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[CCBC-Net] Get on Board!
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:45:54 -0500
It's time to turn our attention on CCBC-Net to our topic for the second part of September: Get on Board: Original Board Books.
During the late 1990s and early part of the twenty-first century, it seemed that many of the board books published for young children were board editions of previously published picture books, some of which did not make the transition to the different format gracefully. Board editions required that both text and art be abridged. A CCBC colleague and I once did a side-by-side comparison of the original and board book editions of the same book during a presentation, reading first from the original text, and then from the board book text. The outline of the story was still there, but the rich language of the original had been largely eliminated, along with much of the art, in order to fit the
"story" into the board book edition.
In more recent years, however, we?ve been delighted by new, original board books we've seen coming into the CCBC--books that are firmly grounded in an understanding of the board book's ideal audience --babies and young toddlers. Some of our recent favorites include Baby's Day and Let's Play, both by Michael Blake (Candlewick); Global Babies by the Global Fund for Children (Charlesbridge); Baby! Baby! by Vicky Ceelen
(Random House) and Baby Happy, Baby Sad and No No, Yes Yes, both by Leslie Patricelli (Candelwick). It's felt like a new heyday for board books, harkening back to the years when Lucy Cousins, Tana Hoban, Helen Oxenbury and others were creating what seems now like an abundance of books with wide youngest-child appeal.
What are some of your favorite board books--both new and old? Are there board editions of previously published books that you find particulary successful? And what is it that makes a successful board book an outstanding example of the format?
Megan
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:45:54 -0500
It's time to turn our attention on CCBC-Net to our topic for the second part of September: Get on Board: Original Board Books.
During the late 1990s and early part of the twenty-first century, it seemed that many of the board books published for young children were board editions of previously published picture books, some of which did not make the transition to the different format gracefully. Board editions required that both text and art be abridged. A CCBC colleague and I once did a side-by-side comparison of the original and board book editions of the same book during a presentation, reading first from the original text, and then from the board book text. The outline of the story was still there, but the rich language of the original had been largely eliminated, along with much of the art, in order to fit the
"story" into the board book edition.
In more recent years, however, we?ve been delighted by new, original board books we've seen coming into the CCBC--books that are firmly grounded in an understanding of the board book's ideal audience --babies and young toddlers. Some of our recent favorites include Baby's Day and Let's Play, both by Michael Blake (Candlewick); Global Babies by the Global Fund for Children (Charlesbridge); Baby! Baby! by Vicky Ceelen
(Random House) and Baby Happy, Baby Sad and No No, Yes Yes, both by Leslie Patricelli (Candelwick). It's felt like a new heyday for board books, harkening back to the years when Lucy Cousins, Tana Hoban, Helen Oxenbury and others were creating what seems now like an abundance of books with wide youngest-child appeal.
What are some of your favorite board books--both new and old? Are there board editions of previously published books that you find particulary successful? And what is it that makes a successful board book an outstanding example of the format?
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 608/262-9503 schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Received on Fri 19 Sep 2008 11:45:54 AM CDT
