HATRIQA adapts Jamie Johnson series for English language learners

September 23, 2023 Tim Gentles

Dan Freedman’s hugely popular Jamie Johnson series is taking on a new life, being adapted for English language learners by the team at HATRIQA.

Modelled on a proven ‘graded reader’ format, HATRIQA Readers are short football-themed books that are specially written with the language learner in mind. Written in simplified English, they are graded to the appropriate language level of each individual learner, so that students find them quick and easy to read.

HATRIQA’s editorial team combines years of experience with some of the leading educational publishers in the world and they have worked closely with Dan, working hand in hand to adapt the original texts and stay true to Dan’s wonderful stories, while working closely with renowned illustrator Gavin Reece who has brought the series to life visually.

The results are very impressive.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about the graded readers because they are exactly what I know I would have loved and what I know kids are going to love reading. So short, which is key when your reluctant reader I know. They look and feel beautiful, they feel like something really high-quality, something exciting. We talk about judging a book by its cover just the way it looks on the front cover immediately makes me want to open it and then you just have this beauty of, hopefully a good story, you know that's that's my part. But I've got to say that the illustrations are just magical. They are so engaging and they tell the story by themselves, so if you're trying to learn a language and you're missing some of the words you can even just look at the story and read it through the pictures first, but then as you go and you hopefully pick up the words along the way - the combination of the two. I just think they're they're magic and so appealing to pick up, very cool and I just I know they're a winner. I've been saying it since since the moment I first saw them. So, they're going be so fun to read, very cool, very sticky. Once you read one you're going to want to read the next and you have this feeling of achievement of having read a book. Which for a lot of people, you know we find it difficult when we're younger and you're going to be picking up the language along the way and some life lessons so these readers are magnificent and I can't wait for people to get them in their hands.

Dan Freedman