李京倫譯
At a reading in New York last month, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley faced an unruly crowd as she read from her new book, "Twenty Yawns." Audience members squirmed and fidgeted, shouted out questions, and seemed to get distracted.
"The beach umbrella was flapping in the breeze," she read. "Flap, flap, flap."
"Look, a fly!" a little boy in a Spider-Man T-shirt yelled, swatting at a buzzing insect.
普立茲獎得主、小說家珍．史麥利上個月在紐約一場朗誦會上朗讀自己的新書「20個呵欠」時，面對一群難以管束的聽眾，他們動來動去，坐立不安，扯著嗓子問問題，而且顯得心不在焉。
史麥利讀道：「海灘上的遮陽傘傘布在微風裡啪啦啪啦飄動，啪啦，啪啦，啪啦。」
「看，有隻蒼蠅！」一個穿著蜘蛛人圖案上衣的小男孩大叫，並拍打一隻嗡嗡作響的蟲蟲。
Smiley took the outbursts in stride and tried to engage an audience that consisted mostly of toddlers and their minders as she read the story, about a girl who struggles to fall asleep after a day at the beach. "Do you know how to look sleepy?" she asked. The children flopped over and pretended to snore.
史麥利對這突發事件安之若素，並試著引起聽眾的興趣。聽眾絕大多數是小小孩及其照顧者。當時她朗讀的是一個女孩在海灘玩了一天後努力想進入夢鄉的故事。史麥利問：「你們知道不知道怎樣才能看起來很愛睏？」這群孩子便側過身去，假裝打鼾。
For most of her career, Smiley, 66, has tried to avoid putting readers to sleep. Now, with her first picture book, she is joining a handful of well-known novelists who are aiming to reach readers so young that they probably appreciate the pictures more than the prose. A cluster of new picture books from famous writers will hit bookstores in coming months, including a lighthearted poetry collection by Calvin Trillin and a creepy, fairy-tale-like picture book in translation from the mysterious, pseudonymous Italian author Elena Ferrante, who is best known for her four-part Neapolitan series.
66歲的史麥利在大部分職業生涯中，都極力避免讓讀者想睡覺。現在，她出了第一本繪本，跟少數名氣響亮的作家一樣，瞄準那些年幼到也許愛看圖畫勝過文字的讀者。未來數月會有一連串名作家創作的新繪本上市，包括崔林輕鬆有趣的詩集，以及從義大利作家愛蓮那．費蘭特作品翻譯過來的恐怖童話式繪本。費蘭特身分神秘，只用筆名而從不公布真名，最有名的作品是拿坡里四部曲。
"Every year there are adult writers and celebrities who choose to write in the genre, but this is a particularly high-caliber group," said Megan Tingley, the executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
The current crop of picture books from literary writers is arriving at a moment when children's literature has become a vibrant and often lucrative niche for novelists. Revenue from children's books sales ballooned to $1.7 billion in 2015 from $1.5 billion in 2011, according to the Association of American Publishers, which tracks sales from more 1,200 publishers. Sales of adult books, by comparison, remained stagnant.
「小布朗出版社」執行副總裁兼發行人梅根．廷利說：「每年都有原本為成年人寫作的作家和名流創作繪本，這種創作者素質特別高。」
時下這些文學作家創作繪本，是因為對小說家而言，兒童文學已成蓬勃發展且往往獲利豐厚的小眾市場。追蹤1200多家出版商銷售額的「美國出版商協會」的資料顯示，2011年童書銷售額為15億美元，2015年大增到17億美元，相較之下，成人讀物銷售額則停滯不前。
Following the blockbuster success of series like "Twilight" and "Harry Potter," a growing number of best-selling authors have migrated into the booming market for young adult and middle-grade fiction, including James Patterson, John Grisham, Smiley and Jennifer Weiner.
Picture books, typically written for 3- to 7-year-olds, could represent the next frontier for writers seeking to further expand their audiences by reaching an even younger demographic. It also may help them hook impressionable young readers — sometimes before they can even read.
在「暮光之城」、「哈利波特」等系列小說轟動全球後，愈來愈多暢銷作家轉攻國小學童與青少年小說這個急速發展的市場，包括彼得森、葛里遜、史麥利和珍妮佛．懷納。
繪本通常瞄準3到7歲兒童，對想要接觸更幼小的讀者以進一步拓展讀者群的作家而言，是下一個有待開拓的領域。繪本還能讓這些作家牢牢抓住易受影響的年輕讀者——有時甚至在他們學會閱讀之前。
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