Madame Pince and the School Library

For libraries and librarians just west of Hogwarts

Book Reviews

October 15, 2012

In 2005, I was offered the chance to teach children’s literature for grades PreK through 3 in the library and information science department of a university.  For the text, I chose Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature in the Elementary School , 8th edition.

Children’s literature is a funny thing, not of the least of it because children and their reading can’t be tightly defined any more than adult reading.  Using the text to teach my class reminded me of some of the books I had enjoyed during my own trek through school and it showed me how many children’s books had swept past me during the years that I spent in advertising when my reading focused on the likes of Margaret Atwood, John Dos Passos, and Henry James.

This year I have to pick three goals for my evaluation process and for one of my goals, I decided to take the text book (now in its 10th edition) and write reviews of the books, sort of like the Julie/Julia Project.  To step up my project, I decided to use the template that I require students use when they write reviews for my class.  I may regret that. The other problem, of couse, is that some books will be out of print.  I might be able to find some; after all I do work in libraries.  Others may be so obscure or controversial that my local libraries avoided them.  Those will probably be my favorites.

I am looking forward to this challenge.  I have to admit there are holes in my reading history that’d I’d like to fill.  However, I am not looking forward to my 5th attempt at getting through “The Hobbit.” I can never get past those nasty, hairy feet.  Maybe I should look into an audio version of the book.  (I didn’t say “reading” was merely visual.)

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