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[CCBC-Net] Formula Series
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From: Monica Edinger <monicaedinger>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:01:43 -0500
Having been a 4th grade teacher for almost three (yikes!) decades I've watched my students read different series over the years for different reasons. A few generalizations follow (as kids never fit tidily and neatly into one group or another, not to mention there are others I've left out).
First of all there are children who are newly minted independent readers. Frequently, they have latched onto a series and find great comfort and support in the familiarity one book after another provides (as Robin Smith noted.). Reading is a lot easier when so many of the characters, settings, circumstances, and style are the same. Goosebumps, American Girl, The Magic Treehouse, and The Time Warp Trio are some of the series I've seen read in the last few years by this group of kids. Also, while not formula series exactly, Matt Christopher and Dan Gutman's sports books also function this way for many kids. All are predictable which is what unsteady, newly independent readers need.
Then there are the girl groups who love reading series together. These readers aren't necessarily having trouble reading, but they may be struggling with the social difficulties being in a social group entails.
(Or feeling completely left out and able to live vicariously through the books.) Series like Baby-sitters, the Alice books, Sweet Valley High, and even Archie comics all provide them with scenarios involving the complexities of peer relationships, often with a particularly tight group, say those of the Babysitters club or those in the Archie/Veronica universe or even Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (I think this is true for older girl readers too with series like Gossip Girls, the Clique, etc. Girls like my almost-16 year-old niece and her cohort read them partly out of curiosity and for the same reason they read People Magazine, but also because the fights and hurts are not always so different from their own.)
Lastly, there are the fantasy/adventure readers (mostly boys). The Redwall series is probably the most popular for the boys of the age I teach. Occasionally I have girl Redwall readers, but mostly they are boys. I'd say often they are also the first books certain boys really like. Other series are the Star Wars books some years, the Jarvis series (Depford, I think it is), sometimes the Terry Brooks series, LOTR, Harry Potter and so forth. Various of these come in and out of fashion, but they are all generally long, involving the same characters, similar settings, adventures, etc. Whereas the girls at this age are reading for relationships, the boys read for adventure (to generalize a bit). The Alex Rider books are also often popular with this group of readers.
Finally there is another group that read at a more sophisticated level and is mixed in terms of gender. These are the kids that go for Unfortunate Events (and spend hours studying the books for clues), Artimis Fowl
(similarly study the code), Bartimaeus, and so forth. Like their peers, they enjoy meeting up again with familiar characters, settings, and situations, but they also appreciate more complexities, imaginative and outrageous worlds, and clever language play. Of formula series, they like (love) Unfortunate Events, the Oz, and (of course) the Harry Potter books. (By the way, I think they are such a cultural phenomena that they probably cannot be fairly considered as children and adults read them partly because of buzz and even if they would not otherwise read fantasy or book of this sort.)
Years ago I had parents worrying when their kids fixated on a particular series (say Babysitters), but they seem less worrried now (perhaps because some of them were Babysitter club readers themselves:).
My feeling is that we have to keep in mind why we read. There are so many reasons and it seems to me that all of these various series offer valid reading experiences for children that should always be supported.
Monica
PS Here's an article I wrote on series for Scholastic a few years ago (quite a few as you will figure out from the books I mention:): http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/lanarts/seribook.htm
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:01:43 -0500
Having been a 4th grade teacher for almost three (yikes!) decades I've watched my students read different series over the years for different reasons. A few generalizations follow (as kids never fit tidily and neatly into one group or another, not to mention there are others I've left out).
First of all there are children who are newly minted independent readers. Frequently, they have latched onto a series and find great comfort and support in the familiarity one book after another provides (as Robin Smith noted.). Reading is a lot easier when so many of the characters, settings, circumstances, and style are the same. Goosebumps, American Girl, The Magic Treehouse, and The Time Warp Trio are some of the series I've seen read in the last few years by this group of kids. Also, while not formula series exactly, Matt Christopher and Dan Gutman's sports books also function this way for many kids. All are predictable which is what unsteady, newly independent readers need.
Then there are the girl groups who love reading series together. These readers aren't necessarily having trouble reading, but they may be struggling with the social difficulties being in a social group entails.
(Or feeling completely left out and able to live vicariously through the books.) Series like Baby-sitters, the Alice books, Sweet Valley High, and even Archie comics all provide them with scenarios involving the complexities of peer relationships, often with a particularly tight group, say those of the Babysitters club or those in the Archie/Veronica universe or even Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (I think this is true for older girl readers too with series like Gossip Girls, the Clique, etc. Girls like my almost-16 year-old niece and her cohort read them partly out of curiosity and for the same reason they read People Magazine, but also because the fights and hurts are not always so different from their own.)
Lastly, there are the fantasy/adventure readers (mostly boys). The Redwall series is probably the most popular for the boys of the age I teach. Occasionally I have girl Redwall readers, but mostly they are boys. I'd say often they are also the first books certain boys really like. Other series are the Star Wars books some years, the Jarvis series (Depford, I think it is), sometimes the Terry Brooks series, LOTR, Harry Potter and so forth. Various of these come in and out of fashion, but they are all generally long, involving the same characters, similar settings, adventures, etc. Whereas the girls at this age are reading for relationships, the boys read for adventure (to generalize a bit). The Alex Rider books are also often popular with this group of readers.
Finally there is another group that read at a more sophisticated level and is mixed in terms of gender. These are the kids that go for Unfortunate Events (and spend hours studying the books for clues), Artimis Fowl
(similarly study the code), Bartimaeus, and so forth. Like their peers, they enjoy meeting up again with familiar characters, settings, and situations, but they also appreciate more complexities, imaginative and outrageous worlds, and clever language play. Of formula series, they like (love) Unfortunate Events, the Oz, and (of course) the Harry Potter books. (By the way, I think they are such a cultural phenomena that they probably cannot be fairly considered as children and adults read them partly because of buzz and even if they would not otherwise read fantasy or book of this sort.)
Years ago I had parents worrying when their kids fixated on a particular series (say Babysitters), but they seem less worrried now (perhaps because some of them were Babysitter club readers themselves:).
My feeling is that we have to keep in mind why we read. There are so many reasons and it seems to me that all of these various series offer valid reading experiences for children that should always be supported.
Monica
PS Here's an article I wrote on series for Scholastic a few years ago (quite a few as you will figure out from the books I mention:): http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/lanarts/seribook.htm
-- Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at gmail.comReceived on Sun 27 Nov 2005 10:01:43 AM CST
