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[CCBC-Net] Series books
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From: Stacy Whitman <stacer11>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:20:28 -0800
First, to address the particular series that most people have been discussing: Most people have been discussing Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, Hardy Boys, the Boxcar Children, and so forth. Do you find these have a dated feel for kids today? Trixie Beldon was already dated when I read it in the 80s. How about more contemporary series?
Some series that come to mind: Fearless, Pendragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, media tie-ins, the Blue/White/Red is for... series by Laurie Stolarz, Knights of the Silver Dragon, Beacon Stree Girls, and anything that comes out of 17th Street/Alloy Entertainment (the minds behind Sweet Valley High)--including Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Gossip Girls/A-List/The Clique. There has also been the Cirque du Freak series, which I understand has been a bestseller, and it makes me wonder how it does in libraries.
Julie Ranelli said:
>I do think series books serve an important purpose in familiarizing
>students with the pattern of stories. They are also non-threatening ways
>to movie from easy readers into chapter books.
I think this is an important aspect of series books. They increase literary fluency by providing a familiar world to return to again and again.
As an editor of series fiction, I find this to be an essential part of what makes series fiction enjoyable for the children and teens who love to read it. It's like watching a TV show--you can return to characters you love again and again and see how they grow, or join in a new adventure with them.
We recently ran a reluctant reader kit program that we offered free to librarians. It included a copy of the first book in each of the Dragonlance: The New Adventures series and the Knights of the Silver Dragon series, lesson plans, a recommended reading list, a guide to hosting a successful book club, and creative suggestions for activities, including a reader?s theater script. (More information can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/dlnewadventures/reluctantreader; I'm not sure if there are supplies left or not, but if you're interested, it's worth checking out.)
What we found was that both public and school librarians loved using the kits, and I think it shows that series books can be very useful in helping kids who aren't as interested in reading find their area of interest. They can return to it again and again, building familiarity and basically practicing the reading experience. Once they become comfortable with that, they can then feel more comfortable in branching out to new reading experiences.
On a tangential note, there seems to be a trend lately of limited series, such as Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events. Jeff Mariotte did the Witch Season series, which only had one book per season. Do you feel the gap between the "formula" series of Nancy Drew's variety and series like Traveling Pants and the Spiderwick Chronicles is narrowing? Any difference you see between fantasy series and realistic series?
Personally, I think long series tend to be welcomed more readily in fantasy than in realism, because fantasy is a genre that seems to welcome series, from early readers on up to adult fantasy. It's a genre that has a loyal readership, and it's not *just* because the readers are comfortable with the characters--with younger readers, as I said above, it's one aspect of it--but also because the readers simply *like* the characters. As readers gain fluency, they continue to return to the series while also branching out to new experiences--thus broadening as well as deepening their reading.
This reflects my own experience as a kid with Trixie Beldon and Nancy Drew books. My small-town library had a limited supply of either, and I'd return to that shelf again and again looking for something like those books. I'd reread the same books because I wasn't interested in the other books on the shelves. The same thing happened with Madeleine L'Engle books. When my librarian discovered that I liked mystery and fantasy, though, she pointed me in the direction of paranormal mysteries, King Arthur stories, and so forth. I'm wondering how universal this experience might be.
Stacy L. Whitman Associate Editor, Mirrorstone Books for Young Readers www.mirrorstonebooks.com stacy.whitman at wizards.com
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2005 02:20:28 PM CST
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:20:28 -0800
First, to address the particular series that most people have been discussing: Most people have been discussing Babysitter's Club, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, Hardy Boys, the Boxcar Children, and so forth. Do you find these have a dated feel for kids today? Trixie Beldon was already dated when I read it in the 80s. How about more contemporary series?
Some series that come to mind: Fearless, Pendragon, Series of Unfortunate Events, media tie-ins, the Blue/White/Red is for... series by Laurie Stolarz, Knights of the Silver Dragon, Beacon Stree Girls, and anything that comes out of 17th Street/Alloy Entertainment (the minds behind Sweet Valley High)--including Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Gossip Girls/A-List/The Clique. There has also been the Cirque du Freak series, which I understand has been a bestseller, and it makes me wonder how it does in libraries.
Julie Ranelli said:
>I do think series books serve an important purpose in familiarizing
>students with the pattern of stories. They are also non-threatening ways
>to movie from easy readers into chapter books.
I think this is an important aspect of series books. They increase literary fluency by providing a familiar world to return to again and again.
As an editor of series fiction, I find this to be an essential part of what makes series fiction enjoyable for the children and teens who love to read it. It's like watching a TV show--you can return to characters you love again and again and see how they grow, or join in a new adventure with them.
We recently ran a reluctant reader kit program that we offered free to librarians. It included a copy of the first book in each of the Dragonlance: The New Adventures series and the Knights of the Silver Dragon series, lesson plans, a recommended reading list, a guide to hosting a successful book club, and creative suggestions for activities, including a reader?s theater script. (More information can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/dlnewadventures/reluctantreader; I'm not sure if there are supplies left or not, but if you're interested, it's worth checking out.)
What we found was that both public and school librarians loved using the kits, and I think it shows that series books can be very useful in helping kids who aren't as interested in reading find their area of interest. They can return to it again and again, building familiarity and basically practicing the reading experience. Once they become comfortable with that, they can then feel more comfortable in branching out to new reading experiences.
On a tangential note, there seems to be a trend lately of limited series, such as Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events. Jeff Mariotte did the Witch Season series, which only had one book per season. Do you feel the gap between the "formula" series of Nancy Drew's variety and series like Traveling Pants and the Spiderwick Chronicles is narrowing? Any difference you see between fantasy series and realistic series?
Personally, I think long series tend to be welcomed more readily in fantasy than in realism, because fantasy is a genre that seems to welcome series, from early readers on up to adult fantasy. It's a genre that has a loyal readership, and it's not *just* because the readers are comfortable with the characters--with younger readers, as I said above, it's one aspect of it--but also because the readers simply *like* the characters. As readers gain fluency, they continue to return to the series while also branching out to new experiences--thus broadening as well as deepening their reading.
This reflects my own experience as a kid with Trixie Beldon and Nancy Drew books. My small-town library had a limited supply of either, and I'd return to that shelf again and again looking for something like those books. I'd reread the same books because I wasn't interested in the other books on the shelves. The same thing happened with Madeleine L'Engle books. When my librarian discovered that I liked mystery and fantasy, though, she pointed me in the direction of paranormal mysteries, King Arthur stories, and so forth. I'm wondering how universal this experience might be.
Stacy L. Whitman Associate Editor, Mirrorstone Books for Young Readers www.mirrorstonebooks.com stacy.whitman at wizards.com
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2005 02:20:28 PM CST
