1989 - 01/1989 Meeting

Page Created: 09/10/10. Last Updated: 10/28/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 06/14/08.

MARSHA MARSHALL

Atheneum Imprint Page on Simon & Schuster Website: http://www.simonsays.com/content/destination.cfm?tab=1&pid=427747&agid=13.

Marcia Marshall is currently with Children's Imprint Lerner Publishing: http://www.lernerbooks.com/cgi-bin/books.sh/lernerpublishing.p

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: January 14, 1989.

Meeting Site: Berrgen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 24.

Meeting Program: Talk by YA/Children's Book Editor.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

Editor Marcia Marshall from Atheneum Books was the featured guest at the January 14, 1989 meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County. The meeting was held at the Bergen Highlands Methodist Church across the street from our usual locale because the good people at the Cultural Center accidentally booked two groups there at the same time. We learned of this after last month's newsletter had been mailed. Please remember to check the church across the street anytime you trek to Upper Saddle River and find someone else occupying the Cultural Center on a meeting night. You can also call Phil's answering machine to verify details about the site.

Although Atheneum publishes some science fiction and fantasy as part of its Young Adult line, the great majority of the talk and question and answer sessions concerned children, literacy, and the education establishment. Carol Smith gave heavy input from the teacher's side of the desk on this subject, but almost everyone expressed an opinion or observation.

Atheneum's market is the librarian. More than 90% of their print run is purchased by libraries. The interplay between what children and teens want to read, what their parents want them to read, and what the librarian wants to carry is intricate.

Young Adult fiction is different than mainstream in several ways. It usually features a young protagonist, it addresses itself with a concern of a young person of the proper age group, and it requires a relatively straightforward style and generally commonplace vocabulary. Thee must be a moral, at least in some way implied for the story. There should be hope at the conclusion of the yarn. An outline for submitting to Atheneum was handed out. Extra copies are available.

A few bright spots among the generally negative education news were reported. Some enterprising teachers are escaping the pablum of least common denominator textbooks by incorporating intensive, single-subject books by Atheneum and others into their lesson plan. Another bit of good news is that California has mandated evolution as being the only theory of mankind scientific enough to be taught as SCIENCE. If anyone wants to use creation theory, it must be taught in some other class.

The question and answer session sparked a number of separate side conversations between audience members, so we took an early break for about fifteen minutes and then regrouped. Several people wrote out checks for some of the books Marcia brought with her. Many others borrowed.

Among the sights and sounds of the evening were the following. Chuck Garofalo brought and whipped up fresh popcorn. Various other people donated soda and the like. Doug Yeager brought baby pictures. Lonny Buinis, Mary Fiorito, and Phil Duran came in their best threads -- they'd come from a wedding -- with Phil Duran looking especially resplendent in a bowtie. Charlene Collins popped in for the first time in a long time.

Robert Yeager began choking brother Douglas for winning another free book. Glen Mills and Betty Kingsley were the other winners. Mary Fiorito of Martinsville, N.J. and Ky Khieu of Montclair, N.J. were first timers. The BUGS BUNNY cartoons Chuck Garofalo brought went largely unwatched before the meeting, but the VCR and TV were later put to good use by Carol Smith who showed PHANTON OF THE OPERA videos. There were 24 of us at the meeting. About 16 hit the diner.