If you’ve read my novel “To Love Mercy,” please take part in an informal survey:

Is this a kid’s book?

“Kid” could be anyone from fourth grade to high-school senior. Answer the question any way you like. Just hit “comments” (below) or email me directly at frank@tolovemercy.com.

Here’s where the question comes from:

When I was still looking for a publisher, people whom I met in the book business — agents, editors, publishers — wanted to classify “TLM” as a young-adult (”YA”) novel. As far as I could see, that was solely because it has kids as protagonists.

At that point I didn’t even know what the YA genre was. I learned it has some fairly narrow specifications (such as teen protagonists, word limit of 45,000) that TLM did not fit. Also, TLM is set in 1948, a long time before today’s teens were a gleam in anyone’s eye. The more I thought about it, the more I felt TLM actually was an “old adult” novel.

When it was accepted for publication at last, I felt bound to raise the issue with my publisher, Patrick Grace. His response: “Oh no, this is a boomer novel.” Close enough, I thought; Patrick has read the novel I actually wrote and he’s the publisher for me.

But when I started on the Chicago book tour last month, I discovered that young adults — kids, even — were responding to TLM, to wit:

• I hand-sold copies to two 8-year-olds who attended readings. “This book contains some, uh, naughty words,” I whispered to their moms. I suggested Mom might want to read it with Johnny.

• I hand-sold a copy to a teacher of a fourth-grade class of exceptional (read: smart) children. She planned to read it in class.

• Debbie Smart, the terrific assistant manager of Barnes & Noble in Arlington Heights IL and a staunch supporter, said the presence of kids on the cover suggests it’s a book for kids. So does the type size (it’s slightly larger than standard), she said. So does a line in the press release about ‘a book for all ages’; Debbie read that as code for ‘kid’s book.’ She is trying to persuade the Arlington Heights school district to adopt it for their summer reading list, bless her heart.

• At a B. Dalton in Riverside IL, TLM is shelved in a section of books apparently aimed at African-American teen-age girls.

Now, I think it’s great that kids would read and derive pleasure from my novel. I certainly think TLM is appropriate for any thoughtful high-school junior. But it’s filled with politically incorrect language and derogatory terms, including terms that are racist and anti-Semitic, and a few occurrences of a naughty word that starts with “F”.

The novel that inspired me in writing TLM was another novel filled with politically incorrect language and racist and derogatory terms. It’s called “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade)”, by one Samuel Clemens a/k/a Mark Twain. But even today, 122 years after “Huck” appeared, “Huck” is one of the most controversial books in print, regularly subject to bans and reading-list removals and protests.

I think “Huck” is the great American novel, a book that ought to be read by every high-schooler in America — by every person in America. But is it a “kid’s book”? If it were published today, would it be a YA?

Frank S. Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. I’m on TV tomorrow night! If you’re in Montgomery County MD, tune in Channel 16 at 8 p.m. Eastern. The show will be rebroadcast Tuesday, May 16, at 9 p.m. Eastern.

And on Saturday, May 13, you can meet me at 2 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble at 15455 Emerald Way, Bowie MD.