From: jomalley at caruspub.com <jomalley>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 16:37:44 -0600

I appreciated Maia's questions about the necessity of considering authenticity in terms of picture-book and magazine illustrations, as well as text. In both formats, the images must extend and enhance the words, but in the case of the nonfiction magazine and books I am now working with at Carus Publishing, I am very aware that the visual presentation--layout, art, photos--must also suit the tone and mood of the subject while supplying additional information. It becomes an ongoing challenge to create visual texture and variety while providing an authentic representation of the culture, heritage, artistic sensibility, scientific discovery, or historical period being presented. This means that, just an an author and an illustrator must thoroughly know and understand not just facts and details, but also the context of the subject about which they are writing or of the text they are illustrating, so must the editor and art director thoroughly immerse themselves in that context in order to make choices that are not only accurate, but authentic in mood, tone, and nuance.

For this reason, I am pleased that most of the contributors to the new nonfiction magazine I will be creating for children 7 to 10 will be creators of children's books whose thorough research for the text and art in the fiction and nonfiction books they have done will engage and excite children about the world around them and encourage young readers to move from short nonfiction articles to books in all genres. I believe that, even given the tighter time frame of magazine publishing, it is the editor's responsibility to choose carefully the voices--and the images--that inform the ideas presented. Authentic writing and llustration depend on thorough understanding of whatever topic is being treated in books, articles, Web sites or any other medium for children.

Judy O'Malley Carus Publishing
Received on Mon 05 Feb 2001 04:37:44 PM CST