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Re: reviewing
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From: Jonathan_at_Balona.com
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:04:57 -0800
On Nov 15, 2009, at 11:20 AM, Dean Schneider wrote: Dean Schneider said |||...when reviewers go about their craft professionally-- with respect towards books and their makers--the whole world of children's literature benefits... |||
Well said!
The only review in a major journal that I have ever downright disdained was for one of our YA offerings submitted to one of the big review journals whose reviewer seems to have had a terrible personal problem revived by the opening scene in the book 1) that appears to have kept the reviewer from finishing the book and 2) had such a powerful personal effect that the reviewer had only a list of extraordinarily negative things to say about the book. Fortunately, that same book was favorably reviewed in SLJ, et al., and has sold more than a thousand copies (big deal for a small house) and stimulated lots of emailed commentary, most of it favorable.
I believe that when a reviewer has a pronounced emotional reaction to a story element (e.g., incest, mixed race, abortion, murder, bullying, personal physical attack, war experience, etc.) and finds it impossible to create an objective review, the reviewer should ask the journal for a different "opportunity."
As a reviewer myself for a major journal with a 175-word limit, I agree with others on this list that it takes considerable time, thought, patience, some generosity of spirit, and experience with the written word to find the right words to communicate what librarians and the general public deserve to know about a book.
Jonathan (Publisher, BalonaBooks)
Received on Sun 15 Nov 2009 02:04:57 PM CST
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:04:57 -0800
On Nov 15, 2009, at 11:20 AM, Dean Schneider wrote: Dean Schneider said |||...when reviewers go about their craft professionally-- with respect towards books and their makers--the whole world of children's literature benefits... |||
Well said!
The only review in a major journal that I have ever downright disdained was for one of our YA offerings submitted to one of the big review journals whose reviewer seems to have had a terrible personal problem revived by the opening scene in the book 1) that appears to have kept the reviewer from finishing the book and 2) had such a powerful personal effect that the reviewer had only a list of extraordinarily negative things to say about the book. Fortunately, that same book was favorably reviewed in SLJ, et al., and has sold more than a thousand copies (big deal for a small house) and stimulated lots of emailed commentary, most of it favorable.
I believe that when a reviewer has a pronounced emotional reaction to a story element (e.g., incest, mixed race, abortion, murder, bullying, personal physical attack, war experience, etc.) and finds it impossible to create an objective review, the reviewer should ask the journal for a different "opportunity."
As a reviewer myself for a major journal with a 175-word limit, I agree with others on this list that it takes considerable time, thought, patience, some generosity of spirit, and experience with the written word to find the right words to communicate what librarians and the general public deserve to know about a book.
Jonathan (Publisher, BalonaBooks)
Received on Sun 15 Nov 2009 02:04:57 PM CST
