Arts

: Image by Thirteen Of Clubs via Flickr

The world of reading, writing, book publishing is one of a never ending cycle. It has an ebb and flow like that of the tides of the ocean. What may be popular now may not be popular in six months. This can be a bit frustrating for authors because the book publishing process can take years from start to finish. The printing business has gone from putting in letters by hand to online printing and distribution. Some books no longer need to be printed due to the uproar in ebooks. The good news is that the constant change means that what literature is popular now will be old news soon enough and the other genres will move to the forefront once again. This is the same not only for books in general but for every genre as well. Inside the varying genres there are a sort of sub-genre. These have there own wave of popularity that comes and goes.

A form of book publishing that is picking up speed again is self-publishing. A great deal of people believe that this is a new concept. It is not. There are some very famous authors that got their works into the hands of readers by self-publishing. Newer success stories include the books The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Celestine Prophesy. Both of these books were originally self-published before picked up by big name book publishing houses. Other authors such as Mark Twain self-published their works. Apparently book publishing houses of the time thought that there was no room in the marketplace for Huck Finn.

Whether an author receives book publishing through a traditional house or self-publishes is really not relevant. What is important to the reading community is that the book tells a well conceived and well written story that takes readers on an adventure. Whether it’s a children’s book, crime drama, thriller, horror, or chick-lit, the reader wants a well plotted story with characters they can care about. If those components aren’t there then the writer has failed.

A Celebration of Children’s Book Art

: Image via Wikipedia

Much of the charm of a good children’s book is in the illustrations. The simpler the story, the more important the visuals can be. There are even some great children’s books such as Good Dog Carl by Alexandra Day that have no writing at all, and depend entirely on the pictures to tell the story. Then again, some classics like The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster have an engrossing and complex narrative, but the occasional, simply sketched illustrations by Jules Feiffer still add immeasurably to the reading experience. Whether deceptively simple, like the drawings of Mo Willems or Dr. Seuss, or detailed and lush like the magnificent illustrations of Arthur Rackham or Jan Brett, children’s book art is truly a fine art, and deserves to be honored as such.

To this aim, the highly acclaimed children’s book author and illustrator Eric Carle has opened The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. Carle is the author of over 70 children’s books, the most famous of which is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. His artwork is both simple and visually complex, as it is created by a collage of brightly colored hand-painted paper that he cuts or tears and layers to create his images. All of his work is instantly recognizable, and always a feast of color.

The museum features not only his work, but also that of many of his favorite children’s book artists. Maurice Sendak, who wrote and illustrated Where the Wild Things Are, is prominent among them, as well as Leo Lionni, whose work had an influence on Carle. There is a special exhibition of Dorothy Kunhardt’s classic Pat the Bunny, and one for the Hans Christian Anderson Award winner Lisbeth Zwerger.

Whether in the traditional stye of Beatrix Potter, the more modern look of William Steig or the pop-ups of Robert Sabuda, the illustrations in children’s books are often the very first art that young people are exposed to. It’s important that it be a valuable introduction. The story it tells may be silly, but the art, itself can be quite masterful. In the best of children’s literature, it is.

Book Publishing Trends

A Celebration of Children’s Book Art

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