From: Lynn Rutan <lynnrutan>
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 08:34:00 -0400

I've enjoyed the conversation on the Newbery books and thought I would share my experience with one of my favorite Honor books which is The Thief by Megan Whelan Turner. I loved this one from the my first reading and my colleague and I both booktalked this to our middle schoolers. We had modest success with it and I was never very happy with the various booktalks I concocted for it. The kids who would take it, loved it but I had trouble finding the right angle to get more kids to try it. When Queen of Attolia came out, I had a brief flurry of interest from the kids who had loved the first one but even with a better hook ;-) I couldn't seem to generated wider interest. I was really frustrated. And then came the new covers for the books and The King of Attolia. Suddenly the series was the hottest property in my library. I was borrowing from the other middle school but she was borrowing from me and we were both ordering vast numbers of copies to keep up with the demand. My colleague had come up with a new booktalk but we both realized that the kids were picking the books up most often because of the enticing new covers, getting hooked, racing through the series - and even more important, talking about it to their friends. So it was the covers and that glorious word of mouth that was making the difference.

We've all thought about the importance of cover art but this was a clear case of what a difference it can make even for such a fine series as this one. I can't help but wonder what some wonderful new cover art could do for some of our other languishing Newberys.

Some other Honor books have been steadily popular with the middle schoolers in our distrtict. We do booktalk some of them but most of these require little or no help and just keep on circulating. Some of these are:

The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 - Curtis (1996) Ella Enchanted - Levine (1998) Joey Pigza Loses Control - Gantos (2001) Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2001) Hoot - Hiaasen (2003) House of the Scorpion - Farmer (2003) Al Capone Does My Shirts - Choldenko (2005)

Another book that constantly circulates is Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman. We do booktalk it for a historical fiction unit but once the kids read it, they recommend it to each other so there is a steady check-out. Unfortunately they do not like the cover on it at all which makes me sad but I wonder if a different cover would reach out better to today's students?

Another recent phenomenon has been the Shannon Hale books. I simply couldn't move Goose Girl and Enna Burning except for the readers who would read anything I gave them ;-) They loved it but the books mostly sat on the shelf. Then came Princess Academy and we had a flurry of girls try that one and then go back and read all the others. We also had a visit from Shannon Hale and that was a big factor. But again, many many of the girls have said they don't like the covers of the books and I wonder what different cover art would do?

We librarians know that the Newbery books are all about solid quality and so many of them have endured. I am really struck by how visual my students are today and how important the appearance of book is - especially to the browser. As booktalkers we can say, ignore this cover and lots of kids will but it is amazing to me how important that first appearance is to students.

Lynn Rutan Librarian Holland, MI lynnrutan at charter.net
Received on Sat 15 Sep 2007 07:34:00 AM CDT