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Do teachers read book reviews?
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From: Isaacs <isaacs>
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:38:48 -0400
How can I resist that question? In my past 25 years of school teaching and librarian-ing in alternate doses I have NEVER stopped reading book reviews. How else could I be knowledgeable about books I might not get to see for another year? How else could I find out what's new and good to read since, no matter how hard I try, I cannot read everything? How else can I discover the book that will be just exactly right to connect or extend the curriculum I already have in place? How else will I know what to reserve and have sent to the tiny local branch of my wonderfully helpful public library (Anne Arundel County, Maryland)?
Finding those review magazines is more difficult. Now that my children are out of college I can splurge and subscribe to Hornbook, VOYA, the New Advocate and Booklinks on my own. My school library gets School Library Journal which they kindly route to me even though I am a teacher. (And that's how I get to read my own reviews.) Public libraries do not usually shelve review journals in a timely fashion - the public librarians are reading them - but they, and the local university libraries, are another good source. I pick up every gift copy of review magazines offered at conferences and read them from cover to cover. Oh for the resources of CCBC!
For a teacher, the roundup lists in Booklists and all of Booklinks (are those reviews?) may be the most obviously useful, but the longer articles in Hornbook and elsewhere give food for thought. I can't imagine missing those sources of information about the books my students are likely to want to read or to be reading - or the books I can't wait to read on my own.
Kathy Isaacs Edmund Burke School
aisaacs at towson.edu
Received on Tue 22 Sep 1998 05:38:48 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:38:48 -0400
How can I resist that question? In my past 25 years of school teaching and librarian-ing in alternate doses I have NEVER stopped reading book reviews. How else could I be knowledgeable about books I might not get to see for another year? How else could I find out what's new and good to read since, no matter how hard I try, I cannot read everything? How else can I discover the book that will be just exactly right to connect or extend the curriculum I already have in place? How else will I know what to reserve and have sent to the tiny local branch of my wonderfully helpful public library (Anne Arundel County, Maryland)?
Finding those review magazines is more difficult. Now that my children are out of college I can splurge and subscribe to Hornbook, VOYA, the New Advocate and Booklinks on my own. My school library gets School Library Journal which they kindly route to me even though I am a teacher. (And that's how I get to read my own reviews.) Public libraries do not usually shelve review journals in a timely fashion - the public librarians are reading them - but they, and the local university libraries, are another good source. I pick up every gift copy of review magazines offered at conferences and read them from cover to cover. Oh for the resources of CCBC!
For a teacher, the roundup lists in Booklists and all of Booklinks (are those reviews?) may be the most obviously useful, but the longer articles in Hornbook and elsewhere give food for thought. I can't imagine missing those sources of information about the books my students are likely to want to read or to be reading - or the books I can't wait to read on my own.
Kathy Isaacs Edmund Burke School
aisaacs at towson.edu
Received on Tue 22 Sep 1998 05:38:48 PM CDT
