From: Cassie Wilson <cwilson2>
Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2001 08:31:38 -0400

Jennifer Bromann's response is right on target; a reviewer's liking or disliking a book has little to do with establishing the quality of a book. If you approached a wino in the gutter and jostled his shoulder to ask, "Did you like the book?," his response would be as valid as anyone else's. "Yes, I liked the book" or "no I didn't like the book," who cares? To express specific personal responses and offer explanations can add dimension to a review and be valuable to the review reader; however, we as youth librarians must consider even more strongly the question of whether or not our potential readers will like the book or will want to read it whether or not they "like" it, and we can best judge these matters by an objective consideration of standard criteria such as, "Are the characters realistic or believable? Do they grow or change during the course of the story? Is the plot logical (I'm not so sure this one counts anymore.)? Is the writing smooth and easily readable, or, if it isn't, does the knottyness (?!?) contribute to the telling of the story? Does the book have any depth or is it just plot?" Etc.
    I doubt that any human being can be totally subjective; I'm not sure that God can be (This probably works to my advantage.). But a reviewer needs to try to be as close as he can and to explain why he holds the opinion he holds.
    In my oh-so-humble opinion,
        Cassie Wilson
Received on Mon 03 Sep 2001 07:31:38 AM CDT