From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 14:32:12 -0600

Here's a very helpful message to everyone in the CCBC-Net community from Cindy Kane, Editorial Director, Dial Books for Young Readers.

We thank you, Cindy, for taking the time to share the background story of how "Thanks to My Mother" was discovered and translated, along with helping us to realize some of the many editorial conversations and decisions in which you were involved while working to bring this fine book to English language readers in North America.

If anyone has questions for Jill Davis (Viking editor of "Secret Letters from 0 to 10") or Cindy Kane, you are welcome to send your questions to CCBC-Net. ...Ginny Dear Ginny:

Thank you for the invitation via Susan Hawk to tell the CCBC-Net group more about THANKS TO MY MOTHER. I'd been following the discussions on the award books with great interest, so it was nice to be asked to speak up! THANKS TO MY MOTHER was a huge labor of love for everyone involved on the Dial end, so the Batchelder Award was particularly meaningful to us.

Phyllis Fogelman, who now heads her own imprint at Dial and was previously President and Publisher, learned about the German book DANK MEINER MUTTER from the publisher, Abraham Teuter of Alibaba Verlag, and asked for a reading copy of the German edition. The book was originally published in Hebrew by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. It was Schoschana Rabinovici's husband, David, who wanted the book to have a wider audience and contacted German author and translator Mirjam Pressler, who agreed to work with Schoschana on the book.

Our German reader, James Skofield, did the first reading on DANK MEINER MUTTER and sent it back to me with a three-page review that said, among other things: "Rabinovici's book is just as harrowing as you can possibly imagine, but possessed of a truly fine eye and ear and a courage which broke my heart. It is quite extraordinary-not only for the horrific historical details it sets forth, but also for the exceptionally observant portrait the author manages to write of herself at an early age. It retains its childlike concerns throughout-the wonder is that the author could have emerged from such ordeals with her heart and soul intact."

Phyllis asked a German-speaking colleague in our marketing department to do a second reading, and she confirmed Jim Skofield's comments: "A very powerful story, beautifully written through the child's eye." On the strength of these reports, we signed up the book and I asked Jim, whom I had published at Macmillan, to do the translation. (I was executive editor of Dial at the time.)

Jim and I checked in with each other occasionally as he worked on the translation, and I knew he found the process both difficult and rewarding. He told me that after translating the section on p. 150 of the Dial edition-- where Susie talks about visiting the clothing depot with her mother and pretending she is a princess "walking among her treasures," the prisoners' confiscated possessions-he broke down and sobbed. He finished the translation at about 5:00 one evening and, he later told me, went to bed and slept until the next day. But I still wasn't prepared for the visceral impact of the story until I began to read and edit Jim's translation. The scenes of violence against children were particularly disturbing to me; at one point I propped the pictures of my children in front of me on my desk and looked up at them from time to time for reassurance.

Knowing from Abraham Teuter that Schoschana Rabinovici spoke English, I planned to show the translation to her and took the opportunity to give her a copy of the manuscript when she and her husband visited New York in June of '97. She read the manuscript with great care, and some of her excellent changes included the use of the word "kapo" for the blockhouse supervisors (Jim's translation had suggested "blockhouse commander," but Schoschana pointed out that a "commander" was always a German officer) and the use of "Out! Out!" on p. 101 so the Germans' commands would echo the sound of the barking dogs in lines two and three. Jim had provided two versions of the poem on p. 99; one took some liberties with the word-for-word meaning of the poem, but preserved the rhyme scheme of the original; the other was a more literal, non-rhyming translation. His note to me said, "I have reasoned thusly: when a poet as young as Susie Weksler attempts a rhymed poem such as this one, it's a pretty difficult and significant accomplishment; I felt it important to try to honor and preserve her original rhyme scheme....I, myself, would opt for the rhymed version, but this isn't a choice I wish to make for you or for Ms. Rabinovici." Like Jim, Schoschana preferred the rhymed version that appears in the book.

I've been in touch with the Rabinovicis throughout the publishing process, and they are thrilled that the book received the Batchelder Award. In fact, I believe the award played a small role in the Yad Vashem's recent decision to reprint the Hebrew language edition.

I hope this is useful to the group. Thanks again for the opportunity to contribute.

Cindy Kane Editorial Director Dial Books for Young Readers
Received on Thu 18 Mar 1999 02:32:12 PM CST