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September 27, 2006

The first Children's Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Jack Prelutsky, named tonight by the Poetry Foundation as the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate. The position carries a $25,000 reward, and is intended to raise public awareness of poetry for children. Prelutsky, in my view, was a great choice for the award for his many years of writing genuine poetry. His book of haiku, If Not for the Cat, remains one of my all-time favorites, and his most recent book, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant is ingenious and fun. In a time when too many poets write what I call "purposeful poetry," i.e. poetry intended to teach something or fill a curriculum niche, Prelutsky continues to twist the language so it surprises and delights.

Posted by susan at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

Should public libraries level their books?

So we all know that come November, Illinois parents of public school children will be coming to the library with their child's Lexile score in hand--you can take a look at what the parents will be receiving here. As you can see, parents are advised to "take the student's Lexile score to the local library," and you know, there are a couple of things I think would have been nice here. For one thing, it would have been nice if someone had bothered to mention to the public librarians that this was coming. Fortunately, librarians being what we are, most of us found out about it anyway. The other thing I think would have been really nice is if they mentioned that it is perfectly okay for a child to read an unleveled book!

We tossed some alternatives around at our monthly Youth Services Dept. meeting last week, and have begrudgingly concluded that our best alternative is to generate our own leveled reading lists, so at least we are offering our patrons leveled books which we feel represent some good reading choices. Since it is out of the question to level our entire collection for practical reasons alone, at least this way we aren't ending up searching through an endless list of books off of the Lexile site that our library may or may not own, that may or may not be in the ballpark. I vivdly recall doing a search for a bright sixth grader last year where the books at her level were 32 page animal books (I suppose because of the latin names used?) and Antigone, neither of which seemed quite the right thing for this young lady.

One thing we will not be doing is combining Lexile scores with Accelerated Reader lists, because with apologies to libraries that have decided to go that route, that to me is a sign of the apocalypse. Both Lexile leveling and Accelerated Reader have their place in helping kids develop their reading skills. But to me, the public library should be a refuge from all of that mechanical determination of what a kid should read. Part of becoming a reader is learning what you like to read--if they don't end up with books that ultimately appeal to them, then we aren't doing our jobs.

What are other libraries doing to get ready for the Lexile invasion?

Posted by susan at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2006

A good old-fashioned book

Boy, I am finding as a new blogger that the problem is that one week you have no ideas and then suddenly you have six! So now I have found some things to talk about but I'm going to dole them out.

In looking for books to put on my best of the year list for Reading Today, I came across a new picture book...new, and yet it could easily have been written forty years ago. Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen features a library with a card catalog--literally, not the computer one that people still call the card catalog. There's a computer at the circulation desk, and a computer on the head librarian's desk, but this lady with her hair in a bun and glasses and sensible flat shoes is from another era.

I would expect to be fairly offended by this old-fashioned portrayal of a library and especially of the librarian--she lectures about rules and says repeatedly, "No running!" And yet it's an irresistible book, which begins with a magnificent lion walking into the library and liking it so much that he sticks around for storytime, and roars his disappointment when the stories are over: "RAAHHRRRRR!

The look of the book is also very old-fashioned. There isn't a speck of gold on the cover. Nothing is embossed, no holes are cut into the pages, and there isn't a huge gatefold anywhere in sight. There's just thick, cream-colored paper with a touching story and acrylic and pencil artwork by Kevin Hawkes with just the right amount of detail. Gatefolds aren't necessary when the white space on the page is used so effectively, as in the last two pages where the picture extends over both pages and almost bursts off of the page to show a very happy reunion between a once-stuffy librarian and a lion.

What a treat to see publishers like Candlewick going back to making books with great stories and elegant, restrained design!

Posted by susan at 3:52 PM | Comments (0)