From: rmccutchan at caruspub.com <rmccutchan>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 16:40:46 -0600

I found Shauna Sandberg's dilemma as a children's librarian interesting. It got me thinking of three books on a favorite subject, namely castles:

CASTLE, David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin) STEPHEN BIESTY'S CROSS-SECTIONS: CASTLE, Richard Platt, ill. by Stephen Biesty (Dorling-Kindersley--I think this may be out-of-print) CASTLE DIARY: THE JOURNAL OF TOBIAS BURGESS, Richard Platt, ill. by Chris Riddell (Candlewick Press)

All three are oversized, in picture-book format. All three use a fictional premise to give life to their topic. David MacAulay, of course, is an author who has been re-visioning the genre of children's nonfiction since the beginning of his career. I find the Biesty and Riddell books an interesting contrast, given their shared author (the one being the Dorling Kindersley format, with sidebars and a more toy-like/game-like organization; the other being pretty much historical fiction, but organized along non-fiction principles to showcase medieval daily life?using much the same organization as the Biesty book). In fact, I think the two Platt titles could almost work hand in hand for a study unit.

These types of books have their counterparts in the adult section: the coffeetable, Time-Life sorts of books (though fewer of these are being published nowadays, I think). They share high-interest subjects, an emphasis on illustration (along with photography), and a larger trim-size.

Ron McCutchan Senior art director CRICKET magazine
Received on Wed 03 Apr 2002 04:40:46 PM CST