Blue Lake Children's Publishing
Blue Lake Children's Publishing was started by a small group of friends who were looking for a way to bring the excitement of reading to very young kids. Our co-founders, Judy MacDonald Johnston and Rosie Welch, believed that to build the best foundation for reading, children needed fun first experiences with printed material.
What does Blue Lake do?
We design and publish The Tessy & Tab
Reading Club, a magazine for preschoolers that comes in the
mail twice a month. Our belief is that children can "read"
pictures much earlier than they learn to read words. By giving them
their own magazine, designed in a picture book format, The Tessy &
Tab Reading Club lets young children "read" to their parents and
others. The experience of reading the story themselves, along with
the positive feedback they receive from their parents, is the key to
self-confidence in reading.
We think that this self-confidence is the start of a lifelong love
of reading.
The History of Blue Lake Children's Publishing
In 1990, Judy & Rosie first tested the idea of a magazine for
preschoolers. Judy was working for Hewlett Packard and volunteering
nights at the Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
She quickly noticed that very young kids were already spending lots
of time watching the television, which was usually mounted in a
corner and rarely turned off. The more she interacted with the kids,
the more she wondered about how they were getting hooked on TV. Then
it dawned on her: what they liked about TV was that they could "do
it themselves." It was entertainment that did not require anyone
else to show them how to do it.
So why not create a reading experience that young children
could "do themselves"? Stories written in pictures could show
preschoolers that they could "read" stories themselves. With that
realization, their reading confidence will soar and they will
continue to "read" those picture stories-even if there was no one else
around.
This idea evolved into a picture story "magazine" arriving by
mail that would be fun for children and make it easy for parents to
provide fresh yet familiar reading materials for their preschoolers.
The magazine would have a "story" based on things little kids like
to do, plus four activity pages in each issue.
We are thrilled to
bring The Tessy & Tab Reading Club to preschoolers and their families. It's a great way to help your preschooler get ready to read!