Stop! and Read
By Tiffany Hoffman
Highlights® Art Director Cynthia Faber Smith intends to have an exploding star, a milk jug, and desert sand stop kids in their tracks in the July issue of the magazine.
"The 'stop factor' can be the entire design, color use, the title, illustration, or photos," Smith says. "It's anything on the page that gets the readers' attention and invites them into the story."
As Smith works with the editors and illustrators to present the stories in the best format possible, she thinks of an intersection. Instead of having the reader speed through the intersection while reading content, Smith tries to provide a "stop factor."
"What happens on the printed page takes a great deal of work by the writer, editors, art director, and illustrator to help make that intersection between the content and the reader successful," she says.
When readers open to page 5 in the July issue, a young boy's bright eyes seem to jump out from the page as he marches toward the reader with an American flag.
On pages 16 and 17, steps for making a spoon instrument pull in the readers. "When seeing this, the reader automatically understands there are four steps that will teach him something," Smith says. "It's a how-to. It's extra information at a glance. Readers can glean information from captions or graphic treatments before they read the story."
In "Copycat Elephants" on pages 12 and 13, readers are drawn to a photo of African elephants with a speech balloon saying,"Chirp, chirp, chirp!" At the upper right are Asian elephants with a speech balloon saying, "Hey, are you copying us?" From that limited text with photos, the reader can infer that elephants might imitate sounds.
The chirping elephants, the image of the exploding star, the photo of a milk jug used to make bridges, and the picture showing the heat of a horse race in the Mongolian desert are unusual, interesting, and fun.
This will help the reader remember the story well after he or she has read it.
"The topics are so varied that I can't approach anything the same way," Smith says. "I try to make each page as unique and inviting as possible for the reader."
And the more pages readers stop at, the more they will read and learn.