From: Karen Wendt <bewendt>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 23:30:15 -0600

I agree that children ought to know that the characters are fiction, however, I don't think the fact that the books are in diary format is the problem. TANGERINE is in somewhat of a diary format but we don't think of Paul as a historical figure. I don't have a solution but would pose some concerns. These in no way are meant to cast a disfavorable light on the story or on the writing of this book.

One concern might be; will the child pick up the book for a school report that is suppose to be about a real person? Will it get overlooked by librarians, parents and perhaps even the teacher until after the report is written?

How will the child feel if she reads the book, and tries to do extra research on the person only then to find out this is a fictional character? I had a girl at a Reading Is Fundamental distribution (free books for low income, disadvantaged kids) who was interested in history. Time for the interview, right? But, sometimes the volunteers at RIF distributions do not know how to properly help children find books--too often making suggestions about what they *should* read and perhaps intimidating those too s hy to say "no thank you" into taking a book they are not interested in or capable of reading. Will a volunteer like that mistakenly give this book to someone interested in reading true stories about real people?


The books are popular and they do make history more interesting and not all kids mistake them for being true stories. There is a similar, ongoing discussion about a series of books that are about real people but are fictionalized accounts.


I don't have a solid opinion on this topic. Just some thoughts. Karen


====================== Karen M. Wendt, Madison, WI

bewendt at facstaff.wisc.edu

======================
 Monona Public Library web page
Received on Thu 19 Feb 1998 11:30:15 PM CST