Age ranging part 4

The Education Librarians' Group (ELG) has come out against the idea of age guidance being printed on children's books. ELG chair Lucy Gildersleeves has made the following statement:

"We appreciate that some adults who wish to choose material for a child may be grateful for the guidance. We feel, however, that retailers already do a sufficient job of this kind of age banding via their shelf displays and that there are many suitable review guides which can offer advice for teachers.

It is ELG's opinion that such banding could easily embarrass and discourage readers who find their level is 'below' the indicated age - and equally it could hold back confident readers 'above' the level. We are familiar with the parental perception that "you can't read that because it's for older children". It is much more important that the needs and tastes of the individual child be considered - in libraries, in bookshops and by teachers - in line with the present educational commitment to a personalised approach, than applying a banding system that will either necessarily be too rigid or will have to be so encompassing to be too vague to be of any point.

We feel that publishers have experimented with this kind of banding in the past (and recall frustration at the time with what felt to us as readers 'wrong' targeting) and note that publishers dropped this attempt. We do not see the need to reintroduce it now, and that publishers seem to be confused about what they are really trying to achieve here."

You can also read the views of award-winning author Nicola Morgan on the BooksfromScotland.com website. She too is against age-ranging for many of the reasons outlined above, and thinks it's all just to make it easier for supermarkets to sell books. She gives some helpful suggestions for people who might not know how to choose books for children. Basically, go to a proper bookshop where there are staff trained to advise you. (Or of course, ask a librarian).

Child Education PLUS

Literature-related activities for 4-7s in the November issue:

Baddies strike back! The wolves and trolls in Storyland have had enough of being portrayed as the bad guys. Clare Bevan tells the real fairy tales - lots of ideas for turning the old versions on their heads. As well as the article, there is supporting material to download from the Child Education PLUS website. (The theme is continued in an art project to make a troll's bridge and in the book reviews page which features "ferocious fairytale fiends".)

Halloween. Primary school teacher Amy Arnold describes how she based her Halloween activities on Helen Nicoll's Meg and Mog books and Julia Donaldson's Room on the broom. Her class was excited to learn that Meg and Mog were going to move in with them and so the children needed to build them a house. This stimulated their reading and writing (sending letters to Meg and Mog) and their creativity in designing the house.

Poetry. Brenda Williams starts a series of poetry units for year 1 with Using the senses.

Favourite books. Caroline Sanderson writes about The growing story. Originally written by Ruth Krauss in 1947, this has been brought up to date with illustrations by Helen Oxenbury. It tells the story of a year in the life of one small boy.

Start with a story. Jayne Gould suggests activities based on Julia Donaldson's The magic paintbrush. This helps children learn about China.

All the books mentioned are available in Jordanhill Library.

Journal round up

Sometimes children's book articles can be found in places other than the usual children's literature publications - here are a few from journals that have recently been added to stock:

BILINGUALISM

Ma, J. (2008). “Reading the word and the world” – how mind and culture are mediated through the use of dual-language storybooks. Education 3-13, 36(3), pp. 237-251.

KITAMURA, Satoshi

Kitamura, S. (2008). My places. Teaching Geography, 33(3), pp.148-149.
Author of picture books such as When sheep cannot sleep looks back at the places that have shaped his life.

TEENAGE NOVELS

Glenn, W. (2008). Gossiping girls, insider boys, A-list achievement : examining and exposing young adult novels consumed by conspicuous consumption. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(1), pp. 34-42.

Paul Bajoria and Debi Gliori

There were interesting articles on these two authors in last Saturday's (Glasgow) Herald. However, they were in the arts supplement which doesn't seem to be available online so I've put them in Jordanhil Library's cuttings file (no 1175).

Bajoria, author of the Printer's Devil trilogy, was writing about the attraction of sequels and how, while developing his characters, he became interested in his own family history. I didn't know these books at all - Mog and Nick are orphans who befriend one another in the London of the Bow Street Runners and public hangings, and it's only towards the end of the first book that they discover they are actually siblings. I've now ordered all three titles for the library.

Debi Gliori is much more familiar - we have all her books. This article deals with her latest, The Trouble with Dragons, an environmental parable which treads the line between conveying danger and offering hope.

Scottish Book Trust

The latest edition of the Scottish Book Trust email newsletter came out recently. They've added some audio content to their Royal Mail Awards site by recording Bunker 10 author J. A. Henderson's recent session for 12-16 year olds at their North Ayrshire event. You can listen to his full session and hear Garnock Academy pupils talking about their responses, as well as listen to an in-depth interview with Henderson himself. October's Book of the Month is Mike Nicholson's Grimm - if you have the misfortune to spend a night at Hotel Grimm, it may be the last night you spend anywhere! Or so the residents of Aberfintry believe. From its vantage point high above the town, the hotel has long been the source of dead guests and ghost stories. They have a competition to win a copy of the book which closes on 31st October.

Word Pool

Word Pool is a useful children's literature site for parents, teachers and writers. You can also sign up for their newsletter - the latest edition came through at the end of September and included, for example, news about new novelty books, a book on signing with babies, and the latest Terry Pratchett.

Junior Education PLUS October 08.

The latest edition of this magazine for teaching 7-11s has a few literature related articles. On page 11, you can find ideas for the National Year of Reading's October theme, Word of mouth. Huw Thomas writes about literary activities using Tom Becker's Darkside and its follow-ups, Lifeblood and Nightrap, on pages 20-21. These books are set in a mysterious other world hidden within contemporary London where the main characters, Ricky and Jonathan, encounter all sorts of devilsome villains. Finally, the review section on pages 58-59 features a selection of spooky reads.