This season, we’re excited to launch our new PreK-1 nonfiction brand, Bumba Books™! When we were planning the brand, we wanted to add something fun and charming to what’s available at the emergent level. We focused on bright colors, friendly text, and even a logo with a touch of silly.
On the editorial side, we paid extra attention to a few key components in these books: carefully leveled text, attractive and informative pictures, text-to-photo match, and critical thinking questions.
We worked hard to find imagery that shows people, especially kids, to help readers connect with the books. For books like these, we normally write and edit text first, then find images to match. Close text-to-picture match is really important for early readers, so we made a special effort to tie these items as closely together as we could. We carefully researched images and chose those that most closely matched the text and would be of particular interest to readers.
A feature of these books that is distinct from other books for this age level is the critical thinking questions, which are closely tied to both the image and the text on the spread. Sometimes these were tricky, because critical thinking questions are different from, say, recall questions. Our authors and editors included questions that encourage readers to interact with both the text and the photos. For more resources on teaching critical thinking, visit the Bumba Books page on our website.
We worked closely with a reading consultant to ensure Bumba Books was on target for emergent readers. We think it’s an ideal foundational brand to help readers build a love of nonfiction and reading.
You can start reading a Bumba Books title today by accessing a free Bumba Books Interactive Book here. We can’t wait to hear what you think!