My first class as an elementary teacher was a group of third graders from Decatur, Illinois, (remember, the ‘s’ is silent). It was reading time, so everyone had their bulky, hardcover reading books open to our story of the week. The first question in this situation was always, “Now looking at the title and the cover, what do you think the genre of this story is?”

My sweet little mouse-haired, soft-spoken Sarah politely raised her hand. When called on she announced, “Historical fiction.” 

Now I had to take a second to smile and give myself a little pat on the back, since obviously I was rocking it if this nine year-old could pull out “historical fiction” so quickly and confidently. I told her she was absolutely correct, great job. Then I asked, “Who can remind us all exactly what ‘historical fiction’ means?”

Mariel put her hand up first this time, wearing a confident, perhaps presumptuous, close-lipped grin. “It means it is not true,” she began. 

Still nodding and smiling, feeling even more affirmed that I was indeed nailing my job, I prompted, “Yes, and?” 

Eyes closed, nodding a bit as if laughing at an inside joke, Mariel continued, “But it is really, really funny.”

That moment in my twelve-year teaching career always makes me giggle. It was the first thought that came to mind after I told a few people I was working on a book and they asked, “Who is your audience?” “What’s the genre?” 

Now that the preliminary copy of the book has been printed – so crazy, so cool! – the book has officially been dubbed “memoir.” That is the most accurate description, I do suppose, but in my mind the genre should really be “hysterical nonfiction.”