Picture books are for kids, but many adults like them too. You could call these adults ‘big kids’ I suppose, or you could call picture books illustrated literature if you wanted to be careful not to offend any one of these adult’s particular taste. But I also suppose that a particular group of students at Iona College wouldn’t care one way or another. These students belong to a college organization called Admirers of Illustrated Literature. More on them in a moment, but first a little bit about their college.

The Iona College campus rests peacefully in New Rochelle, NY, about fifteen miles north of hectic mid-Manhattan. Carl Reiner, creator, producer, writer, and actor on The Dick Van Dyke Show, set that popular 1960’s situation comedy in New Rochelle. Maybe Rob and/or Laura Petrie, main characters in that show, attended Iona College before they settled into the script. Seems like they would have fit in well among its current student body, about 4000 strong, lured no doubt to Iona by its diverse social-justice culture and wide array of academic disciplines. Maybe Rob studied theatre there, maybe Laura music and dance. They could have—Iona College offers degrees in Arts Leadership, which includes four distinct disciplines – music, visual arts, dance, and theatre.
 

But now back to the ‘big kids’ that like picture books. Members of the Admirers of Illustrated Literature club celebrate various forms of illustrated entertainment media, not just picture books. Among other forms, they like anime, video games, manga and comic books. The goal of this student organization is to increase the appreciation and awareness of illustrated literature genres throughout Iona College's community. They also constantly have fun with their video games and reviewing/critiquing all forms of Illustrated Literature.

I wonder if our line of Adapted Classics books would suit their tastes. Adapted Classics stories surely qualify as picture books, i.e.; illustrated literature, so they might. But I wonder. Try as I might, and I have in various ways, it’s been exceedingly difficult attracting readers to illustrated classic stories, even though most of the stories were written by famous authors, so I wonder. My wife warned me when I undertook this venture in 2014 that nobody cares about time-worn stuff, even though these stories (with one exception) had never been illustrated before now. So what if the illustrations are new, the stories themselves are old, and that would be a ho-hum for modern readers, she warned.

I supposed so, but I went ahead anyway, and I still do try to sell the idea and the books. But this time the next Adapted Classics book soon to be published in paperback contains two stories written by an author, Eliza Leslie, whose fame, though once established, has not endured. Nevertheless, the quality of her stories had nothing to do with her eclipsed eminence as an author for young people. Both her stories chosen for this book feature young, female main characters placed in humorous situations, and each entertaining story also carries subtle moral messaging that has nothing to do with physical relationships. And both, I reiterate, are now expertly illustrated.The pen and ink pictures by Marc Johnson-Pencook are delightful and only add to the fun that’s weaved into and throughout these Eliza Leslie’s stories!

The book, The Tell-Tale and One Better, has been available via Applebooks since August, but so far no sales. “See”, my wife says. “I told you so!”  Oh jeez. Here we go again. I hope not, but we’ll see. Hmmm? Does anybody reading this know some young student from Iona College in New Rochelle? Yes? Then here is an illustration taken from the story my book-title calls ‘and One Better’—The Boarding School Feast— that they will probably enjoy! Then show it to them! Please?