From: Christine Hill <chill>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 09:50:54 -0500

April has raised some fascinating questions and I thank her. However, I must disagree with her on the issue of giving animals names and making them characters in non-fiction books. Reviewers often state that this technique will interest young readers, but in almost thirty years of librarianship I have never seen this happen. Instead, I have seen two categories of animal book readers. The pleasure readers want facts, the more and the quirkier the better. Sometimes they memorize them just for the pleasure of knowing them. The report readers also want facts so they can cite them for their assignments. They want these facts to be easily recognizable, not embedded in a story. In fact if they flip through a book I give them and see animals given names or made characters in any way, they will hand the book back and say,
"This is a story. I want a true book." This has happened to me more times than I can count and I can never convince them otherwise. I can't be the only one with this experience. What do others say? Christine M. Hill Willingboro Public Library One Salem Road Willingboro, NJ08046 chill at willingboro.org My new book! Ten Terrific Authors for Teens, Enslow, 2000
Received on Wed 29 Nov 2000 08:50:54 AM CST