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Book jacket art & design: Hostage to War + The Robber and Me
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 11:09:41 -0600
Brenda, thanks for telling us about your decision to retain the jacket photograph of Tatjana on your edition of Hostage to War (U.S. edition: Scholastic, 1997).
Hostage to War is one of the books singled out as an Honor Book through the Batchelder process, and it's an important autobiographical account of a Russian girl's experience during World War Two. We thank you for publishing it.
As an adult, I agree with Brenda's decision about the jacket art for Hostage to War. I think our colleagues at Henry Holt also made a wise decision concerning the jacket for The Robber and Me. These two books differ greatly. All book jackets and titles cause distinct first impressions for individuals of differing ages and reading preferences, and these are no exception. (See the American Library Association website - click on divisions, then click on Association for Library Service to Children or ALSC or awards to look at the jackets - if you aren't familiar with the Batchelder Award winner and Honor Books.) Even if you haven't read The Robber and Me or Hostage to War, have any of you witnessed kids' responses merely to seeing either of these two books? How about it? Are these particular book jackets effective with kids?
And, if you have responses from young readers who've read either book, we certainly hope to hear from you, too... Meanwhile, we'll appreciate hearing more from Marc - and from Brenda, too. ...Ginny
********************************************* Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Eduction University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA
Just a parenthetical response to Ginny Moore Kruse's comments about taking on books in translation: When we were putting together HOSTAGE TO WAR about a year and a half ago, the jacket was considered far "too quiet" by some of our colleagues here at Scholastic. Anne Dunn (the book's editor) and I, along with the art director, very much wanted to keep the jacket image of Tatjana (the author of this autobiographical book), and not gussy her up by "reinterpreting" her image in a more contemporary, accessible style. We also felt that the geometrical,
"constuctivist" design evoked the period successfully. We feel quite vindicated that the Batchelder committee recognized the book!
It's interesting that both HOSTAGE TO WAR and THE ROBBER AND ME were published in Germany by Beltz und Gelberg, a small, independent publisher in the south of Germany. Beltz is known for its outstanding literary quality. HOSTAGE was first published in Russian; then picked up by Beltz in Germany, translated for a UK edition, and then edited for the US edition. With the permission of the author, we replaced the historical notes that interrupted the narrative in the original edition with a general historical note in the backmatter of the US edition. However, re Marc's observation, we did not "smooth out" her writing; we tried to retain the sound of her own voice. (Since we had no Russian edition to work from, we used an in-house German speaker to compare the translation to the German edition. We trusted that that Beltz's translation was true to the original because of the high standards of Beltz's editorial program.)
Brenda Bowen Scholastic Press
Received on Fri 06 Mar 1998 11:09:41 AM CST
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 1998 11:09:41 -0600
Brenda, thanks for telling us about your decision to retain the jacket photograph of Tatjana on your edition of Hostage to War (U.S. edition: Scholastic, 1997).
Hostage to War is one of the books singled out as an Honor Book through the Batchelder process, and it's an important autobiographical account of a Russian girl's experience during World War Two. We thank you for publishing it.
As an adult, I agree with Brenda's decision about the jacket art for Hostage to War. I think our colleagues at Henry Holt also made a wise decision concerning the jacket for The Robber and Me. These two books differ greatly. All book jackets and titles cause distinct first impressions for individuals of differing ages and reading preferences, and these are no exception. (See the American Library Association website - click on divisions, then click on Association for Library Service to Children or ALSC or awards to look at the jackets - if you aren't familiar with the Batchelder Award winner and Honor Books.) Even if you haven't read The Robber and Me or Hostage to War, have any of you witnessed kids' responses merely to seeing either of these two books? How about it? Are these particular book jackets effective with kids?
And, if you have responses from young readers who've read either book, we certainly hope to hear from you, too... Meanwhile, we'll appreciate hearing more from Marc - and from Brenda, too. ...Ginny
********************************************* Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Eduction University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA
Just a parenthetical response to Ginny Moore Kruse's comments about taking on books in translation: When we were putting together HOSTAGE TO WAR about a year and a half ago, the jacket was considered far "too quiet" by some of our colleagues here at Scholastic. Anne Dunn (the book's editor) and I, along with the art director, very much wanted to keep the jacket image of Tatjana (the author of this autobiographical book), and not gussy her up by "reinterpreting" her image in a more contemporary, accessible style. We also felt that the geometrical,
"constuctivist" design evoked the period successfully. We feel quite vindicated that the Batchelder committee recognized the book!
It's interesting that both HOSTAGE TO WAR and THE ROBBER AND ME were published in Germany by Beltz und Gelberg, a small, independent publisher in the south of Germany. Beltz is known for its outstanding literary quality. HOSTAGE was first published in Russian; then picked up by Beltz in Germany, translated for a UK edition, and then edited for the US edition. With the permission of the author, we replaced the historical notes that interrupted the narrative in the original edition with a general historical note in the backmatter of the US edition. However, re Marc's observation, we did not "smooth out" her writing; we tried to retain the sound of her own voice. (Since we had no Russian edition to work from, we used an in-house German speaker to compare the translation to the German edition. We trusted that that Beltz's translation was true to the original because of the high standards of Beltz's editorial program.)
Brenda Bowen Scholastic Press
Received on Fri 06 Mar 1998 11:09:41 AM CST
