Meanwhile, the books themselves have also been changing dramatically, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Viking's growing list of, well . . . In addition to Scieszka and Smith, consider such edgy new talents as Maira Kalman, J. Otto Seibold, Richard McGuire, Istvan Banyai, Michael Bartalos, and Kim and Doug Kennedy. But I never thought of it as taking a chance. I think we've just been extremely lucky. Of course, Viking doesn't have a lock on this new type of humorous book with multigenerational appeal.
Librarians seem to agree.
At least, The Stinky Cheese Man was named both a Notable Children's Book and a Caldecott Honor Book in 1993. Even more significantly, however, it was also named a Best Book for Young Adults. After all, Penguin's ambitious new ad campaign isn't designed to send viewers to their local libraries to borrow books but to their nearest bookstores to buy them. This is also a reason, I suspect, for the spate of books by celebrity authors. Others have been heavily influenced by earlier styles to which they were exposed in art school.