Anita Silvey has dedicated much of her adult life to children’s literature. Editor emerita of The Horn Book, former publisher of Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, author, teacher and reviewer, Silvey has been a passionate voice in the field for three decades.
Silvey’s latest book, The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators (Houghton Mifflin), is a revised and updated version of her classic Children’s Book and Their Creators.
Did you know Tomie dePaola would rather give up popcorn than produce pictures as realistic as a photograph? That Eric Carle chose bright colors to counteract the dull hues of his childhood in World War II-era Germany? The Essential Guide—filled with insights and anecdotes both amusing and inspirational—is a book writers both new and experienced will find hard to put down. It would make a great gift (if the giver could part with it.)
Barbara J. Odanaka interviewed the charming and gracious Silvey by phone.
Odanaka: Your book is a feast for anyone with a passion for children’s books. Was it difficult keeping it to...what? A mere 542 pages?
Anita Silvey: [chuckles] Yes, it was virtually impossible, let’s put it that way. I think there are at least a thousand essential writers and illustrators for children. I had eight hundred entries in the first volume, and added one hundred new ones for the current edition. But I wanted to create a paperback that people could use and transport, so the number had to be cut down. I just kept focusing on the fact that at least I was able to bring in 100 new writers and illustrators.
Odanaka:Tell me about the project. How long did it take?
Silvey: I started when I left Houghton in June [2001], and six months later had to have the finished manuscript. It was pretty intense. I lived, breathed and focused on this book.
Odanaka: What do you think are some of the things someone just entering the field of children’s publishing can learn from your book?
Silvey: The stories of how authors come to do their life’s work can be very inspiring. Also it’s interesting to note the range of experience that many authors bring to creating their first children’s book. It’s very rare that, at 19, someone says, “I want to write children’s books.” Of course, Kevin Henkes did that. But by and large, the path is often quite circuitous.
In the case of Karen Cushman, she didn’t start until her 50s, then wrote these spectacular books.
I hope the inclusions set some standards as far as quality or appeal to children. It might give you a sense of what to strive for. However you have to be careful not to set the bar too high. When you look at the career of most authors, the amazing thing is it often takes them ten to twenty years to do their best work.
Odanaka: You’ve been in children’s publishing for more than three decades. How do you feel about its current state? How do you see its future?
Silvey: I think currently there is such vitality in children’s books that I simply believe that will continue. During my lifetime, I’ve seen every mechanism invented. My father pioneered television; he spent his life in the industry. So as a child, I witnessed the debate over whether television was going to educate the children or destroy their ability to read. Of course, television didn’t destroy it. Radios didn’t destroy it. And computers won’t destroy it. I think there is something humanly fundamental about children enjoying a story. I have great faith in that.
Odanaka: Your book begins with a quote from Walter de la Mare: “Only the rarest kind of best in anything is good enough for the young.’’ Do you feel most children’s publishers today put the quality of literature above all else?
Silvey: I don’t believe that there has been any time in publishing when publishers have put the quality of literature above all else. Publishing has always been business. It’s art for gold—that’s the truth about publishing. What I would say is that I believe those books that really last, that really make a difference in the life of a child, do have the quality de la Mare describes. And some publishers are smart enough to look for books that will endure.
But publishing has always been “going to the dogs.” Every year you find someone who says that, and every year beautiful books get published. And that’s the miracle.
Update February, 2004: Silvey is now promoting her latest book, 100 Best Books for Children. Visit her at www.anitasilvey.com
