[Publib] need a non-jargon word for 'fiction'

[Miriam Bobkoff]

I sure wouldn't have thought so, but apparently 'fiction' is 
librarianly jargon. I have yet another person to whom I can't get 
across any version of 'is it _Curious George_ or a book about tigers; 
is it Desperate Housewives or is it the Discovery Channel?' If I say 
the word 'fiction' or the word 'novel', brains kick out of gear. I 
can say, 'this is a story. and that is a book about bugs' and elicit 
a nod. I can say, this is made up stuff and that is a true book about 
something.

But the minute the question arises of whether it in the fiction or 
not, vaguery arises. I was never happy with the huge amorphous notion 
of non-fiction to cover all of human knowledge and experience EXCEPT 
prose made-up stuff. One side of the building novels and short 
stories, the other side of the buiding absolutely everything else, in 
numerical order. Too amorphous, and defining by what it is not.

But that 'fiction' is also an amorphous notion totally baffles me, 
and I can't come up with a different label to use.

Is there either a different noun you can offer me, or a concise 
explanation, that I can try using despite my incompetence as a teacher?

PS This particular instance of my incompetence is not happening at 
the usual place. But I suppose I shan't say where...

Miriam Bobkoff
who'd rather be looking at gray whales