>What are the odds?

by Roger Sutton
Nov 12, 2007 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>The New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books have been announced; as commenter Ruth notes on a previous post, the gender score is eight to two. Elsewhere in the Times's special section on children's books I review Jaclyn Moriarty's The Spell Book of Listen Taylor (Levine/Scholastic).

I note with only fortuitous smugness that the last time I judged this list, in 2005, we selected five male and five female illustrators. But I didn't know this until now, as Henrike Wilson (winning for Brave Charlotte) and Alexis Deacon (for Jitterbug Jam) didn't come to the party.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>>>Elsewhere in the Times's special section on children's books I review Jaclyn Moriarty's The Spell Book of Listen Taylor (Levine/Scholastic).<<

And did you happen to notice how comparatively few books by women were reviewed in the special section?

Posted : Nov 15, 2007 09:44

JeanneB

>But then there would be all that trouble with drug testing.

Posted : Nov 14, 2007 08:16

Andy Laties

>Hey I have an idea. Why don't they do it the way they do sports leagues and the Olympics.

Championship Mens Children's Book Illustration and Championship Women's Children's Book Illustration.

Posted : Nov 14, 2007 07:49

ruth

>...Also interesting that in that year (2005), six of the books were written by someone other than the illustrator...

Posted : Nov 12, 2007 10:30

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