Fresh Approaches: New Editions and Reissues
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Joy Fleishhacker -- School Library Journal, 10/15/2008 6:45:00 AM
First Daughter
The presidential race is heating up and kids across America are avidly debating the candidates’ merits. It’s the ideal time to revisit Ellen Emerson White’s series of novels about Meg Powers, teenage daughter of the first female President of the United States. Originally published in the 1980s by Scholastic Press and out of print for several years, The President’s Daughter, White House Autumn, and Long Live the Queen have been reissued by Feiwel & Friends with updated content and striking new cover art.
In 2007, Long May She Reign (Feiwel & Friends), the fourth installment about this compelling heroine, was published after a hiatus of almost two decades, garnering critical acclaim and designation as a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2007. The novel has won new fans and reignited interest in the original trio. In fact, Publisher Jean Feiwel was inundated with hundreds of emails from readers requesting that the earlier titles be brought back into print. According to Feiwel, Meg Powers is “a strong character” who “remains very much herself” despite the many changes and challenges she faces. The novels provide a vivid “insider’s view” of White House life, convincingly presenting events from the various perspectives of First Family members.
White has updated the new editions to the current day, where Long May She Reign is set. According to Feiwel, “Ellen is extremely, exquisitely sensitive about her writing,” and efforts were made to retain the “authentic and accurate parts” and leave the tone of the books intact. The changes are mostly cosmetic and the bulk of the content, including the author’s extensively researched depiction of day-to-day life in the White House, remains valid.
Long May She Reign features illustrator Tim O’Brien’s evocative cover portrait of Meg, posed like a modern-day Mona Lisa (clothed in a college sweatshirt with sunglasses perched on forehead), and the visual theme of reworked masterpieces is thoughtfully continued with the reissued volumes. Feiwel calls Meg “a monumental character,” a message that the publisher wanted to convey with cover art that was “clever but not too cute.” Paintings were carefully chosen to “create the right feeling, but remain true to the character” and specific events of each book. O’Brien was the perfect artist for the job, with his ability to combine “realism with classic portraiture” and “superimpose” his own style onto classic artworks.
Based on Wyeth’s Christina’s World, the image for The President’s Daughter, with Meg stretched out on the grass and plaintively turned toward the looming-in-the-distance White House, captures the teen’s strength and independence, while alluding to her mixed emotions about her mother’s run for office. The painting for White House Autumn references Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, while Long Live the Queen echoes Whistler’s famed portrait of his mother. In addition to enjoying the covers’ visual appeal, readers can have a lot of fun comparing and contrasting them with the original works, and delving more deeply into the protagonist’s personality and story themes.
These books obviously have staying power, and it’s the right moment to put them into the hands of campaign-curious readers. Meg Powers will give kids perspective on what it’s like to take on the challenges, responsibilities, and personal sacrifices of political commitment and remind them that though they seem bigger than life, the presidential candidates—and their family members—are real people (Gr 7 Up).
Pub Info
WHITE, Ellen Emerson. The President’s Daughter. 2008. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-0-312-37488-4.
_____. White House Autumn. 2008. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-0-312-37489-1.
_____. Long Live the Queen. 2008. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-0-312-37490-7.
_____. Long May She Reign. 2007. Tr $15.95. ISBN 978-0-312-36767-1.
ea vol: Feiwel & Friends.
