We asked children's book editors to tell us about a book they published that never got the attention they felt it deserved. Here is a selection of their responses.
Anne Schwartz
V-p and Editorial Director
Anne Schwartz Books/Atheneum
The book that I loved and adored—and was disappointed in how it performed—was Kisses from Rosa by Petra Mathers (Knopf, 1995). It’s a poignant memoir about a difficult and magical time in Petra’s own childhood, a time when her mother was sick and she was sent to live with her aunt and cousin in the Black Forest. Petra (named Rosa in the book) spent her days waiting for Otto the mailman to bring her letters from her mother, playing with Cousin Birgit, visiting the cows—in other words, shedding her homesickness to become caught up in all kinds of new experiences and adventures of life on a farm.
I can honestly say “I laughed, I cried,” when I first read the manuscript. The illustrations and text are extraordinary—lovingly drawn, and filled with the kind of details I know kids love. My 12-year-old daughter still quotes favorite lines from the book.
And though the book got glowing reviews, it didn’t sell. Why? Was it the long text—which I have learned, sadly, can often spell failure in our world? Was it the jacket—which never really came together the way we or Petra wanted it to? Was it the subject—too easily dismissed as a “nostalgia” book? I suppose it was probably a combination of all that and more.
All I know is that many children were deprived of a reading experience that would have delighted and moved them, and perhaps even changed their lives.
Liz Bicknell
Editorial Director and Associate Publisher
Candlewick Press
Unquestionably, for me the book I wish had received more attention is The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzle (Candlewick, 2001), a funny, first-person novel about a 10-year-old boy who is turned into a bug by eating too many (cockroach-infested) hamburgers at the new fast-food emporium in town. Certainly, Roscoe didn’t perform badly—it was translated into German and Italian and is on several state lists here, but to me, it’s a classic comic novel and wasn’t recognized as such. Roscoe Wizzle has everything: a terrific narrative voice, some philosophical inquiry, a mystery to be solved, a serious message about the environment and lots of quirky humor. I suppose my main sorrow is that reviewers often seem to dismiss humorous books, treating them as somehow lesser than the serious (and often sentimental) books that get starred reviews and win prizes. Don’t they know how hard it is to be funny? Roscoe Wizzle was a first novel, from David Elliott, a writer in whom I have utter faith and who unfailingly makes me laugh with every new story. We’re publishing his second novel this spring, and we’ll keep going—because David’s books make kids laugh, and they also make them think, and one day I feel sure he will get the recognition he deserves.
Ruth Katcher
Executive Editor
HarperCollins Children’s Books
A book that for me has had a disappointing reception is Ron Carlson’s The Speed of Light (HarperTempest, 2003). I so love the writing in Ron’s bittersweet collection of linked stories about three 12-year-old boys who move from childhood to adolescence over one long summer of baseball, scientific experiments and sleeping out. I think that the books one is closest to are the hardest to characterize, but what moved me so much about this story was the blend of humor and sharp perceptions, the keen eye for the rhythms of friendship and boyhood and change. The reviews were solid, though most paid special attention to the nostalgic tone (the setting is the late 1960s, but it’s not a huge issue in the book).
Ron is an author of several novels and short story collections for adults, and this book was his first written for young people. I’ve wondered if the problem was in publishing a book for teens with 12-year-old protagonists—and yet this is in no way a middle-grade book. Was it our package, which is lovely but sophisticated? Should this have been published as a book for young readers at all? Our sales force supported the book nicely, but ultimately the consumer sale was disappointing.
Kathy Dawson
Executive Editor
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
In the Shadow of the Pali: A Story of the Hawaiian Leper Colony by Lisa Cindrich (Putnam, 2002) is a harrowing survival story of a 12-year-old girl, Liliha, who is dumped at the Kalaupapa leper colony (before Father Damien came and improved the conditions there) without anyone to help take care of her. “In this place there is no law” is what she’s told when she arrives. I would have loved this gripping book as a kid, having heard about leprosy in church and never being able to imagine how lepers actually lived. However, despite the fact that kids are reading very dark books these days, In the Shadow of the Pali seems to have suffered from the grotesque nature of its setting and characters. In fact, even the woman who designed the book was never actually able to finish reading it. Liliha does have a face-off with the violent women who controls the rations, but she also finally opens her heart to two people who become the first friends she’s ever had in her life. I was fascinated by the way the author made this a redemptive story, bringing hope to horror. This book came in as a query in the slush pile, and was the author’s first book. I haven’t received a subsequent submission from her.
Nancy Siscoe
Associate Publishing Director
Knopf & Crown Books for Young Readers
Elizabeth Honey is one of Australia’s most popular authors and I was convinced her books would find fans in the U.S. as well. Her books crack me up and make me think—what more could a reader want?
Don’t Pat the Wombat! (Knopf, 2000) recounts what happens to five rowdy sixth-grade boys during a school-sponsored trip to a pioneer camp. There are mud fights, leeches, campfires, tents, skits, caves, and contraband candy. There’s also a feud brewing between a student and a teacher that comes to a dramatic conclusion. All of this is told in the pitch-perfect voice of one of the boys. One of the things I admire most about Honey’s writing is that she captures just exactly how kids talk and laugh and joke around and also how they gently help each other through the more serious moments.
It’s short, it’s funny, it has a cool design (with photos and line drawings), it’s a little rude—I thought boys, especially, would eat it up. Reviewers called it “a dead-on kid’s eye-view” and recommended it for fans of Louis Sachar and Thomas Rockwell. Our head of field sales took it on as a personal favorite and sung its praises far and wide. It got on a couple of state award reading lists. And then... nothing.
We’ve published two subsequent books by Elizabeth Honey with similar results. Nice reviews, modest sales. Why? I haven’t a clue. Too Australian? Covers not quite right? Never found their way into kids’ hands? I’m still hopeful that readers will catch on to how great Honey is. Catch on already!
Jill Davis
Senior Editor
Viking Children’s Books
Too Many Time Machines: Or, The Incredible Story of How I Went Back in Time, Met Babe Ruth, and Discovered the Secret of Home Run Hitting by Mark Alan Stamaty (Viking, 1999), was a short graphic novel about a boy who lives in the future. He’s so bored with Time Machines—he just wants to play baseball. But how can he and his friends practice if everyone’s zooming around the galaxy in their time machines? He decides to go back to the year Babe Ruth was the best baseball player in the world; he gets home-run tips from the Babe and when he finally comes back, his team wins.
At the time this was published, graphic novels were not as popular as they are now. We wondered if Too Many Time Machines was before its time. It is wonderfully thought-out, clever, illustrated like a comic book, and absolutely perfect for nine-year-old boys. It got few reviews and was barely recognized by anyone. Mark Alan Stamaty’s cult classic Who Needs Donuts? was recently re-released and did quite well. Stamaty also has a clever comic strip, Boox, on the New York Times Book Review back page. He seems more popular now than he was at the time we published TMTM. Still, this is a book that should have been noticed!
After such a disappointing show, we decided not to do another book with Mark Stamaty, but we think of him often.
Karen Grove
Senior Editor
Harcourt Children’s Books
Simon Says by Elaine Marie Alphin (Harcourt, 2002) is a deep, character-driven novel that, in my opinion, speaks directly to teens. It is one of those rare novels that, when it arrived on my desk, gave me goosebumps. I was literally shaking as I read it because I knew in my heart that I just had to publish this story for all those teens out there who question their existence, their purpose in life and where they fit in. The characters are rich and sophisticated and the subject matter is dangerous and intriguing.
The acquisition meeting in which this novel was discussed was amazing. There were those who loved this so completely that they pushed and pushed to publish it. And there were also those who disliked it and found it confusing and too internal. It was one of the liveliest acquisition meetings we have ever had. Unfortunately it didn’t receive much review attention or stellar sales. But to this day it remains in my heart one of the most important books I have had the pleasure to edit.
I truly love this novel and I think it deserves a wider audience.
Karen Lotz
President and Publisher
Candlewick Press
For me, the book is Tucker Off His Rocker by Leslie McGuirk. I first saw the dummy when I was still very wet behind the ears, a brand-new assistant at Dutton Children’s Books. Probably it came from one of the very first slush envelopes I had ever opened. To me, Leslie had the freshness of a Sandra Boynton, but with an offbeat quirkiness all her own. The naïve and expressionistic illustrations made me laugh out loud, and there was even a bonus educational component; readers could learn a lot about prepositions during the simple narrative. Dutton was generous to new staff; we were able to present books at acquisitions meeting whenever we wanted, but unfortunately Tucker didn’t make the cut. I had to tell Leslie the bad news, and since she and I had developed a great rapport, it was a very sad day.
We kept in touch, and years later, when I became publisher, I must admit that one of the very first things I did was contract Leslie. She in the meantime had gone on to stardom in Japan as a graphic designer and book illustrator. A few European publishers were soon to commission books from her as well. Still no American deal, though--so we brought out the book with high hopes to nice reviews but unfortunately low sales.
Last spring at Candlewick, we brought out Leslie’s hilarious picture book Snail Boy, which again was well reviewed but not a large success in terms of sales. Someday, I like to think, the public will catch up to her life-affirming individuality and she’ll have all the success she deserves—who knows, perhaps even Tucker himself will ride again!
Stephen Roxburgh
Publisher
Front Street Books
In 1998 I published Carolyn Coman’s novel Bee and Jacky. Her previous book, What Jamie Saw, was a Newbery Honor Award winner and a National Book Award finalist. I had hopes that the new book would be well received and it was. According to School Library Journal, Bee and Jacky is a “brilliantly written novel [which] centers around a critical weekend in the lives of a brother and sister who have an incestuous relationship.” Publishers Weekly described the book as “the literary equivalent of a Diane Arbus photograph; it presents a sharp, shocking picture of pathology, but leaves it to the audience to imagine the world beyond the frame.” In a boxed review, Booklist said the book “proves Coman’s extraordinary talent for creating complex images with simple words and her remarkable ability to elicit sympathy for all the characters.” VOYA described it as “startling and real” adding that “Coman reaches readers on a visceral level.” In short, the critical acclaim was even more than I had hoped for. In spite of this acclaim, Bee and Jacky has sold 1,665 copies in hardcover since publication in September 1998. (We’ve given away 768 free and review copies.) Some might say this is simply another example of a book that receives positive critical attention, but isn’t something young readers want to read. I don’t think that is the case. In spite of all the talk about “edgy” young adult fiction and expansion of the young adult genre, there are still matters which the adults who stand between books and young readers regard as untouchable. In this case the taboo subject is incest. In fact Bee and Jacky is, as virtually all of the reviewers noted, about much more than incest. The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books describes it as “a spare yet intimate encounter with a teen at the critical moment when things move beyond the way they used to be.” According to Children’s Literature, “Coman tackles huge issues including a teen’s growing sexual awareness, incest, the human need for intimacy, and families in pain.” Finally, Bee and Jacky is a novel about grace and redemption. I had hoped that the people who are in the position of placing books in the hands of young readers would see this book for what it is, and not be scared off by the apparent subject matter. My hopes were unfounded.
Carolyn Coman subsequently wrote Many Stones, which was named a National Book Award finalist, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and a Michael L. Printz Honor Award winner.
Barbara Lalicki
SVP and Editorial Director
HarperCollins Children’s Books
I’m Not Going to Chase the Cat Today (2000) After looking through Lindsay Harper duPont’s portfolio, I kept returning to two pictures. Her insouciant cat in a striped tee-shirt and the scene of a dog lying in bed with a decisive look in his opened eye captivated me. It turned out they were related pictures, both inspired by a song written by Lindsay’s sister Jessica Harper. The song showed how things changed for the better when “the dog woke up from his nap and said, ‘I’m not going to chase the cat today.’ “ The cat, the mouse, and the lady of the house all got nicer!
I love Lindsay’s fluid line and her lush colors. The pictures of the characters and life in this nutty household still make me laugh. At times I thought this message of peace and goodwill could change the world—or at least sell a third as well as Random Acts of Kindness. There are probably hundreds of reasons why it didn’t get more attention, but “I’m not going to rail against them today.”
Paula Wiseman
Editorial Director
Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster
Unbelievably there are very few books currently available for children about Rachel Carson, and when I realized this, I mentioned it to Wendell Minor, who immediately agreed that we needed to create such a book. Time passed and one bright spring day Wendell called me to remind me about this project and we both decided that we would ask Amy Ehrlich if she would be interested in writing a picture book biography of Rachel Carson. (Amy was my first boss at Dial, and is a dear friend and mentor, and we had never worked together on a book, so my fingers were crossed.)
Amy was thrilled with the idea and made plans to visit Maine, near the Rachel Carson Salt Pond Preserve, a part of Maine that Carson deeply loved and that was named in her honor in 1970. Amy’s text tells about Rachel Carson’s life beautifully and as Carson lived—seeing her world in the details that children can relate to and that represent the complex universe. To make the book Amy and Wendell and I met and discussed the book and Wendell worked with the Rachel Carson Council in Maryland, who actively promote Carson’s work to this day. Though Amy and I well knew that Wendell was the right person to create this, when we saw his final artwork we were overwhelmed.
In the making of Rachel: The Story of Rachel Carson by Wendell Minor (Harcourt/Silver Whistle, 2003) we all felt like we knew Rachel Carson (if only) and I believe she would be happy with the book. April 14, 2004, is the 40th anniversary of her passing, but in many, many ways she lives on.
While the book is fairly recently published, it never made the initial splash I wished it would, despite favorable reviews and a Parent’s Choice Award. However, like Rachel herself, I know it will be appreciated more and more over time.
Rosemary Brosnan
Executive Editor HarperCollins Children’s Books
Rain Is Not My Indian Name (HarperCollins, 2001) is Cynthia Leitich Smith’s first novel. I was captivated by the main character and her story as soon as I read the manuscript, and excited about finding a book that featured an American Indian protagonist who was not at all clichéd and who was not going through some sort of obligatory identity crisis about being Indian. Cyn is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and she writes in a distinctly indigenous style, with plenty of subtle humor. She has also published a picture book, Jingle Dancer, and a chapter book, Indian Shoes. I’ve been her editor for all three books. Rain garnered awards—it was an Oklahoma Book Award finalist and earned Cyn the Writer of the Year award in Children’s Prose from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers—but it hasn’t reached as wide as audience as I would like (well, I would like every child to read it). Sometimes children are surprised when they hear that Native Americans “still exist.” Not only do “they exist,” but a mixed-blood girl named Rain comes alive in the pages of this book.
Joanna Cotler
Editorial Director
Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins
The book I’d like to highlight is Grow Up (2003) by Sandy Turner. I loved Sandy’s work the moment I saw it and felt his fresh look would capture people’s attention, make them take notice and laugh.
Grow Up is a picture book that asks the question: What do you want to be when you grow up? But it’s how the artist in Sandy Turner answers this question, with a cavalcade of possible professions (from lion tamer to lighthouse keeper), that makes this book irreverently stylish and witty and fresh and beautiful fun. Grow Up was a Silver Medal winner at the Society of Illustrators, named one of Parenting’s best books of the year, and received a starred review from PW.
Sandy Turner is an artist’s artist. His work makes so many of us who work in the industry light up when we see it, because he just gets something about bookmaking, and his look is totally his own. There’s a sense of wonder in every line and every choice he makes. His sense of design is impeccable and his use of mixed medium (collage/ cardboard pages, half-erasures) inspired. Some of the comments were “too sophisticated,” “too edgy” and perhaps that’s why this book didn’t make a big splash in the commercial market. Perhaps he’s a bit ahead of his time?
Alix Reid
V-p and Editorial Director
HarperCollins Children’s Books
Mrs. Biddlebox by Linda Smith, illustrated by Marla Frazee (2002) is an enchantingly original tale of Mrs. Biddlebox who wakes up to a really bad day. The birds are screeching, her belly is grumbling, nothing is right. But Mrs. Biddlebox comes up with just the right solution--she whips up that bad day into a cake, puts it in the oven, and eats it! This puts her world back in balance, and as the moon rises, Mrs. Biddlebox curls up and goes to sleep.
I’d already acquired two picture book manuscripts from Linda Smith before Mrs. Biddlebox came my way, and as soon as I read it, I knew this was the best manuscript that Linda had written. I also knew it would probably be her last manuscript, as she had been diagnosed with end-stage breast cancer a few months earlier. In fact, Linda’s cancer was the inspiration for Mrs. Biddlebox. She was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy and had woken up feeling sick and depressed. And then the idea for a book about a woman who decides to roll up her bad day, stomp it down, bake it and eat it, came to her. As there was no paper to be had on her bedside table, she wrote the beginning of the story on her leg, and as soon as her husband came, she dictated the rest to him.
I think the book is marvelous for its amazing honesty--that bad days happen. But it also offers a fantastic way to deal with adversity--determination, humor, and originality. The rhythm of the story is not at all depressing--the rhymes are jaunty and up beat, and you know that Mrs. B will find her way out of her “dreary little funk.”
Marla Frazee’s illustrations did complete justice to the text. Without prettifying or softening the text, Marla brought a spunk and determination to the book’s unusual heroine, and added a companion goose for just the right touch of humor. She used lots of black and gray as befits the heroine’s mood at the beginning, but brings in wonderful colors as Mrs. Biddlebox finds a way out of her drearies.
The book received glowing reviews--a star in PW, and delighted praise from Kirkus, Horn Book and Booklist. It won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustration, was the winner in the Original Voices for Picture Books category for Borders in 2002, was the Miami Herald’s Best Picture Book of the Year, was a Book Sense 76 selection, and a Parent’s Choice Recommended Award winner. It was also an in-house favorite, and one that all the editors and reps were behind.
And yet, despite the perfect marriage of text and art, critical acclaim, and a publicity angle about the author’s personal journey with the text, this book never found a wide audience, and sales never met the high expectations we had for it. I’m not sure why--I wonder if parents shyed away from buying a book with a grumpy, old woman on the cover, instead of a child or an animal. Or perhaps they were concerned about the awesomely cosmic response Mrs. Biddlebox has to curing her bad mood--rolling up her world and baking it. (Having said this, I wonder what kind of a reception a classic like Millions of Cats would do if published now, with its elderly childless couple and the violence of the cats eating each other!) Or perhaps the subtle palette of the cover didn’t compete well with the bright primary colors of most picture books these days.
In any case, this is the picture book I am most proud of having published, and wish that it had touched more people than it did. And I wish Linda had lived to see it published; she died on June 28, 2000.
Wendy Loggia
Executive Editor
Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
Deep by Susanna Vance (Delacorte, 2003) is a novel that literally pulls you into its murky depths with its strong writing and compelling characters. Susanna Vance was a PW Flying Start for her debut novel, Sights, and reviews for DEEP have been strong. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Deep was one of 11 books that received a unanimous vote from the committee last month.
With praise like this, why are sales less than stellar? It’s frustrating to see a book that you love earn glowing praise, acclaim from the school and library community, have a terrific eye-catching cover—and not succeed to a potential you know is there.
Michael Stearns
Senior Editor, Director of Paperback Publishing
Harcourt Children’s Books
Of the many books I’ve worked on over the years, the one whose critical reception most disappointed me was one I didn’t edit, but only assisted on: The Skull of Truth by Bruce Coville (Harcourt/Yolen, 1997). The fourth title in Bruce’s Magic Shop series, this novel is an unparalleled blend of wit and wisdom, a book that deftly moves from hilarity to heartbreak often in the space of a paragraph. Perhaps reviewers discounted Bruce’s work because he “came up” from paperback originals; or perhaps because of the book’s unflinching look at tough issues ranging from death to homosexuality to the high cost of telling the truth--whatever the case, though the reviews and sales were good, they didn’t seem to me to take a full accounting of his accomplishment with the novel. I’ve read it again recently, and again I marveled at the ease of Bruce’s storytelling, and of how adroitly he deals with the heaviest issues we face as readers and as humans. It’s a great novel, and greater still because it wears its concerns so lightly.
Shannon Dean-Smith
Editor
Puffin Books
D.I.Y. Girl by Jennifer Bonnell (2003) was the surprise flop of my career—in fact I think we were all shocked that this didn’t do far better. True, there are plenty of craft books out there, but we really believed this one was special and would hit where so many had not. The author wrote a hilarious, accessible guide to making the coolest, kid-friendliest homemade grooming products, clothing, gifts, and even room décor. Not to mention the fact that D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) was also huge with teen and tween girls the year the book pubbed. This, along with what was probably the cutest packaging we’d ever done—bright pink cover, adorable art (both inside and out) by illustrator Monica Gesue, and plenty of embossed glitter—is the part that baffled us most. D.I.Y. Girl should have been a nice little seller. But who knows? Maybe it’ll be a sleeper....
Francoise Bui
Executive Editor
Delacorte Press/Doubleday Books for Young Readers
What editor doesn’t want to acquire a book they absolutely love? It certainly goes a long way toward generating enthusiasm in-house. However, given the volume of books published, it’s sadly not realistic to expect that each one will receive extra marketing or publicity. Or even that accounts will take the book. So you hope for great reviews to boost a book’s profile. Sometimes that’s all it takes to create a buzz, other times it isn’t. A few years back I acquired Borrowed Light by Anna Fienberg (Delacorte, 2000), an exquisite novel dealing with the intricacies of family relationships and teenage pregnancy. It had it all: beautifully realized characters, a great voice and a memorable story. Reviewers all praised the book. It was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. So it’s been disappointing that Borrowed Light, a novel that resonates with me (and with colleagues) years after, hasn’t achieved a wide readership. But all you can you do is champion the next book you love, try to have all the pieces fall into place, and keep spreading the word.
