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[CCBC-Net] tastes in series book
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From: LAURIE DRAUS <DRAUS>
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 09:23:32 -0600
>>> <kimnorman at charter.net> 12/03/05 9:48 AM >>>wrote:
"...force feed them books they consider more worthy. I've always thought this was a good way to teach your children to hate books."
Especially "good" books! My parents were not this way, but some teachers I had were. Some of the books I am least likely today to pick up and read or reread (and I'm a big re-reader) are the books I had to slog through--or some half-hearted facsimile thereof--in school because they were "good for me".
I loved to read old series (and old "stand-alone" books) of my mother's, aunts', etc. Nowadays the "catchy cover" is so tremendously important to kids, but whenever I read something I'd found on an old shelf with a faded cloth cover, I felt like I was secretly accessing some hidden knowledge, a Rosetta Stone or Dead Sea Scroll with "the way things were" in an earlier time hidden inside, casually and undeliberately secreted in minor details about what the characters were eating for breakfast or riding into town, which most likely were as minor and unconsidered an aspect when they were written as "Paula ran through the rain trying not to spill her tray of nachos, as her cell phone rang in her coat pocket," or "After school, Eric checked his email to see if Emily had written back," would be if written by a young writer today.
I liked the Nancy Drews (only the "original" 40-some, thanks) introduced to me by my Aunt Nancy who'd read them when she was young; also the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins; and later things like Meet the Malones. In high school I got into Sherlock Holmes, which are a collection of some book length stories and some short story collections, available in various combinations of all imaginable types. Not sure if that counts as a series (probably of the sequence type if so) but it had many of the hallmarks. I also have a warm spot for Jane Langton's The Diamond in the Window and its sequels ("Hall Family Chronicles")
Haven't seen it mentioned yet--was anyone else a fan of Clifford Hicks funny Alvin Fernald books? Brainy (just ask him) Alvin, his laid-back friend Shoie, and his little sister Daphne, AKA Pest, and their creative, witty, and downright hilarious misadventures--sometimes more "mystery", sometimes just hijinks and problem-solving in a MacGyver/Rube Goldberg free-form way--always put a smile on my face. They don't "sell" well now, but for me they were something special.
Lauri Cahoon-Draus K-12 Library Media Specialist Suring School Libraries draus at suring.k12.wi.us
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.
Received on Mon 05 Dec 2005 09:23:32 AM CST
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 09:23:32 -0600
>>> <kimnorman at charter.net> 12/03/05 9:48 AM >>>wrote:
"...force feed them books they consider more worthy. I've always thought this was a good way to teach your children to hate books."
Especially "good" books! My parents were not this way, but some teachers I had were. Some of the books I am least likely today to pick up and read or reread (and I'm a big re-reader) are the books I had to slog through--or some half-hearted facsimile thereof--in school because they were "good for me".
I loved to read old series (and old "stand-alone" books) of my mother's, aunts', etc. Nowadays the "catchy cover" is so tremendously important to kids, but whenever I read something I'd found on an old shelf with a faded cloth cover, I felt like I was secretly accessing some hidden knowledge, a Rosetta Stone or Dead Sea Scroll with "the way things were" in an earlier time hidden inside, casually and undeliberately secreted in minor details about what the characters were eating for breakfast or riding into town, which most likely were as minor and unconsidered an aspect when they were written as "Paula ran through the rain trying not to spill her tray of nachos, as her cell phone rang in her coat pocket," or "After school, Eric checked his email to see if Emily had written back," would be if written by a young writer today.
I liked the Nancy Drews (only the "original" 40-some, thanks) introduced to me by my Aunt Nancy who'd read them when she was young; also the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins; and later things like Meet the Malones. In high school I got into Sherlock Holmes, which are a collection of some book length stories and some short story collections, available in various combinations of all imaginable types. Not sure if that counts as a series (probably of the sequence type if so) but it had many of the hallmarks. I also have a warm spot for Jane Langton's The Diamond in the Window and its sequels ("Hall Family Chronicles")
Haven't seen it mentioned yet--was anyone else a fan of Clifford Hicks funny Alvin Fernald books? Brainy (just ask him) Alvin, his laid-back friend Shoie, and his little sister Daphne, AKA Pest, and their creative, witty, and downright hilarious misadventures--sometimes more "mystery", sometimes just hijinks and problem-solving in a MacGyver/Rube Goldberg free-form way--always put a smile on my face. They don't "sell" well now, but for me they were something special.
Lauri Cahoon-Draus K-12 Library Media Specialist Suring School Libraries draus at suring.k12.wi.us
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.
Received on Mon 05 Dec 2005 09:23:32 AM CST
