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Monday, May 19, 2014

These Biographies Are NOT "Slight" by Kathy Halsey

Define "Slight," Please
Recently I attended an informative book talk hosted by an educator/books festival impresario. She discussed 60 books in 90 minutes and her knowledge of the genres was impressive. However, she kept referring to the picture book biographies being reviewed as "slight." These "partial" stories did not include birth to grave information.


Now, being a non-fiction aficionado, beginning my first draft of architect Mary Colter's life, I beg to disagree. A partial take on someone's life is not "slight," it's actually a creative way to draw young children into a true story. These slice of life stories are a way to open up a biographee's life via little-known facts, a focus on one event, or on the motivating circumstances that created the drive to be unique or outstanding. I personally find this type of biography fascinating, and I know kids and their teachers would prefer them, too!  





Why Kids, Teachers and Librarians Like a Slice of Life
Just like pie, a slice is more digestible than the whole. A slice or glimpse into a person's life may leave students wishing for more; they may enjoy just a piece rather than gorging on the whole. A slice of life makes students wander and wonder about a person-critical thinking steps to real discovery and learning. 

For years librarians have dreaded the all-inclusive report, be it on a person, country, animal, fill-in the blank, blah-blah-blah regurgitation research that teaches nothing but cut and paste and sometimes plagiarism. I know this since I was a school librarian for 15 years! We librarians had a rallying call of "Ban the Bird Reports," an actual book title by the brilliant David Loertscher, Professor of Library and Information Science, San Jose State University and Past President of the American Association of School Librarians. (You owe it to yourself to check out David's page and his book even though it's copyright is 2005!) Bland, boringly written nonfiction begets bland, boring reports, even if nonfiction is the "trend," due to the Common Core. So, writers be wise and finds ways to draw even the youngest readers into scintillating non-fiction!

A Partial List of "Slight" Biographies
Here is a list of "partial," biographies culled from the book talk I attend. In my Friday Finds post, I'll focus in on 2 of these biographies and share how they lead me to the focus for my first attempt of writing a picture book biography. In the meantime, why don't you add to my growing list of "slice of life" biographies in the comment section?
1. Benny Goodman&Teddy Wilson:Taking the Stage as the First Black-and-White Jazz Band in History by Lisa Cline-Ransome, James Ransome, Illus.
2. Daredevil:The Daring life of Betty Skelton by Meghan McCarthy
3. Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim, Bryan Collier, Illus.
4. Thomas Jefferson: Life, liberty and the Pursuit of Everything by Maira Kalman
5. Keep the list going in the comment section, please!



17 comments:

  1. THE CAMPING TRIP THAT CHANGED AMERICA is a great "slice of life" text. And Nancy I. Sanders showcased it in a blog post. http://nancyisanders.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/nonfiction-picture-book-narrow-your-topic-part-2/

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    1. Thanks, Jackie. I am going to make a doc to add to WOW for later on this topic once I get a fair # of suggestions. TY for always supporting me.

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  2. I agree, Kathy. Birth to grave is too encompassing for a picture book. I like those PB bios that focus on a particular experience that a child can connect or identify with, and the rest of the story elaborates how that moment set the life course for the individual.

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    1. One of my current PB bio favorites is The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbably Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. It does a great job of stretching from childhood to death, but it works because it reserves the technical math information for the back matter.

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    2. I must pick this one up! I need to do some math 'learning." Thanks for the suggestion, Patricia.

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  3. Kathy, I agree. Getting to the heart of the matter would be more interesting. I look forward to checking out these bios. Thanks for the post!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the post. Friday I get to the nitty-gritty with2 of these great books.

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  4. Great thoughts, Kathy! I wrote about this also at my personal blog. http://www.tinamcho.com/blog/the-biography-pie

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  5. Well, I think biographies with a unique angle or focus help me teach kids about finding an angle or particular focus. We talk about watermelon stories (bed-to-bed stories, or birth-to-death, or a topic way too big for one story) vs. seed stories. Seed stories is what we want them to write. I really love THOMAS JEFFERSON'S LIBRARY, a very focused, new angle PB BIO about a man with thousands of books written about him. I think you are spot-on, Kathy.

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    1. Why thank you Marcie. I love watermelon/seed idea! W/your permission, I may use that for my Friday post!

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    2. Of course! I didn't come up with the concept, but I do use it to demonstrate focus. :)

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  6. Great post, Kathy. Writing biographies as "slice of life stories" or seed stories are excellent for students of all ages. I have read these PBs to my English Language Learners [ELL], who acquired the concept and the gist of the individual in the story. Listening to the stories in our classroom then supported their lessons in their History classes. Even a high school History teacher, I worked with, always shared PB books with her freshman and sophomore History students. Thank you for the list of biographies. Marcie: Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library is a book I hope to own. As organic gardeners, my husband and I appreciate Jefferson's love for gardening. We hope our future travels will take us to the gardens at Monticello.

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    1. I'm a big fan of TJ, the gardener and have done loads of research in person at workshops at Monticello and reading books about it. We also have a TJ garden at my school. I hope you get to come--it's lovely.

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    2. Wow, Marcie! I am so impressed. So many learning experiences and lessons, for the students, at your school to toil in the soil. Our home book shelf includes Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, Edited by Edwin Morris Betts. So amazing that Jefferson's passion for gardening thrives through his journal & records and even more so in the Gardens at Monticello. Thank you, Marcie.

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    3. Yes, TJ was an amazing record keeper and letter writer. :) I also recommend Peter Hatch's A RICH SPOT OF EARTH. And if you are ever around Virginia, they do workshops during Historic Garden Week. I went to 2 this year and then went to 1 TOM Talk last year. Lovely!!!

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    4. Garden Girl and Marcie, Great books to add to the list. I also love TJ and have been to Monticello twice. Bob & I used to have a timeshare in Williamsburg. Love that part of the country...Yorktown, too.

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  7. Eager for the architect's story Kathy. Enjoy the journey. Glad you are listening to lots of points of view.

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