The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia has an interesting article:Techtots generation. It eplains how today’s children are expecting interactive components in their media as well as cross-platform experiences where their TV shows become portable to iPods and to computer games.
Now I am not saying that children need to spend more time watching TV or playing video games. But as librarians, how does this change in media perception by children affect how we are going to serve them? One aspect is to take advantage of what publishers are already doing with their books by creating online games and activities with their popular characters and series. Do our own websites need to have more interactive features? Definitely. We see that in our teen users already.
But let’s not forget why we are here. Books. And though books may not have the flashy graphics or moving pixels, they have something even better. They have imagination which can take a child much farther than any online game or digital TV experience. The power of imagination has to stay alive and well in our children or else what is childhood?
Month: June 2006
Minorities in Books
The Guardian has a fascinating article: A mirror to every child’s life on black and ethnic minorities in children’s books. Malorie Blackman is the author of the piece and tells the tale of how she became an author and the problems with writing books as a person of color that are filled with characters of color.
I really appreciate that she has used the image of a mirror in her title, but it is equally important that white non-minority children read books with minorities in them. Books must be both mirrors and windows. Either way is beneficial and important.
Audio Stories
Classic audio stories for children is a cool site. They offer classic children’s stories from authors like Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, and Rudyard Kipling. Each story can be listened to as an mp3 or downloaded as a zip file. Plus, they offer the text so that children can read along as they listen.
CATS Booking Ahead
Baker & Taylor is now doing a Booking Ahead for children’s and teen titles. Hurrah!
I use their Booking Ahead for adult tiltes all the time, and really look forward to having a list of new children’s and YA books that will be released in two months. What a great way to get things ordered way ahead of time so they can be ready and on the shelf when they are released.
Moving
This weekend is moving weekend for us. Our house is packed up, garage filled with boxes of all shapes sizes and weights, and our new house is ready and waiting for us. I have shed my goodbye tears to the library I have been at for 11 years and my wonderful staff. Now I am looking forward to the new library I will be directing.
Blogging will be spotty if at all, though I have some book reviews to post and am wondering if it would be easier to simply post the reviews or move the books. We will see which type of laziness wins out in the end.
Have a wonderful weekend and hope for our sakes that the weather prediction of over 90 degrees is far, far wrong. Ah well, we always seem to move on the hottest weekend in any given month and always in the summer. Though moving in a Wisconsin winter would not be any better.
Narnia Forum
TheNarniaForums is a discussion board for all things Narnia. It includes the movies and the books, as well as games, the TV series, fan art, fan fiction, and Christianity and the stories.
Narnia Forum
TheNarniaForums is a discussion board for all things Narnia. It includes the movies and the books, as well as games, the TV series, fan art, fan fiction, and Christianity and the stories.
Charlotte's Web
The upcoming Charlotte’s Web Movie has a sweet site where you can visit the Zuckerman farm and view a trailer of the movie. From the trailer it looks like they have changed a lot of the story and added slapstick humor, but I have hope that in the end they have retained the sweetness of the original. Let’s all hope!
Perfect Tens
VOYA has a list of the Perfect Tens, or the books that received top scores in 2005. They include many that I have heard of but never read and others that I have read and loved. Rebel Angels and Invisible are two of my favorites on the list.
Waking Brain Cells 