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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:59:10 -0500
The first few days of every month on CCBC-Net are an open announcement period. Here are the topics we'll be discussing for the next few months after the open announcements.
June First Two Weeks: The Books of Francesca Lia Block. In 1989, Francesca Lia Block made an unforgettable entrance into young adult literature with the pubulication of her first novel, Weetzie Bat. Since that time, she has written over a dozen young adult novels. Her Weetzie Bat books in particular are courageous explorations of both form and content, using fresh and lyrical langague to illuminate the inner lives and inter-connectedness of characters who are at once archetypes and achingly real. For the first half of June, we'll look at the work of Francesca Lia Block, who is the recpient of the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award (of the American Library Association) for lifetime achievement in young adult literature.
Second Two Weeks: How Far Is Too Far? Every day, librarians and teachers are in the position of having to decide what to purchase, teach, or recommended to to young adults. And in these days when it seems just about any topic imaginable can be found in one young adult novel or another, it seems to many that those decisions are more complicated than ever before. Yet the boundaries of what we find acceptable are never static--they differ from individual to individual, and are ever-shifting when it comes to society as a whole. So how far is too far when it comes to literature for young adults? We'll explore this and related questions during the second half of June.
July First Two Weeks: Simple Science. What makes a good science book for young children? How do authors and artists take complex information about the nature of our world and our universe and make it understandable for the preschool and early elementary audience? The first part of July, we'll examine these and other questions related to creating "simple science" trade books.
Second Two Weeks: Perspectives on Gender in Books for Children and Teens. Back in the 1970s, there was a growing awareness of the need for books that offered strong, independent female protagonists and that showed both boys and girls engaged in non-traditional roles and behavior. Thirty years later, we'll examine how gender is depicted today in literature for children and young adults. Have our expectations changed? Do gender stereotypes continue to exist? In what ways are books for children and teenagers reflecting or challenging the way we think about gender today? We'll talk about these and other issues the second half of July.
August
First Two Weeks: Harry Potter VI. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being released in the U.S. on July 16. We'll spend the first part of August talking about the latest volume of Harry Potter, and taking stock of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Are new readers continuing to flock to the series? What about the original youthful readers of HP? They've been aging faster than Harry. Seven years after the first book debuted, have many of them, unlike Harry, left Hogwarts behind? Or does it still hold a place in their imaginations?
Second Two Weeks: Of Orphans, Abandonment and Children and Teens on Their Own. One way or another, many child and teen characters in literature are on their own. It's a phenomenon that's as old as children's fiction itself. Some characters are literal orphans, like Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket's Baudelaire children, or Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman family. Some of them, like Harry, have ended up, for better or for worse, in boarding schools Others, like the Baudelaires, are at the mercy of nefarious adults. Still others, like the Tillermans, struggle to make it on their own until one or more caring adults intervenes. Whether children have been literally orphaned, physically or emotionally abandoned, or temporarily removed from adult supervision, the plot of children on their own is an archetype that crosses all genres of children's fiction. We'll examine that archetype in the first half of August, including how it plays out differently between literature for children and literature for young adults.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 02 Jun 2005 12:59:10 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 12:59:10 -0500
The first few days of every month on CCBC-Net are an open announcement period. Here are the topics we'll be discussing for the next few months after the open announcements.
June First Two Weeks: The Books of Francesca Lia Block. In 1989, Francesca Lia Block made an unforgettable entrance into young adult literature with the pubulication of her first novel, Weetzie Bat. Since that time, she has written over a dozen young adult novels. Her Weetzie Bat books in particular are courageous explorations of both form and content, using fresh and lyrical langague to illuminate the inner lives and inter-connectedness of characters who are at once archetypes and achingly real. For the first half of June, we'll look at the work of Francesca Lia Block, who is the recpient of the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award (of the American Library Association) for lifetime achievement in young adult literature.
Second Two Weeks: How Far Is Too Far? Every day, librarians and teachers are in the position of having to decide what to purchase, teach, or recommended to to young adults. And in these days when it seems just about any topic imaginable can be found in one young adult novel or another, it seems to many that those decisions are more complicated than ever before. Yet the boundaries of what we find acceptable are never static--they differ from individual to individual, and are ever-shifting when it comes to society as a whole. So how far is too far when it comes to literature for young adults? We'll explore this and related questions during the second half of June.
July First Two Weeks: Simple Science. What makes a good science book for young children? How do authors and artists take complex information about the nature of our world and our universe and make it understandable for the preschool and early elementary audience? The first part of July, we'll examine these and other questions related to creating "simple science" trade books.
Second Two Weeks: Perspectives on Gender in Books for Children and Teens. Back in the 1970s, there was a growing awareness of the need for books that offered strong, independent female protagonists and that showed both boys and girls engaged in non-traditional roles and behavior. Thirty years later, we'll examine how gender is depicted today in literature for children and young adults. Have our expectations changed? Do gender stereotypes continue to exist? In what ways are books for children and teenagers reflecting or challenging the way we think about gender today? We'll talk about these and other issues the second half of July.
August
First Two Weeks: Harry Potter VI. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being released in the U.S. on July 16. We'll spend the first part of August talking about the latest volume of Harry Potter, and taking stock of the Harry Potter phenomenon. Are new readers continuing to flock to the series? What about the original youthful readers of HP? They've been aging faster than Harry. Seven years after the first book debuted, have many of them, unlike Harry, left Hogwarts behind? Or does it still hold a place in their imaginations?
Second Two Weeks: Of Orphans, Abandonment and Children and Teens on Their Own. One way or another, many child and teen characters in literature are on their own. It's a phenomenon that's as old as children's fiction itself. Some characters are literal orphans, like Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket's Baudelaire children, or Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman family. Some of them, like Harry, have ended up, for better or for worse, in boarding schools Others, like the Baudelaires, are at the mercy of nefarious adults. Still others, like the Tillermans, struggle to make it on their own until one or more caring adults intervenes. Whether children have been literally orphaned, physically or emotionally abandoned, or temporarily removed from adult supervision, the plot of children on their own is an archetype that crosses all genres of children's fiction. We'll examine that archetype in the first half of August, including how it plays out differently between literature for children and literature for young adults.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, UW-Madison 600 N. Park St., Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
ph: 608&2?03 fax: 608&2I33 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 02 Jun 2005 12:59:10 PM CDT
