Monday, August 24, 2015

The years of a story

Biographies are not life stories. They are stories from a life. They don’t include all. And they don’t always go from birth to death. Sometimes they start before birth and/or end after death.

I surveyed my nonfiction picture books (two out, two upcoming) to determine the dates they span (not counting the author’s notes). The start year correlates with what is happening on page 1, even if the story flashes back at some point.



  • Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman—1930-1940 (both approximate)
  • Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman—1933-2012 (Bill Finger was born in 1914 and died in 1974)
  • Thirty Minutes Over Oregon (2016)—1942-1998
  • Fairy Spell (2018)—1917-1988

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