Monday, July 19, 2010

2011 Mock Sibert: Reading List #1

This is the first of four short lists for the Mock Sibert election at the Allen County Public Library. We'll continue to highlight and discuss a wide variety of informational books on our blog, and we encourage your comments on all of them. The books on this short list, however are now destined to be "brought to the table" to be discussed in more depth at our Mock Sibert Discussion and Election on December 11, 2010.

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.

7 comments:

Kara Schaff Dean said...

Fabulous list!

Francesca Burgess said...

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 Although it is based on historical events, and on primary historical documents, some of the narrative is fictionalized.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.

JR said...

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.

Jackie, Berwyn Public Library, Youth Services said...

We also have it classified as fiction

Mandy said...

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.

Barbara Kerley said...

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

Mandy said...

Please see the post Fact of Fiction or Somewhere in Between? for a continuation of this discussion.