Orca Book Publishers will be hosting a virtual panel with six authors of books for striving readers on Tuesday, February 16, ahead of I Read Canadian Day.
The panel will take place at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET and feature authors Brooke Carter, Marty Chan, Paul Coccia, Natasha Deen, Melanie Florence and Tash McAdam, in conversation with Tanya Trafford, the editor of Orca’s bestselling lines of high interest, low reading level (hi-lo) books.
Registration is now open!
This #GetToKnowHiLo discussion will put hi-lo books and authors in the spotlight, provide insight about what makes hi-lo books more accessible for striving readers, and share stories from the development, writing and editing process of hi-lo books.
Last fall, Orca introduced a new Ultra-Readable format for all hi-lo titles, which is designed to be more appealing to a wider range of reading levels and abilities, including readers with dyslexia or other language-based learning difficulties. Ultra-Readable books have a larger trim size, a more readable font, and are printed on cream paper to minimize contrast, allowing readers to focus more easily on the text.
Reaching a broader audience of striving readers has been one of Orca’s goals since the launch of the first hi-lo series, the Orca Soundings, in 2002. These books cover a range of gritty, issues-driven stories and found their mark with teen readers who struggled with reading.
The Orca Soundings series for high-schoolers has since grown to nearly 150 titles in print. A second line of hi-lo books, the Orca Currents, is geared towards younger readers, with middle-school settings and protagonists and age-appropriate plots.
All of Orca’s hi-lo books feature short chapters, simplified sentence structures, and increased spacing between words and lines, in order to be more accessible for aspiring readers. They also boast fast-paced plots to keep readers’ interest.