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Average or Ordinary: why?
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:47:32 -0500
Few books elicit the passionate attention *Arline Sardine* is garnering! If only school and public librarians could find a larger number of reviews written as Anne Lundin describes them - and if in finding them, they would discover guidance for purchasing or not purchasing many of the other books about which reviewers too often seem neutral. Is this book "average" or "ordinary?" If it is, then why? Even a brief written evaluation of any book needs to communicate enough reliable opinon to respond to that question.
I'm not suggesting that reviewers use the words "average" and
"ordinary." Neither do I want reviewers to use a checklist or scale of one to ten. However, it's fair to expect to find out from a written review of a trade book why - if a book isn't a failure or a success it's somewhere in?tween. Thousands of books are reviewed annually. Most do not receive asterisks or "pointers."
Please see the asterisked paragraph at the end of my message for clarification about CCBC information services if you are unfamiliar with the following CCBC references.*
School library media specialists and public librarians use CCBC collections to see for themselves the books about which they've been reading reviews in the professional journals mentioned in earlier messages or about which they've seen ads or other promotions. Often the librarians are look at the huge number of books deemed by reviewers as neither successes or failures. They recall - and sometimes even bring with them - countless positive reviews of books seeming to be average or ordinary upon examination. Plot summaries accompanied by glancing phrases of commentary and a half-hearted "thumbs up" aren't helpful. Most people do not have the advantage of an examination collection for their use. Yes, review readers need competent plot summaries.They need more than that. ...Ginny
* One of CCBC's information services is the provision of individual book examination and selection through an organized collection of almost all of the newest books for children and young adults. Book publishers in the USA send review copies of their books as soon as these books are published to the CCBC. Within a few days the books are cataloged and most are placed on one of three noncirculating "current" shelves for the next 18 months: picture book, nonfiction, or fiction. The books on these shelves are heavily used for more reasons than hands-on library book selection or classroom curriculum development. (Just ask the student staff members who shelve trucks of books every day!) But right now I'm referring to that particular use, not the ways prospective teachers use the newest books, or artists & writers use them, for example.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Director, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) 4290 Helen C. White Hall, Corner of N. Park St. and Observatory Drive University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI 53706 USA
Received on Sat 19 Sep 1998 12:47:32 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:47:32 -0500
Few books elicit the passionate attention *Arline Sardine* is garnering! If only school and public librarians could find a larger number of reviews written as Anne Lundin describes them - and if in finding them, they would discover guidance for purchasing or not purchasing many of the other books about which reviewers too often seem neutral. Is this book "average" or "ordinary?" If it is, then why? Even a brief written evaluation of any book needs to communicate enough reliable opinon to respond to that question.
I'm not suggesting that reviewers use the words "average" and
"ordinary." Neither do I want reviewers to use a checklist or scale of one to ten. However, it's fair to expect to find out from a written review of a trade book why - if a book isn't a failure or a success it's somewhere in?tween. Thousands of books are reviewed annually. Most do not receive asterisks or "pointers."
Please see the asterisked paragraph at the end of my message for clarification about CCBC information services if you are unfamiliar with the following CCBC references.*
School library media specialists and public librarians use CCBC collections to see for themselves the books about which they've been reading reviews in the professional journals mentioned in earlier messages or about which they've seen ads or other promotions. Often the librarians are look at the huge number of books deemed by reviewers as neither successes or failures. They recall - and sometimes even bring with them - countless positive reviews of books seeming to be average or ordinary upon examination. Plot summaries accompanied by glancing phrases of commentary and a half-hearted "thumbs up" aren't helpful. Most people do not have the advantage of an examination collection for their use. Yes, review readers need competent plot summaries.They need more than that. ...Ginny
* One of CCBC's information services is the provision of individual book examination and selection through an organized collection of almost all of the newest books for children and young adults. Book publishers in the USA send review copies of their books as soon as these books are published to the CCBC. Within a few days the books are cataloged and most are placed on one of three noncirculating "current" shelves for the next 18 months: picture book, nonfiction, or fiction. The books on these shelves are heavily used for more reasons than hands-on library book selection or classroom curriculum development. (Just ask the student staff members who shelve trucks of books every day!) But right now I'm referring to that particular use, not the ways prospective teachers use the newest books, or artists & writers use them, for example.
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Director, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education (www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/) 4290 Helen C. White Hall, Corner of N. Park St. and Observatory Drive University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, WI 53706 USA
Received on Sat 19 Sep 1998 12:47:32 PM CDT
