shadow as cultural changes otherwise accelerate for the young, while the canon of
‘children’s classics’ appears to consolidate from one generation to the next and in the
lists of set books for the schools. This persistence of tradition may appear to challenge
the adage that there is a wholly fresh children’s book audience for each age-group every
three years or so, but history is a dimension the designer is compelled to work in for a
host of reasons: the descent of the materials already in existence that the typographer
constantly reassembles; the predilections of our illustrators; and the market itself.
Jan Pieńkowski is another artist fascinated by the expressive potential of printing and
materials technology—he has worked creatively with paper engineers on Robot and
Haunted House and others—and it is a pity we have no fitter title than ‘novelty books’
for such achievements. Picture books can and should involve as many of the senses as
possible. Children smell paper and ink, and hear books as they snap, rustle and
squeak. And so all these matters have much to do with the reading experience and the
practice of typography (and also with theatre, with which book design and illustration
have much in common).
The Layout of the PagePlanning the basic page is as important as the choice of format and typeface, and the
decisions this involves need to be taken concurrently to avoid a flawed solution. It is
worth time and effort to get this underlying scheme right each time, for the book’s entire
structure down to the smallest detail will depend upon it. These decisions include fixing
sizes of type, length of line, spacing between words, interlinear spacing, margins and
column separation, and standard gaps between recurrent elements. Many finer points of
spacing and arrangement should be covered by the publisher’s house style; but detailed
individual layouts and instructions are usually needed for the traditional parts of the
book, levels of heading, and complexities within the text.
To create optimum reading conditions when the book is held open in use, the text
areas need to be carefully positioned on the page according to a margin scheme or grid.
There are certain rules of thumb for doing this and a corpus of geometrical and
arithmetical theory stretching back to antiquity, but most typographers I know rely on
instinct when making the critical decisions. Designing a book resembles chess in that
players are familiar with the opening gambits, but after that the opportunities for
creative strategy become limitless since no two books are alike in the demands they
make of the accomplished designer.
Designing any book begins with reading the text in sufficient depth to highlight its
audience and special requirements. In the case of a novel or other straightforward text
for continuous reading, it should be possible to specify a functional reading page
without more ado except perhaps to pause and question the desirability of some
appropriate form of illustration. For if children’s fiction is to be promoted in its key
bridging role, then illustration can frequently offer the most effective and least
patronising way of doing this where intended reading ages or interest levels differ from
adult norms. However, the illustration of new novels has been gradually phased out over
the years on economic grounds, and designers have frequently been exercised to
maintain good typographic standards.
460 THE CONTEXT OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE