From: Regina Pauly <paulyr>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 17:01:36 -0600

  I remember in library school being taught that series fiction was bad and agreeing with the low quality of series fiction. However, now that I have been a librarian for over twenty years and have read thousands of children's books I now feel series books are an important part of learning to read and provide much pleasure for many, many people. This includes both those series fiction that are regarded with high value (sequences) and those who are repetitative, less creative and formulaic. As a child I truly enjoyed finding a character I could relate to, or be move by, and then looking for other books with that character, or by that author. Some of the ones that stick out are the Black Stallion series, and the Wizard of Oz series which I continued to enjoy and read well beyond Baum's first twelve or so. Since they were still being written in my youth, and I had original copies from my father of the first twenty or so who received them as a child for his birthday, I often asked for them as gifts as well.
  I was dissappointed to learn that the Silver Princess of Oz had gone out of print and continued to look for it in used book stores until well into my thirties. To have read all but the Silver Princess seemed a terrible disappointment to me. As an adult I like it when an author continues to write more about a character(s). It's like going home for me. I, like the children, can't wait for the next Harry Potter book to come out.
  I've asked almost all the librarians I've worked with and almost every librarian, really almost every person I've asked, has fond memories of some series they read as a child. This includes the very good readers who were always at the top of the class and more reluctant readers. I believe it is often a series book that helps a non-reader decide they are a reader - because they continue to want to read more about a character they like and then realize all of a sudden that they read half a dozen books or so and so they really are a reader. This happened the other year with one of my college age engineering students who was working in my library. She often looked bored but won't take me up on any suggestions and claimed she never read, not even as a child. However after I tole her I was laughing out loud in the student center while reading Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, I got her intrigued and she actually agreed to try the book. Then she continued on with Louise Rennison's series and eagerly
 awaited the next one, as I did. I then suggested some of Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small and she read all of them and went on to other series by Tamora Pierce. I don't think she will every become a heavy reader, however I don't find her bored anymore at work and she always has a book in basket to read when she has a quiet moment. (I work in a very small library). And she just informed me that her first child might be named after one of the characters (Allana - although I'm not sure if this is the correct spelling) in a Tamora Pierce book. I think it was the series notion that hooked her. She felt safe going back to familiar characters. The same for children, and for all of us. When we open a book we are venturing into unfamiliar territory. The world is sometimes more enjoyable when it is more predictable.
  Another thing this brings to mind is when a friend once asked me why doesn't the library buy what children want to read? They are spending thousands on Newbury books that often sit on the shelf and Captain Underpants or Lemony Snicket are flying off the shelves but her local library wasn't purchasing them. Series fiction do eat up a lot of one's budget in a library but it simply brings us back to that age old question - Do we buy what the public wants? or Do we play the role of an educator and steer them to what is good for them? I ask, don't people normally desire both? There were, and are, series books I never liked. I read some Nancy Drew but didn't seem to enjoy it as much as my friends. Sometimes I couldn't get even manage to read one book in the series. I read the Tarzen series one year when I was sick because it was laying around my house (from my Dad's childhood again) but I didn't recommend it to my friends because I didn't think they would enjoy it although I did. The longer I am a libra rian the more I suggest series fiction to children, the more I listen to what they like (often series fiction) and the more I wonder why I used to think that series fiction was "bad' for children. Television is not usually the same quality as movies, but I find I can enjoy both. Why not Newbury's and Nancy Drew. Both I think enrich our lives.

Regina Pauly Instructional Materials Laboratory University of Wisconsin - Platteville paulyr at uwplatt.edu
Received on Wed 30 Nov 2005 05:01:36 PM CST