Early readers are just starting out on reading. I found a big gap in the market here, not for books but for the presentation of these books. I set up bays specifically for such books and watched them fly out the door. These guys need their own section, not just because parents ask specifically for guidance on them but also because they are usually teeny, weeny ickle things. So thin that they get lost amongst the bigger, thicker paperbacks. Early readers are thin (the books, not the children), often with coloured pages and minimal content/writing but look like ‘real’ books, not picture books. This is important to the new reader. He or she wants to be treated like other readers now that letters and words are beginning to make some sense. Having said that, once reading more fluently they’ll probably go back to their picture books and discover fresh magic in reading them so don’t box them up for eBay/Freecycle/charity shops/friends with new babies etc. just yet…
