Kent is Kent L. Brown, Jr., Editor-in-Chief of Highlights for Children, one of the longest-lived magazines for children ever.  Highlights was begun by Kent's grandparents, Garry and Caroline Myers in 1946.  Kent began his professional career as a teacher, but soon switched to working at Highlights for Children, with his first job being to change the paper roll in the then-new copy machine.  Since that time, Kent has become Editor-in-Chief of Highlights.  In 1990, he was instrumental in starting Boyds Mills Press, a book publishing venture for Highlights, where Larry Rosler is Editor.  Most recently, Kent Brown helped launch Calkins Creek Books, a publishing company focusing on history, with Carolyn Yoder as Editor.  Kent is the father of three children, and is married to talented illustrator Jody Taylor.

Mel: I think there is no person living today who is doing more for children and for us children's writers than Kent L. Brown Jr.  Kent is most closely identified with Highlights for Children Magazine. Highlights was started by Kent's grandparents and parents in 1946, nearly sixty years ago. The magazine itself has an intriguingly interesting history, and has given birth to many new ventures beneficial to kids, such as Boyds Mills Press and, most recently, Calkins Creek Books. But Kent Brown has also involved himself on the national and international levels in working on behalf of children and children's writers. Kent has served on the Publications Committee of the International Reading Association, is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the National Press Club. He is also President of the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), and was most recently selected to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, a national, non-profit nature education organization founded by world-renowned artist and naturalist Roger Peterson. Yet, wearing all these important hats, Kent--as some of you know personally--has remained a down-to-earth person who serves children and children's writers, showing absolutely no sign of any self-importance. Kent, I am proud to get to welcome you to the ICL Chat Room!

Kent: Hello

 

Mel: Kent, tell us how Highlights for Children Magazine first really began, back in 1946--wasn't it?

Kent: Yes, 1946. It was the lifelong dream of my grandparents, Garry and Caroline Myers, who were family life and child development students who had started by teaching soldiers to read and write during World War I. They had no money, but had a dream they were passionate about. My grandmother always said: If you have your choice between the money and the dream, take the dream.

Mel: Obviously, there was a need for good magazine reading material in the mid-1940s. What was the situation with kids and their reading that led your grandparents to start Highlights?

Kent: They always believed that what kids read could influence both their learning and their interest in reading and their character. They believed that a magazine that played to a variety of interests, and that had at least some feature than any child could find success with was a useful social tool.

Mel: Were your grandparents, Garry and Caroline Myers, teachers, psychologists, as I seem to recall?

Kent: Yes, my grandfather was an observational psychologist. He got thrown out of the nursery at the hospital when my mother was born for lighting a kitchen match to see if his infant could track it.

Mel: HA! Your grandfather sounds a lot like YOU, Kent!

Kent: I'm more careful in nurseries. My grandmother was long a teacher. She started in a one-room school at age 15.

Mel: How was your mother (one of the finest persons I've ever met!) first involved in the magazine as it began evolving? And how was the magazine first sold and delivered?

Kent: Early on my mother reacted to their dream and then began selling Highlights door to door, which was the only way they sold it back then. She ended up being an editor for many years, and was especially interested in writers and developing them. When she died we discovered she was running a little private scholarship aid program for some of the attendees at the Chautauqua Highlights summer conference.

Mel: That sounds like just the caring kind of person I remember your mother as! "Fun With A Purpose," how did that motto come about, and when did it first appear in the course of the magazine's development?

Kent: I think Fun with a Purpose was the goal and the slogan from the very beginning; some people have trouble with it, wondering if we have some pages with fun and others with purpose. We try to make everything both fun and with a purpose, and on as many levels as possible, and we do not want to hit kids over the head with purpose.

omalizzie: Kent, did your father, Kent Brown Sr., also work for the magazine?

Kent: No, my father was a medical guy, but he went around to doctors early on when the founders were against the wall financially and tried to round up people who believed in the dream and would loan money or invest in the company. So he had his part in it.

Mel: I know that you weren't always involved just in Highlights, Kent. What other kinds of work did you do before that magazine career of yours started?

Kent: Nothing successfully. I farmed. I also worked for a farm coop. I suppose I should say farm cooperative, to distinguish it from a chicken lodging.

Mel: J

 

Kent: I taught school, a job I was fired from for "failure to follow the prescribed educational program." I thought story and reading and speaking might be at least as important as diagramming sentences.

Mel: What did you FIRST do at Highlights for Children?

Kent: I was in charge of technology, which meant I changed the roll in the photocopy machine. I also did proofreading. Back then we did it with two people. One read and one checked the text. I think one was called a copyholder. I must have read for hours on end. Nowadays I couldn't stay awake doing that, reading each punctuation mark and spelling all the names and other hard words to a partner, but our copy was clean.

Mel: Do you mean you read the stories ALOUD?!

Kent: Yes, we read text aloud to the copyholder, but we butchered it because it doesn't flow when you read like this: "Mel cap M boring cap B boring one r paragraph went to school one day period." We also read stories aloud when we were considering purchase, which is a great idea. I've often heard authors recommend that writers read their work out loud to themselves a number of times and I think that technique helps some writers with the flow.

Mel: GREAT idea! And has your son George recently started working at Highlights?

Kent: Yes, they gave him the desk where I started, but he is progressing faster than I did and he does not have quite as severe a boss as my Grandmother. He works for Chris Clark—maybe you know her. She is not only a great editor but a great teacher of editors. She is the only person I know in the whole publishing world who has the job she dreamed of as a youth. Chris is doing all the work and improving the magazine greatly.

Mel: I DO know Chris Clark, a peach of an editor! I love her mention of her personal childhood experiences in her editorials, such as the flashlights for Christmas and "camping out" by the Christmas tree in December Highlights!

Kent: she is a natural at that. I did those pieces for a longtime and never got quite the rapport with readers that Chris has. I think she has a better sense of the emotions of childhood, but then hers is much more recent than mine. I do not have much to do with the day to day Highlights editing, but she is keeping me on anyway.

Mel: Backtracking a bit, how did a magazine like Highlights BEGIN receiving submissions, Kent, when writers weren't familiar with it, and no submission process had been established?

Kent: My grandparents had a problem. They started a magazine and they had no contributors. They knew a few writers and wrote them and solicited them, but they also sent telegrams to writers groups around the country announcing their new magazine and begging them to favor Highlights with their stories—it worked. Though my grandfather wrote some of the stories, and had several pen names early on, thankfully many writers came forward. Two years ago we had a visit from a woman who wrote a story for volume 1 number 1 of Highlights. So we have always relied heavily on freelance writers.

Mel: Could you give us a guesstimate of how the circulation numbers of Highlights grew through the years, from zero to 2.5 million now? What circumstances change those circulation numbers?

Kent: My grandfather lived to see one million in 1971. My grandmother, two million about 1980. But circulation is a tough road, and all children's magazines of late have been having a problem keeping high numbers. Partly it's because magazines that do not carry commercial advertising need to have their customers pay for the magazine. Consumer magazines with advertising typically get half their revenue from advertising, and they give circulation away to get bigger numbers and sell the advertisers, more customers, or what's called "eyeballs."

Mel: Boiled down, what would YOU say is the PRIMARY reason for Highlights' great success, Kent?

Kent: Stubborn belief in the mission steadfastly adhered to over a long period of time, and very modest financial expectations, knowing that we were doing something that made a difference in the lives of kids.

 

Mel: Well said, Sir!

boogerwoman: Hi, Kent! I send you my BEST WISHES!

Kent: Hi, boogerwoman

omalizzie: I remember seeing Highlights at the doctor's office as a child.

Kent: Ah, yes, we have been in doctors' offices a long time. It's how we got exposed to parents in the early days and we still have a lot of doctor subscribers and also a sampling program in professional offices. It's why so many people associate Highlights with pain. J

 

t green: I'm laughing about that "association with pain" comment. I found Highlights in the dentist's office and would beg my mother to take me back every month!

Kent: So you know why the dental fraternity likes us in their waiting rooms. Sometimes we meet a young doctor who has gotten degrees, but they really know they are a real doctor when they have Highlights in their waiting rooms.

Mel: Was it your medical father's influence that first got Highlights into medical offices?

Kent: No, it was a brainchild of my aunt whose husband was trying to figure out ways to sell subscriptions rather than close the company down for his parents.

Mel: What was the artwork, the visual art, in Highlights like when it first started, as compared with its present luxuriant art, Kent?

Kent: Some of it was excellent and some more crude. We started with black and one color. Although I love the great color pictures Chris and her pals are using now, I do think that back in the black-and-white days an artist had less chance of covering up sins of poor drawing.

Mel: One of the things that has changed through the years is the COVER of Highlights for Children. How did the changes in your cover come about?

Kent: We had a number of covers; the first one lasted until 1954, then it was changed for about six years.  In 1980 we went to a full-color cover, which we have tweaked over time, and are currently wondering about to see if there is some better way. That reminds me that if one gets satisfied too much or if an editor does not think there is anything left to improve, then we have a problem. Chris Clark is keeping it fresh and new without pitching out all the old.

Mel: Is Highlights the OLDEST presently published children's magazine? And has it now existed for more years than ANY other children's magazine in history?

Kent: I don't know about that, but I doubt it. We do make the claim that we have consistently delivered more copies of a consistent philosophy than anyone. But I think Child Life is older.

 

Mel: I'm thinking that St. Nicholas Magazine, that did so well around the turn of the 20th century, was only around for less than 50 years.

 

Kent: No, I think St. Nicholas lasted longer than we have so far. It also may be that Boy's Life is older. Alas, many great children's magazines have bit the dust, and it's important that kids get exposed to a variety. It always puzzles me that adults take six or ten or more magazines, but think that one or none is enough for their kids. My daughter grew up on Cricket, a very fine magazine.

kdbrazil: Do you do very much reading of submissions yourself; and if so, or if not, what moves Highlights editors to want to buy a story or article?

Kent: I no longer read many of the Highlights submissions, but do read a number for Boyds Mills Press at some point in the process. But I think the rules are still the same and flow across every kind of editor. It's a measurement that defies logic or quantification, and has to do with a gut reaction, the emotion, the surprise, the sense that something is new and fresh. I'm not sure I could describe a great story but I do know that I am satisfied or delighted or otherwise moved as a reader by a fine story. I think that's the way most editors see it and doubt many can say exactly what it is. There are technical things, of course, but it's the overall feel imparted to the reader.

Mel: What kinds of exercises do you put your prospective editors through to prepare them for the work of Highlights?

Kent: Let me turn it around just a little. Editors here come from a variety of backgrounds but they have in common a passion for children and what joy they might derive from a magazines. Early on in their careers they read a ton of submissions and I think sitting around discussing the points of a story with more seasoned editors and just the comparisons editors make by reading countless submissions helps them figure out which are a cut above the rest.

Mel: Most of us know of Marileta Robinson, a Senior Editor there at Highlights. With what background did she come to Highlights, and what about her abilities has made her fit in so well at the magazine for 15+ years?

Kent: We had stories from Marileta who was writing freelance. Her circumstance changed somehow in her life and she was about to take a job in the Department of Motor Vehicles of Alabama. We found that out and called her. She came up and we hired her. Marileta had lots of experience reading herself, writing, and teaching others, including time in the Peace Corps and working on Indian reservations. So in a sense she had approached the problem of learning and reading when the learner had limited English language proficiency, which must be a good training ground for those working with kids. Mostly her native talent to recognize excellence coupled with her ability to empathize with an author and help them get to a better manuscript makes her a great editor.

Mel: Is there a particular goal you feel for Highlights for Children? And is there any individual goal for each issue of the magazine?

Kent: When I was "driving that bus," I always hoped we could make each issue just a little better than the last one. We do not have themes for issues, which is common to many magazines, though we do reflect some seasonal materials.

omalizzie: I think we have grown up to expect Highlights to be there! I loved even looking at already done puzzles in the Highlights Magazines in doctors' offices!

Kent: We find that adults as well as kids enjoy Highlights. My neighbor died last year, but each issue she would discuss with me the fun she found. She was 106 when she passed. One of the keys to our success is that there is at least one thing that a user can do and find success with. My grandparents had a thought that celebrating your successes was important for young learners and that early success with a book or a magazine developed reading skills and overall literacy.

Mel: Kent, I have to say here that what I believe has made you such an exceptional editor is your sensitivity to EACH INDIVIDUAL person, like your 106-year-young neighbor, and your reach-out to persons! That seems to be personified in Highlights Magazine; and others of your family that I've met have been that same, very personable kind of person.
Kent: We caught that from our grandparents and we have kept a family feel. I cannot imagine a place that closes itself to new writers and does not look at unsolicited pieces. Judy Blume was a new writer once and likes to tell about her Highlights rejection; but the point is we publish a great many first-time authors and I find it worrisome that so many markets are closed to new talent. The person who is going to win the Newbery Award in 2021 has not yet submitted any manuscripts. If we do not have stories, we do not have any magazine.

Mel: ALL we children's writers are VERY THANKFUL for that open attitude of Highlights's!

 

margieh: In what other ways than the ones you mentioned has Highlights changed for each generation?

Kent: The color revolution, more use of photos, and some evolving features. We started a thing called "Flashbacks" a few years ago and I've marveled at how Linda Rose came up with a great idea that nobody had thought of in the first 50 years. But we still publish stories, not personalities. I probably should keep it a secret that when Eve Bunting sends a story in we copy it over with a phony name because what we have to give the reader is only the story. Eve does some great stories, but sometimes she misses. But she is a pro and either reworks or writes another one, and you notice we do not go after Katie Couric or Madonna for our pages, but rely on good solid freelance writers.

Mel: That's a RICH anecdote, Kent, and I think Eve Bunting would chuckle at that secret!

 

Mary: Can you tell us, generally, what kinds of books Boyds Mills Press, Calkins Creek and Front Street publish? What is unique about each of those imprints?

Kent: We try to avoid getting remainders—books sent back that bookstores couldn't sell.  Boyds Mills Press, run by Larry Rosler, largely publishes picture books and heavily illustrated nonfiction, which I think we have been particularly noted for. And we do a variety of other formats in the Highlights tradition, such as crafts and activities. Calkins Creek is led by Carolyn Yoder, a person I think of as the Dean of History Publishing for Juveniles in the free world. She has long been editing history writing, and was a prime mover at Cobblestone Magazine.  Carolyn has also long been the history and world cultures editor of Highlights, and now has started publishing books that focus mostly on American History, her most passionate interest. Front Street has been publishing mostly YA and middle grade books. We expect that will continue, though they do also some poetry and a few picture books. Stephen Roxburgh, founder of Front Street, is a brilliant editor and does books that he loves. I hope that shows in all the things we do. By the way, Mel and others, I often fail to answer a question, so don't be bashful to tell me when I've struck out completely.

Mel: You haven't struck out at ALL tonight, Kent, you've been hitting homers! By your by the way, we are going to have Carolyn Yoder in our chat room in February—and I am very much looking forward to that, because she is TOPS in American History!

Kent: She is also a lot of fun and a great teacher. She is one of the most popular leaders of our workshops and on the faculty at Chautauqua. But she is a slave driver and insists on impeccable research.

Mary: And is there any particular kind of story or article, or subject, which Highlights for Children Magazine needs right now?

Kent: I am not sure I can say what is needed, but I can give a general principle. There are always things editors need, but what they need the most is something they never thought of before that is new and surprising and fresh. One trouble with the suggestion that you ought to study a magazine to see what they need is that you will not learn what it is they ought to have but have not been smart enough to get yet. There are specific needs, of course, and that's where a query about a topic or a relationship with an editor can be helpful to an author.

Mel: I've been asked here in the chat room if Kate Yerkes is STILL the one to send picture books to at Boyds Mills Press, Kent.

 
Kent: No, sadly Kate is not here any more, but she is doing well. Truth is it does not matter who they get sent to—you can make up a name—and they all get to the same place in the system Larry Rosler runs. We have instituted a new policy just this month, however, which is that if anyone in any of the imprints sees something that they think is the genre or of interest to another editor we shuffle that manuscript around so it is considered by all imprints. That is a procedure Stephen Roxburgh just instituted. I'm not sure that I explained he is now Associate Publisher of Boyds Mills Press while remaining Publisher and President of Front Street. His staff in Asheville, NC remains and is working away under his direction. He has a great young editor named Joy Neaves.

Mel: Also, Arnalda asked ahead of time what many of us have been asking: We know that Pam Zollman (who has been a chat guest of ours) is no longer at Highlights. Is there a particular editor who is now in charge of crafts there?

Kent: I forget the answer. I think the job has been portioned out a little in the transition time. But if you send crafts to anyone at Highlights they have an equal chance of ending up in the right place. Pam is a great editor and I miss having her around here.

Nancy asks from Switzerland: Do you accept animal characters, at Highlights for Children and Boyds Mills Press, if there is a good reason for them to be portrayed as animals, not children?

Kent: Yes, we do take animal characters, although we do not do too many talking animal stories. But we do not have any general rule against such manuscripts—we do not have many rules, and the ones we have always are subject to exception.

Nancy: How many picture story books do you publish at Boyds Mills Press in a year?

 

Kent: Some 10 to 18, or thereabouts

Nancy: Are there any particular themes you are looking for at Boyds Mills Press, or should I just keep trying, and hoping? J

Kent: Themes...not sure about that. We do have some things we like, stories with strong social messages but not pounding the reader over the head. My grandfather would have said: "with a positive moral residue". We need younger picture books and there are some things that particularly interest me, such as books that depict some aspect of addiction or alcoholism and books dealing with modern agriculture. But those are my oddball preferences and not the mainstay.

Nancy: Do you have a preference between universal themes like growing up/separation, sharing, or "special needs" themes (like adoption, death)?

Kent: I would not say we had a preference between those two areas in general. We do have interest in stories dealing with grief and death, but of course it's a hard thing to pull off well. We have a couple of adoption books in the hopper, but in the end a book ought to have a satisfying story, regardless. That reminds me of the study some highbrow researchers did a few years ago. They found out kids did not like multicultural stories, they just liked good stories regardless of the ethnic background of the characters.

Nancy: To what person should I address my 600- to 800-word picture-story book manuscripts? And is it time now to submit a funny winter idea?

Kent: Larry Rosler on the picture books, but we are looking at books all year, and that's true of Highlights, too. The lead time for publishing in our way of doing it means we consider seasonal stories at all times of the year. It would drive you crazy to try to figure out schedules; so just send it when it's ready to go in the envelope.

Nancy: Thanks for your help, Kent!

chitty: If I've had a story published in India in a magazine that has since then closed down, can I send the story to Highlights?

Kent: That would be contrary to our rule that every piece in Highlights is original, but I think that may be one of the exceptions. Suppose, though, that you sent a story and the editors liked it, but got stuck on the idea that it was not technically new. Suppose they came back and said to you: Well, not this one but why not try us again?  So maybe it's a way to get your foot in the door, keeping stuff in your drawer does not ever get any reaction.

mbvoelker: Can you talk about the book companies? How do they each continue and expand Highlights's mission?

Kent: One of the joys of publishing books is that it allows for a fuller exploration or a more in-depth treatment, which was one of the reasons we started books. We knew we liked to reach kids and work with writers and artists. So this is just a different venue; topics can be explored in great detail, whereas a magazine can only do a little.

t green: Is Boyd Mills Press (and the other Highlights imprints) just as open to unsolicited freelancers as Highlights Magazine, or do you work more with authors who have agents?

Kent: We do work with agents, but the majority of the submissions we receive are not agented. So we are entirely open to receiving submissions from authors directly.

Mel: Here's a NICE twist, Kent, a thank-you for one of Highlights's rejections:

g_logger: Thank you for the nice non-acceptance reply on my four-leaf clover story. It was very polite.

Kent: Sometimes we manage to be nice. J

g_logger If you keep a manuscript but can't use it now, do you have that saved for the season that best suits it, or what?

Kent: I assume you mean for Highlights, and you have touched on one of the great problems we cause for authors. Everyone wants their piece to be published, and patience is not a virtue most of us have. The good part is that we pay on acceptance, but we do work from an inventory and sometimes stories sit for what seems like a lifetime, and I know that is distressing to authors. I remember a story that I proposed to put in the magazine a number of times and it kept getting pulled out or overlooked. It was here about ten years, and finally we published it; and it won the award in the in-house voting for that month.

Hope Marston: Welcome, Kent. We're glad you are here this evening!

Kent: Thanks, this is a new experience and fun.

 

Mel: Hard to believe it's a new experience for you, because you're doing so well!

Hope: Will the Calkins Creek books be PRINTED in America, or overseas?

Kent: Both. The manufacturing of full-color books in small quantities is not a U.S. business and has not been historically. So such titles are often printed overseas. We do a number of black-and-white books domestically and some of the Calkins Creek books are that format. Over time, when one's printer changes, it has a lot to do with currency fluctuations, dependability of supply, etc. But we do not see printing overseas as undesirable; all our high-volume printing is done in the US. Nobody in the world can beat U.S. printers for web work at high volumes.

Hope: When will the FIRST books of the Calkins imprint be released?

Kent: we are noodling that just now. The problem is that we have Calkins titles—one coming up—that are not quite typical. So it may be that we will publish it and not make fanfare over the imprint. A number of Carolyn's titles from past days will have the Calkins Creek logo added as they are reprinted.

Hope: How many titles are scheduled to be released each year?

Kent: no particular schedule. And Carolyn is the expert on that topic. But I would guess there will be two to four per season on average at the beginning.

Hope: Do you know approximately how long it will take to get a response from Calkins Creek once we submit a manuscript?

Kent: Depends on whether Carolyn uses Pony Express. J But we are reviewing our commitment to writers and we know that some news—even if not that definitive—is essential.

Hope: Once a manuscript is accepted and edited at Calkins, how long will it take for the book to be released?

Kent: Editing is one part of the process, book design and illustration are also a major factor in the time. In general we don't work on books to keep them under a bushel, but there are countless reasons why we might delay for a season—even though we generally get books out when they are done. But you have to remember that we print books almost six months before they are released to the public, which has to do with the insane way we all sell books from samples that need to be exact in order to succeed—not the same way in adult novels, I think.

Mel: Hope Marston is asking, I know, because she will be submitting a book to Calkins that Carolyn Yoder asked her for, submitting it about the first of 2005!

 

Kent: Ah, a special case, and so my general answer might be misleading, but surely Carolyn will give an answer or explain why she cannot.

Mel: Totally out of my own curiosity, Kent, were Boyds Mills Press and Calkins Creek Books named after landmarks there near Honesdale, PA, the home of Highlights?

Kent: Mr. Boyd was a rafter of timber. When he got a little older he started a little mill at a place called Eldred, PA. That town got confused with Eldred, NY, so in 1869, the post office asked the postmaster—the same Mr. Boyd—to suggest a different name. By then the community was known for the mills of Mr. Boyd where he sawed timber, so the place was named Boyds Mills. That Mr. Boyd was my grandmother's great-grandfather. So we named the company for a place of our founders.

The mill was water-powered and the creek that formed the water impoundment is the Calkins Creek. So after we discussed a lot of names, Carolyn chose that one. Our retreat center at my grandparents' farm where we hold workshops is on the banks of Calkins Creek. The only dumb thing we did was name a book company located in Honesdale, Boyds Mills Press. So when we had the problem of naming our workshops out at the place that is Boyds Mills, we did not want to confuse people, so we call the workshops Founder's Home Workshops. The Highlights Foundation is completely separate from Highlights Magazine and Boyds Mills Press, and we thought the distinction between Boyds Mills the company and Boyds Mills the place was too hard to master.  They have another description here in the country.

Mel: You are a FASCINATING storyteller yourself, Mr. Brown!
 
Norelle in Australia: If I have a manuscript (fiction, multicultural, easy reader, middle grade) to submit, do I send it just to Boyds Mills Press or also to Front Street Books? Are they one and the same? Also I have read that some publishers like the fact that a writer puts in that they are a graduate of ICL, as it shows that we have put time and effort into learning the craft, yet for others it doesn't matter. Do the editors of Boyds Mill Press like that put in?

Kent: It does not matter which place you send it; for an easy reader I'd likely pick Boyds Mills, but we do share manuscripts. As for your ICL credits mostly we care what your book says, and any information about your knowledge of the subject or credentials is worth adding. Having taken the ICL program is one mark that you are a professional author and have worked at your craft, so that is always something I would recommend saying. But I know not all houses feel the same.

Diana: Recently I had the honor of participating in the Highlights "Hero's Journey Workshop." I must say that it was an inspiration and has had quite an effect on my writing. Will you be offering this workshop again in the future? If so, I would heartily recommend it to every writer! :-) Thanks for making so MANY wonderful workshops available!

Kent: I head great things about that workshop. Marileta Robinson and Kim Griswell of the Highlights staff teamed up on it, and they are planning to offer it again soon. I do not know the exact schedule but we put our workshops up on the Foundation Web Site, which I think is www.highlightsfoundation.org.

kdbrazil: How are scholarship recipients for the summer writer's workshop chosen? Is it the merit of the writing sample or financial need?

Kent: There are three measures for scholarship applicants. One is talent, as evidenced by the writing sample. One is financial need, using a sort of standard financial form of the type used by colleges. And the third is seriousness of purpose, as I call it. It's your writing history and, for example, if you have submitted ten books we would consider you are more serious than someone who is about to submit their first (even though all ten books were rejected). And someone who writes three hours a day is deemed more serious than someone who writes three hours a week, or is just thinking about it. By the way, I saw a figure today for how much time a student puts in for the ICL course and I was amazed to see it quantified. So I would say so, if you are or were a student.

ahsitan: How many story submissions does Highlights get a month?

Kent: The number is around a thousand. Not all are stories in the standard sense of fiction.

omalizzie: I think your grandparents found a definite niche. I congratulate the family venture for its success.

kdbrazil: That is why we are so grateful for the Highlights Foundation.

Kent: Thanks, and the family is committed to continuing. My personal plan—in case you noticed I'm backing out of the magazine and Stephen Roxburgh is taking over as Publisher of Boyds Mills—is to devote more energy to the Highlights Foundation and its programs to help writers.

Mel: Kent, chatting with you this evening has sped the two hours by so interestingly that I'm truly surprised we have chatted with you that long. We admire Highlights for Children, and now we know the integrity on which it was founded, and continues to be published. We children's writers very much appreciate all the children's writers whose careers you have launched in your magazine, and we wish you another 60 years of publishing Highlights for Children! You can see how the questions have just naturally tumbled from our minds, which you have answered so satisfyingly. I'm sure you can also see that we have many questions left over; so I'd like to ask if you would come back someday to chat with us again—will you, please?

Kent: I'd love to come back, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what I love.

Mel: Remember that there will be NO Guest Chat two weeks from tonight on the 30th of December. At our next Guest Chat, our first of the coming New 2005, on January 6, 2005, we will be treated with a visit to our ICL Chat Room by Louise McClenathan, a children's writer and children's writing instructor who knows picture book writing from both publishing picture books, and analyzing the children's picture book market absolutely accurately. Louise is the author of The Easter Pig, Good Wife, Good Wife, and My Mother Sends Her Wisdom, which I recommend for reading before January 6. We will ask Louise about the children's picture book market for today, about what is becoming of it, and about how we might approach it, as children's writers and/or illustrators. Louise might have been your ICL instructor in the past. Be here on January 6, 2005, and start the New Year picturing picture books!

Mel: Thanks again, Kent Brown, for your graciousness and wisdom, and for giving us of your time this evening, and being so approachable by our questions, Sir! We will all be reading Highlights for Children, and books from Boyds Mills Press and Calkins Creek Books, with even more eager interest now. We wish you well in all the various enterprises of Highlights, Inc. and the Highlights Foundation. Many thanks to you, Kent!

Kent: Thanks to you, Mel.

omalizzie: Thank you, Kent. I was furiously taking notes.

 

chitty: Thanks, Kent!

cup: Thanks, Kent. I appreciate your responses.

loretta: Thanks, Kent!

 

lizr: Have a Great Holiday!

Mel: Goodnight, children'swriters!

Kent: Goodnight, all.

*** Questions Kent Brown answered after the December 16 Guest Chat ***

loretta: Kent, did you mean earlier that you are looking for picture books that tackle addiction or alcoholism, and agriculture, or other types of books?

 

Kent: I’m not sure if I’m looking or just keeping an eye out. I have published some like that.  Cris Peterson has done great books that tell the story of modern agriculture (you can find her at www.BoydsMillPress.com).   And we have a book on Bill Wilson, co-founder of AA, and one coming on Dr. Bob, the other co-founder.  Jan Cheripko has done two novels that include addiction or alcoholism (Imitate the Tiger; Rat) and we have a picture book in the works that tells a simple picture book story of a person’s alcoholism. I’m excited about these topics personally and hope my colleagues will continue to humor me and let me publish some.   

 

klhunsicker: Has Highlights changed from its beginnings, and if so, could you tell us about some of YOUR favorite changes in it? 

 

Kent: Surely Highlights has changed considerably, while keeping true to the original philosophy. You may have noticed that cheeky and irreverent is more common today for kids' offerings; we stay out of that trap.  I am fond of the idea that we have created new features, and my all-time favorite is the addition of Flashbacks. I also think the new way Chris and her team presents crafts is wonderful.

 

Mel: How do you develop a magazine like Highlights for Children and for so many years, remaining "true to its roots," yet keeping the magazine so fresh and current, Kent?

 

Kent: Editors need to know where we have been, but be encouraged to keep going forward with new approaches and new ideas. Chris and her team at the magazine surely have a knack for doing that.  

 

gladys1: Does Highlights accept seasonal stories and what is the word length at the magazine? 

 

Kent: We take seasonal stories, but send them anytime; nobody every figured out when we were putting together seasonal issues, including me, and I worked there a long time.  We publish stories up to 7 or 800 words, sometimes a mite longer, but the short ones are always in demand. So get over what we learned in school that made all of us count words and add filler.  Note that there are short pieces in Highlights as well and we seem to have trouble in getting authors to work in the shorter formats. Of course anything I say here might rightfully be overruled by the fine folks doing the magazine.

 

gladys1: What is the word count of your picture books at Boyds Mills Press or Calkin Creek Books? 

 

Kent: I don’t think we have any rigid specs, and I never have counted myself. The shortest word count we ever did was none; a wordless book. We have a number of titles that I’d call picture books that have one or two or three words per page. So you might have only 15 to 20 words in a picture book; and we have done some that are considerably over 1000 words.  But the thing writers ought to remember is to use the number of words a story takes, and no more.  Also, often the art tells some of what the words might so that a story can be cut as it's illustrated.

 

angelac: Please tell us about launching Calkins Creek Books.

 

Kent: Carolyn Yoder has been publishing both in magazines and books, history related topics for a good many years.  She has done a number of history titles for Boyds Mills Press, and we noticed that her books were amongst the best history books for kids ever published (finest in the history of the world, I often say, with little exaggeration).  So it occurred to us that Carolyn ought to have an imprint and go full speed.  We have announced it to the writing fraternity but I think Stephen Roxburgh and Carolyn are planning a major publishing launch in a year. 

 

writermom: Will Carolyn Yoder be doing historical fiction and nonfiction, or strictly one or the other?

 

Kent: I think she will be doing both.   And she is a person and editor of wide ranging interests so it’s even possible she will edit some books outside her core imprint.

 

omalizzie: Is there a theme list for Calkins Creek Books? Or do we just need to query?

 

Kent: No theme list, but I’m sure Carolyn is receptive to queries.  I bet she would like it if you also said why you thought you had the stuff to do the piece you propose.

 

worfsmate: Could you tell us more about your acquisition of Front Street?

 

Kent: Really it’s more of a merger. I have known and admired Stephen Roxburgh for some years, and rooted for him when ten years ago he went out on his own and started Front Street on a shoestring. He proved publishing books of highest quality could succeed and get attention, but he also proved to himself that running a publishing house has lots of distractions from making great books.  So we agreed that he would make great books, and we would use some of our systems and machinery to let him focus on the creative aspects of publishing. We have a warehouse and a customer service department, etc., so he is freed up to do books. At the same time he is going to increase his influence on Boyds Mills Press and take it to a higher level. I’m excited about the whole thing.

 

loretta: Is there a particular topic of interest that Calkins Creek and Front Street are interested in?

 

Kent: I do not know the answer to either question, but I suspect they each are interested in books that resonate with them. To see what has, you can look at some of Carolyn and Stephen’s past books. But remember past books only tell you what publishers figured out so far, and do not open the mind to things not yet thought of. Mostly, great publishing comes from ideas that authors have a passion for, not from ideas that editors think up.

 

umak: I would like to hear more about your conferences and workshops—they seem so wonderful.

 

Kent: I am reluctant to talk about how wonderful they are because you will think I am trying to sell you something; but one good thing to do is to ask someone who has attended.  I do know that most of the people who come think they are wonderful.  I think our success has something to do with a tone that “we are all in this together.”  We started with the idea that there would be no head tables, no big egos, and we only take faculty who are in touch with just how fragile the writer is, and how much we all need validation.  It always amazes me at Chautauqua how the faculty and conferees blend together and come together as learners all.

 

Mel: The Highlights for Children summer conference at Chautauqua has been going strong now for two decades.  Why and how did you first consider having a conference for writers of that huge magnitude?

 

Kent: It was an accident, maybe. I was walking along at Chautauqua—I can show you the street still—and I had been to a great lecture in the amphitheater. So I was feeling the beauty and culture and whole magic of Chautauqua as I walked along, and I got to wondering how I could put the magic place Chautauqua together with the people and profession I love. That’s how the idea came. We started small, and few believed in it, but over time we have figured out that it’s a great place to bring writers and pamper and nurture them.

 

Mel: How could any children's writer or illustrator in our chat room tonight go about getting to go to the Highlights summer conference at Chautauqua?

 

Kent: We are taking registrations now, and the information is on our web site: www.HighlightsFoundation.org.  And I’m glad to talk to anyone who needs more information, as are my colleagues Jo Lloyd and others. We can help with transportation arrangements, of course we find people their housing, and we have payment plans.

 

umak: Thank you for the major subrights sales Highlights does, and you always send out those nice courtesy checks!

 

Kent: Our present policy is to share the fees with the authors, and that policy is well received.  Just now the headlong rush to test every kid till he is sick of it has driven a lot of interest in reprinting from Highlights. It's surely good for authors but the effect on kids is still unknown.

 

omalizzie: What is the Highlights Foundation, and what kinds of things does it do? 

 

Kent: The Highlights Foundation is a section 501(c)3 publicly supported charity whose mission is to raise the level of the offering for children.  So we have a mission of helping writers and illustrators for children succeed. We carry out our mission by running conferences and workshops; the original granddaddy conference is a week at Chautauqua, New York, each July (we are planning our 21st annual conference).  Five years ago we began running shorter workshops at my grandparents farm; we call those Founders Home Workshops. The topics are more specific than the entire Chautauqua experience.  We have information about these programs on our web site, www.HighlightsFoundation.org.  I am spending increasing time working on new programs and increasing our scholarship programs; last year we helped more than 25 people attend our programs who could not afford the cost alone. 

 

Mel: For those of us who may not know, could you tell us about USBBY and IBBY, how they are organized and how they function, please?

 

Kent: IBBY (their web site is www.IBBY.org) is an international organization started after Jella Lepman saw that children were big losers in WWII. The dream is to build understanding though books that help us know of children in many lands and cultures. So IBBY promotes the sharing of books across political boundaries.  And IBBY is active in aiding literacy development especially in third world countries.  USBBY is the US chapter; more than 50 countries have chapters.  The USBBY web site is www.usbby.org.

 

worfsmate: This KC fan wants to know how work with USBBY is going?

 

Kent: My presidency ends at the New Year, and I escaped the year without being impeached. The help that USBBY members gave to let Africans from all over their continent attend the big conference in Cape Town this past September will surely pay off in literacy and book development. It was moving to be at a conference with so many from around the world; 67 countries were represented, and very many from around Africa.  Some IBBY colleagues and I got the idea from discussions in Cape Town to run conferences to help emerging writers in Africa make picture books and create other literature reflective of their cultures; sort of an antidote to the longtime colonial influences and colonial publishing.  So a current dream is to bring 10 emerging writers from Africa to the home of our founders for two weeks of one-on-one, then take them to Chautauqua for a third week.  Maybe 2006.   And I think there is a place for ICL in filling the needs in Africa, and I look forward to talking to the good folks in Connecticut about it. I know they have students from there already. 

 

Mel: The Roger Tory Peterson Institute, on whose board you serve, is a work that we know very little about.  What kinds of things is it doing for children?

 

Kent: They are dedicated to the cause of nature education, and they teach teachers to be nature educators, so they indirectly touch children.  Two other parts of their mission: house the work of the great naturalist Roger Tory Peterson and serve their local community.  I’m impressed by their work, in that they focus on getting kids to know the building blocks of nature, to know the natural world around them, rather than getting worked up about international environmental issues they cannot comprehend.   Teach kids about nature, then they can progress to become thoughtful stewards of our environment.

 

Mel: As you look into the far future, are there any changes, small or large, that you think would be good for Highlights for Children?

 

Kent: Well, I’m confident that Highlights inspires its editors enough—just because of its long tradition and many, many supporters—to keep it new and fresh without selling out to some fleeting trend.  In the very long run we are well positioned because we are not committed at all to a magazine—our commitment is to kids and families. At the moment the magazine and other things we do are the most efficient way we know to reach kids, but we want to be adaptable to other delivery systems.

 

Mel: If your grandparents, Garry and Caroline Myers, were still around today to see the magazine that Highlights has become, what do you think their comments might be, Kent?

 

Kent: Well, I know they would like it. They were prone to celebrate the success of others. They would commend the staff for the magazine they are doing. And my grandmother would wonder if we could afford all the color and photographs we use.  She necessarily learned to be frugal, but hated to skimp on the readers.

 

Mel: Thanks again, Kent, for "going these EXTRA miles" and adding even so MUCH MORE to this Guest Chat!

 

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