Lyn Wendon, founder of phonics publishing program Letterland, died September 13. She was 98. The Bookseller reported that Wendon's creation was a "pictogram-based phonics teaching system featuring characters including Annie Apple, Bouncy Ben, and Clever Cat who lived inside their letters and explained letter shapes and sounds in child-friendly ways. The program grew from her tutoring a handful of struggling young readers at her kitchen table in Cambridge before she developed it into an early-reading program."
Wendon wrote and illustrated the earliest materials, publishing her first Pictogram System manual in 1968, and built sales by word-of-mouth among teachers, with no sales force and no advertising. The Letterland ABC (1985) by children's book packager Templar and illustrated by Jane Launchbury became a U.K. bestseller and has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
In 1995, Wendon and her husband, John Wendon, founded Letterland International Ltd. after granting a U.K. publishing license to HarperCollins that ran from 1995 to 2003. Letterland products have since been sold to schools in more than 100 countries, the Bookseller noted. Wendon remained involved in developing new material into her 90s. The company is now run by her son, Mark Wendon, and two of her grandsons.
Robert Snuggs, managing director at Bounce Sales and Marketing, said: "Bounce started representing Letterland in 2008, 40 years after Lyn first developed the first Letterland characters and titles. While at that stage she was no longer managing the business, Lyn was still very much involved and keen to share her expertise and passion for helping children to learn to read, and always with the sense of fun which was the trademark of Letterland.
"Through her imagination and skill as a brilliant teacher and author, Lyn changed millions of children's lives, not just in the U.K. but across the world, where she inspired new generations of teachers as well as readers, a legacy very few could even attempt to match. There are very few truly great pioneers in publishing and education, and Lyn was without doubt one of them."
Catherine Stokes, U.K. and export sales and marketing director at Nosy Crow, commented: "Lyn's passion for enabling (and enthusing) children to read was infectious, extraordinary and pioneering. She is, due in large part to her own modesty, an unsung hero of recent primary education across the world."