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Vol.
41, No. 2 May, 2003 What If the
Classics Had Different Names? (A Poem) To the Point: Children's Book as Best-sellers A Best-selling
Picture Book by a Brand New Author: A Consideration of the Celebrity
Factor Otfried Preussler
and Michael Ende: Two German Best-selling Authors Hogwarts and
the Austere Academy: Reviving the School Story The White Ravens 2002 Other Voices Technological
Developments in Nonfiction Publishing Regular Features Focus IBBY Author Spotlight:
Professional Literature The Australian IBBY Encouragement Award for Children's Literature News and Announcements Dear
Bookbird Reader, In this issue of Bookbird, we take an international look at the factors associated with books that become best-sellers. Who writes them? What motivates readers to purchase them? What are the characteristics of best-selling authors? These and other questions will be explored within this issue. Given the attention to quality writing within the field of children's literature and the plethora of awards bestowed upon authors whose writing is judged superior, assumptions might be made that a book's popularity and sales will be directly related to its literary value. However, Patricia Austin's lead article, "A Best-selling Picture Book by a Brand New Author: A Consideration of the Celebrity Factor," challenges the assumption that high sales are an indication of quality writing. Austin's examination of the story behind the story of Katie Couric's first picture book, The Brand New Kid (New York: Doubleday, 2000), poses the possibility that Couric's role as co-anchor of the American Today Show with more than six million viewers each day influenced sales much more than the author's literary talents using rhymed verse. Couric's celebrity status ensured the immediate attention of her publisher, certainly not a typical publisher's response to a first-time author. In his article, "Otfried Preussler and Michael Ende: Two German Best-selling Authors," Horst Künnemann describes a very different path to best-seller status. Michael Ende, for example, received rejection notices from ten publishing houses before finding acceptance for his first novel. Künnemann's comparison of works by Preussler and Ende considers the genre of their writing and characteristics such as humor and situation comedy as factors in their popularity as well as the traditional celebration of fantasy and folklore in Germany. Initially, not everyone believed that the Harry Potter books would achieve best-seller status. Although Roger Sutton, Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book, in an editorial in that journal, recently retracted his 1999 description of Rowling's main character as "likable but critically insignificant," he continues to argue that "I'll still cite you chapter and verse of where I think the series flounders."1 Michael Payne takes a fresh, new look at the Potter series in his article, "Hogwarts and the Austere Academy: Reviving the School Story." Through comparison of that series with Lemony Snicket's, both in school settings, Payne considers the popularity of such titles and the images they present of childhood and education. In a recent issue of Research in the Teaching of English, Joel Taxel analyzed the current status of American children's book publishing. Taxel drew upon a wide range of material: scholarly work about publishing, web-based discussions, and interviews with children's book editors and four well-known authors.2 He offered concerns that the popularity of horror stories, mass-marketing of series books with limited literary value, and profitable links between books and the film and toy industries have "overtaken the side of the children's trade book publishing that previously had been the place where those books considered to be more aesthetically sophisticated and appealing were created and sold."3 Taxel's recommendations included a passionate plea for children's literature enthusiasts to "be more aggressive in promoting the best books, especially those that will provide young people with insight and understanding into the growing diversity and complexity of our society."4 The final article of our best-seller theme responds to Taxel's call for enthusiastic promotion of quality books for children. The literary quality of the text and artistic merit of the illustrations are the sole criteria used to identify international books as Special Mentions for the annual White Ravens list compiled by the language specialists at the International Youth Library. Such awards recognize books of high quality and encourage their sales. Two additional articles compose the "Other Voices" section of this issue. Readers are introduced to the work of Mariasun Landa, a widely translated author of Basque literature for children, through Mari Jose Olaziregi Alustiza's article, "Mariasun Landa's Literary Universe, or the Awakening of Basque Children's Literature." Landa's twenty-five titles have been translated into Spanish, English, French, and German, making her work accessible beyond the 700,000 speakers of Basque, a pre-Indo-European language. Finally, we return to issues related to publishers, as Margaret Scanlon and David Buckingham, British publishers, discuss the influence of technology on the development of nonfiction for children. Our regular features include information about the 2003 International Children's Book Day and the 2004 World Congress in South Africa in Focus IBBY, an interview with Jane Yolen as she discusses folklore with column editor Eva-Maria Metcalf, international books of note edited by Glenna Sloan, and reviews of professional books by Jeffrey Garrett. This issue closes with notice of the Australian IBBY Encouragement Award for Children's Literature and the latest in news and announcements. Although the topic of best-sellers includes difficult issues relative to popularity and publication, this issue celebrates the contribution of literature to children's lives all over the world. There's an old saying-that people are changed by only two things: the people they meet and the books they read. We offer both in this issue of Bookbird. The Bookbird
Editors: 1. Roger Sutton,
"Editorial: Classic Reckoning," Horn Book (July/August 2002):
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