Canadian author and publisher Paul Kropp, who wrote more than 70 books, co-founded High Interest Publishing and "will be remembered by the generations of reluctant readers whose lives he touched with his books," died August 22, the Toronto Globe & Mail reported. He was 67.
In a tribute on her blog, author Sandra Gulland wrote: "He was/is--oh, these painful past tenses!--so very dear to my heart, someone I worked closely with for decades. He was the creator and primary author of Series Canada and Series 2000, more popularly known then as 'the Paul Kropp' books.
"The books were 'High/Low'--High Interest, Low Vocabulary--aimed to lure reluctant teen readers into the magical realm of fiction. (And succeeded.) I was the free-lance editor hired by the publisher to make it happen. This was 1978... I learned so much from him."
