Continuing our exploration of the world of e-books for children, we’re asking practitioners and people on the ground about some of the challenges and triumphs for them personally, as well as for the children’s publishing industry as a whole.
Today we have with us Janet Wong, former lawyer turned children’s book author of numerous books, including A Suitcase of Seaweed, Me and Rolly Maloo, Twist: Yoga Poems, and Once Upon a Tiger, an illustrated e-book poetry collection about endangered animals, as well as three e-poetry collections, co-designed and edited with Sylvia Vardell: Poetry Tag Time, p*tag and the recently released Gift Tag. Janet’s many awards include the International Reading Association’s “Celebrate Literacy Award”.
We first interviewed Janet in 2008 and it’s great to welcome her back to PaperTigers to talk here about her experiences with e-books.
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What was your inspiration for writing e-books? Was that your intention from the get-go, or was there an evolution in your creative process?
Sylvia Vardell and I hatched our PoetryTagTime project one year ago at the NCTE convention with one simple goal: to make poetry an impulse buy. Poetry books are too often neglected, left to collect dust on bookshelves. We wanted people to hear about our books, read a sample poem, click “buy” (for no more than the cost of a cup of coffee)–and fall in love with poetry!
Children’s books, particularly picture books, present specific challenges to the e-book industry in terms of faithful reproduction of art and story. They also present exciting opportunities for new forms of interaction. What limitations or challenges, expected or unexpected, have you personally experienced creating e-books for children, and in turn, what benefits have you discovered as compared to printed books?
Designing for the small black-and-white screen of the Kindle isn’t easy, especially since you can’t know what size font a reader will choose. A child who chooses a large font might end up breaking a poem’s lines in places where a line break might be, well, ugly. For our third PoetryTagTime venture, GIFT TAG, Sylvia came up with the name “Kindleku” to describe the form that we “invented” for the Kindle screen. This form allows a maximum of 10 lines and 25 characters per line (including spaces)–the most that will fit on a Kindle screen when it is set at Font Size 6 (though Font Size 4 is, in my opinion, the best size for reading most e-books). Douglas Florian called this form the “Kindlekuku” and we acknowledge in the intro that it was cuckoo to limit our poets to 250 characters per poem–but we think the poems are terrific!
Particularly in English-speaking countries, a common concern is the lack of diversity in children’s books. How do you think e-books might address such concerns, and how has your work engaged with issues of multicultural children’s books?
More and more people are discovering the authors in themselves and soon will be using e-books to make their voices and stories heard. This is such an exciting time to be involved with books. There will be lots of awful books, just as there are lots of awful YouTube videos–but there will also be indie-pub
With a light dusting of snow this morning in my new town, a 2ft Christmas tree lit, I did a little crafting- making gift tags. I bought one of these craft punch- yikes...so much fun...a little addicting! And I'm a sucker for red ribbons with little stitchings on them. The penguin and the bear might look familiar, I just took it from some pre-existing art. Pretty easy.
And...I'm doing a local craft show this Saturday, 12/12! Its The Craft Circus Holiday Show. 119 E Liberty, Ann Arbor, from 4-9 pm. Hope to meet some local artists and new people there. I'll be bringing my monster cards and some books. Wish me luck!
I missed everybody last week because I had to go out of town and I hope everyone that celebrated Thanksgiving had a very nice one. Have a wonderful extended weekend as well. My submission for Illustration Friday's "balloon" is another die-cut gift tag for a happy birthday greeting.
Homespun Gifttag copyright 2002 Valerie Walsh
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot, The Happy Life, 1896 US educator (1834 - 1926) My submission for Illustration Friday's "wise" theme are some diecut gift tags that feature teachers in the doorway of an old-fashioned school house. copyright 2008 Valerie Walsh
The problem with any sort of detailed *wide* images on Flickr is that they end up being way too tiny. Here, for instance is a close-up of the shifty looking scrubber on the boat. Arrr!
Oh no! It’s Christmas Eve and somebody forgot to buy tags for the gifts. Hmm. Well, you could just get out your Post-it pad or use your burrito wrapper from lunch. Aren’t you swanky.
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These are adorable! I have a feeling you will do well at the craft show :)
these are so cute!
Good luck...I'm sure you will do well at the craft show!**i wish i could pass by :P
Good luck @ the show. I wish I could go to meet you but I'll be up north. hope you are enjoying Michigan!!
cute tags, jannie and good luck at the show! thanks for your nice comment, you're so kind!
So extremely adorable! I love them! Good luck with your craft show! I'm sure you'll sell lots. :)
Ugh! The one time I really wish I was back in Michigan! Rats! I won't be there, but I wish you the best success! Super cute tags!!
They're adorable. I, too, have a thing for those ribbons. They're just too cute! Good luck at the craft show.
oh my heavens Jannie!!! these are the cutest tags I have ever seen!!! you are so clever and talented!!!
it's so much fun to get into all these Holiday crafts!!!!
super and superb :)
Those tags are adorable! Much luck at the craft festival but I'm sure you'll do well!!! :)
These are so good! Inspiring.