Chris Barton = Non Fiction. He’s a writer–of Non-fiction, bien sur–and has been blogging about writing and all things Non Fiction at Bartography since June of 2005.
So when we put together our nominating and judging panels for the 2007 Cybils, we went knocking at his (virtual) door. Non-fiction needed Chris, and thank goodness for us he joined the team.
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Here’s what Chris had to say about Non-fiction Picture Book finalist, One Thousand Tracings, by Lita Judge. (Just so you know there is no bias here, Chris wrote this review in March.)
That the story behind Judge’s picture book doesn’t outshine her text or illustrations is really saying something, because backstories don’t get much more moving than the one here. One Thousand Tracings is based on the childhood experiences of Judge’s mother, whose parents–Wisconsin ornithologists–led a post-WWII effort to help total strangers in Europe keep body and soul together as the continent rebuilt.
The story’s unforced drama unfolds in two-page chapters over a two-year period, from the return of the narrator’s soldier-father in 1946 to the return to normalcy on both sides of the Atlantic at the end of 1948.