Translated from English

Foreign book covers are always fun to look at--often I like them better than the American cover.

Here are some photos of a few of my writing friends' books that I took in a couple bookstores in Frankfurt.


The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas
This was just released here in Germany--The Magic Thief got a special stand on a table full of middle grade books. Hardcover books are always encased in plastic.



Invisible Lives by Anjali Banarjee.
Face out!



Two of the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr. There were stacks of these books.


Climate Change by Shelley Tanaka and Heck Superhero by Martine Leavitt. I had to hunt for these, but they were published here a year or two ago.

How to tell this story?

I'm working on revisions of three very different stories (all in different genres) this week. One great thing about VCFA is it encourages me to explore and try all sorts of writing I might not have tried on my own.

Uma Krishnaswami taught me many things last semester and one thing (of several) that sticks with me is that asking questions is vital to my writing.

I ask myself " What is the best way to tell this story?" when I revise. This question leads me to other questions. Asking questions, even ones that might not be logical on the surface, help me explore the story and learn more about my characters. Questions help me see the story in a different way.

Writing is often a circular path. It involves experimenting, playing with possibilities. The longer I spend with a story, the better I know my characters. Then I can push deeper and learn more about my characters.

There are so many craft elements that effect the way the story will be told. At some point in the revising process I have to think about each choice I made and why I chose to craft that aspect of the story in the way I did.

I am fascinated by the process of writing and revising. I think of it as play. It is fun to play with words and characters and situations.

There are many ways to tell each story. Perhaps there isn't a "best" way to tell a particular story. Each possible approach will create a different effect and in some cases a very different story.

Shelley Tanaka wanted me to do a variety of things as I revised this month. She also wanted me to think about what is perhaps the most important question of all: "What do I love about this story?"

The new Jacket Knack Blog

Check out Jacket Knack, a new blog that talks about covers on kids' books. Julie Larios and Carol Brendler post every Monday.

They are posting in depth and fascinating discussions, as well as many examples of book jackets. This week Brenda continues the discussion about the Liar cover controversy and interviews Nnedi Okorafor, an African-American author of young adult fantasy novels.

For those who aren't familiar with publishing, writers rarely have much input on the cover of their book. It is always an exciting day when my friends see their book cover for the first time.

Historical Treasures of Children’s Literature #2 -Struwwelpeter

An early picture book I just discovered is Struwwelpeter.
I found the Struwwelpeter statue in downtown Frankfurt. The man holds his gun in the statue--at the end of one of the stories the rabbit holds (and shoots) the gun. The girl on the left is the one who burns up in her story. Look at the water flowing from the cats' eyes!


About a week ago I took a walk close to where I live in Frankfurt and found this bench.


The writing on the placard states that Heinrich Hoffmann is a picture book writer.

I’d never heard of him. So I came home and learned more. Hoffmann was a doctor and lived most of his life in Frankfurt. He wrote his first picture book as a Christmas present for his children in 1844, supposedly because he didn’t like any existing children’s books.
There is information about him at the Struwwelpeter museum (which I plan to visit soon) in Frankfurt. (Site is in German.)
There is also information in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, a journal and of course on Wikipedia.

Hoffmann’s stories were very popular and translated in many languages. It seems that his books influenced later picture books, as in both the types of stories told and the illustrations.

Hoffmann’s most famous work is Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures, published in 1845. It was one of the best know picture books in the 1800’s. The first English translation was in 1848.

This book contains violent stories and images by today’s picture book standards: a girl burns up because she plays with matches, a tailor chops off a boy's thumbs because he sucks them, and a rabbits shoots a gun at a man.

Another photo of the Struwwelpeter statue in downtown Frankfurt.


Mark Twain also translated this book (Slovenly Peter, 1891) when he was lived in Berlin, but it wasn’t published until 1935.

To read the book go to this link at Project Gutenberg which is a great place to find older, out of copyright books. Their main page is here.
Struwwelpeter can also be found here.

My previous Historical Treasures of Children’s Literature #1 blog post is here. It discusses The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie, (about 1840), an ABC picture book which doesn’t use the letters I, T and U.