Pale Male’s nesting traumas were heavily covered here, including by the tabloids, which turned it into an irresistible David-and-Goliath story (little bird versus big co-op on Fifth Avenue). And I’m glad there’s interest in parts of the country that weren’t primed for the book by the media blitz we had here.

As for the idea that children over 6 won’t read picture books, my experience in school and public libraries proves otherwise! If anything, it can be harder to get the 6 to 8 year olds to read chapter books even when their reading skills are at that level. I provide support to the children’s literature class for future teachers (early childhood through grade 4) at my university, and each student must read a minimum of 290 picture books across eight genres. Teachers are using picture books in their lesson planning as well.

It is also helpful to know that “Pale Male” was chosen by third through sixth graders. Not long ago I went to a panel discussion that included two very influential children’s-book editors. Someone in the audience asked, “Is it true that children over 6 won’t read picture books?” One of the top editors said that a lot of kids over 6 won’t and that this seems to be true more and more.

“Pale Male” shows that you can get children above 6 or even 8 interested in picture books if the content is interesting enough and it’s packaged appropriately.