YLG Conference

I went to a conference today for librarians and the focus was on phonics and how children learn to read. The speaker emphasized the need for children to understand what they are reading (not just what individual words mean but what the whole story is about) and enjoy reading. I think what we do as librarians is very important to this goal because by reading to children from a young age and modeling reading aloud for parents we are enabling children to understand and enjoy stories. So, once they start reading on their own maybe that part can come more naturally.

May I say this is why I am not the biggest fan of things like Lexile, because as far as I can tell, the difficulty of the books is calculated only based on how hard the text is to decode. The maturity level of the story and how much it might appeal to a certain age group is not considered at all.

The speaker said that there is no such thing as a book that is too easy, but there are books that are too difficult. Now I have been frustrated when I have seen grade school children flying through board books trying to "cheat" at summer reading. But for a child who is genuinely interested in a book that could be considered below his reading level, if he is going to get something out of it, yeah, what's the harm?

Teen Book Discussion Group

Yesterday Tessa and I headed into the city for lunch and some light shopping before I hiked over to County Hall to catch another ride to a book discussion group.

This time, the group was attended by librarians who work in the high schools. They read a list of teen books and also collected reviews from students who read the books. One of them was Just Henry (which I read and reviewed) and another was Kiki Strike (which I am currently reading and will review when I finish).

The dubious scheme for teaching children to read came up in this group also. This time I grabbed my pen: the Ruth Miskin Literacy Programme. Since these librarians only work with high schoolers, any students they encounter who aren't strong readers need serious help. But again, there was some doubt as to whether Ruth Miskin could help them. They seem to especially dislike the fact that her program is exclusive. The child is not suposed to read anything else while on it. And schools have to purchase the program as a complete package, they can not just take the pieces of it that they like.

I learned that school librarians here are hesitant to allow a student to check out a book the librarian believes to be on too high a maturity level. They fear backlash from parents and sometimes ask for a note before allowing a book to go home with a student. They did ask me how librarians handle this in the U.S. and I explained that if the book is in the library, the student is allowed to check it out. If a parent doesn't want their child to read a certain book it is their responsibility to prevent their child from checking it out.

When I returned home John, Tessa, and I took a fun trip to Asda and then ate sushi! Tessa left early this morning, but we will definatly have to visit her and the Cornwallian again before we move back to the States.

KS1 Book Reviews

Our Big Blue Sofa by Tim Hopgood

A brother and sister like to bounce on their big blue sofa and imagine that it is other things, like a big blue car, or hot air balloon.

I love to touch things so the flocked sofa (on every page, as advertised) is pretty neat. The story is simple and fanciful, probably something I would read for story time. In the middle of the children's imaginative play with the sofa there is an interjection about how granny doesn't like it because it is old and hurts her back. This paragraph confused me and I thought it was unnecessary. It makes more sense once you get to the end and the sofa falls apart, but even so, I wouldn't have broken up the flow of the story in this way.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

A bunny demonstrates several ways that a box can be anything but a box, like a robot or space ship.

I have read this book in story time. The story is told through words and pictures which encourages participation. The illustrations are simple with bold colors and thick lines. In every picture you can see the box and how it is not a box. The narrative style is like that of Willems's Pigeon books. The bunny is talking directly to you. I really like this book.

Two Frogs by Chris Wormell

One frog has a stick for defending himself against dogs. The other frog is telling him how unlikely it is that he will encounter a dog in the middle of the lake when they find themselves face to face with some more common frog eaters.

At first I thought this story was going to have some sort of moral, but really it is just a combination of a few strange twists of fate. It is fun and the frogs have some great facial expressions. Each illustration is a two page spread with space left at the bottom for the text.

The Bear in the Cave by Michael Rosen

A bear goes on a sing-song journey from his cave by the sea into the city and back again. The illustrations are two-page spreads with bright colors. The story is sweet and, thanks to the rhythms, one that kids will want to chant along with you.

Kit the Cat by Alison Maloney

Kit the Cat finally flops Flash the Fish out of the pond, only to be foiled by Dig the Dog.

The tongue-twisting rhymes remind me of Dr. Seuss and the illustrations are sassy. I'm not sure I agree with the cat being categorized as the villain, though.

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey

The dish and the spoon run away together and make it big performing but they blow all their money and then get in trouble with a loan shark.

More two page spreads. The illustrations are very busy. The story is cute but I don't think most children would get it.

I went to a discussion group today for "Key Stage One" books. The School Library Service lends books to teachers and then meets with them about every six months to hear what their students thought of them. Unfortunately, when I met the School Library Service people weeks ago, they accidentally gave me the wrong pile of books (there are two Key State One discussion groups), so the only book I read that everyone else had read was The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. They had pretty much the same opinion of it as I did. But I did learn that Mini Grey is a very popular children's author and people who knew her work expected something different.

The teachers got into a lengthy discussion about a reading program that some people are very into here. The books in the program have no pictures and only contain words with the sounds that the child has learned up to that point. I learned on the car ride back that there is pressure on the public libraries to carry these books because parents want their children to learn to read faster. The teachers didn't seem to think much of this system. They believe there is nothing wrong with children using pictures for context clues and that they are more interested in pleasing language and interesting stories.