Behind the Covers is an addition to the growing number of books devoted to the backgrounds of children's authors and illustrators. Students of children's literature are familiar with omnibus directories such as the continuing Junior Book of Authors series (H.W. Wilson), Something about the Author (Gale Research), and illustrators of Children's Books (Horn Book) which are considered standards on the subject for the information they impart. There are many others also. All of these books offer staff-written critiques and evaluations, or offer author- or illustrator-supplied comments reformatted for directory use. More personal volumes are also available such as Lee Bennett Hopkins's Books Are by People and More Books by More People (Citation Press), among others. Behind the Covers fits more correctly In the scheme of Hopkins's books, in that this volume is uncritical and presents more of the "other side" of the creator—the more personal, the intimate and the working sides.
And yet Behind the Covers takes readers one step further—by allowing them to see or perhaps glimpse into the work habits and creative lives of the twenty-two people here. Through a question-and-answer format, the authors and illustrators are presented here in their own words, not my words, not the words of a critic, not the words of an evaluator.
The people here display a simultaneous mixture of freshness and familiarity, speaking candidly about their work, offering their views and perceptions to the public (many of them for the first time), giving credence to this volume's title, Behind the Covers. Here is the opportunity to hear from the creator's side, many of the issues that are discussed in college classrooms, schoolrooms, and professional schools, and, sometimes, in the press. Here are comments on reviewers, on buyers, on bookmaking, and on the creative process. The full scheme of creating children's and young adult books is here, in one form or another.
The broad selection of people here—novelists, poets, folklorists, fine artists, biographers—is intentional; it provides a sampling of the diversity of the activity and opinion of those creating children's and young adult books. There is a balance of well-known award-winners and newcomers; there are authors, illustrators, and author-illustrators, fiction and nonfiction specialists, the known and the soon-to-be-known. This selection of people may well represent the larger creative community of those who develop books for a young audience.