Book buyers everywhere are well aware that the countdown to 2000 has inspired all manner of titles that reflect on the 20th century. Few of these have been as well received as The Century (Doubleday), an accessible, photo-filled history volume by ABC's World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings and veteran journalist Todd Brewster. This hefty tome was released in November 1998 as a companion volume to the 27-hour television series of the same name. To date there are over one million copies of The Century in print.

Now, one year after The Century's debut, Jennings and Brewster bring have brought their work to a new audience in The Century for Young People (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, Oct.), aimed at readers eight and older. A combination of striking photographs, succinct information and eyewitness accounts from ordinary people bring the key events of the past 100 years into sharp focus.

Though capitalizing on The Century's great success makes obvious sense, the decision to adapt the book for kids proved to be an organic one. After The Century's release, Jennings and Brewster were struck by its cross-generational appeal. "I was in a bookstore one day and I saw an older man buying [the adult version] for his grandchild, and some younger people buying it for their parents," said Jennings. "That led to some wonderful conversations about how kids were enjoying the book." Editors and executives at Random House Children's Books soon realized The Century's potential for reaching a younger readership as well. "Our publisher pointed out that a number of the eyewitnesses we interviewed are referring to childhood experiences they remembered," Brewster said. "Children can relate to these adolescent accounts; it's an easy way into history."

RHCB deputy publisher and editor-in-chief Beverly Horowitz explained, "We saw the enormous success of The Century and were great fans of the book. We looked around and knew there was nothing of this level of quality out there for young readers." Horowitz added that Random House was already familiar with this kind of adaptation, citing Basher Five-Two: The True Story of F-16 Fighter Pilot Scott O'Grady as a young reader's version of O'Grady's Return with Honor (Doubleday) and the recent Chinese Cinderella (Delacorte) by Adeline Yen Mah, a memoir adapted from Mah's adult bestseller Falling Leaves.

For The Century for Young People, like so many things, making the decision to publish it was easy, but the test lay in the idea's execution. The crux of the project, Jennings said, was "turning a very large book into a smaller, more manageable one." "We had to rethink the language and the storytelling, while retaining all the key information," said Brewster. According to editor Karen Wojtyla, "The biggest challenge was choosing what was appropriate for the age group and still covering everything that is historically important. Our audience d s not have memories of Watergate, for example, to fill in any gaps. We had to cover everything clearly and concisely."

A few other concessions were made for younger readers. "Some pictures from the adult book are not included and we altered some descriptions that were very graphic," Brewster said. Wojtyla added, "I really labored over what to leave in. I chose to leave out passages about Mengele's experiments [during the Holocaust]."

All agreed that what would remain in the new book was a majority of the all-important eyewitness accounts. "We both intended this as an experience for people," said Jennings of his and Brewster's vision for the two books. "Young people, especially, identify with storytelling. It's a great way to introduce pivotal events, trends, tragedies. We wanted people to share with us this astonishing century experience. What the ordinary man and woman lived through, that's what we wanted to write about." As an example, Jennings noted, "World War II may seem very distant, but it's sensed very powerfully through an eyewitness account."

The eyewitness approach, according to Brewster, "gives readers a different perspective on history. We hope they'll see that history is their own family's stories. We hope they'll go to Grandma and say, 'Where were you during World War II?'