Die Elfen Von DreamDark -- Magpie goes German!

Look! Die Elfen Von DreamDark!! I just received the catalog pages from the German publisher of Dreamdark, Bertelsmann. And just look! My book in a foreign language!!! This is so cool. Whenever I travel, I like to buy children's books in foreign languages -- in exotic alphabets, so much the better. And I've been looking forward greatly to the day when I would see my own book in another language. I hope there will be many more. And look what they did. They changed the title. I do not speak German, but I am fairly sure that "Krahenmadchen" translates to something like "Crow Girl" or "Crow maiden" -- which is cool, don't you think? I think "Blackbringer" would be "Schwartz-something" and wouldn't have sounded so good. Anyway, yippee yippee yippee. It'll be out in Germany in April. Can't wait to get an actual copy and try to read it out loud in a thunderous faux German accent!

It occurred to me when I saw this: Aus dem Amerikanischen von Cornelia Stoll und Friedrich Pfluger (which I'm guessing means translated by, but I could be totally wrong), that somebody actually translated it. I mean, I knew that already, but I guess it hadn't really struck me, over the past months, that somebody was sitting with my book trying to translate crow colloquialisms into another tongue, and making up alternative for my invented slang words, and all that stuff. It's kind of crazy. Kind of wow. And so weird that I will never know what choices they made or how they sound. (So, any German speakers, please tell me!)

Also, obviously, they chose to use Jim's art, which I am stoked about because I lurve my cover. (I'll be able to show you the Silksinger cover soon!) Here's the catalog cover, with Dreamdark in the bottom row:
And the catalog page:
Ooh, there is another catalog page, but I didn't scan it in because I thought it was just my author photo, but I just realized it's the inscription in Magpie's almanac from her parents, the one on page 54 where it says, "There is a hole in the pocket of the world, and the magic is slipping through it." I always loved that line. So cool they chose to reproduce the note in the catalog!

So, yippee yippee yippee. Here, reprinted from last year when we first got the news, is Happy German Penguin, which Jim drew and painted for the Penguin Young Readers foreign rights person, Farah, in celebration:

And, to finish on a totally random note, I pulled this photo off Haven Kimmel's hilarious and awesome blog, because I love it so much. Squint to read the caption. It says "There was no pain, just the feeling that he and I were playing tug-of-war with my body."