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RE: series books
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From: Visser-Knoth, Maeve <visser-knoth_at_smcl.org>
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:13:15 +0000
Per KT's question about kids negotiating with their parents to read series books, I see different interactions depending on the type of series. Many p arents have absolutely no problem with their kids reading series books that the parents consider "quality" and that seems to be defined as "books that were around when was a kid". So Boxcar Children would be a yes, but Geron imo Stilton or My Weird School might be something a kid would have to beg f or. Certainly I watch kids trade with each other and share their series boo ks because no one can own enough and the books just don't stay on the libra ry shelves as full sets. Book 27 is never in when you want it.
More often than not, I see parents encouraging series reading and teachers discouraging it. Teachers seem to worry about a student getting stuck in a rut and not stretching herself more often than parents do.
Would you all consider the Little House books a series in the way that Anim orphs are a series? Would you shelve Wilder with the series books? I just c ame back from a vacation with extended family and my neices (ages 5 and 7) had just finished up a year of family read-aloud of the Wilder books. Their days were filled with playing "Laura and Ma". I could get them to do absol utely anything I needed if I couched it in terms of the Little House Books. "You girls can share a towel tonight. We don't need to get another towel d irty. Laura always shared with her sisters."
Maeve
Maeve Visser Knoth Youth Services Librarian San Mateo County Lirary Atherton Library 2 Dinkelspiel Stations Lane Atherton, Ca 94027 650-328-2422
________________________________________
From: CCBC Network digest
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2011 10:09 PM To: ccbc-net digest recipients Subject: ccbc-net digest: August 06, 2011
CCBC-NET Digest for Saturday, August 06, 2011.
1. A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts 2. Re: Popular Series Fiction 3. Series (formula and literary) and familiarity 4. A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts 5. Re: Popular Series Fiction 6. RE: Prejudice against series
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts From: john coy Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 07:16:49 -0500 X-Message-Number: 1
Thank you to everyone for the interesting thoughts on why so many people are enjoying reading one series after another. I want to pick up on Monica's point below.
On Aug 6, 2011, at 12:09 AM, CCBC Network digest wrote:
Thirdly, I think there is a better understanding of emerging readers need for familiarity. I have always felt that those just becoming independent readers find series comforting. It is way easier to get into a story which has much that you already know --- same names, characters, etc. You
then just need to get into the plot and for a new reader that may be easier.
I'm in the middle of writing a middle-grade series called the 4 for 4 series, which features four fifth-grade friends preparing to move into middle school. The boys play a different sport in each of the four books and the setting is contemporary America. I planned to use the different voice of each boy for the four books, but when I talked to students, I found that they wanted the same narrator for each book in the series. That was very important.
I remember that feeling reading a series that I don't think has been mentioned, THE BOXCAR CHILDREN by Gertrude Chandler. I devoured those books, particularly the ones where the children were in the boxcar in the woods and had not yet been rescued. I liked them so much I wanted to live in a boxcar.
One of the joys of writing a series is continuing to work with the same characters. When a stand-alone book is finished, I keep hearing and thinking about the characters. In a series, it's possible to listen to the voices and keep writing. The first two books in the series, TOP OF THE ORDER and EYES ON THE GOAL, both CCBC Choices, are now out. The third book, LOVE OF THE GAME, comes October 1.
Please check them out and get them into the hands of any youngster who you think will enjoy them.
Thanks, john
www.johncoy.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Popular Series Fiction From: Sheila Welch Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:49:49 -0500 X-Message-Number: 2
Hello,
I remember getting a Happy Hollisters book early in third grade and enjoying it but feeling disappointed in a few more that I read in the series. I also read two or three Trixie Belden and at least the first book in the Boxcar Children series. There were two long series that I read, both by Walter Farley: The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion. My mother told me about the Anne of Green Gables books, but I never could find them in a store or library back in the late 1950s and early 60s. Maybe they were out-of-print during that time period?
Two of our children became fluent readers through series-reading, and before they started reading on their own, I'd read all of Ezra Jack Keats books about Peter and his neighbors to both kids. They were totally engaged in Peter's world and loved the fact that they knew these characters from book to book. Our son discovered Enid Blyton's Secret Seven books at the public library when he was in second or third grade. He read every one he could find and also every Beverly Cleary Ramona book available at that time. Our daughter struggled with reading in first grade but took off when she started listening to recordings of the Frog and Toad series. Now my six-year-old granddaughter is into the American Girl books and has developed a fascination with American history and a sense of time that surprises me. She's also a huge fan of Ramona, and, despite her interest in when things happened, she is not bothered at all by Ramona's extended childhood that spans decades.
Sheila
, 05 Aug 2011 13:42:26 -0500 Greg Leitich Smith writes: When I was a kid (ca 2d-3d grade), my brother and I absolutely loved THE THREE INVESTIGATORS series. So much so that we were a little baffled at how kids could actually "get into" THE HARDY BOYS (although we -- or at least, I -- read those, too). TTI resonated with me, I think, because they were pre-drivers license kids: they had to do what they could with bikes and other bits of ingenuity of their own. The Hardy Boys, of course, were 17 and 18 and had cars and a father who was a cop...
I also enjoyed the DANNY DUNN series -- sort of light science fiction adventures. I never read them all, but always enjoyed the ones I did read. Some of them felt dated, even at the time, but I was willing to live with that :-).
More recently, I've enjoyed ANIMORPHS (which I understand is being reissued). They're sort of fun and have a really disturbing villain and premise, too, when you think about it...
I haven't read CIRQUE DU FREAK, but thought the movie was pretty good... Greg http://www.gregleitichsmith.com
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:13:15 +0000
Per KT's question about kids negotiating with their parents to read series books, I see different interactions depending on the type of series. Many p arents have absolutely no problem with their kids reading series books that the parents consider "quality" and that seems to be defined as "books that were around when was a kid". So Boxcar Children would be a yes, but Geron imo Stilton or My Weird School might be something a kid would have to beg f or. Certainly I watch kids trade with each other and share their series boo ks because no one can own enough and the books just don't stay on the libra ry shelves as full sets. Book 27 is never in when you want it.
More often than not, I see parents encouraging series reading and teachers discouraging it. Teachers seem to worry about a student getting stuck in a rut and not stretching herself more often than parents do.
Would you all consider the Little House books a series in the way that Anim orphs are a series? Would you shelve Wilder with the series books? I just c ame back from a vacation with extended family and my neices (ages 5 and 7) had just finished up a year of family read-aloud of the Wilder books. Their days were filled with playing "Laura and Ma". I could get them to do absol utely anything I needed if I couched it in terms of the Little House Books. "You girls can share a towel tonight. We don't need to get another towel d irty. Laura always shared with her sisters."
Maeve
Maeve Visser Knoth Youth Services Librarian San Mateo County Lirary Atherton Library 2 Dinkelspiel Stations Lane Atherton, Ca 94027 650-328-2422
________________________________________
From: CCBC Network digest
Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2011 10:09 PM To: ccbc-net digest recipients Subject: ccbc-net digest: August 06, 2011
CCBC-NET Digest for Saturday, August 06, 2011.
1. A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts 2. Re: Popular Series Fiction 3. Series (formula and literary) and familiarity 4. A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts 5. Re: Popular Series Fiction 6. RE: Prejudice against series
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: A Series of Interesting Series Thoughts From: john coy Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 07:16:49 -0500 X-Message-Number: 1
Thank you to everyone for the interesting thoughts on why so many people are enjoying reading one series after another. I want to pick up on Monica's point below.
On Aug 6, 2011, at 12:09 AM, CCBC Network digest wrote:
Thirdly, I think there is a better understanding of emerging readers need for familiarity. I have always felt that those just becoming independent readers find series comforting. It is way easier to get into a story which has much that you already know --- same names, characters, etc. You
then just need to get into the plot and for a new reader that may be easier.
I'm in the middle of writing a middle-grade series called the 4 for 4 series, which features four fifth-grade friends preparing to move into middle school. The boys play a different sport in each of the four books and the setting is contemporary America. I planned to use the different voice of each boy for the four books, but when I talked to students, I found that they wanted the same narrator for each book in the series. That was very important.
I remember that feeling reading a series that I don't think has been mentioned, THE BOXCAR CHILDREN by Gertrude Chandler. I devoured those books, particularly the ones where the children were in the boxcar in the woods and had not yet been rescued. I liked them so much I wanted to live in a boxcar.
One of the joys of writing a series is continuing to work with the same characters. When a stand-alone book is finished, I keep hearing and thinking about the characters. In a series, it's possible to listen to the voices and keep writing. The first two books in the series, TOP OF THE ORDER and EYES ON THE GOAL, both CCBC Choices, are now out. The third book, LOVE OF THE GAME, comes October 1.
Please check them out and get them into the hands of any youngster who you think will enjoy them.
Thanks, john
www.johncoy.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Popular Series Fiction From: Sheila Welch Date: Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:49:49 -0500 X-Message-Number: 2
Hello,
I remember getting a Happy Hollisters book early in third grade and enjoying it but feeling disappointed in a few more that I read in the series. I also read two or three Trixie Belden and at least the first book in the Boxcar Children series. There were two long series that I read, both by Walter Farley: The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion. My mother told me about the Anne of Green Gables books, but I never could find them in a store or library back in the late 1950s and early 60s. Maybe they were out-of-print during that time period?
Two of our children became fluent readers through series-reading, and before they started reading on their own, I'd read all of Ezra Jack Keats books about Peter and his neighbors to both kids. They were totally engaged in Peter's world and loved the fact that they knew these characters from book to book. Our son discovered Enid Blyton's Secret Seven books at the public library when he was in second or third grade. He read every one he could find and also every Beverly Cleary Ramona book available at that time. Our daughter struggled with reading in first grade but took off when she started listening to recordings of the Frog and Toad series. Now my six-year-old granddaughter is into the American Girl books and has developed a fascination with American history and a sense of time that surprises me. She's also a huge fan of Ramona, and, despite her interest in when things happened, she is not bothered at all by Ramona's extended childhood that spans decades.
Sheila
, 05 Aug 2011 13:42:26 -0500 Greg Leitich Smith writes: When I was a kid (ca 2d-3d grade), my brother and I absolutely loved THE THREE INVESTIGATORS series. So much so that we were a little baffled at how kids could actually "get into" THE HARDY BOYS (although we -- or at least, I -- read those, too). TTI resonated with me, I think, because they were pre-drivers license kids: they had to do what they could with bikes and other bits of ingenuity of their own. The Hardy Boys, of course, were 17 and 18 and had cars and a father who was a cop...
I also enjoyed the DANNY DUNN series -- sort of light science fiction adventures. I never read them all, but always enjoyed the ones I did read. Some of them felt dated, even at the time, but I was willing to live with that :-).
More recently, I've enjoyed ANIMORPHS (which I understand is being reissued). They're sort of fun and have a really disturbing villain and premise, too, when you think about it...
I haven't read CIRQUE DU FREAK, but thought the movie was pretty good... Greg http://www.gregleitichsmith.com
---Received on Mon 08 Aug 2011 05:13:15 PM CDT
