3. What Makes a Good Children’s Book?
literature for children
A good book latches onto a child and
won’t let go. What a child needs is to
be exposed to the pleasures of reading
and to have access to a large collection
of books from which to choose when
the child is ready to read. What a child
does not need is to be pushed into
reading or to have an adult force a
child to read a certain book by
insisting that it is a good book.
• literature for children. Britannica Student Encyclopedia.
Retrieved November 29, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica.
<http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-203946/literature-for-
children>
4. What makes an effective children’s book?
Depends on the particular book in question
A story picture book should have all the
elements of story, engaging writing, a hero who
grows and changes, and the best fit art for the
protagonist and tale.
A concept book should convey the concept (be
it, say, alphabet, numbers, colors) in a clear and
Children's engaging manner, one that will engage young
author Cynthia
minds.
Leitich Smith
Humorous books should be funny. Adventure
books suspenseful and exciting. Mysteries
intriguing. Fantasies imaginative. Gothics
scary.
• http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2004/11/effective-
aspects.html
5. More from Cynthia Leitich Smith
A good book should be the best book it
can be
A children’s novel must do all that an adult
novel does, but the hero and sensibility is that
of a younger person. They are generally a bit
leaner, though, less self-indulgent on the part of
the author. The audience tends to have a
shorter attention span.
No kid reads a book because of what the New
York Times has to say. To them, it must sing.
Basically, a good book should be the best book
it can be, in whatever manifestation fits best for
its unique nature.
• Effective aspects
6. What Makes a Good Children’s Book?
A good children’s book:
Stimulates the imagination
Has fun language, rhythm, rhyme, and
patterns
Has big, clear print, and pictures
Is developmentally appropriate
Keeps a child’s attention
Gets children involved with the story
Has sensory appeal
• No longer available on the web—was part of a project from
Canadian Kingston Literacy and Skills
7. What about books for young adults?
Former English professor Don Gallo:
―Good young adult books deal honestly
and openly with teenage issues and
problems‖
The best novels for teens, he
believes, are well written, yet less
complex than the famous classics
Short stories, too, are successful at
addressing popular themes such as
multiculturalism and character
development.
• In the Interest of Teenagers
8. Helping Children Choose Books
The Goldilocks Strategy
―Just right‖ books are ones where the child
understands what the author is trying to
communicate and has only one or two words per
page that he does not know. ―Too easy‖ books
are old favorites that a child likes to read for fun
and understands what is going to happen next.
In determining the category in which to place a
book, have children read three or four
pages, count (on their fingers if necessary) the
words they don’t know, and ask themselves if
they really understand what is happening in the
story or text.
– by Dr. Wayne D. Lance. Reprinted from the July 1992 issue
of Parents Teaching Overseas.
10. Why NOT have classroom libraries?
Books become restricted in their availability
. . . when we look at the big picture -- the needs of the
whole school -- it is obvious today’s limited funds must
be spent for the global good of all. A centralized
collection is the most economically viable solution to the
heavy demands for learning resources in today's
classrooms.
Books are only inanimate objects until their potential
for learning is utilized by a teacher or teacher-librarian.
If a book is perceived to be of use with only one student,
in a particular grade, at a certain time of the year, to
meet a specific need, then the potential of that book is
being wasted. I have seen teachers put books away in a
box until next year when they do the same theme again.
• Amey, L. (1995, May). ―The classroom library: Are we
returning to the 1950s, or developing better collaboration?‖
Emergency Librarian, 22(5), 65.
11. Solution? Compromise!
Classroom libraries have undoubted
advantages in promoting reading and love of
reading
You can share your library with others in the
school by keeping track of your classroom
collection using a spreadsheet or database
manager, and then share that list
Two options for tracking your collection are
creating a spreadsheet of your entire collection
using Microsoft Excel or cataloging your books
using LibraryThing.com.
See Classroom Libraries on
The School Library Handbook about
how to organize your collection!
12. Are there problems in selection?
What do we do about “difficult”
books?
What about books like the
2007 Newbery Medal winner,
The Higher Power of Lucky?
What about books like the Harry Potter
series?
13. A Philosophical Question
Is Selection a Form of Censorship?
Do public libraries attempt to supervise the
tastes of their readers by making it a fixed
policy not to buy ―objectionable‖ books? It is a
simple expedient and has often been applied.
The public librarian often has the plausible
excuse that as the funds of a library are
limited, he must pick and choose, and naturally
the more ―wholesome‖ books are to be
preferred. He insists that he is exercising not
censorship but the prerogative of free selection.
• Morris L. Ernst and William Seagle, To the Pure . . . A Study
of Obscenity and the Censor cited in Lester Asheim, Not
Censorship But Selection , first published in the Wilson
Library Bulletin, 28 (September 1953), 63-67.
14. Or, My Weird School
Exchange on listserv LM_Net:
Original Request Sun 11/29/2009 8:18 PM : Hello all, Has
anyone had a challenge or any parent complaints about
the My Weird School series by Dan Gutman? I have the
unusual situation of having one parent wanting the series
removed and another parent wanting them to remain.
Any help or comments would be appreciated. I’m in a K-3
school.
Reply Sun 11/29/2009 8:57 PM: One idea to help all[a]y the
fears of the parent wanting to remove the books, might be
to show the author's web page:
http://www.dangutman.com/ Perhaps if they knew a little
more about the author and the award winning books
they’ve done, it might give them a different perspective.
Gutman mentions the series was inspired by his daughter
and one of his goals as an author is to get kids to read. For
reluctant readers, they are pretty engaging.
15. What about self-censorship?
A dirty little secret?
Self-censorship. It’s a dirty
secret that no one in the
profession wants to talk
about or admit practicing.
Yet everyone knows some librarians bypass
good books—those with literary merit or that
fill a need in their collections. The reasons
range from a book’s sexual content and gay
themes to its language and violence—and it
happens in more public and K–12 libraries
than you think.
• Self-censorship is rampant and lethal, by Debra Lau Whelan --
School Library Journal, 02/01/2009
16. Is self-censorship a problem?
A Study of Self-Censorship by School
Librarians
Four factors were associated with self-censoring
practices: (1) being of the age 60–69, (2) holding no
formal collegiate education degree (BSE or
MS/MSE) with library media certification or
licensure, (3) being at the secondary level school
library, and (4) having 15 or fewer years of
educational experience.
Just over half of respondents who were 60–69 had a
mean score greater than 85. It does not indicate that
most school librarians over the age of 60 practice
self-censorship during the selection process.
• Wendy Rickman in School Library Media Research, Volume 13
(2010)
17. Self-censorship by teachers?
Open question: Self-censorship in the
classroom
How far should a teacher, especially a new
teacher without tenure, go to limit the
availability of books in their own classroom
library? (I’m not even raising the question of
required material at this point, just what
students could have access to in the classroom
either for personal reading or for reading
assignments where students can choose what
they read.)
• Posted by The Christian Cynic July 5, 2009.
18. What about swear words?
The curse of swearing in children’s books
Swearing in children’s books, and even in
books for teenagers, used to be pure anathema.
Publishers are in general more likely now to
choose inaction over excision, secure in the
knowledge that great querulous waves are
unlikely to result from a single rude word, or
even a plethora of the same, providing it reads
as ―appropriate‖ rather than ―gratuitous‖. It’s
probably easier to get away with a cuss word in
a children's book than it is on the news.
19. Need for policies & procedures
What are policies and procedures?
Policies explain why the collection exists
and what will be in it. A policy tends to
address ideals and generalities.
Procedures explain how the policy will
be implemented and who will be
involved with the implementation. A
procedure should be concrete and
specific.
• Information Access & Delivery: Policies and
Procedures
20. Do policies really make a difference?
Without a policy you may face some of
the situations:
You are open to book censors.
You may be cited on copyright
infringement lawsuits.
You could be accused of being biased in
selection.
• Information Access & Delivery: Policies and
Procedures
21. Importance of a Selection Policy
Why do I need a policy?
haphazard patterns of acquisition will
result in waste because some—perhaps
many—materials will overlap in
content, or will be unrelated to changing
patterns of instruction
when there are complaints about . . .
fiction in the English class, the use of the
―objectionable‖ item can be explained
more easily
• ALA Workbook for Selection Policy Writing
22. Typical content
A good policy on the selection of
instructional materials will
include basic sections on
objectives, responsibility, criteria, proced
ures for selection, reconsideration of
materials, and policies on controversial
materials.
Your policy should state succinctly what
your system is trying to accomplish in its
educational program, and, in somewhat
more detail, the objectives of selection.
• ALA Workbook for Selection Policy Writing
23. Contents of a selection policy
selection criteria
The set of standards used by librarians to
decide whether an item should be added to the
collection, which normally includes a list of
subjects or fields to be covered, levels of
specialization, editions, currency, languages, an
d formats (large
print, nonprint, abridgments, etc.). Selection
criteria usually reflect the library's mission and
the information needs of its clientele, but
selection decisions are also influenced by
budgetary constraints and qualitative
evaluation in the form of
reviews, recommended core lists, and other
selection tools.
24. Word of warning
Know thyself!
Professionals should, as Bishop (2007)
states, ―be aware of their own biases and
preferences so that personal prejudices
do not inadvertently affect selection
decisions‖ (170).
• Wendy Rickman (2010, Fall), A Study of Self-
Censorship by School Librarians, School Library
Media Research, 13.
• Citation is from Bishop, K. (2007). The collection
program in schools: Concepts, practices, and
information sources. Westport, Conn.: Libraries
Unlimited.
