NON-FICTION AUTHOR Q&A
The author Q&A below is from the April issue of Spellbinders. To read the additional articles go to spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com
TO TELL THE TRUTH?
We are focusing on non-fiction books for our April issue of SPELLBINDERS and we decided to pick the collective brains of some of our author/librarian/teacher/scientist friends. Joining us this month are:
Shutta Crum: picture book author, novelist, and retired librarian. Her first book, Who Took My Hairy Toe? was classified as "retold folklore." Visit Shutta
Uma Krishnaswami: author of picture books, retold tales, and middle grade novels. She teaches creative writing at the Vermont College. Visit Uma
Fred Bortz: Fred Bortz holds a doctorate in physics and is one of the nation's leading writers of science and technology for young people with a twenty-five year career in teaching and research in physics, engineering, and science education. Visit Fred
Kimberley: Some of the questions we'd like to ask you are: what are the different kinds of non-fiction, the strengths of each type of non-fiction and some of your experiences and knowledge about writing non-fiction as well as how to use non-fiction effectively in the classroom.
Shutta: When exploring the different kinds of non-fiction, the librarian in me goes straight to the Dewey Decimal Numbers that include things like the social sciences (philosophy, crime, religion, etc.). The 300s include myths, folk and fairy tales, the 700s crafts, and the 800s include poetry, plays, short story collections, etc. The 900s include such things as travel and genealogy. You can get a shortened copy of Dewey and see what major groupings you can make with it.
Kimberley: Yes, yes, yes, Shutta! Thank you for including these crucial areas of the library. We got books from our local library under these Dewey numbers all the time with my boys when I was homeschooling.
Uma: Thanks, Shutta, for mentioning retold tales that all too often get thought of as "fiction." The point being not whether they are "true" or not (and what is that, anyway? One person's religious belief may be another's fairy tale) but what kind of research is needed to write them and what is the writer's obligations to stay true to the sources yielded by that research.
Carolee: That's a good point, Uma. As an educator in a public high school, I have trouble explaining this distinction to my students in a concise and meaningful way. When we study mythology, one of them will invariably ask if these stories are "real" or fiction. I will explain that they are non-fiction, which tends to make them think they really happened. They often assume that non-fiction means "real" or "true" which are sometimes difficult concepts to explain in the realm of non-fiction.
Uma: When I get asked the "is this real" question, I say, well, I didn't make it up. Someone else did, years ago. So when I rewrite a story like this, I need to stay "true" to that old version. In other words, I'm not going to meet Ganesha or Anansi or Grandmother Spider (or for that matter the animals from the Ark) in the parking lot when I leave here, but I need to pay attention to how I retell traditional stories because they're not mine to change however I want to. That's why retold tales are seen as nonfiction.
Carolee: It's a complex concept so I guess there's no quick and easy explanation.
Uma: If anyone wants to go into it further (as in middle or high school) I will talk about geography and the shaping of some stories, so that kernels of reality emerge--lost rivers, archeological discoveries, etc. and the technical differences between legend and myth, assuming you buy into those terminologies.
Kimberley: Does anyone have an observation about the current trends in publishing non-fiction?
Fred: The biggest recent change in nonfiction is the emphasis on series. The school/library publishers rarely do single titles anymore, and the trade publishers are doing more series also.
The biggest change in my own writing is a move toward speculative topics. My work-in-progress is about humanity's future in space, looking ahead to the settlement of other worlds and the possible exploration of other solar systems.
My latest book, Seven Wonders of Space Technology Visit Seven Wonders has speculative chapters on "Moon Water and Moon Bases" and "Future Technologies for Space Travel" and a forward-looking chapter about the New Horizons Mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt (arrival date: 2015).
Shutta: I might add that one of the more exciting things I have seen in the last ten years is an explosion in nonfiction picture books. This usually takes the form of a picture book that focuses in on a very specific event, person, period, etc. It is presented with large illustrations as picture books are, and sometimes there are end notes to fill out the details. I am thinking of books like: Bad New for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves by Vaunda Nelson, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson, and Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Hill just to name a couple. I love this . . . it provides a good point of access to nonfiction for young readers who may still be a little fearful of text-laden nonfiction.
Carolee: I've been delighted to see the expansion of non-fiction picture books. I work with poor readers, many of whom are boys, and they often prefer non-fiction over fictional stories. Quality non-fiction trade books contain great visuals and facts that grip their attention. A textbook biography is often boring, but a biography that is structured to read like a novel or short story based on fact can be fascinating.
Fred: It's not just bios that feel like novels, and it's not just sci/fi that looks at speculative ideas.
I began to get a little bit of notice nationally when a reviewer said that my 1995 book Catastrophe! Great Engineering Failure--and Success "reads like an adventure story," and was one of nine designated a Selector's Choice on the National Science Teachers Association/Children's Book Council list of Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children for 1996.
It was then that I realized that I was at my best as a "teller of true tales." Catastrophe! was more like a short-story collection around a common theme (Murphy's Law as a recipe for success) than a novel.
Kimberley: Speaking of awards, what are the non-fiction awards out there? I know some like the Sibert, but I know I'm probably missing a lot.
Fred: I am also a winner of one of those other awards. I imagine there are several other fields that offer them. Mine was the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for works intended for young readers in 2002 for Techno-Matter: The Materials Behind the Marvels. That was not a true-story book, but rather an overview of materials science and engineering, though I tried to work in a little storytelling in some of the technologies I described.
Kimberley & Carolee: This is wonderful, thank you all so much! You've clarified several things as well as given good examples and the direction of series and awards. Thanks to all of you for joining us for this month's issue of SPELLBINDERS
