What matters most is what works best for the storytelling. In third person, I could have kept The Book Itch nonfiction, but I felt young readers would be more drawn in to a story told “by Lewis Jr.” I knew this would mean expanding on his words and crossing the line between nonfiction and fiction. Later, as I listened to his voice and considered the picture book, I couldn’t imagine a better way of sharing the story with young readers than from Lewis Jr.’s perspective.

about his experiences at his father’s bookstore, I recorded our conversations. In the words of author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson: “When I spoke with Lewis Jr. So why is it fiction? It’s told in first person from the perspective of Lewis’s son, Lewis, Jr. The Book Itchtells about a real person–Lewis Michaux, owner of the National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem. I reached out to the authors of four books we’ve published that blend elements of fiction and nonfiction to find out more. Why do authors have to go and write books that don’t fall squarely into the fiction category or the nonfiction category? As it turns out, there’s not just one answer to this question.

And then I became a children’s book editor and occasionally found myself working on some very fiction-y nonfiction. Fiction was imaginary, and nonfiction was true. Once upon a time, I learned that there were two types of books–fiction and nonfiction. By Carol Hinz, Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books

The Book Itch by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson