Search - Betsy And the Emperor

I have a hard time with a historical novel primarily about a young girl's life when the author emphatically states that he went out of his way to avoid reading her autobiography. How on earth do you write accurately about someone when you won't even listen to their own voice. I realize that cannot take what an autobiography says as gospel, but it should at least be on the must read list for any historical author worth his salt! What's left here is a modern day girl grafted into a historical period to make a trendy YA novel. Young readers deserve better than this.