The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town
“Although you do not know his name, Siegfried (Zig) Engelmann is one of the most talked-about authors in the country right now. His most prominent work, which you have not read, is a story for second graders. It begins, “A girl got a pet goat.”
Engelmann’s book is the one that President Bush was reading to a class of children on 9/11. Engelmann is the developer of Direct Instruction, a controversial teaching method.
“We don’t give a damn what the teacher thinks, what the teacher feels,” Engelmann said. “On the teachers’ own time they can hate it. We don’t care, as long as they do it.” Engelmann claims that Direct Instruction is one of the few teaching methods that have been consistently shown to improve student achievement, especially among disadvantaged children. “Traditionalists die over this,” he said. “But in terms of data we whump the daylights out of them.”

ACHOCKABLOG: Danziger Appreciation
Thank you to ACHOCKABLOG for another great children’s lit link. This is a must-hear for those of us who grew up appreciating Paula Danziger’s work.

Vandergrift’s Special Interest Page
Amazing how even though I have been online since 1995, I still manage to miss some of the most important children’s literature sites on the web. This site has been around since 1995 and has an immense collection of children’s and YA literature information and links to related sites.

Guinness World Records
This is a definite site for children’s librarians and teachers to have on their bookmarks. I found myself eagerly turning from one picture to the next to see the biggest lollipop and largest custard-pie fight.

The New York Times — Chasing Art, Sixth Graders and a Dream
A nice interview with Blue Balliett, author of the popular and highly regarded Chasing Vermeer. At the end of the article, it is confirmed that Balliett is working on a second book that will follow the same characters later in their sixth grade year.

Read at Your Own Risk – Has Dr. Seuss’ legacy hobbled America’s literacy crusade?
Slate offers this look at whether Dr. Seuss has helped or hurt generations of American readers. I don’t agree with several of the author’s conclusions, but the final paragraph truly captures my reasons for reading books.
“Truly absorbing, addictive reading of imaginative writing is intensely private and, in a social sense, escapist. “Serious readers aren’t reading for instruction,” as an anthropologist at work studying American literary habits told novelist Jonathan Franzen. Devoted readers are hoping for a chance to discover, in the narrated lives of other selves, what it’s like to be an individual confronting the unpredictable. Maybe it’s time to stop spreading fears about “reading at risk,” and try generating more excitement about reading at your own risk. How? I wish I could say you could look it up, but you can’t.”

An insider’s look at kid lit
Arthur Levine, from Scholastic, talks about misconceptions of new children’s book authors.
“”There is a great misapprehension that it’s easy to write a children’s book,” Arthur Levine said. “It’s widely held in all forms of literature — that it’s somehow easy to do — but it often seems that people read to their kids and make the leap that they could write something that connects in the same way as the book they’re reading.”
A few can, but writing for children is not any easier than writing for adults. It takes talent and persistence and an ability to connect to children without coddling or patronizing them. It’s not as easy as it might look, even with pictures on the page and fewer words.”

School Library Journal – ‘Pinkerton’ to Stay on Shelves
In Illinois, the Evanston Public Library Board has decided to retain Steven Kellogg’s Pinkerton, Behave!. A parent had ask it to be removed because there was a scene she felt was too scary for children.

eSchool News online
The Governor of South Dakota has shut down the teen section of the State Library’s website, because it had links to material that he believes is inappropriate for teens. The link in question is to Planned Parenthood, because the governor opposes abortion.
“”As a parent, I would be very disturbed to have my children connecting to any of these web sites that are found through the state web site at this time,” the governor said July 12 as links on the library’s Teen Center page began disappearing.”