From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 14:30:20 -0500

To answer Brenda's question, I can speak from the perspective of a reviewer/award committee member/children's book evaluator at large.

First, one problem seems to be that we don't even have a standard term for these kinds of books. I know that publishers refer to them as
"chapter books" but in public libraries, at any rate, that's what children typically call novels of any length or degree of difficulty. If you polled teachers and librarians, my guess is you'd get a whole assortment of terms for these sorts of easy chapter books, because as a profession, we have to make the terms up.

Second, there seems to me to be a different standard of evaluation that comes into play with these sort of books. For one thing, design is extremely important, in terms of the print size, leading, line length, space between words, white space, and use of illustrations. A lot of books that may be perfectly fine in terms of content, have such poor design that they're fairly inaccessible to newly independent readers.

Compare, for example, the hardcover and paperback copies of "The Stories Julian Tells" by Ann Cameron. The hardcover edition could be used as a model for excellence in terms of design. But the paperback, with the very same content, loses so much with its more cramped design that I would hesitate to give it to a new reader, especially if the hardcover were readily available. And yet, other than design, it's the same book. The sad fact is, that the type of design we see in the hardcover edition of "The Stories Julian Tells" is more the exception that the rule, it seems.

Narrative structure is also an important element in the easy chapter books, simply because they are written for novice readers who can't always keep a lot of details and characters in their heads. Straightforward, episodic plots populated by a few main characters seem to be most accessible. Also, predictability is an asset, and yet how often do we hear adult critics complain about predictable plots and/or pat endings? These qualities don't seem to bother children nearly as much and, for struggling readers, can add to their pleasure and success as readers. Even more experienced and capable child readers, I've noticed, seem to enjoy predictable plots and pat endings.

Perhaps others on CCBC-Net will cite some other characteristics that we need to take into consideration when evaluating early chapter books. My overall sense is that we keep the potential reader in much sharper focus than we typically do when we evaluate books. That's why I've learned just nearly everything I know about evaluating this type of book from K-3 teachers like Margaret Jensen and Robin Smith who have a much better understanding of the needs of young readers than most librarians, editors, critics, and parents do.



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 Tue 02 Oct 2001 02:30:20 PM CDT