Design Discussions with Heidi Kilgras, Editorial Director at Random House Children’s Books

Hi there,

Heidi Kilgras - photo courtesy of Heidi

For this month’s Design Discussion I interviewed Heidi Kilgras, Editorial Director at Random House Children’s Books. Heidi’s also been running Random House’s Step into Reading line for over 20 years.

Heidi provided insight into design elements that are standard across all Step into Reading books. The font is the same across all levels, or “Steps”. Within each step, there are specific guidelines for font size, leading (the space between lines of text), word spacing, and margins. Adhering as much as possible to strict word count ranges for each Step is also important to ensure that the reading experience from book to book within a level is similar. Spot art is utilized in most Step into Reading titles, “Particularly for the youngest Steps, you don’t want text printing on top of art and creating confusion or an impediment to the important work of decoding.” Heidi wants the art to support the pacing of the text and create breathing room and natural pauses for readers.

 For the very earliest of readers, she specifically looks for stories that take place in real time. No flash-backs or -forwards, dream sequences, or major subtext. The art must mirror what’s happening in the text. She notes, “To some writers, this might feel like a limitation, but within these boundaries, you can really play and build text that reads aloud well and aids comprehension. Write visually!”


Image from Time for School, Little Dinosaur
by Gail Herman, illus. by Michael Fleming

Heidi told me that getting suitable submissions can be challenging, “Some writers are tricked by the simplicity of leveled readers and think they must be easy to write.” She often manuscripts that may seem like easy-to-read text, but upon closer scrutiny, don’t measure up to the Step into Reading standards. What does she look for? Text that creates a visual narrative that allows for the art and text to have interplay. “Art must directly reflect the text, serving as a visual cue to the reader working to decode the text. If the text says, ‘the cow tipped his hat,’ there had better be a cow on that page doing just that!”

I’ve become very curious about the relationship between author, illustrator, and editor in the process of creating a beginning reader. Random House provides writers with guidelines that discuss suggested word count ranges, sentence length, number of lines per page, and page length for each Step. Adhering to these guidelines allows consistency across books in the same Step, and ensures there will be enough room for art. Writers are also given information about the vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, and syntax appropriate for each level. Heidi gave me the following example, “it’s ideal for Step 1 books to have rhyme, rhythm, and repetition; lots of monosyllabic words are best (e.g., consonant-vowel-consonant); and, please, no independent clauses, run-ons, or contractions.” However, Heidi points out, “We do not provide sight word list at all; they ran counter to the thinking of the late, great publishing maven Janet Schulman, who created Step into Reading in 1984.”




Image from Go, Go, Trucks! by Jennifer Liberts, illus. by Mike Yamada

Heidi often works with writers who are not illustrators. So design discussions with illustrators cover very specific art notes about what should be depicted on the page to align with the text. “Unlike picture books, there shouldn’t be a separate visual narrative running through the background—the art should directly reflect the text. If the reader is struggling to decode the text, they should be able to look at the art and ‘read it.’”


White space is an important design element, and “both illustrators and designers come up with innovative solutions to scaffold the text while providing pleasing, fresh, playful, and surprising illustrations.” Ultimately, it’s that interplay between art and text that Heidi strives to cultivate. “We want the whole package to be integrated and seem simple and organic; when that happens, we know we’ve done our jobs well!”


I have a few pet peeves when it comes to beginning readers (those pesky page breaks!). What’s Heidi’s? Too much dialogue! “Some submissions have no visual narrative to the writing, and the illustrations would basically have to depict two characters talking throughout the book. As clever as the dialogue may be, if nothing happens, it’s going to be a very boring book, visually!” She’s also tired of all the “episodic/chapter buddy book” manuscripts that come across her desk, “People feel the need to keep trying to recreate Frog and Toad, I guess!”

When asked about her favorite beginning readers, Heidi narrowed it down to a couple stand outs. Molly Coxe’s Step 1 readers, such as Big Egg and Hot Dog, “are really wonderful...and successful.” Heidi’s heard so many personal stories about how Coxe’s books helped kids unlock the mystery of reading. She also really loves Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill by the late Martha Weston who “skillfully wrote a 150-word reader using only 28 distinct words. The text matches the art, but there is a variety to what is happening on the page that keeps the story lively.” (2018 brings a sequel, Jack and Jill and T-Ball Bill, written by Terry Piece and illustrated by Sue DiCicco with the blessing of Weston’s estate.) Last, but not least, she’s always loved Cynthia Rylant and Arthur Howard’s Mr. Putter and Tabby books, “The personalities! The line work! Just delicious.”

Overall, Heidi says that most important quality of a beginning reader, no matter the level or line/series, is that it creates a successful reading experience. “We want our books to be decodable, fun, and most of all, to support burgeoning reading skills. We want nearly instant gratification, or at least by the end, we hope the kid will put down the book and proudly say, “I read that!” Excitement and success beget more excitement and greater success. The more excitement emergent readers feel, the more likely they are to stretch themselves in terms of level. That’s why we provide such a wide array of topics in Step into Reading. Leveled readers are a gateway drug to chapter books and novels! The end goal is to instill a love of reading.”