You Stole My Thunder: Title Twins
I realized the other day that there are two picture books titled Otis. Janie Bynum’s version about a pig that likes to stay clean was published in 2000, while Loren Long’s Otis hit shelves in 2009. Both received positive reviews.
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It made me wonder -Â do authors take pre-existing titles into consideration when making their choice? Are authors ever upset when their title thunder is stolen?
I began to search for other title twins. Here’s what I came up with.
Melonhead by Katy Kelly.
Melonhead by Michael de Guzman.
First Dog by Jan Brett.
The First Dog by J. Patrick Lewis.
Footprints in the Snow by Cynthia Benjamin.
Footprints in the Snow by Mei Matsuoka.
Splish, Splash! by Sarah Weeks.
Splish Splash by Joan Bransfield Graham.
The Umbrella by Taro Yashima.
Umbrella by Jan Brett.
Snow Day! by Barbara Joose.
Snow Day! by Lester L. Laminack.
The Snow Day by Komako Sakai.
Dog Days by David Lubar.
Dog Days by Jeff Kinney.
Oops! by Alan Katz
Oops by Arthur Geisert
Oops! by Jean-Luc Fromental.
Oops! by David Shannon.
Oops! by Colin McNaughton.
Something Special by David McPhail.
Something Special by Terri Cohlene.
Long Shot by Mike Lupica.
Long Shot by Eric Walters.
Safe at Home by Mike Lupica.
Safe at Home by Sharon Robinson.
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers.
Lost and Found by Andrew Clements.
In a related note, thunder can also be stolen by movie titles. Case in point:
Up by Jim LaMarche.
Up by Pixar.
Any that I missed?
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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When I worked at a bookstore, that was something that seemed to surprise a lot of people – that two different books by different authors could have the same title.
How about Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and Twilight by Erin Hunter?
And Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst and Into the Wild by Erin Hunter?
(I wonder which other Warriors titles have twins…)
That Twilight one gets kids every time! Those books are always out and they have to put holds on them and they don’t pay attention they just hold and when it comes in they believe it’s somehow my fault…
Travis, you missed two Oops twins above:
Oops by David Shannon and Oops by Colin McNaughton
Abby, when I was thinking of title twins the Meyer/Hunter set was the first to pop into my mind. The other Meyer/Hunter twin is Eclipse.
Hunter’s Into the Wild has another twin (triplet?) which causes us a lot of confusion up here in Alaska, and that is the one by Jon Krakauer. One year the Hunter book was on a battle of the book’s list and more than one librarian went out and ordered the Krakauer book instead.
She must have twins for a lot of her titles…
Thanks for the additions Nicole. They’ve been added. And I’m with you on Into the Wild having a strong connection to the Krakauer version – when I first saw the Durst cover, I did a title double take.
What about Owly by Mike Thayer and the Owly series by Andy Runton?
Maria – good call! I’ll add that one when I do a part II for this post.
In addition to the Twilight/Eclipse thing here are some other title confusioners at our library:
Slam by Nick Hornby and Slam by Walter Dean Myers…
Abduction by Peg Kehret and Abduction by Gordon Korman
Gone by Lisa McMann and Gone by Michael Grant
Thanks! I’m thinking I’ll have to do a part II for this post, now that a bunch more need to be included. Forthcoming!
You know who throws me for a loop? Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock, who’ve collaborated on The Mitten and The Gingerbread Man, both titles that I felt were kind of done by Jan Brett in a very similar style. If you place the covers next to each other, it really seems like there’s no need for such similar versions of these tales.
Yes, I could have done a whole post just on the folktales and fables that have been covered by well-known authors/illustrators. Sometimes they breath new life, other times it seems a bit redundant.
I searched a bunch of sites and this was the best.
Can You tell if Robert and Kristen is together? I really need to know!