How to use this Page

I never got around to reading this series, but they are certainly popular. Maybe I should give them a go.

I loved, loved this book too for the same reasons as you and plan to feature it in a blog post in February during the anniversary of The Gates project.

When I was a teenager, Christo and Jeanne Claude lived in my Colorado town for most of two years while they worked on the Valley Curtain project. It too, was orange, which is why we're more likely to refer to it as the Orange Curtain. The most intriguing part of that experience was the way those two cosmopolitan artists (and their then 13-year-old son) interacted with the residents of our small rural town of 2500. Basically, although we didn't understand them or the project, we loved them. I'll have to buy this book.

Jude, you will not be disappointed. It has an amazing double spread of the Valley Curtain project. When I flipped open that page, tears just came rushing into my eyes. It is stunning! Really, imagine how many lives these two artistic souls have touched and enriched! I'm really grateful for the authors for documenting their lives for me, and for the young readers.

I just received the book from Amazon (I still live in that same town, so the nearest bookstore is 60 miles away). I might not have known about this title if it weren't for your blog, so thank you for reviewing it. I didn't see the curtain when it was intact because I was away at band camp, but they kept it up for a week after it tore, blowing in the wind, and I rode my bike under it, appreciating the way it turned everything (including me) orange. It truly was beautiful (as is the book). Thanks again for your review.

I've some of those pictures you've taken.
I can inmagine how touched when you read this book.
Good for you.

We displayed it as soon as we got it and I don't think it's been on our shelves yet!

Okay, I had to reserve this one from the public library, since this is the second review I've seen. I'm not even that interested in swords and it looks very cool!

Hi, is there an email address to contact this blog? Thanks, Shari

Was this the finished hardcover book or the ARC? (Advanced Reading Copy.) If the latter, most if not all of those things will be attended to. If you have an actual hardcover book purchased in a store, then it is a sloppy, sloppy job.

Jane Yolen

No, the vast majority of children's publishers do not have full-time dedicated copyeditors on staff. Freelance copyeditors and proofreaders, overseen by in-house managing editors/production editors, handle most novel manuscripts. The managing editors/ production editors usually copyedit shorter pieces (flaps, picture book mss, marketing copy, etc.) themselves.

Errors stink! We can't undo a mistakes that occur in a first printing, but we will happily correct them when a book (hopefully) reprints. However, we have to know there's a mistake in the first place. We don't have the time or money to spend on proofreading books we've already published (and a lot of the authors don't read their finished books, either). So please, readers: when you discover a typo, please take the time to fire off a quick note/email to the publisher.

It is a finished Hardcover version, already out on the market.

I agree with you and your dismay about the abundance of errors---printing, spelling, grammatical (especially with verb tense and "lie" and "lay"), word choice. etc/---that come out in formal printing these days and find it interesting that the anonymous comment above (which must be from someone who works in a publishing house)says, "We can't undo a mistakes. . . ." Obviously. Can't find 'em either.

Hi fairrosa,
Love your blog on typos, but you've got one on your site's sidebar: historiccal fiction.
Perhaps you had the hiccups when you typed that.
douglas florian

Thanks, Doug, It's fixed. This is a one-woman operation and yes, I have to fix typos either discovered by myself or by others all the time. And since English is my second language, I don't always use the correct expressions (especially when it comes to prepositions and idiomatic phrases.) I depend heavily on "the kindness of strangers" in this area!

FSG has the most amazing team of copyeditors. I think of myself as a careful writer, and I polish my work before it goes to copyediting, but they always catch things. I say "they" because a manuscript does go out to free-lance copyeditors first, but then an in-house copyeditor goes over it all again before returning it to the editor, who then returns it to the author. Karla Reginald especially deserves a round of applause in this conversation. She is sensitive to voice (understands that a character might not say "whom" even when it is correct, for example), and open to conversation about a disputed point, of which there are very few. And if an error does slip through, they'll fix it in the next printing. (How can an author not read her own published book?!)
Helen Frost

Ack--I misspelled Karla Reganold's name!
Proves my point, I guess, in an odd way--where would I be without her?
Helen Frost

And in your newest book - Diamond Willow (by the way, I adore it!) the layout on each page has to be so perfectly aligned, too! It's quite a feat of the production team!

Thank you--that means a lot to me.
Could you elaborate on what you mean about the diamonds being a feat of the production team?
One of the print reviews used the word "typeset" (rather than "composed") when mentioning the shape of the language on the pages, so I'm wondering if people are imagining that I sent it in as paragraphs with instructions to the typesetters--or what? It's nice to have a chance to ask someone.

Oh, no. It's obvious that you composed each piece with the diamond shape and the hidden heart all planned out. I merely meant that the production team had to make sure that they kept to your original designs without messing them up.

Yes, it is definitely a joint effort.
You'd be a great copyeditor, by the way! It's more than proofreading, for sure.
thanks,
Helen

Having been an editor, I would also say that many of the younger editors have poor grasp of grammar and editorial basics themselves. I notice not only typos that are not caught but a whole range of anachronistic language in both juvenile and adult historical fiction that drives me crazy.

Right... the anachronistic terminologies drive me bunkers as well. Just to make up an example or two: A character would be using words like "DNA" in their conversation against a backdrop of a 17th century Italy. It stops me short and makes me suspicious of the rest of the story. I know little flaws should not spoil the entire book -- but they sometimes do, to me, because I read every word carefully and little things do change the entire flow of the telling. (Either in Fiction or Nonfiction.)

That should be "bonkers," as in "drives me bonkers." Not bunkers. Although those in bunkers often are driven bonkers, no doubt.
(Former copyeditor here.)

See. I said that as English is not my mother tongue, I am weak with idiomatic usages. And this is proof that an editor and a copy editor must have the right training and expertise to even see that there is a problem. I am now going to edit that comment to correct the mistake, taking advantage of online "publishing."

Wow. I cannot change the comment content -- can only delete it. So for now, I'm leaving all evidence on the site :)

Copyediting quality can vary greatly, depending on how much time and money a publishing house devotes to the task. No author, press, or book is perfect, but over time one can see that some publishers or imprints have a lot more errors (or bad bindings) than others.

Hi. all. I am the author of The Richest Doll in the World.

Until reading the comments on your site, I did not go back to check the quality of the printing of the book. This may seem odd, but I totally trusted Holiday House, the oldest surviving children's publisher in the country. I can only say that I'm deep into the writing of the next novel and was thoroughly tired of reading and re-reading "Doll."

The book was copy-edited and I received and corrected galleys. The editor and I had further correspondence and phone conversations about corrections. I had, until today, no idea how badly Holiday House had let me down. Although several friends and family members have mentioned "errors" in the text, it never occured to me that they were so many and so egregious -- and that they had never appeared in the galleys!
You may be sure I am contacting my editor. I am heartsick about this!
Polly M. Robertus

You summed up this book perfectly, I think. Isn't it wonderful?

This sounds really fun. Thanks for the rec!

Someone compares this to a Dahl story and I asked my 3rd grade daughter if she feels that way. She disagreed, saying that there is a deliberate "mystery and problem solving" going on (actually, there are more than one mystery in the story) which makes it different from stories by Roald Dahl. She couldn't put it down, finishing it in 2 days!

Reading that your daughter couldn't put it down is the best review of all. Thanks for passing that on!

I loved this as well! I cannot wait for the next one.

Hi, Stasia! Glad that you loved this one, too. What other books would you recommend me to read? (Must be 2007 Publication! Sorry)

Llyfrgellyddes would be the right word. The male version is llyfrgellydd.

Sorry Paul, but I don’t think there’s such a word as Llyfrgellyddes, or even if there is, it’s never used. Both a male and female librarian would be refered to as Llyfrgellydd