My first book about trucks (TRUCKS) was published in hardbound by Dutton in 1984, in paperback by Penguin/Puffin in 1992. Now I’m hoping it will hang on in yet another form. For children love this book.

Many non-fiction picture books are dated after 28 years in print, but this title is just as accurate today as when it was first published. Is that because real trucks don’t have to keep up with the fickle tastes of consumers? I suspect that’s true.

That is the question.

Or is it?

The amount of chatter coming from publishers, authors, illustrators, agents, has risen to tornado force on the subject of e-books versus print books. Some of the issues are valid ones – others are Cassandras shrieking in terror as they foretell the death of reading.

Since I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember, I’ve been puzzling over this fiery debate. After a couple of weeks trying to gain some solid information on the electronic revolution, I hope I can share some of what I feel is valid, and what is paranoia.

First comes the paranoia. Through author blogs such as mine, and despair sobbing loudly forth from Facebook and Twitter, most children’s book authors are upset over the coming death of books printed on paper, with ink. “But I love the smell of books,” wail many. “A child can’t cuddle up with an iPad!” wail others. They blame the current slump in the book publishing industry on e-books, apps, and big, bad Amazon.com.

But is that really the issue? I’d give anything to have been the fly in the wall when Johannes Gutenberg produced his first books printed on paper, not vellum, with ink on moveable type, not quills and brushes.

As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, I can’t help thinking about the book my daughter Lizzy and I did (ST. PATRICK’S DAY, by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell, Harper/Collins 2010). I’m a bit surprised by its acceptance by American school systems, for it’s hard to write about the patron saint of a foreign nation. Yet that’s who St. Patrick was.

Since our founding fathers, we are a nation firmly planted in the idea that there must be separation between church and state, for only in this way can each of us worship, or not, in the manner of our own choosing. The current insistence by the radical right that Barack Obama is not Christian, but Muslim, makes me realize that too many Americans either don’t know, or don’t remember this privilege that was historically granted us. What difference would it make if he were Muslim? There is no law that says the President of the United States must be Christian. George Washington, our first president was so committed to the concept of separation of church and state that he refused to say what religion he belonged to. Yet his peers knew he was a believer, that the church he attended was Church of England, also called Anglican, or Episcopal. As an American colonist of English descent, he knew what troubles state religions brought.

This is just to say that’s it’s not easy to write about anything that touches on religion. But Patrick’s story is difficult to understand without the part religion, specifically Christianity played in his life.

The Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota is one of the most extensive collections of art and manuscripts for children’s books in the world. Students and professionals in children’s literature come from all over to study its holdings. If you follow this link you’ll find fascinating details of how this collection came to be, to thrive and to grow.

Last summer I visited the Kerlan and gave a talk to graduate students from Hamline University. I also brought my paintings for the new edition of AT THE SUPERMARKET to Minnesota to contribute to the Kerlan's collection of my work and that of my late husband, Harlow Rockwell. When I saw his 3-color, pre-separated art for the original edition of SUPERMARKET (published by Macmillan in 1973), it was a dramatic demonstration of changes that have taken place in publishing books for children over the past 40 years.

A visit to a research collection such as this requires advance permission. This was the first time I had visited there, and I was thrilled to be given a tour.

Apples and Pumpkins, the first book I collaborated on with my daughter Lizzy Rockwell back in 1989, has a beautiful new cover! So I asked Lizzy to guest-blog about it, and to share some of her test artwork.

From Lizzy:

"Here are scans of the tester paper used when I was getting ready to do the jacket for the revised version of Apples and Pumpkins. Having not worked in this style in 15 years or so, I needed to practice on some test sheets to make sure I had the right textured watercolor paper (T.H. Saunders 140 lb. cold press), the right watercolor pigments (Winsor & Newton Artist's colors) etc.  With the re-release of Apples and Pumpkins in hardbound, the publisher wanted to give the title a fresh package, but without looking like a different book.

"Last weekend I was at a book festival in Warwick, NY (apples and pumpkin territory!) and got to see the reactions of buyers first hand. I signed quite a few copies of Apples and Pumpkins to teachers and parents who were already familiar with the book. They did not seem to notice that it was a new jacket, but lots of people unfamiliar with the original were drawn to it too.