Talk:List of works by Margaret Mahy

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Created page[edit]

I've created this page per Talk:Margaret Mahy § Split. WikiProject templates have been added without ratings, as I don't like to rate something I've just written. The books table could definitely use an ISBN column, but I've done enough on this for now. Anyway who feels like doing the manual labour, but doesn't know how to add the ISBNs to the table, contact me on my talk page, and I'll tell you how. TimofKingsland (talk) 11:42, 31 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A column devoted to ISBN will cost a lot of horizontal space (point 7 below).

--P64 (talk) 00:01, 7 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comments[edit]

Three repeat sources should "eventually" be cited in full only once (something I don't know how to do in conjunction with any citation template(s), such as {{cite web}} used here).
- WorldCat. Dublin, OH: OCLC. OCLC 42004954. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
- NZ On Screen. Wellington New Zealand: NZ On Air. OCLC 268791231. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- IMDb. IMDb.com. OCLC 32533502. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
The main table needs update at least in its final entry.
Cousins "quarter series" needs explanation.
Some Notes raise questions about where the list is intended to be complete, which the preface should explain. Eg, multiple illustrators: "Also published in 1985 with Margaret Chamberlain as illustrator." Eg, multiple publishers: "Published in the US by Franklin Watts.[1]"
Some Notes are long-winded and pale in significance, eg both components of this one: "Winner of an Honour Award in the Junior Fiction category of the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards (2000). Included in the Junior Fiction category of the Storylines Notable Books List (2000)[1]"
Is a wikitable appropriate? The remaining comments suppose the sortable wikitable.
It will be bad to spend horizontal space on ISBN. Sorting by ISBN is useless, as far as I know. Perhaps those data can be included in the second line of the Illustrator cell (which I suggest because its content never uses two lines and its horizontal span is sufficient).
It will be good to incorporate some classification, if it costs little space. For example, a header template currently recommends [NLZF bibliography http://www.nzlf.auckland.ac.nz/author/?a_id=105], which distinguishes "Children's Fiction" and "Novel", among other classes. It's plausible that the distinction is valuable here, although the labels are not.
NZLF bibliography shows that many books with text by Mahy were illustrated by others, including some prominent illustrators. (By the way, the biography doesn't name any of them, nor mention illustration, and it alludes to that aspect of her work only in the lead note that she "wrote more than 100 picture books ...".)
- are there any with text clearly secondary to the illustrations?
- are there any with illustrations at least arguably equal in importance? [the picture-book count implies yes]
- are there any large-format children's picture books?
- are there any for beginning readers?
- are there any marketed for adults?

Does NZLF provide any such definition of its classes "children's fiction" and "novels"? Can its distinction can be interpreted along such lines? (point 9) If so then coded incorporation of the NZLF classes in the table will be more useful. (point 8)

--P64 (talk) 00:01, 7 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Point 8 demonstrated[edit]

(version 2013-03-06 23:31 UTC) To demonstrate the classification of books(rows) at little cost in (column)space --point 8 above-- I added a column (far right, sortable, no heading) with entries for those 25 books by Mahy in ISFDB, (Margaret Mahy at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

'sfn' (speculative fiction novel) marks the 16 "Novels" in ISFDB.
'C' marks the 7 "Collections" and 1 "Chapterbooks" in ISFDB.

If ISFDB were entirely satisfactory (to me here today) those two codes would adequately represent longer speculative fiction stories and shorter speculative fiction stories and the other books we list would not be speculative fiction.

The content of this illustration may not be useful, partly because ISFDB is not entirely satisfactory. The NZLF bibliography distinction between "Children's fiction" and "Novels" probably pertains to interest- or reading-level rather than to genre, or to the role of illustrations and text, or to both. I think that distinction is likely to be more useful or interesting to more visitors. Anyway, the NZLF data are likely to be more valuable here than the ISFDB (my demonstration) because the NZLF classification covers many more of the listed books. (Indeed, speculative fiction may be missing from ISFDB partly by design with respect to reading level.)

(version 2013-03-06 23:31) — permalink for reference if the demonstration is reverted or transformed

--P64 (talk) 00:27, 7 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Point 7 demonstrated[edit]

(version 2013-03-07 2:23) After covering the 1969 international picture-books breakthru in her biography I returned and revised those entries (first five rows) in the Books table. To wit

Illustrator —insert ISBN (UK edition, line two, indented)
Publisher —list both UK and US publishers, as all were 1969 (UK line one, US line two)

The former demonstrates point 7 above: inserts ISBN data without losing horizontal space (nor vertical space in these five instances), without obscuring the illustrators much (because indented). FWIW, I dislike it, as I dislike the big bright ISBN data in all Works lists.]

Both fields rely on U.S. Library of Congress Catalog Records, as that catalogue covers UK and US 1969 eds. of all five titles (with ISBN for UK eds. only --maybe indicates later acquisition?). For example, The dragon of an ordinary family, UK edition, LCCat Record.

--P64 (talk) 02:40, 7 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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