Wednesday, June 20

The Many Riders of Paul Revere

Pretty risque title for children's non-fiction title, but that's what it said on the outside of the box of galleys from Scholastic. Sadly, the galley's correct title appeared on the cover: The Many Rides of Paul Revere.

The cover says it's illustrated with archival art and new illustrations but when you look at the title page and it says "Illustrated with Archival Photographs." Hmm. That almost sounds as if they were using photos taken during Paul Revere's day, a pretty nifty trick given that he died about 150 years before photography became popular. Ah, I get it, the photos are archival, meaning they came from archives. Which would explain the contemporary photos of the liberty bell complete with it's acrylic plaque.

Couldn't it have said "Profusely Illustrated"? Or just not pointed out what is completely obvious, that it's at least 40% illustrated? After all, if illustrations are important to a reader (and for non-fiction it is important to a young reader) all they're going to do is flip through the pages before they start to read it anyway, why bother stating the obvious? It's not like they need to know that information for their book report.

Look for The Many Rides of Paul Revere in October.

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