From: LeonardSMa at aol.com <LeonardSMa>
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 11:55:58 EDT

I think the answer to Ruth Katcher's question is yes. When I interviewed Connie Epstein, who edited the first Ramona books at Morrow, she recalled that both she and Beverly Cleary were concerned about the question of how to interest readers in a protagonist younger than themselves. The unwritten rule at the time among editors was that this couldn't work. Cleary, however, eventually realized that humor was the key--that children would be happy to read about a younger character whom they could think of, at least part of the time, as being comic. As a result of this experience, when Epstein later received Johanna Hurwitz's manuscript for Busybody Nora, she was prepared to recognize its potential. Leonard Marcus
                                                                             Leonardsma at aol.com
Received on Fri 11 Aug 2000 10:55:58 AM CDT