"These books provide fun reading for younger children while also introducing them to the graphic novel format. They’re great for any library collection, and especially fine for school libraries."
      --Kat Kan, Librarian

"Schools around the country are using comic books to teach reading and other subjects. The Maryland State Department of Education has developed a comic book curriculum using classic Disney comics. After a successful test, it is being used in about 200 classrooms, and continues to expand. The state has introduced a new series of original comic books, TOON Books, in first and second grade. The series was created by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker magazine, and her husband, Art Spiegelman, a prizewinning comics artist...Comics help introduce kids to importat features of fiction, such as narrative structure, tone and character development. They also include context clues for difficult words."

      --TIME for Kids

"TOON Books are really a new generation of books for a new generation of young, emerging readers who are growing up in a very visual environment. These graphic novels are more than just stories translated into a comic format. They are organic, with simple dialogue and engaging illustrations created by some of the best writers and artists in the business…[TOON Books] help young readers as they begin the process of learning to navigate the page and decipher text."
      --Michele Gorman, Librarian

"Just take a look at how TOON books differentiates their easy reading graphic titles. Like many beginning reader series, they’re divided into three levels. But here’s the difference - we’re not left to wonder what criteria was used to derive those levels. Surprise, surprise! TOON Books tells us! Each book has a listed Lexile Level, Guided Reading Level, and Reading Recovery Level...Surely all librarians can appreciate having the tools needed to appropriately shelve, catalog, and recommend our easy reader collections. This is how it should be done, folks!"

      --Shelf-Employed

"TOON Books is easily one of the most interesting lines of children’s literature being published right now. The concept is simple–these are easy readers, written with a limited vocabulary, in a comic book format, complete with panels and word balloons, created by some of the masters of comics, like Art Spiegelman (Pulitizer Prize-winning creator ofMAUS) and Jeff Smith (creator of Bone)...The way the best comics combine art with the written word to capture the readers interest has special magic to children--even children who otherwise shy away from books. And while I think it would be great to include some kid-appropriate superhero fare in the classroom library--that’s not what TOON Books is about. These are stories about talking animals, animated toys, kids going to school--a wide range of classroom-appropriate topics. The creators are great artists, renowned in their field, creating books with the express purpose of getting kids into reading. The stories are simple and charming, the illustrations are beautiful, and did I mention that each book has an accompanying, age-appropriate lesson plan available at the TOON Books website? Even if you’re not a comic fan, you owe it to yourself to check this one out."
      --Brenley MacLeod, Librarian