From: Miriam Lang Budin <miriammeister_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:16:47 -0400

I wonder whether the resurgence of popularity for Goosebumps, Babysitter Club and other series has to do with parents introducing their kids to their old favorites. This would tie in to the lack of disapproval for series reading that I see among many of the parents using our suburban library. They were series readers as children, so they don't worry when their kids are going through the phase.

Apart from the comfort newly competent readers find in barreling through a series, they are also convenient--for readers and parents alike. You know what you like and you know where to find it!

I read plenty of Stratemeyer Syndicate books in my youth: The Happy Hollisters, Nancy Drew, even The Bobbsey Twins--which I didn't like so much, but read if there was nothing else around. Likewise Honey Bunch. What a revolting little girl she was! I must have been desperate for reading matter to spend any time with her...I also read a ton of those Landmark biographies with the silhouette illustrations. I certainly recognized the formulas in the formula fiction, but like KT, I rather rejoiced in their familiarity. It took me quite a while to realize that the Childhood of Famous Americans series wasn't noteworthy nonfiction.

-- Miriam Lang Budin Head of Children's Services Chappaqua Library, NY
Received on Fri 05 Aug 2011 12:16:47 PM CDT