BOOKS WITH PICTURES

Yesterday I got a box in the mail. I’d ordered some books but was surprised at how large this box was. I didn’t expect several books to come in the same box. So I opened it and WOW! That box had only one large book in it.

The Encyclopedia of New York State
Peter Eisenstadt, Editor in Chief
Laura-Eve Moss, Managing Editor

I was in the middle of making dinner at the time so I didn’t remove the cellophane just yet. But I kept dreaming about opening that book – getting excited about all the maps and photographs and unexpected info that would help me plot my new work-in-progress. Finally, after dinner, I removed the cellophane. I opened the book.

What?!” said the right side of my brain. “Where are all the pictures? Why is the print so tiny and so all-over-the-page?”

That’s when my logical side spoke up. “Because it is an encyclopedia, silly!”

“Oh, that’s right.”

I guess I thought I was getting a coffee table book. But I knew the title said encyclopedia...

And frankly, if you're going to write a book about the state of New York it will take a lot of words! Also there is the fact that I love research. I should be able to handle this.

But I’m a right-brained, visual person. I need icons, and graphics and photos to help me sort out the wealth of info that a book or website has to offer.

Children are like that too, of course. My books for young people don’t typically have pictures in them. So I try hard to keep lots of white space on the page and to paint pictures with my words.

Even here in my blog, my goal is to appeal to young people. It just doesn’t seem right to post without some photos. So I included one below – just in case you want to see all the words in my new encyclopedia.