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Teachers, yes... what about parents?
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From: Peggy Rader <rader004>
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 10:37:28 -0500
As Betty Tisel was the person who introduced me to this listserv, I must emerge from lurking for the first time, to continue Betty's strand concerning parents and how they do or don't use book reviews. I am a former newspaper reporter, now doing PR for a college of education, have a middle-grade novel in my desk drawer, and am a member of SCBWI. But most of all I am a parent who reads to her child (even now that he's 12) and am always in search of great children's books. I do read reviews, I search them out, but I, like Betty, find that most parents I know do not. I think they might if the reviews were made more accessible--by teachers and librarians ideally. I was lucky when my son was born: a good friend, Nell Colburn, a children's librarian now in D.C., sent me two perfect baby gifts--Tomie de Paola's Mother Goose, with its bold, baby-friendly illustrations, and a British book, Babies Need Books (sorry, the author's name now escapes me). The latter was an invaluable guide and introduced me and my son to many wonderful authors and illustrators. I don't use many of the review sources listed here previously, because they aren't that easy to access (or even be aware of) and not that affordable if you aren't in "the biz" (although the internet is changing issues of access). I read my local paper (which just dropped its regular children's book review column), the newsletter from a local children's bookstore, the NY Times on occasion, and now (thank you!) this listserv. I also depend on staff who do "hand-selling" at my local trusted children's book store, Red Balloon in St. Paul. I mostly buy YA for my son, but still buy picture books for myself (I just bought Arlene Sardine, which I love, and which my son pronounced "weird.") I wish every children's book reviewed--picture book or YA--could be reviewed as Arlene was, in the full and thoughtful way that adult literature is reviewed, putting it in context with other similar or contradictory books, discussing the interplay between illustration and words, explaining the art medium being used, discussing the appropriate developmental levels, etc. No, we don't always have time to read every review (or we'd never read the books), but I always want more than mere plot summary, if only a line that says "it made me laugh out loud" or "no 12-year-old will be convinced . . .
" The comments made about YA humor on this site earlier this summer, for example, led me to print out many responses and go to my local children's book store in search of titles mentioned.
Peggy J. Rader Communications/Media Relations College of Education and Human Development University of Minnesota 612b6?82 rader004 at tc.umn.edu
Received on Mon 21 Sep 1998 10:37:28 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 10:37:28 -0500
As Betty Tisel was the person who introduced me to this listserv, I must emerge from lurking for the first time, to continue Betty's strand concerning parents and how they do or don't use book reviews. I am a former newspaper reporter, now doing PR for a college of education, have a middle-grade novel in my desk drawer, and am a member of SCBWI. But most of all I am a parent who reads to her child (even now that he's 12) and am always in search of great children's books. I do read reviews, I search them out, but I, like Betty, find that most parents I know do not. I think they might if the reviews were made more accessible--by teachers and librarians ideally. I was lucky when my son was born: a good friend, Nell Colburn, a children's librarian now in D.C., sent me two perfect baby gifts--Tomie de Paola's Mother Goose, with its bold, baby-friendly illustrations, and a British book, Babies Need Books (sorry, the author's name now escapes me). The latter was an invaluable guide and introduced me and my son to many wonderful authors and illustrators. I don't use many of the review sources listed here previously, because they aren't that easy to access (or even be aware of) and not that affordable if you aren't in "the biz" (although the internet is changing issues of access). I read my local paper (which just dropped its regular children's book review column), the newsletter from a local children's bookstore, the NY Times on occasion, and now (thank you!) this listserv. I also depend on staff who do "hand-selling" at my local trusted children's book store, Red Balloon in St. Paul. I mostly buy YA for my son, but still buy picture books for myself (I just bought Arlene Sardine, which I love, and which my son pronounced "weird.") I wish every children's book reviewed--picture book or YA--could be reviewed as Arlene was, in the full and thoughtful way that adult literature is reviewed, putting it in context with other similar or contradictory books, discussing the interplay between illustration and words, explaining the art medium being used, discussing the appropriate developmental levels, etc. No, we don't always have time to read every review (or we'd never read the books), but I always want more than mere plot summary, if only a line that says "it made me laugh out loud" or "no 12-year-old will be convinced . . .
" The comments made about YA humor on this site earlier this summer, for example, led me to print out many responses and go to my local children's book store in search of titles mentioned.
Peggy J. Rader Communications/Media Relations College of Education and Human Development University of Minnesota 612b6?82 rader004 at tc.umn.edu
Received on Mon 21 Sep 1998 10:37:28 AM CDT
