NSLS Blogs

 Home » Blogs » Something Different Every Day

Something Different Every Day

« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »

September 27, 2007

Snowflakes and Dr. Seuss

I'm going to be participating in a cool project over the next couple of months. Together a group of children's lit-related bloggers will be helping to publicize the Robert's Snow benefit created by children's author/illustrator Grace Lin. A large number of children's illustrators painted and otherwise embellished snowflakes which will be auctioned off to benefit sarcoma research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Sadly, the auction this year will be in memory of her late husband Robert, who lost his battle in August, but that makes it all the more important to spread the word. The snowflakes are gorgeous and there will be lots more info to come!

I also got the very good news this week that I'll be a member of the 2009 Theodor Geisel Award Committee. Translated, that means I get to look at a year's worth of easy readers and picture books and help to pick the best of the year in honor of Dr. Seuss! Fun and (let's face facts) short books in honor of the person who wrote one of the first books I ever read--what could be better than that? I still have my copy of The Cat in the Hat, and I still have the picture of myself on the couch in the 1960s with my two brothers, each of us holding up our new Christmas copy of a Dr. Seuss book. Don't tell my brother Andrew, but I also have his copy of Fox in Sox. Possession is 9/10ths of the law, right?

Posted by susan at 9:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2007

A happy dance from Scotland

I know it sounds melodramatic, but Brotherhood 2.0 has changed my life. The year-long video project between Printz Award-winning author John Green and his Eco-Geek brother Hank Green is something my two sons and I have been following with huge enjoyment. On one day, Hank may sing a (usually hilarious) song; John last week read the first chapter of his not-yet-published YA novel aloud. Often they just talk about what's happening in their lives, how they feel about the current state of the world (and gauge the "WorldSuck level") and in general celebrate being "nerdfighters".

On September 11th, the subject of where people were came up, and many of the comments began, "I was in second grade..." so although a wide age range is enjoying their video blog, the YA audience makes up a huge part of it, which is a very cool thing.

I say it has changed my life, but that's because Brotherhood 2.0 has changed the lives of my sons in a very real way. They are seeing a pair of brothers a lot like themselves talking back and forth, and seeing the way they carry out their adult relationship. John and Hank are modeling how adult siblings can live across the country from each other and remain very close. Right now, my two sons are across the world from each other, because older brother Iain is having a semester abroad at the University of Edinburgh. And my two boys are attempting a once a week exchange of videos, which so far only the older son with the shiny new equipment has managed to keep up with. Would it ever have crossed their minds without Hank and John? I doubt it!

The end of this week's entry from Iain includes a happy dance at the bottom of Arthur's Seat, which I'm sure he is planning to submit to Brotherhood 2.0 for their happy dances around the world montage. And let me tell you, few things do a mother who happens to be a Youth Services librarian's heart more good than seeing her awesome son do a happy dance in Scotland for a project carried out by an awesome YA author and his equally awesome brother! In some ways, the world is actually getting cooler.

Posted by susan at 4:05 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2007

Love of Stories vs. Phonemics

A friend recently commented that her son had his first day of Kindergarten and they tested his reading. (Right there, that makes me sad.) His mother asked how he did, and he said that he couldn't really read the words, and that puzzled both of them because he knows quite a few words. Another friend was able to explain that the school was probably using the DIBELS Nonsense Word assessment, one where the children are tested in their fluency in reading words that don't actually mean anything. In other words, they're being tested on how well they can sound things out while completely ignoring meaning.

Yes, let's get rid of those pesky words. They just complicate everything. This is why I am beginning to worry that libraries are beginning to go off-track where our mission is concerned. I think we have a vital role to play in getting "Every Child Ready to Read," but it feels to me like too much of the emphasis in the discussion of storytimes now sounds an awful lot like the same things kids are being taught in school that passes for reading. I see our role as making sure children are exposed to great authors and great art, and to the stories that people have been passing along for generations as well as the amazing new books being created daily. When you do it right, when you pick books that are magical and find fingerplays and songs that match those books, and you include nursery rhymes and poetry, and you invite the children to predict what's happening next in the story...those are all the same skills they will need to learn to read.

They are going to spend way too much of their school years focusing on the mechanics of reading. We can incorporate ABCs and the sounds of letters while not losing sight of the story. Am I all alone on this?

Posted by susan at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 1, 2007

Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!

Sometimes you just have to hold your nose and purchase something putrid. If you as a librarian live by the oft-quoted phrase "A good library should have something to offend everyone," then sometimes you have to buy things that you find offensive. We purchased Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! at a patron's request, and I'd like to heartily encourage other libraries to feel very free to ILL it rather than purchasing another copy. I couldn't find any reviews of it in the major journals, so I thought at least I would do the public service of reviewing it now.

DeBrecht, Katharine. Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! Illustrated by Jim Hummel. Kids Ahead/World Ahead Publishing, 2005.

A pair of brothers long for a swing set, but their parents insist that "having everything given to them would not make them feel good about themselves, and that earning things on their own would make them feel proud and become better people." Since in a happy coincidence they have a lemon tree growing in their yard, Tommy and Lou get the great idea of selling lemonade. They then fall asleep and dream that they live in a nightmarish world called "Liberaland". Their lemonade stand is initially a huge success, and they even begin putting money aside for kids with no shoes, but then a liberal comes along and takes half of their earnings in taxes and uses the money to buy dustpans for the children who need shoes. The boys are also forced to take down their picture of Jesus and replace it with a picture of a big toe, and after many other unreasonable changes are made to the stand, the liberals take it over altogether.

DeBrecht's clumsy writing style ("'Well,' the liberal's red cheeks smiled") reads like someone who hasn't read children's books thinks children's books sound. Hummel's cartoon illustrations, while better-executed, fall into the same trap with such clunky cliches as all of the children's signs using backward letter E's. Any witty moments are thoroughly mired in nastiness, and none of it makes sense anyway--who paid for the sugar in the lemonade? Who paid for the glasses? How could a lemon tree have "hundreds of lemons on each outstretched branch"? Dustpans? Sometimes random things aren't funny, they are just dumb.

But to be fair, the book is exactly what it attempts to be: A satire on liberals. It is unintentionally satirical at times as well, as in the portrait of Ronald Reagan in the boys' living room with his eyes gazing upward just like in many home portraits of Jesus. But make no mistake, this satire on liberals is very pointed, with many references to recognizable politicians such as Hilary Clinton (seen teetering on her high heels in a pink pantsuit) and Jimmy Carter. The author and illustrator apparently so despise Teddy Kennedy that they have put him in twice, physically as Mayor Leach but also as the senator from Taxachusetts. Adults of a conservative mindset will get several chuckles from this picture book, but they are its only likely audience.

Posted by susan at 9:04 AM | Comments (1)