courtesy of Amazon.com
Consider my mind blown. A 54 page picture book?
Of course it’s a biography of Albert Einstein (On a Beam of Light A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky) and there’s relativity and quantum physics and atomic particle stuff. But still.
We are “taught” to work within 32 (or maybe 44) pages for picture books and then, wham! Chronicle Books goes and does this. The interesting thing is, every page needs to be there. Whether it’s a full page of art or art plus words, each page feels right.
Consequently, the book feels right. It’s a big topic…not just the science, but the book also captures the love Albert’s parents had for him, Albert’s frustration with school/teachers who limited him, societal constraints (#nosocks), how wondering can lead to understanding, and the power of following your unique passion. So many wonderful layers.
To add one more interesting layer to this post, you have to go back in time with me. Recently, I expounded to my critique group about word count in picture book biographies trending up (partially to justify my 1000 word + backmatter WIP biography) and that of course there are low word count bios like The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse (Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper) and On a Beam of Light, but most I’d read were in the 800 – 1800 range.
So hold up there, cowgirl. Did you catch that? I’d read On a Beam of Light at least five times and heard it discussed by Chronicle editor savant Melissa Manlove (if you don’t know who she is, you should — just sayin’) before I decided to study it. In my head, it was a traditional 32 page, low word count book. HOWEVAH — the word count? About 1160! And, pages? 54! It took typing out the text in two columns (to represent the left and right side of a book which is the starting point of my study) to notice the number of words and pages. In fact, I hand-counted the pages again because I didn’t believe my Word doc!
Of course it’s a biography of Albert Einstein (On a Beam of Light A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky) and there’s relativity and quantum physics and atomic particle stuff. But still.
We are “taught” to work within 32 (or maybe 44) pages for picture books and then, wham! Chronicle Books goes and does this. The interesting thing is, every page needs to be there. Whether it’s a full page of art or art plus words, each page feels right.
Consequently, the book feels right. It’s a big topic…not just the science, but the book also captures the love Albert’s parents had for him, Albert’s frustration with school/teachers who limited him, societal constraints (#nosocks), how wondering can lead to understanding, and the power of following your unique passion. So many wonderful layers.
To add one more interesting layer to this post, you have to go back in time with me. Recently, I expounded to my critique group about word count in picture book biographies trending up (partially to justify my 1000 word + backmatter WIP biography) and that of course there are low word count bios like The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse (Patricia MacLachlan and Hadley Hooper) and On a Beam of Light, but most I’d read were in the 800 – 1800 range.
So hold up there, cowgirl. Did you catch that? I’d read On a Beam of Light at least five times and heard it discussed by Chronicle editor savant Melissa Manlove (if you don’t know who she is, you should — just sayin’) before I decided to study it. In my head, it was a traditional 32 page, low word count book. HOWEVAH — the word count? About 1160! And, pages? 54! It took typing out the text in two columns (to represent the left and right side of a book which is the starting point of my study) to notice the number of words and pages. In fact, I hand-counted the pages again because I didn’t believe my Word doc!
A book like this is like a newly discovered treasure chest. It isn’t until we break it open and take time to run our fingers through the gems that we fully comprehend the riches within. I love that I didn’t catagorize it in my head as a longer format picture book. And after 10 years in this business, I love that my mind was blown. Well played, Chronicle!
