Fresh Approaches: New Editions and Reissues
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Joy Fleishhacker -- School Library Journal, 2/18/2008 9:55:00 AM
Unabridged Classics
Sterling recently added four more titles to their “Unabridged Classics” series, bringing the total number to 22. Joining this handsome line of freshly illustrated, sturdy, hardcover editions are Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.
All of the volumes end with discussion questions from education expert Dr. Arthur Pober.
Like the other entries in the series, these books feature dramatic cover illustrations in subtle antique-looking shades, as well as several interior black-and-white panels by Scott McKowen, an artist who specializes in design and illustration for theater and the performing arts. According to Frances Gilbert, Vice President, Editorial Director, Children's Books at Sterling, McKowen employs a “fascinating” process: “Scott
begins with a live model, and his wife Christina [a costume designer] creates an outfit for the model. They stage the entire scene and photograph it, then Scott creates a drawing in scratchboard, a medium where black ink is scraped off a hard illustration board to reveal a white layer beneath. Color is then added digitally.” Calling the result “a wonderful mix of traditional and contemporary techniques,” Gilbert also reveals that the artist “gets right inside each novel, and thoroughly studies not just the story but the era and setting of the story, which allows him to create such detailed and accurate scenes.”
When asked how books are chosen for inclusion in the series, Gilbert explains that “A lot of it comes down to the ‘squeal factor.’ Does the mention of Anne of Green Gables make me and my colleagues squeal with delight and then launch into rapturous stories about how many times we read it as a kid? Do I run to my shelves to dig out my old copy from childhood to show how battered and loved it is? Those are the classic books I want to publish.” Slated for release in October 2008 are Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Avonlea, and Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. Go to Sterling’s Web site (www.sterlingpublishing.com/kids) to view the complete series list.
Emil and the Detectives
Overlook Press presents a new edition of this classic by Erich Kästner, the popular 20th-century German author of Puss in Boots and Baron Munchhausen. Emil boards a train bound for Berlin to visit relatives with his money safely stowed away in his pocket. However, when he reaches his destination, he finds that he has been robbed by a fellow passenger. Luckily, help is on the way in the form of 100 boy detectives, who join Emil in a catch-a-crook adventure. Originally published in Germany in 1929, the book has been widely translated, adapted into different formats, and made into several film versions. Illustrated with Walter Trier’s pen-and-ink cartoons, this edition is newly translated by W. Martin and features an introduction by Maurice Sendak, who calls the book “a little masterpiece. It shows us the heroic nature of children, how they can stick together and accomplish wonders without the help of the inept grownups… It’s very funny, too.”
Pub Info
KIPLING, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. ISBN 978-1-4027-4340-5.
SHELLEY, Mary. Frankenstein. ISBN 978-1-4027-4338-2.
SWIFT, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. ISBN 978-1-4027-4339-9.
VERNE, Jules. Journey to the Center of the Earth. ISBN 978-1-4027-4337-5.
ea vol: Sterling. 2007. Tr $9.95.
KÄSTNER, Erich. Emil and the Detectives. illus. by Walter Trier. tr. By W. Martin. 2007. Overlook Pr. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-58567-586-9.
