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From: Mary Lyons <melyons>
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 16:19:23 -0500
This post is long, but I think it?s appropriate for a major award month.
Elizabeth Partridge wanted to avoid a book that was too academic. As a former reading teacher and school librarian, I completely agree. The current pressure on children?s book writers to please adult readers may raise the bar on documentation so high that kids can?t or won?t climb over it.
If new, clear standards are developed, I hope they include the following: are most of the books mentioned in notes and bibliographies within reach of young readers? For fun (well, more fun than cleaning closets), I looked at the bibliographies of two recent well-received informational books. Both listed long out-of-print or obscure books published in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Even with adult help, most kids would be unable to find them. Nor could they easily find books published in a foreign country or read primary documents held in rare book collections at universities.
I?ve listed similar arcane information in my longer books. Now, as the demand grows for yet more adult-like documentation, I?m rethinking the whole issue. Am I alone in coming to what seems to be an obvious conclusion? Children want books that appear to be written for them. This means approachable back matter.
My 6th grade neighbor, Annie, reads only YA and adult books. She?s one of my most trusted kid?itors. When she reached my longish documentation at the end of a work-in-progress, she let me have it. ?I hate to break it to you,? she firmly said, ?but most kids skip right over that stuff. It?s in small print, so they know it?s for grownups.? Annie is an extremely mature reader. For books aimed at younger readers, for reluctant readers, or for children stuck in Harry Potter gear, books that look kid-friendly are even more crucial.
Long documentation can suggest that the author has done her job, but it doesn?t prove it. Only a specialist within the subject area can accurately judge notes and a bibliography for an informational book. Even that?s problematic. Historians, for example, disagree on almost everything--it?s how they get tenure. They change their minds, have their own agendas, and are as subject to error as much as anyone. Besides, it?s how and why a writer uses particular sources that matters most. Another can of words for another day . . .
Mary E. Lyons
www.lyonsdenbooks.com
Received on Thu 02 Jan 2003 03:19:23 PM CST
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 16:19:23 -0500
This post is long, but I think it?s appropriate for a major award month.
Elizabeth Partridge wanted to avoid a book that was too academic. As a former reading teacher and school librarian, I completely agree. The current pressure on children?s book writers to please adult readers may raise the bar on documentation so high that kids can?t or won?t climb over it.
If new, clear standards are developed, I hope they include the following: are most of the books mentioned in notes and bibliographies within reach of young readers? For fun (well, more fun than cleaning closets), I looked at the bibliographies of two recent well-received informational books. Both listed long out-of-print or obscure books published in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Even with adult help, most kids would be unable to find them. Nor could they easily find books published in a foreign country or read primary documents held in rare book collections at universities.
I?ve listed similar arcane information in my longer books. Now, as the demand grows for yet more adult-like documentation, I?m rethinking the whole issue. Am I alone in coming to what seems to be an obvious conclusion? Children want books that appear to be written for them. This means approachable back matter.
My 6th grade neighbor, Annie, reads only YA and adult books. She?s one of my most trusted kid?itors. When she reached my longish documentation at the end of a work-in-progress, she let me have it. ?I hate to break it to you,? she firmly said, ?but most kids skip right over that stuff. It?s in small print, so they know it?s for grownups.? Annie is an extremely mature reader. For books aimed at younger readers, for reluctant readers, or for children stuck in Harry Potter gear, books that look kid-friendly are even more crucial.
Long documentation can suggest that the author has done her job, but it doesn?t prove it. Only a specialist within the subject area can accurately judge notes and a bibliography for an informational book. Even that?s problematic. Historians, for example, disagree on almost everything--it?s how they get tenure. They change their minds, have their own agendas, and are as subject to error as much as anyone. Besides, it?s how and why a writer uses particular sources that matters most. Another can of words for another day . . .
Mary E. Lyons
www.lyonsdenbooks.com
Received on Thu 02 Jan 2003 03:19:23 PM CST
