Storybook Culture: The Art of Popular Children's Books

Rating:
Summary: A treasure trove timeless art and visual memories
Review: The collaborative effort of Joseph Homme and Cheryl Homme, Storybook Culture: The Art Of Popular Children's Books is a gorgeous coffee-table artwork filled from cover to cover with full-color photographs showcasing the cover art of a wide variety of classic and vintage children's books and magazines. Storybook Culture is enhanced with a few cogent essays about these classic and popular books (and their inspirational cover art), but the majority of this enchanting tome is dedicated to the cover illustrations themselves, each with an informative caption about the book's author, illustrator, and publisher. A treasure trove timeless art and visual memories, Storybook Culture is especially recommended as a school or community library Memorial Fund acquisition selection.

Rating:
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: This book is a companion to Pulp Culture, which I enjoyed thoroughly. This book, however, was a singular disappointment. The book's subtitle "the art of popular children's books". First, it's important to be clear that Storybook Culture doesn't cover all children's books but focuses on 'series books for the under-16': Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Rick Brant, X-Bar-X, Chip Hilton, Cherry Ames, etc.. Not a problem for me as that's an area that I'm keenly interested in. The authors' championing of the Judy Bolton and Rick Brant series is welcome.
However, this book is supposed to be about the !art! of the children's book. In fact, each chapter is about the stories, plots, and authors of the books. At most 25% of the chapter, shoved to the end, is devoted to the art or artists. If the authors did any research in this area, very little of it shows. The vast majority of the artists whose works appear in this book are never discussed. Nor is the process that artists went through in producing the art for these books discussed in any depth. Very few authors get their bios and those are almost invariably the most famous artists where information would be readily available (N.C. Wyeth, Dr. Suess).
Instead what we get are the authors' impressions of the art on the covers of these books. Typically, they take one or two covers and describe them in detail (which seems unnecessary since the covers are reproduced in the book), commenting on the character of the picture. Personally, I only occasionally found this commentary insightful or informative. Of the many artists whose work for Westerns is shown in the book, only four (Rogers, Gretter, Luane, and Williams) get any real discussion of their work. Since Rogers, Gretter, and Luane are also discussed for their work in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, only Williams is new for this chapter. One illustration by Eggenhofer is discussed in the chapter's second last paragraph. Only Williams is honoured with a biography.
I assume that the authors had a word count to fulfill. With very little to say about the art, they wander off topic frequently. I'm not aware that Russell or Remington ever illustrated children's books but they are mentioned by name and get a paragraph of discussion, while the artists that actually produced childrens books do not. It's not clear to me that synopsis of plots from H.G. Wells and Jules Vernes novels add anything to the chapter on science fiction novels. Were the authors under the impression that Wells and Verne wrote for the science fiction series? Did they think that the readers of Storybook culture wouldn't be familiar with the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? No art from those books is shown to justify this excursion. The same could be said for the long discussion of the theories of teaching reading that introduce the last chapter. Only the background for the Dick and Jane books is at all relevant.
The authors' writing style can only be described as precious. As an example, in discussing Williams: "Williams interest in architecture waned when he found limited job opportunities. Fortunately, Williams's artistic abilities were recognized, and he was offered a scholarship to study painting." Questions left unanswered are: Recognized by who? Offered a scholarship by who? Study painting where? Studied with who? The sentence really boils down to 14 words: "Williams studied painting on a scholarship when he couldn't find a job in architecture" but the authors take 26 words to convey that.
The material on the authors and series is great (though not the topic of the book). If you can get past the writing style, and are interested in childrens book series, this is an excellent source. If you are interested in the art or the artists--well, there is an abundance of sample covers (very little interior art, though, but that's probably not the authors' fault).

Rating:
Summary: A great disappointment
Review: This book is a companion to Pulp Culture, which I enjoyed thorougly. This book, however, was a singular disappointment. The book's subtitle "the art of popular children's books". First, it's important to be clear that Storybook Culture doesn't cover all children's books but focuses on 'series books for the under-16': Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Rick Brant, X-Bar-X, Chip Hilton, Cherry Ames, etc.. Not a problem for me as that's an area that I'm keenly interested in. The authors' championing of the Judy Bolton and Rick Brant series is welcome.
However, this book is supposed to be about the !art! of the children's book. In fact, each chapter is about the stories, plots, and authors of the books. At most 25% of the chapter, shoved to the end, is devoted to the art or artists. If the authors did any research in this area, very little of it shows. The vast majority of the artists whose works appear in this book are never discussed. Nor is the process that artists went through in producing the art for these books discussed in any depth. Very few authors get their bios and those are almost invariably the most famous artists where information would be readily available (N.C. Wyeth, Dr. Suess).
Instead what we get are the authors' impressions of the art on the covers of these books. Typically, they take one or two covers and describe them in detail (which seems unnecessary since the covers are reproduced in the book), commenting on the character of the picture. Personally, I only occasionally found this commentary insightful or informative. Of the many artists whose work for Westerns is shown in the book, only four (Rogers, Gretter, Luane, and Williams) get any real discussion of their work. Since Rogers, Gretter, and Luane are also discussed for their work in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, only Williams is new for this chapter. One illustration by Eggenhofer is discussed in the chapter's second last paragraph. Only Williams is honoured with a biography.
I assume that the authors had a word count to fulfill. With very little to say about the art, they wander off topic frequently. I'm not aware that Russell or Remington ever illustrated children's books but they are mentioned by name and get a paragraph of discussion, while the artists that actually produced childrens books do not. It's not clear to me that synopsis of plots from H.G. Wells and Jules Vernes novels add anything to the chapter on science fiction novels. Were the authors under the impression that Wells and Verne wrote for the science fiction series? Did they think that the readers of Storybook culture wouldn't be familiar with the plot of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? No art from those books is shown to justify this excursion. The same could be said for the long discussion of the theories of teaching reading that introduce the last chapter. Only the background for the Dick and Jane books is at all relevant.
The authors' writing style can only be described as precious. As an example, in discussing Williams: "Williams interest in architecture waned when he found limited job opportunities. Fortunately, Williams's artistic abilities were recognized, and he was offered a scholarship to study painting." Questions left unanswered are: Recognized by who? Offered a scholarship by who? Study painting where? Studied with who? The sentence really boils down to 14 words: "Williams studied painting on a scholarship when he couldn't find a job in architecture" but the authors take 26 words to convey that.
The material on the authors and series is great (though not the topic of the book). If you can get past the writing style, and are interested, this is an excellent source. If you are interested in the art or the artists--well, there is an abundance of sample covers (very little interiour art, though, but that's probably not the authors' fault).