CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] Octavian
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Angelica Carpenter <angelica>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:11:56 -0800
Dear all,
I agree with Jerry Griswold, who wrote in the November 9 New York Times Book Review: ". . . I believe "Octavian Nothing" will someday be recognized as a novel of the first rank, the kind of monumental work Italo Calvino called
'encyclopedic' in the way it sweeps up history into a comprehensive and deeply textured pattern."
But more than that, I thought it was a terrific read, especially the first volume. I could not put it down. When I finished it, I could not get it out of my head. It was deeply disturbing. I wrote a fan letter to M.T. Anderson. I told him that the dumbing down of Octavian's curriculum reminded me of the dumbing down of American children's reading via No Child Left Behind, Reading First, Accelerated Reader and other despicable programs. In some extreme applications of these quantitative methods, trade books are banned from classrooms and children are allowed to read only their readers and phonics workbooks. These rules are applied primarily to poor children, often children of color.
He wrote back, on a Nancy Drew postcard, "I did indeed think of standardized testing as I wrote Octavian, though of course I was trying to remain true to the intellectual milieu of the 18th century."
Later I was privileged later to hear his impassioned speech as he accepted a Printz honor award for this first volume. "People are still in slavery today," he told us. "History is now."
Then he told a story about students being tested in a Boston inner-city school, where his friend teaches. On the day of the Big Test, he said, four people were shot near the school. The children heard the gunfire. They had to exit through police tape. As the teachers received instructions for a lockdown, they were also warned not to let the shootings affect the test.
How could anyone compare those scores, he asked, to those of students taking the same test in a wealthy suburb? To even things up, he suggested firing off a couple of rounds over the rich kids' heads. "Then let them take the test!" he said.
But even if I had never heard of high stakes testing, I'm sure that I would have considered The Pox Party to be one of the best novels I ever read and I know that I would have enjoyed it as a teenager, too. I trust that there are sophisticated teen readers out there who are enjoying (if that's the right word) it now.
Best wishes,
Angelica Carpenter, Curator
Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature
California State University, Fresno
Received on Fri 21 Nov 2008 04:11:56 PM CST
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:11:56 -0800
Dear all,
I agree with Jerry Griswold, who wrote in the November 9 New York Times Book Review: ". . . I believe "Octavian Nothing" will someday be recognized as a novel of the first rank, the kind of monumental work Italo Calvino called
'encyclopedic' in the way it sweeps up history into a comprehensive and deeply textured pattern."
But more than that, I thought it was a terrific read, especially the first volume. I could not put it down. When I finished it, I could not get it out of my head. It was deeply disturbing. I wrote a fan letter to M.T. Anderson. I told him that the dumbing down of Octavian's curriculum reminded me of the dumbing down of American children's reading via No Child Left Behind, Reading First, Accelerated Reader and other despicable programs. In some extreme applications of these quantitative methods, trade books are banned from classrooms and children are allowed to read only their readers and phonics workbooks. These rules are applied primarily to poor children, often children of color.
He wrote back, on a Nancy Drew postcard, "I did indeed think of standardized testing as I wrote Octavian, though of course I was trying to remain true to the intellectual milieu of the 18th century."
Later I was privileged later to hear his impassioned speech as he accepted a Printz honor award for this first volume. "People are still in slavery today," he told us. "History is now."
Then he told a story about students being tested in a Boston inner-city school, where his friend teaches. On the day of the Big Test, he said, four people were shot near the school. The children heard the gunfire. They had to exit through police tape. As the teachers received instructions for a lockdown, they were also warned not to let the shootings affect the test.
How could anyone compare those scores, he asked, to those of students taking the same test in a wealthy suburb? To even things up, he suggested firing off a couple of rounds over the rich kids' heads. "Then let them take the test!" he said.
But even if I had never heard of high stakes testing, I'm sure that I would have considered The Pox Party to be one of the best novels I ever read and I know that I would have enjoyed it as a teenager, too. I trust that there are sophisticated teen readers out there who are enjoying (if that's the right word) it now.
Best wishes,
Angelica Carpenter, Curator
Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature
California State University, Fresno
Received on Fri 21 Nov 2008 04:11:56 PM CST
