From: Barbara Kelly <bkerley>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 10:10:20 -0700

I agree with everyone's posts about what a great book STARRY MESSENGER is. (In response to Beth Wright's comment about the endpapers, "who has the telescope in the second scene?" I'd cast my vote for: the child reader. Surely Sis hopes children will keep thinking about the stars, just as Galileo did.)

I was hoping to broaden the discussion a bit and perhaps compare the book to FOLLOW THE DREAM.

In addition to writing children's books, I also work part-time at my local, independent bookstore. We use Ingram's Titlequest data base to order our books. I was surprised, when ordering FOLLOW THE DREAM, to see it listed under the category
"Juvenile Fiction -- Historical." The listing for MESSENGER is "Juvenile Nonfiction
-- Biography." Both books, however, have a very similar feel to me.

I'd be really curious to hear comments on both sides of this issue:

Specifically, from the publishers of these books (and I realize the books have different publishers), or from Mr. Sis himself, what factors determined whether you classified your book as nonfiction or historical fiction?

And from those who share the books with children (librarians and teachers), do you present the books differently, keeping in mind the different categories? Does it matter to you that one is 'fact' and the other, 'fiction'?

Barbara Kerley Kelly bkerley at humboldt1.com My latest book: THE DINOSAURS OF WATERHOUSE HAWKINS
Received on Thu 07 Jun 2001 12:10:20 PM CDT