We'd love to hear what you think about these books. Please leave comments about each title on its respective blog post. If you'd like to suggest a book for the final list, send me an email or leave a comment.
- If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge by Marc Aronson
- Birmingham Sunday by Larry Dane Brimner
- The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns
- Farm by Elisha Cooper
- Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle
- How to Clean a Hippopotamus: A Look at Unusual Animal Partnerships by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page
- The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley
- Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country) by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer
- Driven: A Photobiography of Henry Ford by Don Mitchell
- Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Parrot by Sy Montgomery
- Sit-in: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney
7 comments:
Fabulous list!
At Brooklyn Public Library, we have THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY)cataloged as fiction. Although it is based on historical events, and on primary historical documents, some of the narrative is fictionalized. I would question whether this title would be eligible for the Sibert Award, since it is a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction.
I agree, with Francesca that this may not qualify, all of the catalog headings say fiction. There is even one "biography-fiction". It is a fun book. I think the book making is great. The use of multiple fonts and the sheer energy of the illustrations makes me think this may be a strong Caldecott contender.
We also have it classified as fiction
Francesca & JR-
Good points. It seems there are more and more books that fall into this category of "fictionalized information" where the content is based on research, but the author takes liberties within the text. I'm not sure where the line should be drawn, but it makes for interesting discussion. Watch for a blog post on this very topic in the near future.
Hi all,
Thank you for your thoughtful reading and discussion of my book, THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY.)
The book is nonfiction. All the quotes are sourced in the backmatter and the entire text was fact-checked by a wonderful Mark Twain expert (and university professor).
We only recently discovered the error in the CIP information, which describes the book as fiction. The error will be corrected when the book is reprinted, and it will be correctly listed as a nonfiction biography.
Feel free to email me if you'd like more information :)
Barbara Kerley (the author of the book)
barbara (at) barbarakerley.com
Please see the post Fact of Fiction or Somewhere in Between? for a continuation of this discussion.
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