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Squeezing the orange.

Article Excerpt
Recently a customer came into my bookstore asking for help in choosing a baby gift. Among other things, she thought she might like a copy of Goodnight Moon, and I found myself saying, "Would you like it in hardcover or paperback? We also have a small board book and a lap-size board book. Or you might want it in a boxed set with The Runaway Bunny, or there's a book and doll set, or a book and rattle combo ..." As her eyes started to glaze over, it suddenly occurred to me that I sounded just like a Starbucks barista. "Tall, grande, or venti? Skim or whole? Regular, decaf, half-caf? Latte, cappuccino? Foam or no foam?"

Since when have we needed so many choices? What is the fine line between offering something for everyone and annoying the heck out of our customers? I find myself asking this more and more as we're inundated with old books in new formats. Does there really need to be a board book version of Stellaluna? Will the graphic novel versions of Artemis Fowl and Stormbreaker and the Baby-sitters Club novels extend the already huge audiences for those titles? How about the pop-up versions of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato? Years ago, this reworking of established titles was referred to as "mining the backlist." Now I've heard it described cynically by a children's book publisher as "squeezing more juice from the orange."

Whatever you call it, the doctoring has filtered down to books for the very young. This season brings us board book versions of a number of familiar titles, welcome in some cases, baffling in others. I'm most pleased about Houghton Mifflin's board book versions of Olivier Dunrea's captivating stories about a group of inquisitive goslings: Gossie; Gossie & Gertie (both 2002); Ollie; and Ollie the Stomper (both 2003). All four books were originally published as small jacketed hardcovers, and from the moment I saw them I knew they would make perfect board books. Dunrea is precisely attuned to the toddler world, and his goslings have the same concerns: making friends, losing beloved objects, wanting someone else's beloved objects. The goslings march across the clean white pages in their bright blue and red boots, having tiny adventures and learning about the world as they go.

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Anne Rockwell is also completely comfortable in the world of very small children. Over the years she has brought us books about seasons, vehicles, occupations, holidays, and numerous other topics of great interest to toddlers. One of my favorites has always been The Toolbox (1971), written with her husband Harlow and originally published by Macmillan. Now Walker & Company has published it in a board...

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