I was sitting down with a colleague the other day and the conversation turned, as all conversations are wont to do, to the subject of William’s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow.  I won’t bore you yet again with my theory that the book would sell like hotcakes if they just bothered to re-illustrate the darn thing (if curious, you can hear me rant here).

The conversation only started with William’s Doll.  After a while it went in a different direction.  The question is this:

Has a picture book ever been improved by a re-illustration?

The worst case scenarios are always the easiest to think of.  Anyone anywhere re-illustrating The Tale of Peter Rabbit is, by natural extension, taking an active role in a crime against man.  That sort of thing falls into the if-it-ain’t-broke category.

Here are a couple cases of less violent re-illustration that come immediately to mind:

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown