From: Norma Jean <nsawicki>
Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 14:48:50 -0500

Years ago, I had the good fortune to publish Seymour Simon and Pat Lauber. Seymour came my way via his agent, and Seymour sent Pat my way. At the time, both were writing science books for older kids. In separate meetings with both, I said I was "stupid" in science and wanted publish to publish science books for young children...figuring if I could understand the material, kids could too. One day, after working with Seymour on several books...Animal Fact/Animal Fable; his photo essays about the solar system...The Moon, etc. among others, he was seated next to me in my office while we went over my notes about a manuscript. Having said, " I do not understand," once too often, Seymour turned to me and said..." You really are stupid in science," and we laughed.

Having published Pat Lauber's Journey to the Planets, Seeing Earth from Space, Seeds: Pop Stick Glide, Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens ( a Newbery Honor Book), among others, Pat wrote a book for an older audience in which the science was difficult for me to comprehend. To make it entirely understandable, it would have been a book for a younger audience, and not the book Pat wanted/intended to write. We decided I would trust her on the "hard core science" and concentrate on the manuscript in other ways...it was clearly the right way to go.

I am not suggesting an editor must be stupid in science to publish terrific books in that genre for young kids but sometimes knowing one's limitations, as well as working with skilled writers can be a pleasure and a learning curve for editors. One of the reasons the old adage...terrific writers make great editors, not the reverse.... has been around for so long. Norma Jean
Received on Tue 05 Jul 2005 02:48:50 PM CDT