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question for all of you who review, or teach, NF
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From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:22:35 -0400 (EDT)
I have a last question for all of you who review NF or teach it: why is it that you review our middle grade and YA books as if they were merely text? Every one of you knows that in a 32 page picture book you have to look at t he interplay of art, text, and design -- paying attention to the all import ant page turn. Yet when you evaluate NF the most we ever read is that the b ook has X b/w or color images -- a notation on par with listing backmatter. In its first years, the Sibert committee realized that it could not just l ook at text -- it had to consider image and design, and veterans of Orbis P ictus and other NF award groups have told me that were just as attentive to the interplay of text and image. And while your reviews of fantasy novels always credit authors with "world building" I have yet to see a single NF r eview that credits the author with "world evocation" -- the way in which th e images we find, and we place in the text, immerse readers in a different time and place. We try to make our books into museum displays, dioramas in which words and images work together with page turns to bring readers into the world we have come to know. We also find and place images as a kind of gift to reader, a grace, a sweetness, in our books. And then you ignore the m. Why?
Marc Aronson
Received on Sat 31 Mar 2012 10:22:35 AM CDT
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:22:35 -0400 (EDT)
I have a last question for all of you who review NF or teach it: why is it that you review our middle grade and YA books as if they were merely text? Every one of you knows that in a 32 page picture book you have to look at t he interplay of art, text, and design -- paying attention to the all import ant page turn. Yet when you evaluate NF the most we ever read is that the b ook has X b/w or color images -- a notation on par with listing backmatter. In its first years, the Sibert committee realized that it could not just l ook at text -- it had to consider image and design, and veterans of Orbis P ictus and other NF award groups have told me that were just as attentive to the interplay of text and image. And while your reviews of fantasy novels always credit authors with "world building" I have yet to see a single NF r eview that credits the author with "world evocation" -- the way in which th e images we find, and we place in the text, immerse readers in a different time and place. We try to make our books into museum displays, dioramas in which words and images work together with page turns to bring readers into the world we have come to know. We also find and place images as a kind of gift to reader, a grace, a sweetness, in our books. And then you ignore the m. Why?
Marc Aronson
Received on Sat 31 Mar 2012 10:22:35 AM CDT
