My first novel To Love Mercy is about, among other things, kids — how children view the world. Its protagonists are a white Jewish boy named Steve, a son of privilege, and a black street kid nicknamed Sass whose father is a storefront preacher. It is also about intractable social issues — race, class and religion in American society. A kids’ book it ain’t … or so I thought.

But from well before it was finished, readers were asking whether it was a young-adult (YA) novel. This seemed to me like an oversimplification: kids-as-protagonists = YA. No, I responded — with its nostalgic evocations of Chicago in 1948 it was, if anything, an Old Adult Novel. My publisher, Patrick Grace, felt the same and published it as “mainstream period fiction” for general audiences. It was a big plus in our relationship that Patrick had read the book I thought I’d written.

But it didn’t take long before we bumped up against the marketplace. Debbie Smart, then assistant manager of Barnes & Noble-Arlington Heights IL, the very first bookseller I got to know, said she thought the novel was a YA. She cited three reasons: 1) kids as protagonists, 2) kids on the cover, and 3) large type. (The type is larger than is typical, for reasons Patrick has never convincingly explained, since he didn’t see it the book as a YA. Maybe he saw it as an OA and wanted to help the boomers with their reading glasses.)

There were other reasons to view it a YA, though, as I was to discover:

• Schools are real interested in books that deal candidly with race.
• Schools are real interested in books with boys as protagonists. Boys are hard cases when it comes to reading. They respond best to “boy” books — of which, I was to discover, there aren’t so many.
• Schools are real interested in books that are easy to read … and To Love Mercy is, I acknowledge with a trace of embarrassment. The issues are complex but the language is simple — words of one and two syllables, boy-speak. Its “Fog Index” tests out at fourth-grade level. (This fact courtesy of Amazon.com’s mind-boggling array of tools.)

We started referring to To Love Mercy as “mainstream period fiction with crossover appeal to young adults.” Classify or die.

To Love Mercy went on to do well — real well. It won six awards, garnered 23 five-star reviews on Amazon (some from you dear Friends of Frank), and went into a second printing. On the strength of this record, among other things, it attracted a top-notch literary agent, Michele Rubin of Writers House in New York, who signed me up and asked …

… ‘Frank, how would you feel if I sold your work as YA?’

We-elll. The marketplace had spoken. Who was I to resist?

Actually I didn’t mind it at all. Kids are the best readers — because they have read the fewest books. A good book can stay with a kid all his or her life. And the YA genre’s formerly tight restrictions are loosening as publishers, parents and kids acknowledge the reality that a kid’s life isn’t a Disney movie — that kids today have to deal with their own versions of hell, and a book that understands that is a book they will read. As long as I don’t have to write about powder-puff derbies and gossip girls, I’m down with it.

Thus, we are now aiming our efforts at schools. Through the good offices of dear Marla Wolf, I am appearing at ELEVEN Chicago-area schools in November. And through the good offices of dear Jane Sharka, President of the Illinois School Library Media Assn., I am addressing her annual meeting in Springfield on the topic, “Getting Boys to Read.”

And all this week, I’ve been hammering out a Study Guide for To Love Mercy. It’s been hard work, requiring me to put still more distance from a work that once was like my flesh and blood. First I had to separate myself from it as a marketer; now I have to separate from it again, this time seeing it as a teacher would.

But it’s been fun too. The Study Guide opens with a three-page historical overview, and I’ve illustrated it with period photos found on the Internet and elsewhere. I’ve enjoyed dreaming up the questions too, especially those that end, “If you don’t know the answer, look it up.”

But I’ve never done something like this and I’m not sure what I’ve created is what educators are looking for. So, to you Friends of Frank who are educators, I’d like to request a favor: Please look over the Study Guide and email me your comments and critiques, if any. I’ve posted the draft at www.frankjoseph.com/studyguide. Thanks in advance.

Frank Joseph
www.tolovemercy.com

P.S. We’ve added another bookstore appearance for my upcoming Chicago trip! Please visit Borders Books in Oak Park IL, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4. The store is smack in the center of downtown Oak Park, corner of Lake Street and Harlem Avenue.

Here are the rest of my Chicago-area public appearances –

• Wednesday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. — Barnes & Noble, Village Crossing Center, 5405 W. Touhy Ave., Skokie IL

• Thursday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m. — Schaumburg Central Library, 130 S. Roselle Rd., Schaumburg IL

• Friday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m. — Local author night, The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. (Lincoln Square), Chicago

• Saturday, Nov. 10, 2 p.m. — Homewood Library, 17917 Dixie Hwy., Homewood IL

• Sunday, Nov. 11, 2 p.m. — Barnes & Noble, Westfield Hawthorne Mall, Vernon Hills IL

• Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. — Skokie Public Library, 5215 Oakton St., Skokie IL

• Thursday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m. — Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights IL

The full Chicago-area appearance schedule, including the 11 schools, is posted at www.tolovemercy.com/frank_joseph_appearances.html

P.P.S. This posting is called “Part I” because I expect to say more on this topic after I ready my “Getting Boys to Read” presentation. Stay tuned.