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Sports books: what's there and what's not
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 15:25:04 -0500
Why publishers have not learned to have 8 and 9 year old baseball fanatics work as fact checkers, I will never know.
** Robin, I think there may be some child labor laws that prevent from happening, but it's an interesting idea...
On the subject of sports books for young readers, one thing that becomes clear is that they fall into a few categories: 1) Books about athletes, past and present 2) Books about a specific sport, aimed at readers who are spectators 3) Books about a specific sport, aimed at readers who are players
(and aspiring sports stars)
One of the things I appreciate about Gail Gibbons series for preschool/early elementary (My Baseball Book, etc), is that they meet the interests of young children who are in either category 2 or 3, or in categories 2 and 3 simultaneously. It's amazing how much info she packs into such small books.
What I wish we'd see would be books that deal more with the science of sports. I've noticed, for example, that lots of the young fanatics of the stripe Robin has described so well are crazy about math and numbers, and sports is an area where they see it applied constantly. I think we all know kids who become human calculators when it comes to figuring out batting averages or how many touchdowns and/or field goals the home team needs to score to tie the game. There's also the whole area of the physics of sport, eg how does a baseball player know exactly where to stand to catch a fly ball (and why can't they get one of those guys on the Tampa Bay Rays?)
Also, there seems to be a lack of emphasis on the team aspect of sports, which is a subject that interests most kids I know, and is also such an important part of sports. Why are there so many books that focus on individual players, as if they achieved everything alone, rather than on teams and how they work together? I'd like to see more books like Golenbock's Teammates, for example. Why not a book about Kobe AND Shaq, for example, and how they work together on a team? It seems such a book would have a longer shelf life, too, because long after the individual players are retired, the concept of how they worked together would live on.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Mon 10 Sep 2001 03:25:04 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 15:25:04 -0500
Why publishers have not learned to have 8 and 9 year old baseball fanatics work as fact checkers, I will never know.
** Robin, I think there may be some child labor laws that prevent from happening, but it's an interesting idea...
On the subject of sports books for young readers, one thing that becomes clear is that they fall into a few categories: 1) Books about athletes, past and present 2) Books about a specific sport, aimed at readers who are spectators 3) Books about a specific sport, aimed at readers who are players
(and aspiring sports stars)
One of the things I appreciate about Gail Gibbons series for preschool/early elementary (My Baseball Book, etc), is that they meet the interests of young children who are in either category 2 or 3, or in categories 2 and 3 simultaneously. It's amazing how much info she packs into such small books.
What I wish we'd see would be books that deal more with the science of sports. I've noticed, for example, that lots of the young fanatics of the stripe Robin has described so well are crazy about math and numbers, and sports is an area where they see it applied constantly. I think we all know kids who become human calculators when it comes to figuring out batting averages or how many touchdowns and/or field goals the home team needs to score to tie the game. There's also the whole area of the physics of sport, eg how does a baseball player know exactly where to stand to catch a fly ball (and why can't they get one of those guys on the Tampa Bay Rays?)
Also, there seems to be a lack of emphasis on the team aspect of sports, which is a subject that interests most kids I know, and is also such an important part of sports. Why are there so many books that focus on individual players, as if they achieved everything alone, rather than on teams and how they work together? I'd like to see more books like Golenbock's Teammates, for example. Why not a book about Kobe AND Shaq, for example, and how they work together on a team? It seems such a book would have a longer shelf life, too, because long after the individual players are retired, the concept of how they worked together would live on.
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Mon 10 Sep 2001 03:25:04 PM CDT
