From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:28:11 -0500

Like KT, I have enormous respect for Betty Carter but as a former publisher of children's books, I would feel I had suckered the audience if I had published biographies of Lincoln, King, etc., without mentioning their assassinations. More important , both were assassinated because of their principles, and to ignore their assassinations would diminish the courage with which they lived their lives. Better a biography not be published for a certain age group if one feels an aspect of the subject's life should not be addressed.

Way back when I published biographies of Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald for teenagers and the writer wanted to omit Stein's relationship with Toklas, as well as Fitzgerald's drinking ( Zelda's, too) but he was persuaded to do otherwise. My point being, in publishing nonfiction for children and teenagers, no matter the age group, when one decides this/that is not acceptable, the nonfiction borders on fiction.

If a child had difficulty handling the assassination of Lincoln, King, Malcom X, etc., I would not give that child a biography of another figure who had been assassinated. As Marc said in a much better way, it is a matter of matching the right book with the right child. Norma Jean
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2011 10:28:11 AM CST