Honey for a Child's Heart

It’s sometimes like wandering into unknown territory if you’ve had favorite books in your own childhood and want to find those same books for your own children. A favorite old book goes out of print, and a generation or so later a publisher decides to re-issue this book—with results that are sometimes wonderful and sometimes so disappointing it makes a person want to cry. I’ve written about this before but the reaction of bookstore owner Terri Schmitz (The Children’s Book Shop, Brookline, Massachusetts) to what Houghton did to Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (Virginia Lee Burton,1939) is worth noting because she is right on target when she writes the following in Horn Book Magazine, Nov-Dec. 2007:

“Whose idea was it to take one of the most beloved children’s books of all time, butcher the text and leave out a number of pictures? Poor Mike and Mary Anne. They’re no longer given credit for cutting through the mountains to clear the way for railroads, or smoothing the ground for airport runways. The crucial plot elements that they work faster and better when they have an audience is barely mentioned. And that most dastardly of villains, Selectman Henry B. Swap, never smiles in ‘a rather mean way’ as he plots to back out of paying Mike and Mary Anne for their work digging the cellar for the new town hall.…Where is the unbearable tension as the day wears on and the sun moves inexorably across the sky? What about the drama as Mike and Mary Anne cut each corner of the cellar hole? And why is the heroism of the little boy who rallies the townspeople to cheer on the man and his machine not celebrated? There is no reason to sigh in satisfaction when Mike and Mary Anne triumph in the end, because we haven’t been given the chance to worry that they might actually fail.”

Well, that certainly tells you about Schmitz’ disappointment with this reissue in no uncertain terms. She wonders what “evil genius” prompts publishers to produce board book versions out of popular picture books that should not be board books. Why? Because they eviscerate the original text and illustrations to fit the board book layout. In short, they take the heart out of a book. My question is why make a board book out of book aimed at ages 3-5 or 4-8? Board books are best when written as board books for very little children.

Schmitz makes a critical point when she complains that her strongest objection is that people who purchase this new version will never know what they’re missing, and won’t bother to read the original. And that is a crying shame. Other people won’t recognize the difference, see the title and exclaim, “O, this is a wonderful book!” Then they buy it and think they have the book they remember.

Book fans feel strongly about the sanctity of books—the text and often the original art. An internet check often reveals outraged fans venting their disappointment at edited plots and changes in illustrations because they consider the new edition a travesty. No matter how you feel about this issue, think kindly of such fans if you have not read the original. (However, in the case of Mike Mulligan, all the internet reviews I could find are rave comments about the original book, not the board book.)

Personally I feel a great sympathy for parents and readers who object, for I know that same sense of betrayal when I see someone has tampered with my favorite book. You may not be such a ‘purist,’ but do consider how foolish it is to throw away the past without good reason. Dollars are not good reasons.