Marvel Entertainment has signed an agreement with HarperCollins Children’s Books to launch a children’s reading program featuring Spider-Man in a series of books that will extend across every major reading category for children.  Ruwan Jayatilleke, Marvel’s Vice President of Devlopment, told ICv2 that this all-encompassing children’s reading program will include a number of different formats for all age groups, including story books, readers, chapter books, a phonics box and novelty gatefold.

The initial line of titles will be available to booksellers and direct market retailers via HarperCollins starting in the fall of 2008.  In recent years HarperCollins has released a wide range of volumes based on all three of the Spider-Man movies including "I Can Read" books, so using Spider-Man in a series of books designed to make reading fun and easy for kids is a natural progression.  HarperCollins Children’s Book will be responsible for producing the volumes, which will quickly become a major publishing initiative with numerous books issued every year across the various formats and categories.