Fiction

Some people, such my dad, will not read fiction. To them, fiction is not true. I disagree. Nonfiction may be factual, but fiction can often show truths in ways mere facts cannot. What fiction can do, especially in middle grade and young adult novels, is to hold up a mirror in which readers can see themselves or others. Fiction helps them make sense of life as it shows truths one step removed from what may be chaos in their own lives.

I’ve attended the Texas Library Association Convention http://www.txla.org/annual-conference many times, regardless of whether or not I had a book out that year. Once I was an assistant to a National Geographic author-speaker. The year my NF library book TURKEY IN THE NEWS came out, I pitched NF books to librarians in the Enslow http://www.enslow.com booth.