Reading Kids’ Books Without the Kids from the New York Times is supposed to be an article on the newly released Norton’s Anthology of Children’s Literature which is a book designed to be used in children’s literature classes. Rothstein argues that removing the child from the literature is damaging to it, because there is power in sharing books with children. Of course! But there is also power in having adults aware of what great children’s books are and what qualities they share. That way we can lead children to them.
An additional problem I have with the article is the potshots it takes at teen literature along the way. I suppose the target is just so easy that it is hard to pass up. But in this article on children’s literature it is strange to see newly published teen fiction compared to Heidi and Anne of Green Gables. The classics are lovely, but we need to have space beside them on our shelves for the new fiction, even the “teen pulp” that will have kids looking at the books in the first place.
Author: Tasha
Bookshelves of Doom
bookshelves of doom is a blog that reviews books with a focus on juvenile and teen literature mixed in with all sorts of other genres. It is obviously the work of a book lover and I am so glad to see the children’s and teen books mixed in and shared.
One Scary Night
One Scary Night by Antoine Guilloppe is a masterpiece of wordless storytelling. The title and the evil eyes on the front of the book set the tone of the story where a young man is walking through a wintry wood followed by a wolf. The tension builds and builds, until… You didn’t think I’d give it away did you?
It is unusual to find a wordless story that works for older children, but this one will. The black and white illustrations are bold enough to use with a group and may inspire young artists to create wordless books of their own. It is also a perfect title for Halloween storytimes or to combine with other spooky tales in a monster storytime.
Horn Book Fanfare
Another list of the top children’s books of 2005 is Horn Book Fanfare. It doesn’t have a lot of surprises for me, but it includes almost all of my favorites of the year! This is a great list of titles.
Narnia Article
His dark materials is a review in The Guardian not so much about the new Chronicles of Narnia movie, but more about the ongoing questioning of the Christian message of the Narnia series. The article covers Philip Pullman’s negative response to the series as well as Tolkien’s disappointment in the lack of world building. Fascinating reading.
Unshelved Features Bucking the Sarge
Hopefully all of the librarians reading subscribe already to Unshelved, the library-related daily comic. Lately on Sundays, they have been doing a color strip that features one of their librarian characters telling a patron about a book. This week, they chose Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis as the featured book. You can read the comic here. And if you wish, can subscribe by either email or RSS feed.
Winter Friends
Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Hiroe Nakata is a book of linked poems that tell the story of a little girl who lives in a city and goes out to play in the snow. In the snow she finds a lone blue mitten and eventually finds the little boy who has misplaced it. The poems are just the right length to share with preschoolers and have subjects that any child will relate to from jumping into clean laundry to my favorite poem in the book about seeing your breath on cold days.
Accessible, filled with lovely language, and paired with lovely illustrations, this is a great book to introduce young children to poetry.
Lights Out
Lights Out by Arthur Geisert once again features his wonderfully original pigs. In this almost wordless book, a piglet is scared of going to sleep unless the light is on, but his parents make him turn it out at 8:00. They tell him that he can figure something out, so he does. And what follows is an amazing tour through a Rube Goldberg-like contraption that eventually turns out the piglet’s light after he has drifted off to sleep.
This is not a book to be shared with a group, but one to savor with a child on your lap. The little details are what make any contraption like this work. This is perfect to share with children who are not quite reading yet, since they will get to tell the story of the contraption to you. Share this one and savor it!
SLJ Best Book List
School Library Journal has released their Best Books 2005 list. 62 titles are on the list with a strong showing by nonfiction titles. Enjoy!
