Publisher Lee Newman discusses Big Cat’s evolution over the last twenty years, and reflects on why reading programmes are essential for children’s education, enjoyment and wellbeing.
I was the last person in the office on Christmas Eve, 2004, quietly checking off minor file corrections for an urgent reprint of the first phase of Collins Big Cat, scheduled to publish 5th January 2005. I remember feeling simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated - all 100 titles had gone to press on time, and we'd already sold the first print run.
Big Cat was a high-profile project for HarperCollins’ Education division, meticulously researched and developed by publisher Jill Cornish and commissioning editor Eddie Rippeth, who shared a vision for combining the qualities of children’s picture books with the rigour of a levelled reading programme. Abandoning the traditional model of a small team of authors and illustrators writing schematic books, they brought an unprecedented level of originality to the project, commissioning a different author and illustrator pairing for almost every book. The end result was 100 titles in a range of formats and genres, featuring a dazzling array of leading authors, illustrators and photographers, and offering excitement, choice and agency to their waiting readers.
We were a small internal team of just four, supported by a huge external team of freelance commissioning editors, editors, proofreaders, designers and picture researchers. In constant contact, we were able to draw on that vast well of experience, such as the creative skills of our design managers, Nikki Kenwood and Niki Merrett, elevating the quality of the books and setting a new industry standard for children’s reading books.
“Only 32% of 5–10-year-olds frequently choose to read for enjoyment, down from 55% in 2012”
One of the most important contributors to the entire project was the series editor, Cliff Moon. A former teacher, lecturer, author and respected literacy expert, Cliff’s annual guide to Individualised Reading (National Centre for Language and Literacy) was regarded as an indispensable listing of the readability levels of thousands of children’s books. This and other reading taxonomies informed the development of Big Cat’s finely graded reading progression, that takes children from pre-reading, with wordless, illustrated books to fluent readers of 80-page books. Drawing on his own teaching experience, Cliff wanted children to develop their reading skills while reading for pleasure, believing that children need autonomy as readers; that they have more inherent preferences and knowledge than we often give them credit for; and that we should trust them to read what they want. He believed that if we trusted them to choose books written in natural language, with all its nuances and oddities, we would be giving them the best possible start to their journey as readers, and we have stayed true to the principles he enshrined in the programme.
Those principles are acutely relevant today, where research reveals children's growing disengagement with the act of reading. Only 32% of 5-10 year-olds frequently choose to read for enjoyment, down from 55% in 2012; and despite reading aloud to children being a proven way to boost their enjoyment of reading, the number of parents reading aloud to children is at an all-time low. Fewer than half (41%) of 0-4-year-olds are read to frequently - a steep decline from 64% in 2012.
“We must accept the reality that for many children, reading at school will be their only exposure to books.”
Learning to read and reading to learn are often cited as limiting factors in reading enjoyment, exacerbated by diminishing access to books due to library closures and financial pressures on families. But we must accept the reality that for many children, reading at school will be their only exposure to books. Even more reason, then, to publish high quality reading books that capture children’s imaginations, and inspire, inform and entertain. That responsibility and privilege has long driven the commissioning strategy for Big Cat. We’ve published children’s contemporary fiction and non-fiction, classics and fairytales, retellings of Shakespeare, poetry, graphic novels, even joke books, aiming to give children wide exposure to different forms of literature, showcasing the huge range of forms that books can take, and helping children to develop their own literary tastes. Recent years have seen us focus heavily on representation and inclusion – from Lisa Rajan’s Tara and Dani Binns miniseries that showcases women in STEM careers, to the Time-Travelling Trio books from Nadine Cowan that shine a light on figures of Black history that have been omitted from traditional historical texts, and collections of books centred around neurodiversity, disabilities and long-term conditions, written and illustrated by contributors with lived experience, shared in an inimitable and authentic way. We want all children to see themselves in our books, so we take care to reflect the widest possible range of people, places, experiences, family structures and different socio-economic contexts; and we do so respectfully and authentically.
We’ve applied these commissioning principles equally to our decodable phonics books, which have been a mainstay of our publishing programme over the last five years. In 2021 we were delighted to partner with the Wandle Learning Trust and Little Sutton Primary School, publishing resources and supporting books for their systematic synthetic phonics programme, Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. The programme is now used in more than 5,000 schools and in April this year won a Teacher Tapp Gold Recommendation Award for having more than 90% of teachers recommend the programme. Once children have secured the phonic code and embedded their decoding skills, they can build reading fluency and stamina with exciting chapter books by leading authors such as Abie Longstaff, Joseph Coelho and Chris Bradford. Supporting children on their reading journey, from mastering phonics to discovering the joy of independent reading, continues to be the driving force behind everyone who works on Big Cat, from the authors and illustrators to the team behind the scenes.
“Supporting children on their reading journey, from mastering phonics to discovering the joy of independent reading, continues to be the driving force behind everyone who works on Big Cat.”
I feel immensely privileged to have been part of Big Cat’s journey for the last twenty years. Working on hundreds of books in rapid succession, with the patient oversight and generous support of people like Cliff Moon, gave me a thorough early grounding in primary literacy, and in educational publishing. I also feel hugely proud of what we’ve created, and the people who’ve helped sustain the mission across the past two decades – those who create the books; those who market, sell, champion and advocate the books; not to mention the vast number of teachers, parents and children for whom Big Cat has been a cornerstone of teaching reading and learning to read.
Big Cat as a brand is as relevant and restlessly dynamic as it's ever been, and I look forward to seeing what the next twenty years brings.
Lee Newman is the Education and Children's Publisher at Collins, with overarching strategic responsibility and accountability for Collins' education publishing, covering commissioning across early years, primary and secondary phase education in the UK and for international curricula. She also directs Collins children's publishing under the Barrington Stoke, Rocket Bird Books, and Collins children's non-fiction imprints.
Lee spent ten years in school governance at a primary school in North Herts and is currently Chair of the Education Publishers Council at the Publishers Association; a trustee of Book Aid International; and founding co-chair of HarperCollins Social Mobility staff network.