CCBC-Net Archives
Back to Nonfiction
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 16:49:47 -0600
Robin Smith has mentioned the content of a biography--the issue of what is included about an individual's life--may necessarily be one of omission when the audience is young children.
Dean Schneider has shared some great ways he is using biographies and other nonfiction in his classroom, noting that "literature should be a staple of the history classroom, (but) it often isn't" and stating that biography helps "provide an historical context" for other readings in his classroom.
emtimmins shared how to recent picture book biographies of women are great launching points for discussion of how things have changed historically for women.
Steven Engelfried and Sharon L. have both written about the
"biography assignment" in schools that is often so vexing to librarians because finding a book that meets the set criteria often isn't easy. How have others handled this assignment? Is there a way to make this assignment more intrinsically appealing to children so the focus is not on finding any book longer than 100 pages but on finding a book that they really want to read about someone or some time in the past?
Several others have commented on the question of whether there is interest in and a market for biographies of less-well-known individuals.
It seems to me regarding this last issue that it's not always a matter of how well-known (or obscure) the person was, but how good the book is--is the writing as well as the subject compelling? Does it capture what it is about the individual that is interesting? Does it find both what is ordinary and what is extraordinary in each life? Ann Bausum's new book about Roy Chapman Andrews, Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs, is an example of a person that many may not have heard of, but what an interesting life she described, and what a title to draw kids in. (Chapman is believed by some to have been the model for Indiana Jones. While this is mentioned briefly, I admired the fact that the author did not exploit this at all.)
We can look to the excellent memoirs that have been published in recent years as examples of books about people we often would have otherwise never heard of but the stories are compelling and the books themselves have high literary merit. I'm thinking of people like Ji-Li Jiang (Red Scarf Girl), Irene Opdyke (In My Hands, mentioned earlier), and others.
There have been a number of collective biographies I can think of that I've read in recent years about individuals, some of whom I may not have heard of (and children will most likely not have heard of many of those included), that are intruiging. Just this year I can think of three, all of which chronicle the lives of various women: In Real Life: Six Women Photographs by Leslie Sills; Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney; and Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull. I know there are many others!
What are your thoughts? Ideas? Favorite books to use?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 02 Nov 2000 04:49:47 PM CST
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 16:49:47 -0600
Robin Smith has mentioned the content of a biography--the issue of what is included about an individual's life--may necessarily be one of omission when the audience is young children.
Dean Schneider has shared some great ways he is using biographies and other nonfiction in his classroom, noting that "literature should be a staple of the history classroom, (but) it often isn't" and stating that biography helps "provide an historical context" for other readings in his classroom.
emtimmins shared how to recent picture book biographies of women are great launching points for discussion of how things have changed historically for women.
Steven Engelfried and Sharon L. have both written about the
"biography assignment" in schools that is often so vexing to librarians because finding a book that meets the set criteria often isn't easy. How have others handled this assignment? Is there a way to make this assignment more intrinsically appealing to children so the focus is not on finding any book longer than 100 pages but on finding a book that they really want to read about someone or some time in the past?
Several others have commented on the question of whether there is interest in and a market for biographies of less-well-known individuals.
It seems to me regarding this last issue that it's not always a matter of how well-known (or obscure) the person was, but how good the book is--is the writing as well as the subject compelling? Does it capture what it is about the individual that is interesting? Does it find both what is ordinary and what is extraordinary in each life? Ann Bausum's new book about Roy Chapman Andrews, Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs, is an example of a person that many may not have heard of, but what an interesting life she described, and what a title to draw kids in. (Chapman is believed by some to have been the model for Indiana Jones. While this is mentioned briefly, I admired the fact that the author did not exploit this at all.)
We can look to the excellent memoirs that have been published in recent years as examples of books about people we often would have otherwise never heard of but the stories are compelling and the books themselves have high literary merit. I'm thinking of people like Ji-Li Jiang (Red Scarf Girl), Irene Opdyke (In My Hands, mentioned earlier), and others.
There have been a number of collective biographies I can think of that I've read in recent years about individuals, some of whom I may not have heard of (and children will most likely not have heard of many of those included), that are intruiging. Just this year I can think of three, all of which chronicle the lives of various women: In Real Life: Six Women Photographs by Leslie Sills; Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney; and Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull. I know there are many others!
What are your thoughts? Ideas? Favorite books to use?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 02 Nov 2000 04:49:47 PM CST
