Last month we republished six books in the Zone 13 series, all written by David Orme and originally published in 1998 by Stanley Thornes Ltd. For this relaunch David thoroughly revisited the texts, and we have commissioned a complete set of new illustrations and new covers.
Well May 2011 sees the publication of six more titles in the series. Called (with starting originality) Zone 13 Set Two, following on from – you guessed it – Set One, the titles are:
- No Chance
- Out of the Fog
- The Great Brain
- They Came from the Sea
- Invasion of the Killer Robots
- The Shape Shifter.
The final six books in the series (yes, Set Three) will be published later this year.
That gives eighteen reading books in the series, targeted at an interest age of 8 – 14 years, with a reading age of 8 – 9 years. They are all exciting, action-packed stories that will appeal to children with a love of the unexplained. The stories are varied: some are comic whilst others have darker, gripping themes. Illustrations are e4dgy and contemporary, drawing very much on action comics and TV styles. All of the books are illustrated by the very excellent Jorge Mongioivi and Ulises Carpintero.
You’ll find lots of covers and spreads on our website as well as on Ransom Publishing’s Facebook page.
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The ‘What kids are reading 2011′ report, commissioned by Renaissance Learning is now out. Ransom’s books feature prominently. For struggling readers in Years 7 to 9, it’s virtually a clean sweep:
- Books struggling readers read most often, Year 7: no less than 19 of the top 20 books listed are all published by Ransom. (They are all from the Dark Man or Boffin Boy series.)
- Books struggling readers read most often, Year 8: no less than 18 of the top 20 books listed are all published by Ransom.
- Books struggling readers read most often, Year 9: no less than 11 of the top 20 books listed are all published by Ransom.
Books by David Orme, Helen Orme and Peter Lancett also feature prominently in the lists of most popular titles for years 7 to 9.
The non-fiction Trailblazers series does well, too:
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 3 – includes one book from Ransom’s Trailblazers series (Dinosaur! by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 4 – includes four books from the same series (Dinosaur!, Football, UFOs and Comets, all by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 5 – includes three books from the same seriess (Dinosaur!, Football and UFOs, all by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 6 – includes two books from the same series (Formula One and Extreme Sports, all by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 7 – includes four books from the same series (Football, Dinosaur!, UFOs and Formula One, all by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 8 - includes four books from the same series (Football and Formula One, all by David Orme)
- Non-fiction books read most often: Year 9 – includes three books from the same series (Extreme Sports, Football and Formula One, all by David Orme)
These are the books children are choosing to read. Shouldn’t you make sure they are in your library? 
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The report ‘What Kids Are Reading’ – commissioned by Renaissance Learning – has now been published for 2011. You can get a free copy from the ‘read to a million kids’ website. If you are involved at all in supporting or teaching literacy, I strongly recommend you to do so. It’s a 60 page A4 [...]
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I’m delighted to announce that our 2011 catalogue is now available. It’s 16 page A4 and is brimming with new books to delight and surprise. Highlights this year include more reading books in the Dark Man series, Dark Man software, a reissue of the Zone 13 books by David Orme (originally published over ten years [...]
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Just a quickie: there’s a nice piece in the UK’s Yorkshire Post by author Susan Elkin: How to get them hooked on books. You can read it here. As you’d expect, it’s full of common sense. “Every parent is a teacher and every teacher is a teacher of reading. And developing reading – or “Unlocking [...]
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All twelve Boffin Boy reading books and the first twelve Dark Man reading books (that’s Sets One and Two) will be available for purchase on the Sony Playstation comics store from 27th October (2010). The price will be £1.19 each. Because there’s so many books, Sony have decided to release three books from each series [...]
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Dark Man and Boffin Boy are coming to the Sony Playstation
Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 by Stephen Rickard.
Exciting news! We’ve just reached an agreement to have our Dark Man and Boffin Boy reading books made available as ‘comics’ on the Sony Playstation comics store (http://uk.playstationcomics.com/main.html). Children will be able to purchase the comics online and download a copy to their Playstation to read. The comics are displayed using an “app” that is [...]
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OK, not really a blog post. But it seems as good a place as any to mention it. We’ve just produced audiobook versions of eleven of our Trailblazers books. (Those are the high-low books for reluctant and struggling readers, featuring both non-fiction and fiction in the same book.) Audiobook versions are now available for Comets, [...]
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The UK government has announced that thousands of UK schools are to have the opportunity to opt out of local authority control and become academies. Education secretary Michael Gove is writing to all primary and secondary schools in England with this very invitation. Here’s the BBC’s take on it. Is this a good thing? Should we [...]
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You probably know Ransom best for publishing engaging high interest-age, low reading-age books for children and young adults who don’t tend to take to books in the way that ducks take to rivers. (You know what I mean.) So it’s good news then that we have a new series of books designed not for kids [...]
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