian corres#ondent 6eff *ac7regor recently sat down with (ran)oise *ouly in her Toon

'ooks offices" /This interview has been edited and condensed"

8ow did you come u# with the idea for Toon 'ooks comic #anels as a mechanism for teachingreading?

:hen , became a mother and was s#ending lots of time reading marvelous$ wonderful books withour kids$ , reached a #oint where , reali;ed there are not o$ sorry , can-t . That-s not the same attention" ou can-t #roduce

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7/25/2019 The New Yorker Editor Who Became a Comic Book Hero

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good work"

:hat-s the best #art of being a #ublisher?

, can make books ha##en without having to eI#lain and ustify" The other thing is that if , had been#icked u# by one of those big houses$ that would have been the end of me" , would have been wi#ed

out because , launched in D J$ ust when the economy colla#sed" So guess what would have beenthe first thing to go"

%re the books accom#lishing what you set out to do?

eah$ the feedback we have gotten from the teachers$ how well it works" , was talking to someone$she loves books$ her kid loves books$ but her granddaughter who is J years old basically was like$+Eh$ that-s not my thing". , sent her a set of Toon 'ooks because she was always advocating forreading and it was ust breaking her heart" The granddaughter took

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,t-s true" 'ooks were my lifeline" ,-m not worried about my friends- children" , know that they haveloving #arents that will take them on their la# and read to them and they-ll come out @" 'ut ,believe that we have a res#onsibility to every other kid whose #arent is working two obs anddoesn-t necessarily have time to take their kid on their la# who doesn-t have already access tobooks" Those kids are thrown into an educational system where the #oor teachers don-t have a

chance to take the kids individually and do reading time" :hat is gong to be their lifeline?

:ith all our books$ we do lesson #lans of the ways to not ust read the book$ but reread the book"That-s what , remember from when , was a kid"