Biography for children in American literature is a genre in trouble. Despite Russell Freeman's 1988 Newbery award for his outstanding biography of Lincoln, professionals may well ask why this standard isn't approached more often in the writing and conception of work for children in this important field. Several concerns have been widely presented in critical discussion. Critics have suggested that the role-model function or idealizing habit prevents honest exploration of character and invites pedestrian work with a false tone. Other problems mentioned in the critical literature are low level of author commitment to research, choppy or immature writing, and the tendency to substitute easy fictionalizing for hard won narrative style.
But these comments ignore a central issue. Blame for the weak state of biography has been focused on authors. A neglected but key fact about children's biography today is that over half of the books presented in the marketplace are generated in series presentation.
Biography series might focus on lives of Jewish leaders, black leaders, scientists, or presidents, or the series might be uniform for target reader level, such as the "picture biography" series with minimal text. Or biography may be presented in a general "People to Remember" series. Thus, authors interested in biography can look for a slot in a series or can propose a biography to a publisher who will release it as a single, free-standing title.
According to an American Library Association survey pubished in 1985, in the year of survey, 1983, eleven biography series were being produced among the following publishers: Children's Press with three series, Dillon, Hamish Hamilton, Harcourt, Lerner, Random, Troll, and Franklin Watts with two series (Witucke 45-53). Among the publishers who currently present single title biography are Atheneum, Dutton, Harper and Row, Houghton Mifflin (Clarion), Lippincott, Little Brown, Lothrop, Macmillan, Morrow, Putnam, Albert Whitman, and many more. A biography from these houses will compete for awards, review attention, and readers along with any other nonfiction title, in a blended list with picture books and fiction.
In 1985, ALA reviewers summarized observations on style and method across more than forty sample titles, in series and out. The old habit of fictionalizing in biography was rarely found in either a 1978 survey, or in 1983. The habit is long dead. What has been found is that "some of the simpler books suffered from the condescension or stiltedness of authors unskilled in writing for children." And they repeat an old charge: "Few of the examined biographies appeared to be products of extensive research. Indeed, some were quite superficial, and reflected minimal investigation" (Witucke 48). The study also cited eleven biographies as models of good research and style; of these, all but two were independent titles. Only one series (Watts Impact) was represented, with two titles mentioned for adequate research and style. The other ten series in the judgment of the ALA reviewers appeared generally inadequate. The clear implication is that series presentation does not foster literary quality. Witucke comments, "The continuing ubiquity of biographical series is a mixed blessing." The blessings are low price and availability. Cautiously, Witucke adds that in series, "forcing content into a highly structure format . . . is not desirable" (50).
Thus recent studies sketch a bleak picture. Leaders in library circles have been divided on whether boycotting most biographies or nursing along marginal books in hope of improvement is the best course.1 The problem for critics seems to be identifying the forces which have made biography a weak sister in a rosy overall climate of children's books today.
One suggestion has been that lowered reading levels per se diminish a biography's potential. Biography responds to school demand for curriculum support, and this demand is originating at the third to sixth grade reading level. At least six of the eleven series discussed by the Witucke study are aimed at a readership in or below fifth grade—below the usual, traditional biography reader of decades past. And what was fourth grade reading thirty years ago is pegged at sixth grade today. But in the simpler series, vocabulary and sentence limits necessarily involve conceptual limits as well. Choppy writing, a frequent complaint from reviewers, may...