From: Sally Miller <derbymiller>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 12:15:36 -0400

Keeping in mind that editors try to be kind and may just not have wanted to say that the manuscript was hopeless for other reasons: I have had an editor wish for "a more feisty heroine," in a story set in the 40's where the heroine's father was a domineering, occasionally abusive father. In another story, an editor felt that the fact that the father left the family for nearly a year on a quixotic personal journey of his own was an unsuitable background situation for a children's picture book. Not to quarrel with either of these two excellent editors, the point I wish to make is that, depended upon the time and place setting of the book, it is not reasonable to expect that family members will behave in ways that are politically correct today. Does that mean, do you think, that books that books with portrayals of such families are inappropriate for presentation to today's children?
    Sally Derby
Received on Fri 22 Jul 2005 11:15:36 AM CDT