The field of children’s book is one that I don’t know as much about as Ron does, but when the opportunity to preview Greenwillow Books‘ upcoming catalogue at their 4th floor offices in the HarperCollins children’s building, I wasn’t about to pass it up. Ably led by brand-new publicity hire Melissa Dittmar (previously at Random House Audio) I perused the contents of books just out for the fall season (like Ian Schoenherr‘s PIP AND SQUEAK, depicted at left) and what’s next in Winter, Spring & Summer 2007 – with sneak peeks at other titles on tap in early 2008.
What set this party apart, though, was the chance to look at actual artwork included in many of these titles. Mary McCarthy‘s A CLOSER LOOK was designed with collage using handmade paper, and Paul Zakris experimented with close-up and distant shots in cascading fashion – so a giant black spot slowly panned out to reveal a ladybug, while another geometric design proved to be a hummingbird. Jack Prelutsky‘s THE WIZARD takes a totally different approach, thanks to Brandon Dorman‘s entirely computer-generated graphics, with color hues nothing short of dazzling.
Brief chats with Zakris, Executive Editor Steve Geck and managing editor Tim Smith gave me the scoop on F & G galleys, average print runs for a picture book (generally 5 to 10K, with a major name getting a 50K print run, if lucky) and general differences between children and adult publishing. But perhaps the greatest difference was encapsulated by one Greenwillow editor who declared her strongest wish: “I’m aiming to read all the Newberry-nominated titles before the shortlist is announced.” It’s a different world, but one I’m glad to have visited, with hope I can do so again soon.