A Visual Model for Analyzing Fiction and Nonction Texts

A New Way to Look at Literature: A Visual Model for Analyzing Fiction and Nonction Texts
Penny Colman The author draws upon her work as a writer to broaden teachers and readers understanding of ction and nonction literature, and to provide them with a tool for analyzing texts.

ver the course of my career, I have written both ction and nonction stories and books. However, my experiences during many years of doing author visits and teaching classroom teachers have led me to be concerned about the underrepresentation of nonction books in the literature that is offered to young readers. My interactions with educators, librarians, and publishers have provided me with many dramatic examples. When I visit schools or give speeches, I am inevitably told that I am the rst nonction author to visit or to speak. When I survey publishers catalogues, I routinely count far more ction books than nonction. When I ask teachers in my classes at Queens College to do an inventory of the books in their classrooms, they overwhelmingly report that ction books outnumber nonction books. For example, teachers have reported disparities as great as 300 ction books to 50 nonction and too many to count ction books to 25 nonction books. In June 2005, I collected summer reading lists for children of all ages from 11 public libraries in northern New Jersey. All the books on all the lists were ction. As for reviews, in the Nov. 21, 2005, Publishers Weekly, now known as PW, there were reviews of 13 ction books and 3 nonction books for children. In terms of recognition, I discovered that the 2005 Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal, arguably the most prestigious and certainly the most visible awards, went to 7 ction books and 1 nonction book. In 2006, those awards went to 8 ction books and 2 nonction books. Note that this is not the case in the adult world of books. For example, each week The New York Times Book Review features more nonction books than ction. The Pulitzer Prize honors 11 types of nonction writing (e.g., history, public service, investigative reporting, international
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reporting, editorial writing), and 1 type of ction writing (drama). The National Book Award honors both ction and nonction. In 2005, the focus was on the nonction winner Joan Didion and her book The Year of Magical Thinking (2005).

NONFICTION LITERACY MATTERS

The relative absence of nonction in literature for young readers may have serious implications because nonction literacy matters. Nonction material is the crucible within which readers can gain the knowledge and skills that enable them to reach sound decisions in all arenas of life, avoid gullibility born of ignorance, and participate in an informed and active citizenry. Nonction is the currency with which public policies and legislation are enacted, societal needs are discussed, cultural aesthetics are dened, life lessons are conveyed, scientic ndings and historical narratives are transmitted, and matters of war and peace are decided. Nonction is everywhere! It is the stuff of everyday lifethe innite list of activities and duties and decisions and feelings and fears and happiness. Nonction is there and here and everywhere (Colman, 2004). So how, one might ask, did ction come to dominate classrooms and curricula? I think there are ve reasons, some of which I have discussed in an earlier article (Colman, 1999).

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Inuence of Powerful Fiction Lovers

First, in the world of literature for children and young adults, there have been powerful editors, educators, reviewers, and librarians whose strong personal preference for ction have affected which authors were featured and what types of books were published, promoted, and selected for everything from awards to booktalks, from

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Copyright 2007 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

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story times to book lists. In recent years, a growing chorus of nonction advocates has begun to spearhead efforts to promote nonction. One example was the establishment of the Orbis Pictus Award in 1989 by The National Council of Teachers of English. Still, at this point, ction rules the roost.

Introduction of the Terms Informational/Information

The second reason emerged in the early 1970s when Zena Sutherland (1972) coined the phrase informational books as another term for noncMoney tion books for children and young adults. That The third reason that ction dominates the world same year, Margery Fisher (1972) coined the of literature for children and young adults (and term information books. They were not the rst from the perspective of pubpeople to propose new terms Fiction is safer than nonction lishers, perhaps the most for nonction. Writing in the important) is money. Accordbecause readers can remain 1960s, Pulitzer Prize-wining to a childrens book editor, distant, even detached, from ning historian Barbara Tuchman (1985) called nonction dissonant, unsettling material. Nonction is more expensive and time consuming on a despicable term because, all fronts. Straight ction does not usually require she wrote, photo placement and heavy design, expensive fact checking, indexing, and often substantive changes I do not feel like a Non-something; I feel quite in rst proofs. Also, books are more costly to prospecic. I wish I could think of a name in place of duce because paperstock needs to be better for Nonction. . . . Writers of Reality is the nearest photo reproduction, and this drives up the cost/ I can come to what I want, but I cannot very well call price of the book, often to $20. We are very selecus Realtors because that has been pre-empted tive in whom we publish and what content we although as a matter of fact I would like to. Real publish given the stakes (C. Ottaviano, personal Estate, when you come to think of it, is a very communication, November 18, 2005). ne phrase and it is exactly the sphere that writers of nonction deal in: the real estate of . . . human conduct. I wish we could get it back from the dealers in land. Then the categories could be poets, novelists, and realtors. (p. 46)

the context and content of Sutherlands and Fishers understandings. This is problematic because the typical semantic association adults and youngsters make when they hear the term information books is encyclopedias or textbooks. The term information book does not readily trigger associations with the variety of nonction booksbiographies, history, true adventure, science, sports, photographic essays, memoirs, etc.that are available and accessible for children and young adults and that can be just as compelling, engaging, and beautifully written as good ction.

Safety of Fiction
The fourth reason for the prominence of ction in classrooms and curricula is that ction is safer than nonction because readers can remain distant, even detached, from dissonant, unsettling material. It is emotionally easier to discuss makebelieve characters, settings, and situations. Readers can even rewrite ction, including the ending, an exercise that some teachers employ.

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Realtor, of course, did not catch on, but both information and informational did and are widely used today. One or the other term has replaced nonction in many childrens literature textbooks and journal articles. Information or informational are used as labels in many childrens sections in libraries. The Association for Library Services to Children of the American Library Association established an award in 2001 and called it The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award. Sutherland and Fisher never intended that their terms would limit peoples understanding of the complexity, richness, and literary nature of nonction. However, over time that is what has happened as their terms were carried forth without
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No. 3

Myths and Misconceptions

The fth reason is that many people have uncritically accepted a variety of myths and misconceptions about nonction. These include: Nonction is boring. Nonction will not hook kids on reading. Nonction is more appealing and appropriate for boys than for girls.

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imagination is used in nding a structure and form (p. 10). As for the third responsedening ction as reading for pleasure and nonction as reading for informationthat miseducates students about what to expect from ction and nonction. Many students derive pleasure from reading nonction books about everything from animals to sports to real life adventures. Many ction books convey information. For example, in her book, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko conveys information about what is now called autism and families dealing with a child who has autism, and about life for non-prisoners and prisoners on Alcatraz Island in 1935. At the end of this book, there is even an authors note with footnotes about autism and life on Alcatraz Island. Mary Hoffman (2003) imparts information about dealing with jealousy and death and a parents remarriage in Encore DEFINITIONS MATTER: THREE EXAMPLES Grace. Through Julie of the Wolves and her many Not only is nonction underrepresented, but it other ction books, Jean Craighead George (1972) is often dened in inconsistent and misleading conveys information about nature and ecosystems ways. For the past ve years, I have asked elealong with information about a wolf pack, falcons, mentary and secondary school teachers in my owls, weasels, foxes, prairie classes to write their denidogs, alpine tundra, and tropiDening ction as reading tions of nonction. Here are cal rain forests. for pleasure and nonction three typical responses: 1. Ficas reading for information tion is fake, nonction is not; Adult World of Reading miseducates students about 2. Fiction is based on imagiwhat to expect from ction and Choldenko, Hoffman, and nation and nonction is based George mirror the approaches nonction. on facts; 3. Fiction is read for to ction we nd in books pleasure and nonction is read written for adults. In the adult for information. world of reading, there is a plethora of informaAll of these denitions are misleading. First, tion-rich ction books by authors who go to great thinking that ction is fake or not real undermines lengths to gather information and ensure that it is the verisimilitude that many ction authors strive accurateJames Mitchener, Barbara Kingsolver, to achieve. Mark Twain (Dawidziak, 1996) once Richard North Patterson, Bharati Mukherjee, wrote that: The only difference between ction John Grisham, and Sandra Cisneros, to name just and nonction is that ction should be completely a few. John Jakes (McKinney, 1998), the author believable. (p. 30) of the bestselling series The Kent Family Chronicles, prides himself on the historical information It is also misleading to dene ction as based and accuracy of his novels: I might be the only on imagination and nonction as based on facts instructor a given reader has about a particular bit because that dismisses the role of imagination in of history, he says, so it ought to be right. . . . nonction. I began to write from the imaginaWe get enough misinformation in the world as it tion, but I did not write ction, Le Anne Schreiber is. Id rather not contribute any more (p. 8). (1996) said about writing her memoir Light Years. It took all the imagination I had to try to nd What Is the Essence of the Difference words that were faithful to the complexities, contrabetween Nonction and Fiction dictions, and subtleties of being alive, sentient, irreducibly particular (p. 7). According to biographer In thinking about denitions, I kept asking Leon Edel (1987), Im using one kind of imagimyself, What is the essence of the difference nation and a novelist uses a different kind. . . . My between ction and nonction? Both can have
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Nonction is for skimming or dipping in and out of, not for reading from beginning to end. Nonction books are not real books. Nonction only provides information. Nonction is not relevant. Nonction is too hard for kids to read. Nonction is too hard for kids to understand. Nonction is not literature. Nonction is devoid of an authors voice. Nonction is not aesthetic. Nonction is not creative. Nonction is hard to nd. Nonction reading does not help students learn how to write.

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for four years. At the end of the book in an authors note, Berendt wrote: Though this is a work of nonction, I have taken certain storytelling liberties, particularly having to do with the timing of events. Where the narrative strays from strict nonction, my intention has been to remain faithful to the characters and to the essential drift of events as they really happened (unpaged). Berendt also admitted that he fabricated dialogue and created ctional scenes. Although the book was selected as a nalist for a Pulitzer Prize in general nonction, the committee ruled it out because of Berendts storyDICHOTOMOUS WAYS OF PRESENTING telling liberties. FICTION AND NONFICTION In the world of literature for young readIn addition to using varying denitions, teachers, however, books that blur the boundaries are ers present the genres of ction and nonction in unquestioningly accepted as nonction, or infordichotomous ways that are reected in how stumational, by many reviewers, award commitdents are asked to analyze them. With ction, tees, librarians, and teachers. For example, the students are asked to idenpopular The Magic School tify the characters, plot, set- Nonction is writing about reality Bus stories by Joanna Cole ting, themes, and problem/ (real people, places, events, ideas, and Bruce Degen are typisolution. With nonction, they feelings, things) in which nothing cally classied as nonction, are asked to identify the inforis made up. Fiction is writing in despite mixing the ctional mation, the organization, the which anything can be made up. Mrs. Frizzle, a group of chiltext structure, and graphic dren, and a school bus that organizers. This approach can y together with information about dinosaurs, does not prepare students to experience the range the ocean oor, a hurricane, the senses, etc. David of possibilities in both genres, e.g., informationMacaulays books about building things from casrich ction such as historical ction or narrative tles to bridges are considered nonction, despite nonction about real people in real settings dealhis inclusion of ctional people. So is Toni Moring with real events. risons (2004) childrens book, Remember: The Journey to School Integration, in which she imagLabeled Nonction, but Containing ines captions for a series of photographs.

facts and information. Both can employ imagination. Both can provide pleasure and information. As a writer, I asked myself, What is the difference in terms of what I can or cannot do? The answer is: make up material. With ction, I can. With nonction, I cannot. That insight led me to these denitions: Nonction is writing about reality (real people, places, events, ideas, feelings, things) in which nothing is made up. Fiction is writing in which anything can be made up.

Made-Up Material

Another problem with this simplistic, dichotomous way of teaching ction and nonction is that it does not account for a type of book that is widely used in schoolsthe type that is labeled nonction (or the commonly used synonym informational), but that also includes ctional elements. In the world of adult literature, there is much discussion about literatures that blur the boundaries between ction and nonction. Several years ago, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism conducted a daylong conference on the issue of blurring the boundaries, or as they called it, stretching the truth. This issue is exemplied in the controversy surrounding Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt that was on the New York Times hardcover nonction bestseller list
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Hybrid Books
Some authors of books that are labeled nonction but contain ctional elements point out that parts of the book are made up. For example, at the end of The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses (Cole & Degen, 1999), The Song of Whats Wrong points out all the made-up material. In his preface for Castle (1982), David Macaulay identies which parts of his book are ctionalized. In an introduction, Toni Morrison (2004) tells readers that she imagined the captions. The actual captions for each photograph are included at the end of the book. However, many teachers do not explicitly point out the ctional material that is included in books labeled nonction. Of course, some teachers do. For example, Carol Avery (1998), an elementary school teacher,

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and her students use the word faction for such books. Other teachers call them blended books. In my genre schema, I use the term hybrid. Although some authors of these hybrid books do attempt to distinguish between nonction and ction, other authors do not, or they place this information in an easy-to-overlook preface, authors note, or back matter.

A VISUAL MODEL FOR ANALYZING FICTION AND NONFICTION TEXTS: NINE ELEMENTS
The hegemony of ction and the dichotomous way of teaching ction and nonctionprompted me to develop A Visual Model for Analyzing Fiction and Nonction Texts. I designed this model to provide educators and young readers with a tool for viewing literature in a more comprehensive and accurate way. My goal was to draw upon my writers perspective to broaden teachers and readers understanding of ction and nonction literature. For my model, I selected nine elements that reect decisions writers make as part of the writing process. Decision making is an essential part of the writing process. Oftentimes I spend as much, if not more, time making decisionsabout ideas, topics, sources, research, form, structure, style, diction, revisionsthan I do physically writing. So do other writers, as borne out by my extensive collection of books and essays in which writers reect on making writerly decisions. The outcomes of these decisions are reected in the elements of a piece of writing. I believe my nine elements will help educators and readers better understand and appreciate the multifaceted nature of literature. Each element is shown on a continuum that represents the parameters of the writerly decision (see Table 1).

Amy Bloom (2002), a ction writer, described why she chose nonction for her book Normal, about transsexuals, cross-dressers, and the intersexed. When I write ction, I close my eyes and type. I pretend I have no parents, no spouses, and no children. . . . With this book, I never had that luxury. I had to look into the eyes of people. . . . I wondered how they had found the strength not only to live but thrive. . . . Fiction would have failed these people (p. E1).
Instructions: Assess the text, e.g., book, poem, essay, article for each element. Starting at the left side, ll in the bar to show the extent to which each element is present in the text. If an element is not present, leave the bar blank. No Made-up Material1 Minimal Information2 Simple Structure3 No Narrative Text4 No Expository Text5 No Literary Devices6 Minimal Authors Voice7 No Front/Back Matter8 No Visual Material9 All Made-up Material Lots of Information Complex Structure All Narrative Text All Expository Text Many Literary Devices Intense Authors Voice Copious Front/Back Matter Copious Visual Material

Table 1. A visual model for analyzing ction and nonction texts

(rst presented at the Charlotte Huck Nonction Symposium, Ohio State University, 2004) Notes: 1. Made-up material is material that is ctionalized or unveriable. 2. Information includes facts, events, biographical accounts, etc. that are real, actual, and veriable. 3. Structure is how the material is organized, e.g., chronological, thematic, episodic, etc. Simple structures have one layer of organization. Complex structures have multiple layers. 4. Narrative text tells a story. 5. Expository text conveys information or explains something. 6. Literary devices are techniques, such as diction, metaphors, repetition, telling details, etc. 7. Authors voice is when the reader senses the presence of a distinct author by the style and/or voice in the text. 8. Front matter appears before the main text. Back matter appears after it. 9. Visual material includes illustrations, maps, graphs, diagrams, etc. 261

Made-up Material
The rst element is made-up material. The end points of the continuum are No Made-up Material and All Made-up Material. Made-up material is anything that is ctionalized or based on incomplete/unveriable information or evidence. A writers decision on this element determines whether or not a piece is ction, nonction, or hybrid regardless of the formpoetry, article, drama, etc.

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My books are social histories and biographies that, of course, I could write as historical ction. But I chose nonction because I write about people and events that are typically on the margins or invisible in traditional history. I want readers to know: Yes, these were real people, leading real lives, and making real contributions. Yes, these are real role models with real life lessons for young readers. Yes, these are real historical events that contradict conventional wisdom, such as the belief a social studies teacher once expressed to me that Women didnt do anything until the late 1960s.

Information
The second element is information. The end points of the continuum are Minimal Information and Lots of Information. Information is facts, events, biographical accounts, etc. that are real, actual, and veriable. This element refers to the quantity of information. My books tend to have a goodly amount of information that I weave into a narrative. I do this throughout Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II (2002). Here is an example: Margaret Bourke-White had nally gotten permission to cover the war in Africa and asked to y over. Military ofcials said that was too dangerous and arranged her passage on a troopship. Using quotes from her personal account, I interspersed information about her experience aboard that ship when it was hit by a torpedo. Instead, in December 1942, she sailed on a troopship carrying nurses that was part of a large convoy. In the early hours of the morning on December 22, a torpedo hit the ship. The torpedo did not make as loud a crash as I had expected, BourkeWhite wrote, nor did the ship list as much as it does in the movies. But somehow everyone on the sleeping transport knew almost instantly that this was the end of her. Bourke-White managed to save two of her six cameras and some lm. She hoped to take pictures of the sinking ship, but when she realized that it was too dark, she headed for her lifeboat. As required, the other ships in the convoy sailed
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away to avoid being torpedoed. Two destroyers stayed behind to drop depth charges on the German submarines, not to rescue people. The hundreds of people packed into seventeen lifeboats would have to wait. In Bourke-Whites crowded lifeboat, people rowed, bailed water with their helmets, and threw up as the boat tossed about. For a time, they heard a voice crying out in the distance, I am all alone! I am all alone! Unable to steer their lifeboat because the rudder had broken, Bourke-White wrote, they listened as the cry drifted farther and farther away until it was lost in distant silence. After about eight hours, a destroyer rescued them. Once aboard, Bourke-White photographed the last of our family of lifeboats as their occupants were helped to the deck. (pp. 3032)

Structure
The third element is structure. The end points of the continuum are Simple Structure and Complex Structure. Structure is how the material is organizedchronological, thematic, episodic, etc. Simple structures have one layer of organization. Complex structures have multiple layers of organization. The older I get, and with every book I write, I nd that the most important thing is what the bones of the book are going to be, what the structure is, said Melissa Greene (Greene, Junger, Sides, & Sobel, 2005, p. 19), the author of Praying for Sheetrock, The Temple Bombing, and Last Man Out. I do more thinking about structure than anything else. According to Dava Sobel, author of Longitude and Galileos Daughter, Structuring a book is really the hardest part, I think (Greene, Junger, Sides, & Sobel, 2005, p. 17). Joyce Carol Oates (Braiker, 2004) said, I will never run out of things to say. I have pages and folders of notes. My problem is structure, how to put it together (p. 4). My structures tend toward the complex end, even my biographies where, for example, in A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins (1993), I use a modied-chronological

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structure by beginning the book in 1933, 53 years after Perkinss birth. Here is the rst paragraph: Her rst day at work as secretary of labor of the United States, Frances Perkins pulled out the drawers of her desk and found cockroaches. It wasnt the rst time Frances Perkins had seen cockroaches. As a social worker, she saw cockroaches all the time when she visited the dingy, dreary apartments where poor people lived. But now she was head of the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. and a member of the presidents cabinet, the rst woman cabinet member in American history. (p. 1) Four pages later after setting the context for the cockroaches and Perkinss appointment, I start a straight chronology with the sentence: Frances Perkins was born on April 10, 1880, in Boston, Massachusetts, almost fteen years to the day after the Civil War ended. (p. 4) I had several reasons for using this structure. First, I am always thinking about readers. How do I grab readers attention with the very rst sentence? And a rst sentence with cockroaches in it seemed like a winner. Second, that anecdote established Perkinss importance upfront. Third, it sets me up to, a few paragraphs later, write this paragraph and engage readers in the drama of Perkinss situation and reveal her character: We were in a terrible situation, Perkins wrote years later. Banks were closing. The economic life of the country was almost at a standstill. Since William Doak, the secretary of labor before Perkins, had not done very much to help jobless people in America, perhaps it was inevitable that cockroaches had moved into the secretary of labors desk. But now Frances Perkins was taking over, and the cockroaches werent welcome. Quickly she eliminated the roaches and got to work. My book Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II (1995) is at the far right end of the continuum with a complex structure. I considered using a topical structure or writing a collective biography. However, as I did my research, I realized that the essence of the story, the
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untold essence, was the relationship between ve interconnected stories: 1) life on the home front; 2) the mobilization; 3) the progress of the war; 4) the planning and execution of the propaganda campaign to get women in and out of the workforce; 5) the experiences of the women themselves as the opportunities appeared and then abruptly disappeared. To write Rosie the Riveter, I created an interwoven, multilayered structure that incorporated all ve stories. In order to bring readers into this structure, I started Rosie with eight-yearold Dot Chastneys story about the beginnings of World War II. Dot continues to appear at strategic places throughout the book as a commentator of sorts, moving the chronology and offering personal comments from a youngsters perspective. Dot is my hand extended to the reader, saying, Come with me and read this important and fascinating and complex real story. Finding the structure is an organic process, that is, it grows out of the material. For example, I had vast differences in the amount of primary source material for each of the women featured in Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories about Women Who Made a Difference (2006). Alice Hamilton wrote reports, letters, speeches, articles, textbooks, and her autobiography. Juana Briones and Biddy Mason never learned to read and write. There were also differences in the duration of their adventures. Katharine Wormeleys adventure lasted three months. Mary Gibson Henrys lasted almost 40 years. To deal with these differences, I decided to write each chapter as an essay, a exible form that I love to read and write. That allowed me to write some chapters with extensive rst-person and eyewitness accounts; another chapter has two parts an essay and letter excerpts; and in another chapter, I write about my experience meeting one woman.

Narrative Text and Expository Text

The fourth and fth elements are narrative text and expository text. The end points of the continua are No Narrative Text and All Narrative Text and No Expository Text and All Expository Text. Narrative text tells a story. Expository text conveys information or explains something. I use both, as do many writers. For example,

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in Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts: A History of Burial (1997), I begin chapter two Death Is Destiny: Understanding Death, with narrative writing about my sister Cam (rst paragraph of the excerpt) and segue into expository writing (second paragraph of the excerpt), a salient characteristic of my style in all my books:

one can have onewomen, children, men of any age or race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, religion. I selected women because most adventure stories are about men, especially historical adventure stories. My intent is not to replace men but to add women. (p. 4)

I spend a great deal of time on diction, ndMy sister, Cam, was three years old when our ing just the right word to convey the meaning brother Jon died and six years old when our father and rhythm. The rst sentence of Rosie the Rivdied. As a three-year-old, Cam eter is a good example of the didnt really understand Jons I spend a great deal of time on effect of one word: The sumdeath was nal. She kept waitmer between second and third diction, nding just the right ing for him to appear. When grade, Dot Chastney had her word to convey the meaning we took her to the funeral rst inkling that things werent and rhythm. home and explained that Jon quite right in the world (p. 1). was in a closed cofnJons box, we called it The word is inkling, and I chose it because it is a she said, Open it! Let him out! He wants to play word that has a distinct sound and rhythm when it with me. As a six-year-old, Cam understood that is read either out loud or silently; it is an attentionDads death was nal. getting word. Try to substitute synonyms for Cams reaction was not unusual, according inklinghint, idea, clue, suggestion, intimation, to research done in Europe after World War II indication, glimmer, signand decide whether or by Maria Nagy. A psychologist, Nagy asked 378 not you agree with my decision. Hungarian children ranging in age from three to ten years old about their thoughts and feelings Authors Voice about death . . . . Nagy studied their responses and concluded that some children go through The seventh device is authors voice. The end three stages in understanding death. (p. 29) points of the continuum are Minimal Authors Voice and Intense Authors Voice. Authors voice is when the reader senses the Literary Devices presence of a distinct author by the style and/or The sixth element is literary devices. The end voice in the text. Authors voice can be both points of the continuum are No Literary Devices visiblethe author uses personal pronouns and/ and Many Literary Devices. or relates personal storiesand invisiblethe reader senses the presence of an actual and disLiterary devices are techniques such as diction tinctive author in the text. I appear as a visible or word choice; metaphors; repetition; and telling author in three of my books: throughout Corpses, details that are used to create a particular effect or Cofns, and Crypts: A History of Burial (1997); evoke a particular response. in one picture in Girls: A History of Growing Up I used a number of literary devices in AdventurFemale in America (2000); and in the chapter on ous Women: Eight True Stories about Women Who Biddy Mason (chapter 7) in Adventurous Women: Made a Difference (2006). Here is a section from Eight True Stories about Women Who Made a Difthe authors note where I use repetition (follow my ference (2006). use of about in the rst sentence and AdvenI appear in Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts in tures throughout the excerpt): two ways: in a picture in the preface (p. 4) and by including my own experiences in the preface and Adventures are about being bold, about defythroughout the text. For example, the book begins ing set ways of thinking and behaving, about with my conversation with my great-aunt: taking risks, going beyond the boundaries, the limitations, about overcoming obstacles, about daring to be different. Adventures can happen My great-aunt Frieda Matousek called me with anywherein a laboratory or a library, at home the news that her husband, Willi, was having or far away. Adventures do not discriminate: Anyanother attack. I wasnt surprised: Willi was
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eighty-six years old and he had several health problems, including heart disease. Call his doctor, I said. Im on my way. (p. 15) In Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America, I included a picture of myself at the age of ve (p. 159; see Figure 1). (The caption begins, The author . . ., which I later discovered was not specic enough because some readers did not realize that The author meant me, the author of the book!) To compensate for the lack of information about Biddy Mason, an adventurous woman I was determined to write about despite the lack of material, I included my own story of how I rst met Mason (second and third paragraphs of the excerpt): Biddy Masons adventure started with a walkabout a two-thousand-mile walk from Mississippi to California, via Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time, she was a slave who worked in the cotton elds, tended to the animals, and used her knowledge of herbal medicine to heal sick people and her skills as a midwife to deliver babies.

But before I continue with Masons adventures, let me tell you about how I rst met her during a trip to California in 1995. As was my custom, I had identied places where I could nd womens history. . . . When I got to Los Angeles, I went in search of the Biddy Mason Memorial. (p. 131) As for nding the invisible author, readers should scrutinize the authors style, or the how of what she or he writes by looking for characteristic diction, or choice of words; syntax, or types of sentence structures; and use of gurative language, etc. The brief excerpts from Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts and Adventurous Women demonstrate one mark of my writingthe unexpected, that is, that Friedas news was that Willi was having another attack and that I wasnt surprised, and that Biddy Masons walk was a twothousand-mile-walk and that she was a slave. I also write in an accessible, direct, conversational style. I use different sentence lengths to vary the rhythm of my writing. In the following excerpt, note that I placed a short sentence (four words) in between the third sentence (nineteen words) and fth sentence (twenty-nine words). I also used quotations to reveal character or convey information. When I use quotations, they are an integral part of the text. If I have to summarize or restate a quote (a typical practice in books for young readers), I do not use it. In the following excerpt, Hamiltons own words in the last sentence tell readers that she wants to be a doctor and that she is independent (I could go anywhere I pleased) and adventurous (to far-off lands or to city slums) and has a social conscience (be quite sure that I could be of use anywhere). This excerpt is the rst paragraph of chapter four, Alice Hamilton: Supersleuth, in Adventurous Women. Alice Hamilton wanted to be a medical doctor. Her sister told her that was a disgusting idea. When she expressed a desire to observe an operation, a teacher told her that she was a bluggyminded butcher. But Alice was undeterred. As a doctor, she said, I could go anywhere I pleasedto far-off lands or to city slumsand be quite sure that I could be of use anywhere. (p. 63)

Front and Back Matter

Figure 1. Penny Colman, age 5, from Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America
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The eighth element is front/back matter. The end points of the continuum are No Front/Back Matter and Copious Front/Back Matter.

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Front matter appears before the main text and is comprised of such entries as the title page, table of contents, and preface. Back matter appears after the main text and may include the appendix, a glossary, and/or an index. Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts has a table of contents and preface in the front matter. The back matter has eight items: When I Die . . .; Where to Find the Remains and Burial Sites of Some Famous People; Epitaphs: Poignant, Pious, Patriotic, Historic, and Humorous; Common Carvings on Gravestones; Chronology; Glossary; Bibliography; Index. Adventurous Women has a table of contents and authors note in the front matter. The back matter includes: Very Brief Chronologies; Places to Visit; Namesakes; Notes; Bibliography; Webliography; Index. The amount of front and back matter is typically determined by the number of pages a publisher has set for a particular book. Then the writer has to decide how to allocate those pages.

Mary McLeod Bethune in Washington, DC and the memorial to Biddy Mason in Los Angeles in Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories about Women Who Made a Difference (p. 103 and p. 132; see Figure 2.)

APPLICATION OF THE VISUAL MODEL TO A FICTION AND A NONFICTION BOOK

My idea in developing the visual model is that teachers and readers can actually plot a text, such as a book, poem, essay, or article, to create a visual prole of the text that will facilitate comparisons and discussions. I have used an impressionistic method to plot several of my nonction books, stories, and articles, and several ction books by other authors. Although it would be possible to devise a precise quantitative method for plotting, I settled on an impressionistic method because I discovered that my impressions of the books that I plotted were almost identical to the impressions of other readers whom I asked to plot the books. Table 2 shows two examples of how I plotted: Al Capone Does My Shirts (2005, ction) by Gennifer Choldenko and my nonction book Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts: A History of Burial (see Table 2). I used a simple ll-in approach to document my impression of how much of a particular element was in a book. If a particular element is not present, then the bar remains empty. I plotted the two books on the form that I use with my students.

Visual Material

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The ninth element is visual material. The end points of the continuum are No Visual Material and Copious Visual Material. Visual material includes illustrations, photographs, maps, graphs, diagrams, etc. I do the picture research for my books, a time-consuming but essential endeavor that involves locating all types of vivid, unusual, and interesting visual materials. I also take photographs, a practice I started when I wanted to include images that I could not nd in existing picture archives, such as the Library of Congress. My photographs appear in most of my books, including 41 pictures in Women in Society: United States of America (1994) and 83 pictures in Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts: A History of Burial. Over the years, I have traveled throughout America and photographed monuments, markers, and memorials to women. I draw upon my extensive collection for use in my books. There is a picture of the statue of Sybil Ludington in Carmel, New York, in Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America (p. 55) and pictures of both the statue of Figure 2. Photo of Biddy Mason Memorial from Adventurous Women
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No Made-Up Material Minimal Information Simple Structure No Narrative Text No Expository Text No Literary Devices Minimal Authors Voice No Front/Back Matter No Visual Material

All Made-Up Material Lots of Information Complex Structure All Narrative Text All Expository Text Many Literary Devices Intense Authors Voice Copious Front/Back Matter Copious Visual Material

No Made-Up Material Minimal Information Simple Structure No Narrative Text No Expository Text No Literary Devices Minimal Authors Voice No Front/Back Matter No Visual Material

All Made-Up Material Lots of Information Complex Structure All Narrative Text All Expository Text Many Literary Devices Intense Authors Voice Copious Front/Back Matter Copious Visual Material

A visual prole of a ction book, Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

A visual prole of a nonction book, Corpses, Cofns, and Crypts: A History of Burial by Penny Colman

Table 2. A comparison of visual proles for ction and nonction books

Applying this visual model shows that, contrary to what is typically taught, nonction and ction can have many similar and overlapping characteristics, that nonction can have an intense authors voice, that ction can have informational and expository text. The model can also be applied to provide a visual prole of hybrid booksbooks that are classied as nonction, but include ctional materialso that readers learn how to discern and differentiate the different types of material in these books. I believe that my visual model can offer a new way to understand and assess literature, a way for teachers to make sure that the reading material they offer students represents the full range of high-quality literature, a way for teachers and students to compare and discuss their visual proles of specic texts, a way for teachers and students to assess their own reading and writing, and a way to explore the breadth and depth of literature. To validate my vision of the models potential, I took an informal poll with inservice K8 teachers in my Nonction Literature for Children course at Queens College, The City University of New York. Earlier in the course, they had used the model to assess several content-area books and read-alouds of their choosing. Between 73 and 83
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percent of them agreed with all of the above statements about what the model offers. The highest agreement (83%) was that the model was a new way to understand and assess literature, a way to make sure that reading material represents the full range of high-quality literature, and a way for teachers and students to compare and discuss their visual proles of literature. One teacher, Kristine Eaton, added her observation that, Both teachers and students can do an inventory of the books that they have, and by using the visual prole, they can see what kind of books they might want to add to the collection. I trust that they will add lots of nonction.
Authors Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Presidential Roundtable, Queens College, The City University of New York, November 2005. Special thanks to Linda Hickson and Susan Kirch for their stimulating conversations about my visual model for analyzing ction and nonction texts.

References
Avery, C. (1998). Nonction books: Naturals for the primary level. In R. Bamford & J. Kristo (Eds.), Making facts come alive: Choosing quality nonction literature K8. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Berendt, J. (1997). Midnight in the garden of good and evil. New York: Random House.

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Bloom, A. (2002, November 18). Trading ctions comfort for a chance to look life in the eye. The New York Times, p. E12. Braiker, B. (2004, February 2). At no loss for words. Newsweek, 4. Choldenko, G. (2005). Al Capone does my shirts. New York: GP Putnam. Cole, J., & Degen, B. (1999). The magic school bus explores the senses. New York: Scholastic. Colman, P. (2006). Adventurous women: Eight true stories about women who made a difference. New York: Henry Holt. Colman, P. (2004, January). Hooked on nonction: How about you? Keynote speech presented at the Ohio State Childrens Literature Conference, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Posted at www.pennycolman.com. Colman, P. (2002). Where the action was: Women war correspondents in World War II. New York: Crown. Colman, P. (2000). Girls: A history of growing up female in America. New York: Scholastic. Colman, P. (1999, Summer). Nonction is literature, too. The New Advocate, 12, 215223. Colman, P. (1997). Corpses, cofns, and crypts: A history of burial. New York: Henry Holt. Colman, P. (1995). Rosie the riveter: Women working on the home front in World War II. New York: Crown. Colman, P. (1994). Women in society: The United States of America. New York: Marshall Cavendish. Colman, P. (1993) A woman unafraid: The achievements of Frances Perkins. New York: Atheneum. Dawidziak, M. (Ed.). (1996). Mark my words: Mark Twain on writing. New York: St. Martins.

Didion, J. (2005). The year of magical thinking. New York: Random House. Edel, L. (1984). Writing lives: Principia biographica. New York: W. W. Norton. Fisher, M. (1972). Matters of fact: Aspects of non-ction for children. New York: Crowell. George, J. C. (1972). Julie of the wolves. New York: Harper & Row. Greene, M. R., Junger, S., Sides, H., & Sobel, D. (2005, Fall). Nonction page turners. Authors Guild Bulletin, 1325. Hoffman, M. (2003). Encore, Grace! New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. Macauley, D. (1982). Castle. New York: Houghton Mifin. McKinney, D. L. (1998, February). John Jakes: Ill never stop. Writers Digest, 2630. Morrison, T. (2004). Remember: The journey to school integration. New York: Dial Book for Young Readers. Schreiber, L. A. (1996). Light years. New York: Lyons & Buford. Sutherland, Z. (1972). Children and books. Chicago: Scott Foresman. Tuchman, B. (1985). Practicing history: Selected essays. New York: Knopf.

Penny Colman is a distinguished lecturer at Queens College, The City University of New York.

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