From: Mary Losure <mblosure_at_msn.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 16:44:45 -0500

Thanks, Deborah. I will definitely take a look at those titles! And I'm certainly not arguing against "appropriate context that supports the narrative thread" --just facts that load down the story so that kids won't read it for pleasure. It's a hard line to draw sometimes. A challenge, I think.
  Mary Losure www.marylosure.com

  From: deborahhopkinson_at_yahoo.com To: mblosure_at_msn.com; ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] ccbc-net digest: June 09, 2014 Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:06:08 +0000







While I agree with Mary that narrative nonfiction needs to be engaging and dramatic, I do think it is possible -- and essential -- to write nonfiction that is entertaining but also provides appropriate context that supports the narrative thread. The Hive Detectives is a fantastic example of this in its layout and design. We are invested in the story BECAUSE we understand the context and what’s at stake. And of course oral histories, interviews, art, photographs, maps, and picture books can help support longer narrative nonfiction in this regard. A couple of examples from adult nonfiction come to mind of exceptional use of context. One, of course, is Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s classic Pulitzer Prize winning A Midwife’s Tale. The context here is the key -- the way in to making her life and times come alive. Also I just reviewed a fantastic adult nonfiction book, Judith Flanders’ The Victorian City, that would be great to excerpt and use in conjunction with teaching any Dickens novel. In one sense it is ALL context: fascinating, detailed, vibrant, entertaining, and endlessly fun.
 Deborah Hopkinson


 
 


                                               
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Received on Tue 10 Jun 2014 04:45:34 PM CDT