Talk:Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth

only Black mother

At the end of chapter 5, the reader learns indirectly that Jennifer is the only black child in school, unless she has a sibling. "Performance for the [PTA] went much better. ... I knew it was Jennifer's mother because she was the only Black mother there." (Third Aladdin edition, p. 56) Perhaps there has been critical comment on this unusual device.

Vaguely I recall some hint about Caribbean background, but it may be that Julian Singh the new boy in The View from Saturday has moved into town from a cruise ship, and witchcraft has suggested Caribbean background to me in this case.

P.S. Today I completed a major revision and upgraded this from Stub to C, twice. --P64 (talk) 21:54, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Level

Is it standard or common practice to include such information in articles about books for children or young adults?

Let me note for your use, Simon & Schuster now lists online:

• Jennifer, age 7-10, grade 4-6[1]
• Mixed Up Files, age 8-12, grade 4-6
• View from Saturday, age 8-12, grade 4-6

On the back cover of Jennifer, Third Aladdin edition (cited in the article): Ages 8-12. --P64 (talk) 22:07, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Scholastic interview

E. L. Konigsburg, Interview Transcript. No date. Scholastic Teachers. scholastic.com.
—(interjection 2012-01-05) date evidently between 1996 month?? publication of her The View From Saturday and 2000 March 30 death of her "forever editor" Jean E. Karl.

This exchange from the interview directly concerns Jennifer, Hecate ....

Do you ever had problems with censorship? What is in that file?

Yeah, I do. There are people who don't like Jennifer, Hecate . . . because the little girl pretends to be a witch. And there were people who objected to Claudia and Jamie standing on the toilets at the Met - they said children might try it and fall in. I've had a story in Altogether, One at a Time censored, too. A little girl calls another child a "nigger," and people didn't like that. In the files, there are articles and letters about these things, and about other cases of censorship.

Are there any books or art that you think should be censored? Why or why not?

No. I don't think there are any.

--P64 (talk) 16:24, 6 December 2011 (UTC)