| From
the September/October 2000 issue of The Horn Book Magazine
Editorial
Writers, Reviewers, and Rare Gratification
 ain
in Boston and thunderstorms in Chicago kept me from getting to Los
Angeles to deliver my scheduled speech at this July’s annual
conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. The speech was titled
“Getting a Clue: What Writers Need to Know about Book Reviews.”
But truth be told, I was the one who was hoping for a clue: what
do writers need to know about book reviews, anyway?
It could have been a short speech. I don’t
think writers (or illustrators) need to know a whole lot about book
reviews, and few reviewers labor under the misapprehension that
what we have to say changes the way people write. My only exception
is the author who told her editor, “Tell that R.S. that my
new book doesn’t contain a single sentence that begins with
the word but,” referring to a review in which I had
criticized a preponderance of sentences beginning with prepositions.
But such gratification is rare. Few authors thank reviewers for
good reviews, and only slightly more voice objections to negative
ones. This is good: authors should neither curry favor nor court
a second blow, and reviewers are too egotistical already.
The common ground between the writer and/or illustrator
and the reviewer is the book as written. Not — in the creator’s
case — the book that was meant to be written; not —
in the reviewer’s case — the book that was desired to
be read. The only evidence they each should have is that book. I
will leave it to you writers and illustrators out there to state
the creator’s idea of what a “good” review is
or does (and — hint — we’re inaugurating a new
column from children’s book creators in this issue). I can
only repeat the mantra I chant periodically in these offices. A
book review has responsibilities in three directions: to the book
in hand (not to the author’s last book, nor his or her next
one, nor to the book the reviewer wanted to read), to the audience
for the review (not to the author/illustrator, nor to the publisher),
and to the literature to which both reviewer and author are hoping
to make a contribution.
• • •
Along with our new “Writer’s Page”
column, inaugurated this month by Jennifer Armstrong, also note
that per Patty Campbell’s discussion in the July/August Horn
Book (“The Sand in the Oyster: Middle Muddle”),
we have made a change to our age designations in the book review
section. Because there seems to us to be a great difference not
only between seventh-grade readers and tenth-grade readers but between
books for those audiences as well, we have divided the “Young
Adult” designation into “Middle School,” for readers
in sixth through ninth grades, and “High School,” for
readers in grades nine through twelve. These estimated reading/interest
levels join “Preschool” (birth through kindergarten),
“Primary” (kindergarten through third grade), and “Intermediate”
(grades three through six). The designations overlap intentionally.
As before, if we feel that a book belongs in more than one age group,
we will list it as such.
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