One of my more interesting reading experiences from my first year as a Cybils panelist involved Hellbent by Anthony McGowan. McGowan's second book, Henry Tumour won the Booktrust Teenage Prize in England. In April, the book will be published in this country as Jack Tumor.
Now, I can understand a U.S. publisher changing the spelling of "tumour" to "tumor." We are a Puritan nation, after all, and we are offended by the profligate use of vowels. But what's with changing "Henry" to "Jack?"
Today's Training Report: Finished that last chapter, in spite of doing a six-mile hike that left me with no buzz at all. I started revising this book a year ago, started two drafts before finally finishing this third one.
Hi Gail
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping an eye open for my book. But I should explain my tumo(u)rs name change. (And sorry if this is a little complicated, plus pretentious!) The book is quite closely based on Henry IV part 1 by Shakespeare. The stand-out character in the play is Jack Falstaff, on whom the character of the tumour is based. I originally called the book Henry Tumour, because I thought the king in Henry IV was Henry Tudor, and tumour sounds a bit like ... well, you get it. I studied the play at school twenty years ago and got a bit muddled. The king is actually Henry Bolingbroke. So, the name change was my own idea, and just ironed out my own mistake. In fact I was all in favour of fully americanizing the text, resetting the story in Alabama, but my excellent editor thought it was best to retain that old world charm ... Anyway, the book seems to have a better chance of keeping its head above the water than Hellbent - the Junior Library Guild have selected it, which I'm delighted about.
Once again, thanks for your continued thoughtful comments.
Tony
Excellent news about the Junior Library Guild selection. And I have to say, I can so see myself making that Henry Tudor mistake.
ReplyDeleteI may have to break down and read some Shakespeare. I know I didn't read that play in school.