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[CCBC-Net] Do You Want a Story With That?
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:08:18 -0500
Thank you for your thoughtful and thought-provoking posts on literature about immigrants and immigration. The discussion reminds me of the importance of constructive conversations and criticism, which allow us all to keep our hearts and minds open to learning.
It's time now to turn our attention to the topic for the second part of May: Literature for Youth as the Medium for a Message, or Do You Want a Story with That?
Some books published for children and teenagers appear so intent on teaching a lesson or conveying a message that any understanding of the child audience, and what makes a good book for children, seems absent. Other books are more skillful at offering ideas, insights, or points of view in the context of a compelling, and often highly literary, story or narrative.
And of course, whether a book succeeds or fails at either is a matter of opinion rather than fact.
On the one hand, this feels like a nebulous topic to frame--one might argue that almost every good book for children offers them the opportunity to learn and contemplate. As a starting point, let's begin with books in what that intent is obvious.
I'll share on example--a book that I particularly appreciated last year: Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and the Librarian Who Made a Difference. Something author Joanne Oppenheim states outright in her narrative is her desire to expose the "government doublespeak" that surrounded the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Thus, she uses the word "incarceration" rather than "internment" and otherwise exposes the way language, as one example, was used to try to mask/minmize the reality of what was being done. I liked that she was up front in her intent to do this, and I found it a powerful component of the book.
Megan
Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:08:18 -0500
Thank you for your thoughtful and thought-provoking posts on literature about immigrants and immigration. The discussion reminds me of the importance of constructive conversations and criticism, which allow us all to keep our hearts and minds open to learning.
It's time now to turn our attention to the topic for the second part of May: Literature for Youth as the Medium for a Message, or Do You Want a Story with That?
Some books published for children and teenagers appear so intent on teaching a lesson or conveying a message that any understanding of the child audience, and what makes a good book for children, seems absent. Other books are more skillful at offering ideas, insights, or points of view in the context of a compelling, and often highly literary, story or narrative.
And of course, whether a book succeeds or fails at either is a matter of opinion rather than fact.
On the one hand, this feels like a nebulous topic to frame--one might argue that almost every good book for children offers them the opportunity to learn and contemplate. As a starting point, let's begin with books in what that intent is obvious.
I'll share on example--a book that I particularly appreciated last year: Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and the Librarian Who Made a Difference. Something author Joanne Oppenheim states outright in her narrative is her desire to expose the "government doublespeak" that surrounded the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Thus, she uses the word "incarceration" rather than "internment" and otherwise exposes the way language, as one example, was used to try to mask/minmize the reality of what was being done. I liked that she was up front in her intent to do this, and I found it a powerful component of the book.
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608-262-9503 608-262-4933 (fax) schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Received on Fri 18 May 2007 02:08:18 PM CDT
