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Reading Rockets' children's literature expert, Maria Salvadore, brings you into her world as she explores the best ways to use kids' books both inside — and outside — of the classroom.
One child's Newbery goal
As I've already written, I was a member of the 2010 Newbery Selection Committee. This award has been given annually since 1922 to the "most distinguished American children's book published the previous year."
Anyway, because I was one of the 15 Newbery Committee members, this Spring I will have the honor of meeting a very special reader.
Laura is 4th grader from Indiana who has set a goal for herself: to read all of the Newbery Medalists. By my math, there have been 88 winners since the start. Not only is that a lot of books, a lot of them are very long and quite different than books written more recently.
Times change, tastes change, and some say children change (I'm not so sure about that but that's another conversation). It is true, however, that while there is a lot more competing for young people's time and attention, adults remain influential.
Laura is reading all of the Newbery books because her mom read them all when she was in middle school. But, as Laura says, (pardon me Laura's mom!) that was a long time ago and the list is now longer — and back then, middle school started in 7th grade!
I didn't touch some of the Newbery winning books until I was an adult (way past 7th grade!) and still struggled with some, but loved others. Laura's insight (noted on her blog) has inspired me reread and rethink some of the earlier winners.
I hope that Laura will revisit some of these books in a few years to decide if she thinks they hold up, if they're still gripping adventures, and if she'd continue to recommend them — if she thinks that they are indeed "distinguished."
But as a member of the 2010 Newbery Committee, I'm pleased that she likes When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb/Random). That distinguishes the committee's work.
Maria,
Thank you for writing about Laura. I plan to share her blog with my students. As you know, we had a reading contest last Spring called the "Caldecott Challenge." Of the 47 students who participated over 700 books were read! Please say "hello" to her from our St. Mark's students!
It just thrills me to see her enthusiasm. How can we capture that? What advice can she give us to encourage other students to follow her lead?
Posted by: chorkie | January 27, 2010 10:36 AMI have always love to read, even before I could read I liked to be read to. I think there are lots of ways kids can get excited about reading. I, like many of my friends, love contests and chances to compete in challenges so I think it would be nice to have more ways to “win” at reading. Not every kid is going to win at sports but every kid can win at reading. I also notice that the reading program in the summer at my library gets more kids to read than during the school year (prizes seem to work). I also think it would be great if kids who are big readers were a part of the selection process for the big book awards. Then you would have kids who were “out in a big way” showing other kids how exciting books are. Also, kids would compete to read enough to participate. I saw that the author of Bridge to Terabithia, is the “ambassador” for children’s literature. It is really cool that there is an ambassador, but maybe they should have kids ambassadors too (probably need a girl and a boy) that way kids would hear from other kids about reading. I also notice that there are not many chances for kids who read TONS to talk to each other. Most people think I’m homeschooled because I read this much but, I’m not so, there are lots of kids reading all the time! Thanks for writing about me and visiting my blog. I am almost done with my Newbery goal and already have a list of “what to read next”! And because most of you are, I just wanted to say I LOVE librarians and teachers!
Posted by: Laura | January 27, 2010 06:57 PMThanks, Laura. I think you've made some good suggestions.....I'm going to share them!
Posted by: Maria | January 29, 2010 09:34 AMMany thanks to Maria for her tireless efforts on behalf of children and good literature and for telling us all about Laura, her goal and her fabulous suggestions. As some of you may know, in addition to being a member of the 2010 Newbery Committee (and almost every library and children's literature committee you can think of), Maria was also part of the very first Selection Committee for the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Maria, together with a brilliant group of people recommended that the inaugural post be granted to the wonderful Jon Scieszka, who just recently passed the torch to his fantastic successor, Katherine Paterson. It sounds to me as though Maria and Laura are onto something here - the National Ambassador program is ever-evolving and we just might find a place for ambassadors-in-training or youth ambassadors one of these days. I also want to take this opportunity to make sure Laura knows that on March 15, voting will open at BookWeekOnline.com for the third annual Children's Choice Book Awards, the only national child-driven awards program for books (even the finalists for this program are selected by children and teens). This program gives big readers like Laura a chance to be part of the selection process and part of the fun. Keep up the great work everyone!
Posted by: Robin Adelson, Children's Book Council/Every Child a Reader | January 29, 2010 06:00 PM
Comments
Thank you for sharing this with us! I look forward to reading what Laura has written.
Posted by: Linnea Hendrickson | January 26, 2010 02:16 PM