End-o'-the-Week(end) Kid-Lit Roundup
In this week's roundup, I'm filling in for Paul as we go back to the UK for more controversy and demonstrate our uber-Ameri-sentimentality about Lady Liberty and something all kids love--play!
No naughtiness at Random House
On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Random House was removing the word "twat" from Jacqueline Wilson's boarding school book for 10+ year-olds, My Sister Jodie. Because of three complaints, the publisher and author have decided on a less offensive replacement:
"The word 'twat' was used in context. It was meant to be a nasty word on purpose, because this is a nasty character," said a spokesperson for Random House. "However, Jacqueline doesn't want to offend her readers or her readers' parents, so when the book comes to be reprinted the word will be replaced with twit."
Amazon.uk has a charming video of Wilson talking about the book. Could this lady possibly be offensive? Please!
This comes on the heels of Sian Pattenden's report earlier this month that Random House was adding a "morality clause" to their author's contracts. (reported by Cory Doctorow in BoingBoing last week)
Even Americans aren't this gooey
I still haven't seen Meghan McCain's picture book, My Dad, John McCain, but these words from Derek Draper in the Guardian don't necessarily inspire me to pick it up:
It's easy for us Brits to assume that such sentimental spin will backfire but, having lived in the US for three years, I can assure you that Americans are made of gooier stuff. There, a commitment to "family values" isn't seen as a devalued political soundbite but the sine qua non of a politician's suitability for office.
Where did Draper live in America? I don't think it was Seattle. (found via Read Roger's "Fighting Words..." post)
O.K., well, we are gooey about our national landmarks
A Patchwork of Books posted a review last Monday of Lady Liberty, by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Matt Tavares--one of my favorite picture books of the year.
One thing I loved about this book, besides seeing the whole history
of how the statue was conceived and built, was learning about how it
was paid for. Basically, when sculptor Auguste Bartholdi visited the U.S. "everyone was polite and seemed interested. But no one offered to raise money to build her." So they got donations from French citizens to help build
the statue, then Joseph Pulitzer asked his readers to chip in with the
donations for the base (including one girl who sent her two pet roosters).
And we're not alone in loving the book. It got starred reviews from Booklist and The Horn Book. Here are a few more reviews from earlier this year:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
YA and Kids Book Central
I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids)
It's time to play!
Speaking of I.N.K., contributor Anna M. Lewis posted Friday about her favorite book of the summer, The Case for Make Believe by Susan Linn, a book that's also been a favorite at our house, especially as we've watched 16-mo-old Silas begin to make up games of his own.
Lewis adds a list of books that encourage or celebrate play,
such as Smart Play, Smart Toys and Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. One of her commenters also recommends the The Big Book for Little Hands, which looks really cute and fun. We'll be checking it out, for sure. --Heidi
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Amanda on August 25, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Another great book about PLAYING outside is: The Adventurous Book of Outdoor Games by Scott Strother!
http://www.amazon.com/Adventurous-Book-Outdoor-Games-Classic/dp/140221443X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219413664&sr=8-1
on August 25, 2008 at 12:41 PM
One needn't possess a degree in psychiatry (or even complete a single course in it) in order to correctly diagnose what Derek Draper and other snarky critics of Meghan McCain's picture book, My Dad, John McCain, are suffering from:
Gooeyness Envy.
Life as we know, is unfair, and the aspect of unfairness that Barack Obama and his supporters are struggling with here is that biographies are inherently more interesting when the subject has, you know, done something. Meghan McCain could still have blown it, but only a raving Obamamaniac would deny that she has better material to work with in crafting an interesting read for children or adults.
The proper response for the Obama supporter would be to be to cheerfully acknowledge McCain's superior biography, and even (if necessary) fake a heartfelt, "Thank you!" for his military service and sacrifice before changing the subject as quickly as possible.
The stupid response for the Obama supporter would be to ridicule the sentimentality or worse, to denigrate McCain's servive and sacrifice on entirely specious grounds.
Why am I not surprised by the number of Obama supporters doing the latter?
Chasingray on August 25, 2008 at 01:49 PM
Actually I think a huge part of the antagonism for the McCain book is because it is written by his daughter - who is not a children's book writer. There is a huge celebrity backlash when it comes to picture books because honestly so many of them are just not well done. The Hillary bio is written by Kathleen Krull for example, who has been writing children's nonfic for a very long time and has a solid reputation in the field.
I think that the McCain book is targeted solely at his supporters whereas the Hillary Clinton book is probably written for more staying power and to be used more frequently in classrooms talking about women's history, etc.
I don't see any reason for the Obama or McCain books to have been published before the election other than to appeal directly to supporters; at this point the endings are still unwritten, aren't they? And having a candidate's daughter write the book diminishes its credibility - I'm sure anyone can understand why.
FredTownWard on August 25, 2008 at 04:12 PM
Let me get this straight, Chasingray. You are attributing the antagonism for the McCain book to its being written by his daughter, in other words to professional jealousy?...
Uh, seriously, could you name some children's book authors who might have been willing to write the McCain book, i. e., McCain supporters NOT Democrats?
Let's get real here. All three of these candidate children's books were written for their supporters. If ANY of them have ANY staying power and end up being used in classrooms, it will be because teachers are just about the most reliably Democrat professionals not because of their quality, and it WON'T include the McCain book even if Meghan McCain turns out to be the greatest children's book author since J. K. Rowling.
on August 25, 2008 at 06:21 PM
Actually I am saying that. There are dozens of children's biographies written about Republican presidents from the current President Bush to his father, former President Reagan, former President Ford and on and on. Presidential biographies are commonly used in classrooms and they are pretty much always standard historical titles that explain where the subject is from, what some of the significant aspects of his presidency were, etc. This is a very common subject area for children's titles and while I'm sure there is partisanship in the reviewing of books, the backlash against celebrity authors for picture books has been going on for years and Megan McCain is just one more "celebrity" who is being largely dismissed for that reason.
As to any suggestion that no children's book author would write a biography of McCain because all of them are Democrats; well on that we will just have to agree to disagree. Authors do not have to register their political affiliation - how anyone could come up with such an assertion for children's book authors in particular I have no idea.
FredTownWard on August 26, 2008 at 06:18 AM
Frankly, Chasingray, this "celebrity author" beef sounds a lot like all the various excuses tossed out by professional journalists (90%+ Democrat) for despising bloggers (at least 50% Republican) when the truth is they don't like the fact that bloggers are reporting stories that Democrats would rather not see covered.
When you are talking about the latest splashy children's book release for a Bette Midler or Jay Leno, I think you've got a point.
When a children's book publisher which has planned splashy children's book releases of Obama and Clinton biographies suddenly realizes that they have forgotten somebody and rushes to put out an afterthought release about McCain written by his own daughter, I think any "outrage" is 100% politically motivated, not to mention misdirected.
Assuming you are correct about their being Republican children's books authors out there willing to "out themselves" by writing such books, the onus will now be upon them. Four, eight, twelve, years from now when Simon & Schuster is going gaga about issuing biographies about the then leading DEMOCRAT candidates, it will be up to these Republican children's book authors to once again remind Simon & Schuster about the existence of the other political party and since the Republican book(s) will once again be a slap dash last minute job, who knows, the author who points this out might just get the assignment.
FredTownWard on August 31, 2008 at 11:05 AM
How much do you want to bet that Simon & Schuster will get all the way to releasing a children's book biography of Joe Biden before somebody has the unmitigated gall to ask them, "What about Sarah Palin?"