>Reviews in a word

by Roger Sutton
Feb 07, 2007 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>I've been submerged with Guide proofreading, a semi-annual communal exercise in eyestrain and Twizzlers and chocolate-fueled mania; yesterday I couldn't stop calling everyone "enthusiasts" after reading the word one too many times. The eternally unsolved question about typos also came up: should a review mention their presence in a book even when they are few or solitary? Publishers prefer that we not mention them at all, of course, asking us instead to notify them so a correction can be made in the next printing. But our readers will probably be considering the first printing--and if we tell them of a typo they might not buy it, meaning that a second printing becomes questionable.

This is not unassociated with the problem The Higher Power of Lucky has been having with its scrotum.
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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Lynn

>An interesting article concerning Lucky appeared in my email this afternoon from the Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf.

Listservs Buzzing over Newbery Winner

Posted : Feb 15, 2007 11:11

rindawriter

>P.S. Dear, DEAR authors: There is a simple solution to worrying about typos in the final edition of your books.

Go to copy editing school. Go thence in humility and lowliness of heart and learn Thou there how to master thine own language and write it well.

Authors are generally given an opportunity to proof galleys. If you, dear authors, went to copy editing school, you would then be able to proof your own work in galleys and thereby catch all the nasty mistakes that the editors let slide through. Then you would never have to worry about typos or mangled grammar ever, ever again....in your published work.

And noooo I don't copy edit my comments here...I would go insane having to be perfect ALL the time everywhere...

Posted : Feb 11, 2007 07:13

rindawriter

>Dear me, I HAVE been working at home, copy editing, for doctors and psychiatrists far, FAR too long...no shock value at all for me in this entire discussion...sorry.

We have no children, but if we did, they would have long since, before fourth grade, become immune to all sorts of parts-of-the-body words.

If I read this book out loud in class to fourth-graders, I'd pause, smile patiently, let everyone laugh, and then ask politely, "does everyone know what we're laughing about here?" And "Do I need to explain anything furhter in what we've just to anyone here? I can explain it in private up here at my desk to anyone, if you'd rather."

I can hear the giggles and see the head shakes now; children get embarrassed and laugh at things that make them feel embarrassed like any adult does. We'd laugh again. And then I'd finish the story.

If an irate parent came in to talk to me, I'd ask them if they knew exactly what their children were watching on TV and DVD's......bet ya he/she wouldn't have a clue...

Posted : Feb 11, 2007 07:07

Anonymous

>I teach Creative Writing for Children at a university in middle-America.

The Newbery Day was the first time the
class met for the semester. I took in all the award books and started reading
them to the class, sight unseen. It was a great way to introduce the students
to the issues currently being discussed in children's literature.

I opened The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron, and started reading cold, not knowing what to expect, except that if the Newbery said it was good, I expected something great.

Ah, the discussion about that word, scrotum. We are a mostly rural area
with lots of conservative folk. Some students said they wouldn't let their
kids read that book. If that's in the first couple pages, what will follow? they wondered.

The debate raged about what age they would allow their kids to read the book.

Would they read the book first and then, perhaps, pass it on to their kids if the rest of it panned out (pun intended)?

(Folks, these are college students, thinking the book should be put aside for a
couple years b/c of one word!)

THAT is why the word matters. First impressions do matter and these college students decided the word was inappropriate for the intended age level. This decision will doubtless be repeated endlessly in conservative areas, at least.

Pesonally, I read the book and found myself lukewarm to it, as another poster said. I didn't believe a French woman would--at the drop of a hat--come over the US, find this tiny city in the desert--and stay. I never bought into the basic premises of the story.

Also, it was hard to catch the rhythms in the book, and that made it hard to read aloud. The Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor's Center is a mouthful, especially when coming upon it cold.

Opinions vary widely, as they say.
S.

Posted : Feb 09, 2007 11:25

Melinda

>Well, how on earth did that get under my Rosefiend name? Anyway, that post was by me, Melinda.

Posted : Feb 09, 2007 10:29

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