PAGES has a great article on service to teens in public libraries.
“Libraries have to start becoming community centers and move away from the white ivory tower type place where you’re only allowed to go in there for the information you need and you have to be quiet,” he says. “That bun-head thinking is going to kill this public library world.”
It goes on to say that until teen services are considered as important as children’s services, we are not doing enough as libraries to serve them.
Month: August 2005
Roald Dahl
RoaldDahlFans is a website devoted to Roald Dahl, beloved author of books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. The site offers a biography of Dahl, timelines, pictures, awards, articles, lists of Dahl’s work, information on collecting, and much more.
Education Podcast Network
Podcasting is one of the hottest new trends online. The Education Podcast Network collects podcasts of interest to teachers to use in the classroom or to use to understand the latest issues. You can browse by subject specific podcast or find student and class podcasts.
Textbook Troubles
Written by an English teacher, How schools are destroying the joy of reading is definitely not an attack on teachers or schools. Rather it is an attack on those huge textbooks that hinder teens from really enjoying language and literature.
The piece concludes with:
“It’s time for states and school districts to kick the mega-textbook habit that four or five big corporations control and start spending money on the kind of books that will make kids want to do sustained reading, to get lost in the written word. For English classes, that’s paperback novels (whole novels) and collections of short stories (complete short stories) and poetry.”
No Joke!
Chicago Tribune — No joke: Comic strips aid in learning, teachers say is an article on how ESL teachers are using comic strips to teach English. The combination of visual, aural and humor add up to a perfect teaching tool.
You will get to have a free login at the Tribune to access the article.
Connect for Kids
Connect for Kids is a website that encourages parents and teachers to connect and talk about issues facing children today. From newletters to recommended sites to recent news and online forums, this site is timely and filled with items of interest.
Librarian in the Middle
Another new blog find! OK, so the blog isn’t new, but it is new to me. Librarian in the Middle is a blog that focuses on resources and news for middle school librarians.
Wands and Worlds
Check out the new children’s lit blog on fantasy and science fiction: Wands and Worlds. As far as I am concerned, there can never be too much talk about kids’ books, fantasy and science fiction in particular!
Darkness in Children's Lit
Independent Online Edition: The facts about teen fiction takes a look at some of the more powerful British books for teens and children. Featured authors include Marjorie Blackman, whose first book in her Naughts and Crosses series was released in the U.S. earlier this year, and Melvin Burgess, whose books usually get some eyebrows raised. The great part of the article is that it acknowledges that there are darker parts to these new novels, and finishes with this take on children’s literature:
“More remarkable than the upfront passions and terrors is its ability to win and keep readers with an amazingly wide range of forms and genres – from the grittiest kinds of “dirty realism” through every possible brand of fable and fantasy. Alongside its exploits and experiments, much of mainstream adult writing looks stuck in a drearily naturalistic backwater. So read Blackman, or Pullman, or Burgess, and be shocked: not by their ambitions, but by their adult counterparts’ timidity.”
Waking Brain Cells 