PIcture Books

Illustration Competition

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Apr 26, 2021 in Illustration, PIcture Books | 0 comments

Astra Publishing is running a competition for illustrators–a great way for artists to get your work in front of editors and art directors as well as, perhaps, win a bit of prize money.

Picture book art is such a rich and fascinating form of visual expression–I know I don’t understand as much about it as illustrators and designers do, but I love the complexity of it, the way a good illustrator will capture character and interaction and action and emotion, at the same time moving the reader’s eye deeper into the book, and of course remembering to avoid the gutter! When done well, it sweeps the reader along so easily that it can be hard to remember to slow down and appreciate the detail and the skill. Illustrators, I salute you!

Astra International Picture Book Writing Contest

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Apr 2, 2021 in Events, PIcture Books | 0 comments

Open to all writers, published or unpublished, for picture book manuscripts of 1000 words or less. Contest deadline April 30, 2021. Find out more here!

To Think That I Saw It In Congress

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Mar 5, 2021 in Children's Literature, PIcture Books, Politics, Race | 0 comments

Despite a 28-year career in children’s publishing, I have NEVER HEARD OF THIS BOOK until this week. Just saying.

All I can say is, a lot of my books are out of print, and nobody has ever complained about it in the halls of Congress.

Okay, that’s not actually all I have to say.

Nobody has cancelled Dr. Seuss. Nobody has censored his books. No arm of government or political party is involved in any way.

The publisher (presumably in concert with his estate) has chosen not to issue new editions of six books. They say it is because the images contain hurtful stereotypes. (This is true. I’ve enjoyed If I Ran the Zoo, but those so-called Africans with their grass skirts and ape-like faces–really, Ted?)

This is normal. It’s business as usual. Publishers put books out of print all the time, because the books failed to connect with an audience, because they’ve become dated and readers don’t get them anymore, because (shh!) they were never that good in the first place. And–here’s the big reason, actually the only reason–because they aren’t selling that well. Because the books aren’t profitable.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises (an arm of Penguin Random House) failed to mention this, but believe me–if those books were selling like hotcakes, they’d still be in print. They’re not. Possibly because people are not lining up to buy books with hurtful stereotypes in them. Possibly because there are better books out there, some of them written by Dr. Seuss himself.

It’s the free market in action, folks. There’s no or little demand. So there’s no new supply.

Look, Ted Geisel was an immensely talented author and illustrator. He wasn’t a saint. He wasn’t perfection incarnate. And he doesn’t have some sort of constitutional right to have his books in print forever. (If so, I wish I could figure out how to get that right for myself. Alas, I don’t think it exists.)

If you are passionately devoted to On Beyond Zebra or McElligot’s Pool, you can still read them. Knock yourself out. Libraries and used bookstores still have copies. They haven’t vanished from the world of literature. It’s simply that there are not going to be new editions rolling off the press.

It’s not shocking. It’s not a problem. It’s a publisher responding to what people in 2021 want to read.

(P.S. Please feel free to also read picture books by Kevin Henkes, Barbara Cooney, Kwame Alexander, Mo Willems, Sophie Blackall and … I don’t know, maybe me? Dr. Seuss is not the only talented and brilliant author out there. There are so very many excellent children’s books being written and illustrated and published. The kids will be fine.)

The Real Heroes

Posted by Sarah L. Thomson on Sep 10, 2020 in American History, BOOK: A Pandemic Is Worldwide, Children's Literature, Nonfiction, PIcture Books, SERIES: Let's Read and Find Out | 0 comments

Jennings inoculating his first patient, eight-year-old James Phipps (who deserves a statue, too)

We put up statues to politicians and generals, but in a just world, people like Edward Jennings would have a statue on every corner. He created a true vaccine for smallpox, and the more I research pandemics, the more I understand how amazing his achievement was. This disease had been with us since ancient times and was capable of wiping out civilizations. Now? It’s gone. (Except for a few samples in laboratories which should be destroyed yesterday, if you ask me.)

Interestingly, he based his work on folk medicine practiced in Asia, where patients were immunized with pus taken from smallpox sores (it worked, though it was risky) and from the folk knowledge of farmers near his home, who insisted that, if they’d had cowpox, they were immune to smallpox (they were). So it was not just an individual epiphany, but an achievement built on observation and experimentation by countless others whose names science and history do not remember.