From: John Peters <cf071>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 09:06:30 -0400 (EDT)

Odds and ends:

As I understand it, the editors at Kirkus "pointer" books they consider to be important. That doesn't mean that the books are first rate, though they almost always are. Once, after a heated discussion about Kalman's CHICKEN SOUP, BOOTS (which I still consider a masterpiece of literature for young people) in a NYPL book committee, a wise head pointed out that any book that could excite such strong reactions on both sides deserved a place in the collection for that reason. Not every book needs to do that, but it's good to keep a few around that aren't easy to evaluate.

On a possibly related thread, I would like to encourage reviewers (well, you all probably already do this, but just in case...) to include page numbers in your draft reviews for every important observation, most especially the negative ones--review editors always take them out, but at least you know that they know where you're coming from, AND, should anyone ever question your position, you can reconstruct the reasons for it quickly.

Cheers,

John Peters New York Public Library cf071 at freenet.buffalo.edu

*My esteemed institution asserts its right to differ*
Received on Sat 19 Sep 1998 08:06:30 AM CDT