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Early Readers and Reviewers
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From: Aptimber at aol.com <Aptimber>
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 11:06:41 EDT
Hello!
I'm a book reviewer and I found the post about the lack of reviews of early readers interesting. And revealing, about myself. I've been thinking about the issue ever since. I write a children's book column in Richmond, Virginia that appears once a month and is theme?sed. I pick the books (board books to YA), so it's more along the lines of children's book evangelism -- here's a great book, now go out and read it, buy it, tell a lot of people. Anyway, I very rarely have an early reader (or easy-to-read book) in my column. You made me think about that.
Here's what I thought about myself as a reviewer confronting early readers:
1. My goal is to promote children's books that regular, everyday people
(parents mostly) might miss. This means these are books that are published without sequels. So I usually don't include series in my columns. And a number of great early readers are series. The parents seem to know about series and are relieved to see them. (And for good reason: Series is one of the things that kids beginning to read seem to like because they know the characters and basically what to expect.) I remember working as a bookseller and having people excited that their child were reading all of the Pee Wee Scouts, for instance. These were the books I didn't have to read to sell, because parents knew where to find them.
2. I'm a sucker for design. And I think when I say "design" I mean, design that I like. (This is a problem, I admit it.) A lot of these books seem to be made in a cheaper format (as they should, because parents aren't likely to buy a $15.00 early reader for a child that will be moving onto the next one in a few days). I think I overlook these books. My stack of books is huge, and sometimes I make quick decisions based on things like art, paper quality, and my cursory glance at the storyline. And then there's the ever-constant problem of theme -- is this a book about outer space, for instance?
Anyway, thanks for raising this point. It helps to be reminded that this is a place where I'm not quite doing my job.
Amy Timberlake aptimber at aol.com
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 10:06:41 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 11:06:41 EDT
Hello!
I'm a book reviewer and I found the post about the lack of reviews of early readers interesting. And revealing, about myself. I've been thinking about the issue ever since. I write a children's book column in Richmond, Virginia that appears once a month and is theme?sed. I pick the books (board books to YA), so it's more along the lines of children's book evangelism -- here's a great book, now go out and read it, buy it, tell a lot of people. Anyway, I very rarely have an early reader (or easy-to-read book) in my column. You made me think about that.
Here's what I thought about myself as a reviewer confronting early readers:
1. My goal is to promote children's books that regular, everyday people
(parents mostly) might miss. This means these are books that are published without sequels. So I usually don't include series in my columns. And a number of great early readers are series. The parents seem to know about series and are relieved to see them. (And for good reason: Series is one of the things that kids beginning to read seem to like because they know the characters and basically what to expect.) I remember working as a bookseller and having people excited that their child were reading all of the Pee Wee Scouts, for instance. These were the books I didn't have to read to sell, because parents knew where to find them.
2. I'm a sucker for design. And I think when I say "design" I mean, design that I like. (This is a problem, I admit it.) A lot of these books seem to be made in a cheaper format (as they should, because parents aren't likely to buy a $15.00 early reader for a child that will be moving onto the next one in a few days). I think I overlook these books. My stack of books is huge, and sometimes I make quick decisions based on things like art, paper quality, and my cursory glance at the storyline. And then there's the ever-constant problem of theme -- is this a book about outer space, for instance?
Anyway, thanks for raising this point. It helps to be reminded that this is a place where I'm not quite doing my job.
Amy Timberlake aptimber at aol.com
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2001 10:06:41 AM CDT
