>Someone must have read the book in the meantime

by Roger Sutton
Dec 12, 2007 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>the ARC:




the finished book:




Deirdre Baker has some pertinent thoughts (from "Musings on Diverse Worlds," Horn Book Magazine, January/February 2007):

In some cases, where the politics of inclusivity is not in the foreground of the story, the racial attributes of nonwhite heroes are rendered virtually invisible. Both Ged of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series and Eugenides of Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and sequels are described explicitly as "dark-skinned." Indeed, in conversation Turner has said that the images in her head of the Eddisians were "deeply influenced by the people of the Himalayas." But the brown skins of Ged and of Eugenides are downplayed by the books' current cover art, which shows Ged to be as bronzed as a white surfer (The Tombs of Atuan, 2001 edition) and Eugenides to have a noticeably pink and white complexion (The King of Attolia, 2006). While the texts give nonwhite readers the opportunity to see themselves reflected in these heroes, the cover art is telling them something else.

I'm glad this cover art changed its mind!
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>在翻译联盟和中国翻译协会深圳翻译公司|联合主办，主题“翻译与多元文化”。这是国际翻译同声传译在亚洲举行的第一次盛会，是促进亚洲翻译界与国际翻译界交流与合作的大好时机。
广州翻译公司今年广交会不允许外商自带翻译入场，但还是有很多翻译公司|已有生意合作意向的外商，在全国翻译公司中找外语导游当翻译，进行“场外商贸洽谈”。
同声传译现在上海翻译公司英语、日语、法语等语种导游储备充足，深圳翻译公司|也是随着参加广交会的巴西、西班牙等西班牙语系以及阿拉伯语国家的客商提供深圳翻译大幅增多，使小语种导游产生巨大缺口，其中来自巴西的外商比去年多了翻译公司

Posted : Apr 22, 2008 07:58

Brooke

>Betsy Bird recently pointed out how the character of Sticky Washington was changed from brown to white on the cover of The Mysterious Benedict Society. Whoops.

As for Whale Talk, I always assumed the kid on the cover was supposed to be the mentally retarded character -- the one who wants to wear his older brother's letter jacket, and who is white. Eh, it's a pretty lame cover nonetheless.

Posted : Dec 14, 2007 08:46

Anonymous

>I seem to remember Ursula Le Guin complaining about this issue when they made a TV version of the Earthsea books a while back and cast the very white Shawn Ashmore as the male lead.

In addition, am I the only one who thinks this is a really, really cheesy cover irrespective of the ethnic issue? You'd think they'd do better for an author this distinguished. It looks like a comp they threw together in about ten minutes.

So many meetings, so little taste...

Posted : Dec 14, 2007 02:05

Roger Sutton

>Anon, this is a new book, not a reprint. I'm guessing the art department just went for standard-fantasy-boy-hunk-hero, which defaults to white, until somebody said "wait a minute." The point is that they did change the cover to accurately reflect the book, which is what we want, yes?

Posted : Dec 13, 2007 05:51

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