{"id":446,"date":"2008-01-15T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-15T06:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbicmsblog.reedbusiness.com\/elogic_660000266\/2008\/01\/15\/the-eyes-behind-the-prize\/"},"modified":"2008-01-15T06:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-15T06:51:00","slug":"the-eyes-behind-the-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"The Eyes Behind the Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still reeling a bit from the surprises that came with yesterday’s announcement<\/a> of the ALA’s biggest book awards. After months of speculating about the likelihood of The Invention of Hugo Cabret<\/em> being awarded a Caldecott Honor<\/em> at least, I was nevertheless shocked to see a Caldecott committee bold or forward-thinking enough to give it top billing. WOW!!<\/p>\n

And THEN to have the Newbery committee make such an unusual and creative choice too?? I found it rather thrilling, to be honest with you. And I also found it quite satisfying for a different reason too. The editor of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!<\/a><\/em> at Candlewick Press is Mary Lee Donovan, who happens to be brilliant and long-overdue for accolades at exactly this level. While it’s true that Mary Lee is my editor<\/a> and I therefore have some very personal insight into her talents, my editorial relationship with her has really only just begun. No, my knowledge of Mary Lee’s abilities comes primarily from the work I’ve done as a buyer and the conversations I’ve had with other people about Mary Lee’s editing skills. I see the types of books she chooses, I read the books she edits, and I’ve spoken with a lot of authors she’s worked with — all of whom seem to think she’s brilliant. Seeing the work Mary Lee gets out of them suggests that that is indeed the case. And now there are going to be a lot of shiny gold seals in the world acting as proof!<\/p>\n

I rarely hear much discussion, at least among booksellers, about which editors are behind the books at the top of the annual heap, but the longer I’m in this business, the more I appreciate the part they’ve played in getting these books to that position. It’s in large part their eyes for talent and editorial instincts that make each year’s pool of potential award-winners such a deep one. So, authors, illustrators AND editors of the year’s best books (both those applauded today and those not) I tip my hat to you. Thanks for another great year of reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m still reeling a bit from the surprises that came with yesterday’s announcement of the ALA’s biggest book awards. After months of speculating about the likelihood of The Invention of Hugo Cabret being awarded a Caldecott Honor at least, I was nevertheless shocked to see a Caldecott committee bold or forward-thinking enough to give it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}