{"id":89950,"date":"2026-06-25T21:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/blog\/2026\/06\/25\/a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-book-design-to-celebrate-lesementors-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:22:24","slug":"a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-book-design-to-celebrate-lesementors-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/blog\/2026\/06\/25\/a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-book-design-to-celebrate-lesementors-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse into the World of Book Design to Celebrate Lesementor’s Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far from being \u201cjust a few strokes\u201d or even a simple entry into a computer: Illustrating a book\u2014especially a children\u2019s book\u2014is a complex undertaking. For 20 years, illustrator Nele Palmtag has been giving various children\u2019s books the right visual style. To mark the 5th anniversary of the nonprofit organization LESEMENTOR, she explained how it all works at the Steinm\u00fchle. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“She’s got what it takes,” as they say. After all, her nomination for the 2026 German Youth Literature Prize speaks for itself. \u201cMy work involves a lot of engagement with texts,\u201d she reveals. After all, the cover of a children\u2019s book determines whether people will pick it up. In an afternoon workshop, the illustrator taught a group of students the basics of her craft. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The feeling conveyed by the text must come through<\/strong><\/p>\n

Children\u2019s and young adult author Andreas Steinh\u00f6fel, who is also a founding member of Lesementor, provides the element that everything must harmonize with. \u201cFor me, the key question is: Do I see in the illustration the same emotion that I put into the text?\u201d says the best-selling author. <\/p>\n

“The style has to fit the story,” he continues, describing the process from text and drawings to the finished book. Whether that\u2019s the case is a matter of “gut feeling”: The illustration provides a common thread, just on a different level. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Insight into Work Techniques<\/strong><\/p>\n

The harmony between Nele Palmtag\u2019s illustrations and Andreas Steinh\u00f6fel\u2019s works has already been documented, reported Bj\u00f6rn Gemmer, principal of Steinm\u00fchlen School and host of the evening. This harmony is evident, among other places, in Steinh\u00f6fel\u2019s children\u2019s novel *Wenn mein Mond deine Sonne w\u00e4re* and the children\u2019s book *Durch den Wald*. As part of the Lesementor anniversary celebration, the illustrator and the author took the audience on a journey into the fascinating world of book design. Nele Palmtag provided insight into her concepts and working techniques and explained how she manages to illustrate a book\u2019s text with images while simultaneously creating a work of her own. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“We would have liked to do away with ourselves”<\/strong><\/p>\n

These insightful remarks were a perfect fit for the anniversary celebration, to which Lesementor Chairwoman Inge Maisch had invited guests to the Steinm\u00fchle Forum. Nevertheless, the continued existence of the nonprofit organization\u2014which, with 86 mentors, helps children from a total of 16 elementary schools in the district learn to read\u2014fills her with mixed feelings: \u201cWe would actually have liked to make ourselves obsolete and wished there were no longer a need for us.\u201d The numbers, however, tell a different story. One in four children at the end of fourth grade cannot read. <\/p>\n

Raising our glasses together and toasting the anniversary with everyone present was therefore, even with a few downsides, a joyful occasion: \u201cFor many children, we\u2019re the ones who first introduce them to the magic of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Angela Heinemann)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far from being \u201cjust a few strokes\u201d or even a simple entry into a computer: Illustrating a book\u2014especially a children\u2019s book\u2014is a complex undertaking. For 20 years, illustrator Nele Palmtag has been giving various children\u2019s books the right visual style. To mark the 5th anniversary of the nonprofit organization LESEMENTOR, she explained how it all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":89986,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,85,93,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaborations-partnerships","category-news","category-politics-business-responsibility","category-social-engagement"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steinmuehle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}