Minimum Rage

by Lisa Taylor

“There’s a minimum page requirement.”
I start to tear my hair!
(Yes, I understand you have a reason.
It’s not that I don’t care.)

“I’ve got to read a bio.” – Here it comes –
“It’s got to be 150.”
But the best nonfiction authors are,
at times, with words quite thrifty!

Peter Sis, Jim Murphy, Demi,
and there’s Russell Freedman too,
They tell more in half a page
than others can in two.

“But it needs two hundred pages!
It’s for my school report.”
Thank goodness for Sid Fleischman
but too bad for Rappaport.

Teachers, please, when it’s non-fiction
consider taking less.
And if you need a reason
think “The Gettysburg Address.”

*****
Lisa Taylor
Librarian, Youth Services
Barnegat Branch, Ocean County Library
112 Burr Street
Barnegat, NJ 08005