The excerpt below was published on the publishersweekly.com site years ago.


Although the vast majority of the adult books publishers choose to adapt for kids are nonfiction, this is not always the case. A letter Clive Cussler received from a fan of his bestselling adventure novels starring Dirk Pitt was the catalyst for Archway's adaptations of three of his novels, Iceberg, Inca Gold and Shockwave, originally released in hardcover by S&S and in paper by Pocket Books. According to Patricia MacDonald, currently v-p and editorial director of paperbacks at S&S's children's publishing division, the letter came from a woman who wrote that her 13-year-old son was bored by many of the books published for kids his age, but she knew he would love reading about Dirk Pitt's heroic exploits. She suggested that Cussler trim down his stories for middle-graders and the idea caught the author's fancy. MacDonald signed up Judy Gitenstein to adapt the novels, and Cussler reviewed and approved each manuscript. The fan's hunch that youngsters would warm to Cussler's brave hero proved correct: the three adaptations--which feature a young-looking Dirk Pitt on the covers--have sold a total of 329,000 copies.



Clive obviously listens to his fans opinions and ideas! th:

Wow, I've never even heard of these! He sure picked some juicy ones to trim down. I was 11 when I started reading the DP books and had a good time giggling with my friends while reading RTT because of a couple passages in there, but all in all I don't think they're that bad for middle-graders.

Has anyone read a young-readers edition? How different are they?

Wonders if there's much editing needed because the language in Dr. C's books are not that salty. Just my humble opinion! p:

These are the top books that I actually mail out to forum members with young kiddos. I haven't read them but they seem to really appeal to the young readers.

MY SON IS NOW 19.

HE STARTED READING DIRK PIT ADVENTURES 10 YEARS AGO.

HE WILL TRY TO BE WITH ME IN SCOTSDALE.

I WOULD ONLY SAY THE THE WATER IS SALTY.

CLIVE, DO NOT CHANGE A THING.

TOMG

I have the YRE for Inca Gold and Shockwave (also, I already have the full edition for both now, US for IG and UK for SW). Actually, these were the 2 books which hooked me with CC, ( though they were the 3rd and 4th Cussler books that I have read). It never occurred to me that I have an abridged edition for Shockwave until I got hold of "CC and DP Revealed" and read the synopsis for SW did I realized that part of the synopsis was not in my copy. :lol: :lol: It's only when I discovered that I have the abridged editions for these 2 did I start hunting for their full edition. I am quite positive that my Iceberg copy is not a YRE! :unsure: :)

They are not entirely different from the full edition, only some scenes were removed/edited without changing much the essence of the story. IMHO, they were probably edited to reduce the length/size of the book, and not because of the "salty language". Most of the narratives and dialogues are maintained as is.

To give you an idea, in SW, the truth about Boudicca was missing, most of the scenes between the diamond businessmen were also missing except for the last part when they heard about Dorsett's death. In Inca Gold, DP's proposal to Loren was missing and most of the story about Hunt. DP's journey on the underground river was also shortened a little. Well, that's just what I can remember, I haven't really done a page-by-page comparison between the 2 editions.

Sorry for the spoilers :(

Thanks for the info, emgullemas! I can see how they might want to shorten it a bit for the younger readers, keep their interest and the action going. Glad to hear they didn't change anything major. para:

I have them but haven't found the time to read them yet. I would imagine that they would have edited some of the more violent scenes more than anything else. :unsure: