S&S Crashes Kadir Nelson's Obama Book

By Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 12/11/2008

If it seemed like publishers were racing to keep up with the presidential election this fall (see Children's Bookshelf, August 14), they’re sprinting even faster now that the finish line is in sight—Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20.

While it’s relatively rare for children’s publishers to rush books into print, it’s even rarer for them to compress the writing and prep work for an illustrated book into two weeks. That just might make Kadir Nelson’s illustrated gift book, Change Has Come: An Artist Celebrates Our American Spirit (S&S, $12.99 ISBN 978-1-416-90955-4; Jan.), the crashiest of the Obama crash books this season.

According to Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, the book wasn’t even a glint in BFYR’s eyes until mid-November. “Post-election we were all feeling so great,” he says. “We wanted a keepsake to capture that moment.”

At a cocktail party on November 12 to honor the New York Times’s Best Illustrated Books of the year, which included Nelson’s We Are the Ship (Disney-Jump at the Sun), a few S&S staffers approached Nelson about illustrating a book that would capture the feeling of euphoria of the election, which brought together black and white, young and old.

Two days later they had his initial two charcoal sketches. Nelson delivered the final image a week later on Friday the 21st, and the book went to press on Monday the 24th.

As if that weren’t a tough enough assignment, for the first five days Nelson was touring to promote his book on the nation’s 16th president, Abe’s Honest Words: The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Disney-Hyperion), written by Doreen Rappaport. “At one point,” Nelson recalls, “I was overwhelmed and considered not doing it. Chanda and Bromley calmed my fears and said, ‘Go with it; just have fun with it.’ ”

Because of the time constraints, there was no time to go back and forth over the images. So Nelson drew far more sketches than Simon & Schuster could use and then let them make the final selections. Simon & Schuster also chose which lines from Obama’s speeches to go with them. In the end, the speed of the project could be its biggest strength. “There’s an incredible spontaneity to the book,” says Chanda, who compares its immediacy to that of an artist’s sketchbook. Ironically, he notes, it will take longer to produce a book trailer to promote the book than the book itself.

Halfway through the project, Simon & Schuster used Nelson’s images to create sell sheets. Bookseller response was so strong that the press upped its projected print run from 150,000 to 200,000 copies. Although the initial publicity push is planned for the inauguration, Simon & Schuster plans to repromote the book for Black History Month in February and at graduation time.

Not that any of this has kept Nelson from his other projects. As planned, Simon & Schuster will release Nelson’s illustrated All God’s Critters by Bill Staines later in January. And he is currently at work on his next book, on 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

Below is a list of other Barack Obama books for children being rushed out for the inauguration of the 44th president:

Barack Obama: An American Story by Bob Carlton and Ariele Gentiles (Zondervan, paper $9.99 ISBN 9780786949281; Dec.) YA

Barack Obama: Our 44th President by Beatrice Gormley (S&S/Aladdin, paper $5.99 ISBN 9781416971184; Dec.) ages 9-12

Barack Obama: People We Should Know by Geoffrey M. Horn (Gareth Stevens, paper $8.95 ISBN 9781433901577; Jan.) ages 9-12

Barack Obama: Sharing the American Dream: Overcoming Adversity by Cammy Bourcier (Mason Crest, paper $9.95 ISBN 9781422207598; Jan.) ages 9-12

Barack Obama: United States President: Updated and Expanded by Roberta Edwards, illus. by Ken Call and with photographs (Grosset & Dunlap, paper $4.99 ISBN 9780448452340; Jan.) a revised edition of the 2007 release, Barack Obama: An American Story; ages 4-8

Meet President Barack Obama by Laine Falk (Scholastic/Children’s Press, paper $6.95 ISBN 9780531235249; Jan.) ages 4-8

Yes, We Can! A Salute to Children from President Obama’s Victory Speech (Scholastic/Orchard, paper $4.99 ISBN 9780545163668; Jan.) ages 9-12

A few books on the incoming First Lady are also being added to the mix:

Michelle Obama: An American Storyby David Colbert (Houghton Mifflin/Sandpiper, paper $6.99 ISBN 978-0547249414; Dec.) Ages 9-12

Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady by David Bergen Brophy (Collins, paper $6.99 ISBN 9780061779909; Dec.) Ages 9-12