In 2024, Union Square & Co. introduced its Everyone Can Be a Reader series, a line of books specially designed for struggling readers and using dyslexia-friendly tools including different paper tones and a proprietary font. The books are produced in partnership with Edinburgh, Scotland–based Barrington Stoke, a publisher founded in 1997 now operating as an editorially independent imprint of HarperCollins UK.
“Back in 2022, when Sterling Publishing relaunched as Union Square & Co., a confluence of things pointed us in this direction,” recalls Union Square & Co. executive editor Suzy Capozzi. She cites pandemic learning loss, the “stunning statistics” from that year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress report on reading, and feedback from booksellers and educators. “Across the board we were hearing that young readers were struggling to stay engaged with reading more than ever.”
That’s when talks with Barrington Stoke began. “Since their inception, their focus has always been on struggling readers—not just dyslexia but kids with other reading-related disabilities and kids who just don’t connect with a reading experience, for whatever reason,” Capozzi says. “They created this program that is about getting those students engaged in reading and enjoying it, which is what our goal was.”
Behind the scenes, Barrington Stoke has worked with consultants for more than 25 years to develop its own font, select paper colors, and create other design elements. “It’s about the tactile reading experience as much as it is about the mechanics of reading inside the brain,” Capozzi says. “They have an extensive backlist, and we’ve been culling that and working with them on frontlist titles.”
The series contains unabridged classic texts, like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; hi-lo retellings of longer classics like Pride and Prejudice; and original works from notable authors including Gillian Cross and Marcus Sedgwick. Among the forthcoming offerings are three books about teen female pilots in WWII by Code Name Verity author Elizabeth Wein.
