I want contact information for at least five people in the toy and
children's books departments who decide who the grandmother is to be
depicted, and also an expert on demographics who can give me some
great stuff on the modern grandmother  )as oppoesd to the
apple-cheeked dumpling in the pictures)

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 29 Apr 2004 01:37 PDT

Hello adair-ga,

I love picture books and I was eager to get the information you need
but I was confused by the requests you specify in your question.

Please tell me more about your project. You ask for information about
people in ?the toy and children's books departments who decide who the
grandmother is to be depicted? This seems to imply that you?re looking
to identify store buyers who make decisions about what books to carry
in their stores. Is this what you?re looking for?

On the other hand, your question about who decides how grandmothers
should be depicted could also imply that you?re looking for book
publishers and the editors who make the decisions about what kinds of
books they want to publish. Is this what you?re looking for?

Because my impression of recent children?s books showed a very diverse
range of grandmothers as opposed to your ?apple-cheeked dumpling in
the pictures? I did some preliminary research to see if there are some
clear trends on how grandmothers are depicted. Even a cursory search
shows that ethnic grandmothers are very popular at this time. It would
be interesting to explore the demographics of children?s books
grandmothers. Your request for an ?expert on demographics? to gather
you information about the ?modern grandmother? seems to imply that you
would like a survey of how grandmothers are depicted in today?s
children?s books. It would help to know the purpose and scope of this
portion of your question.

I worked on a question about the children?s book publishing industry
recently and I?m familiar with the genre. Take a look at my approach.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=326829
Q: What is the average number of copies a Picture Book can sell a year?

Please give me more information about what you?re looking for and the
context of your question. Depending on what you?re looking for, you
might also want to reconsider the pricing of your question.

I would love to answer your question. I look forward to your clarification.

~ czh ~

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Clarification of Question by adair-ga on 29 Apr 2004 08:11 PDT

hi! thanks for response. am doing a humor piece--a take off on how
toymakers and kiddie books haven't kept up with the stylish youthful
granny of today.
biggest help would be to find people who depict granny in traditional
way so I can call them up and twit them.--adair

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 29 Apr 2004 11:36 PDT

Hi adair-ga,

I'll leave this for someone else to prove your preconceptions. My
experience with recent children's picture books is that the image of
the grandmother has been greatly modernized and diversified.

Good luck.

~ czh ~