Tuesday, November 20, 2007

On a Trip to Target and and Interesting book

The other night I was at target shopping for my new baby niece and while looking at books I found one I really thought was cute it is called "I love you so Much" by Marianne Richmond. I then saw another book with the same name thinking it was a sequel to the one I was looking at because it had a different picture on the cover I picked it up and began reading. Turns out it is the exact same book. The only difference between the two books was the pictures, colors and price. The first book I picked up was red with illustrations of an African American mom and daughter on the cover. The second was a bit larger it was a blue color and had a Caucasian mom and daughter on the cover. This book also cost a little bit more I am hoping that is because it was a bit bigger. But my main reason for telling you all this is that I was taken a back that a book would be printed twice with two different covers especially when the pictures through out the book are not just pictures of one ethnicity. So I want to know what you think...

2 comments:

Valerie W. said...

This made me think about Sims-Bishop's distinctions between types of representations and intended audiences. Most obviously, this seems like a marketing ploy. On a more fundamental level, it seems to imply that race doesn't matter or shape experience.

This reminds me, a bit, of a book I'll bring next session: "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads".

Marie said...

What a great idea for a blog post! This brings up a lot of questions in my mind about the real reasoning behind the price difference and the reasoning behind the need for two different copies of the same book. I do hope you are right and it is just because it was a little bit bigger. I am also wondering if you think a Caucasian woman would pick up the book with the African American woman on the cover, even if there was a significant price difference or vice versa?