More on Best Book Lists and Diversity (or Lack Thereof)

On Saturday I posted a brief response to the article The 25 Best Picture Books for Children by Diane Petryk-Bloom. The author was kind enough to leave a comment, which I have reprinted here.

There have been some wonderful books written since 1995, of course. But since they haven't stood the test of time, we can't comfortably say they are among the "best."

For instance, a decade ago you might have put Dinotopia there. And now the book has almost faded into oblivion. Why? Don't know. Peter Glassman says that could even happen to Harry Potter. He says that at one time Captains Courageous was as big a phenomenon as Harry Potter is now. And almost no one reads it now.

I think Harry will last. But its too soon to be absolutely certain.

My disclaimer was the subjective nature of the task. On top of that any "Best" list will fluctuate with time. But sample these authors...that's the guarantee. You'll find greatness there. No particular title can appeal to all.

You might be interested to know that Peter Glassman wanted Miss Rumphius right up there with Where the Wild Things Are. It didn't make the cut, but it will lead the next list!

I don't disagree with any of this, as I know how subjective these lists can be. I suppose my response to the list was a gut feeling that lists like these aren't always good. I know there are those who will disagree. Putting lists of outstanding titles in the hands of kids is a very good thing. Forgive the bluntness of this delivery, and please accept my apologies in advance if this offends, but, let's face it, this is a very white list. Kids and families today don't look the way they did thirty years ago. I get that many of these books have "stood the test of time," but as the demographics of our nation change, shouldn't our choices for best books change as well? This is particularly true if we are putting these lists in the hands of parents and teachers. Now, I can see booksellers arguing that this is not their job, they are, after all, business people. However, as an educator, it is my job.

Diversity in book lists is a good thing for all readers. It helps some kids see themselves in the world of literature where they may not have been pictured before, and it helps others recognize that not all children are like them. Would it really be that hard to put together a "best books" list that included such titles? What might they be? Surely we could make a case for The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats or A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams. Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold also comes to mind. What other titles would you suggest?

Please don't read this response as an indictment of the author or any of the folks involved in assembling these titles. Diversity is not a criterion that is used when putting lists like this together. I'm just wondering aloud if it should be.

Reading Aloud in Kindergarten

In February I was the guest reader in my son's kindergarten classroom. He and I spent some time the night before my visit to look over his favorite picture books and select the ones I would read. I told William that my goal was to read "fun" books his teacher had not already shared with the class. I also told him he needed to think about selecting books that both the boys and girls in his class might enjoy. William then picked out several of his favorites and told me to "surprise him" by picking from the pile he had made. My final choices?

• 19 Girls and Me by Darcy Pattison - What happens when a young boy finds that his kindergarten class is full of girls? While his second grade brother is worried that playing with girls will turn John Hercules into a sissy, John Hercules learns how much fun pretending with friends can be.
• Big Chickens by Leslie Halakoski - Alliteration abounds as 4 cowardly, cautious, careful, chicken chickens walk into the woods to escape a wolf. This is a fun romp that the kids loved.
• A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson - Meet a greedy frog who eats "ONE tick, TWO fleas, THREE flies (Oh my!),/ FOUR slugs (Ew, ugh!) in the belly of the frog/ on a half-sunk log/ in the middle of the bog." When his belly grows to an enormous size, that log he's been sitting on decides it's time to eat.

I will make my second, and last appearance this Friday. So far, William's pile includes the following titles.

• Clancy the Courageous Cow by Lachie Hume - Clancy is a belted Galloway without a belt. Find out how he saves his herd teaches two very different groups of cows to get along. For more, Fuse #8 has written a terrific review you should read.
  
• Chowder by Peter Brown - The Wubbington's bulldog is treated more like a child than a dog. Find out how he finally makes some animal friends who accept him for who he is.
  
• Enemy Pie by Derek Munson - When Jeremy Ross moves into the neighborhood, a young boy's summer is ruined. With the help of his dad, he decides to make an enemy pie to get rid of Jeremy, however, for enemy pie to work, the boy must spend an entire day with Jeremy. Will enemy pie work?
  
• A Spree in Paree by Catherine Stock - Monsieur Monmouton takes his farm animals on a day trip to Paris, where they take in ALL the sites. The ink and watercolor illustrations are fabulous.
  
• Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel - When a Chinese boy falls into a well, help doesn't come quickly because the boy's name is long must be pronounced in full. The name? Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. What fun to read!
  

Clancy the Courageous Cow is one I'll definitely take with me. The other two titles are up in the air. So, good readers, what do you think? What books do you think a group of Kindergarten kids would like to hear on a Friday afternoon?

Of Magic Beds and Chapter Books

We moved into our new house in late August. Our house in the city had only six rooms, so this new house, with a living room and family room was in need of new furnishings. We outfitted the new living room with 2 sofas, one a sofa bed. When William began school, he had a rough first week. In an effort to get him on the bus each morning, I promised him if he made it through the first week, that he could sleep on the sofa bed. "You mean the magic bed," he said, "the one that is hidden in the couch?" Absolutely. Little did I know that I would be required to join him.

That was more than five months ago. We now spend every Friday night sleeping on the magic bed. We watch Meerkat Manor and read. Friday is library day at school. Friday afternoons we visit the public library after school and pick out new books for the week. With so many books to choose from, these are usually the ones we read while hunkered down in the not so comfortable magic bed. However, last week we entered the territory of chapter books, so our read last night was much different. Instead of plowing through a wide range of short picture books, we were able to spend the entire time savoring just one book.

William received a copy of Toys Go Out for Valentine's day. While we have been reading a lot of easy readers with short chapters (think Mr. Putter and Tabby or Henry and Mudge, both series by Cynthia Rylant), these are the books William is learning to read with, and they aren't books that I generally read aloud. Toys Go Out was our first chapter book for read aloud. We read the first chapter while stranded in the Newark airport on Friday, the 16th. At one point I looked up and found three little girls, sitting at my feet, listening as well. We thoroughly enjoyed the first chapter, and couldn't wait for more. We finished the last chapter on Thursday, which meant a new book was in order for last night.

Our new book is The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin. We snuggled up close and read for nearly an hour! We love the drawings that are sprinkled throughout the chapters, and since William is very fond of The Ugly Vegetables, he is excited about the writing project that Pacy undertakes for the big contest. I am happy that he can enjoy books with both male and female characters at this point, as I'm sure this won't always be the case. At the rate we're reading, The Year of the Dog will be history before the weekend is over. If you have any suggestions regarding chapter book titles that my 6 year old might enjoy, please let me know.

I'm off to fold the magic bed and have a fabulous day with my son. Happy Saturday, all!

On Reading Aloud What is Difficult - My Response to the Lucky Debate

I've taught this lesson twice. I begin by reading the Author's Note in its entirety. Here are some of the most relevant passages.

On March 2 and 3, 1859, the largest auction of slaves in American history took place in Savannah, Georgia. Some accounts put the number of slaves sold at 429, while others put it at 436. . . .

The 429 or 436 to be sold were placed on railroad cars and steamboats and taken to the Broeck racetrack in Savannah, where they were put in empty horse stalls. On the day of the auction, it started raining, and for the two days of the sale it rained torrentially. However, soon after the auction ended, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The sale became known as "the Weeping Time." . . .

History is not only an accounting of what happened when and where. It includes also the emotional biographies of those on whom history imposed itself with a cruelty that we can only dimly imagine. This book is another in my attempts to make real those who did not have the opportunity to tell their stories for themselves.

I read the title and front cover flap. I tell the students about the author. Before I read aloud, I tell students that I am about to do something that is difficult for me. I am going to read about a time, an event and ideas that I find revolting. I will tell them that they will hear words that will offend, shame and embarrass. In the week before this class session, I have secretly written to my African-American students, describing the book to them, warning them about what is coming, and making my best attempt to prepare them for the discussion that will follow.

The book is Day of Tears by Julius Lester. I read "The Kitchen." It begins with a series of monlogues and remembrances about the day, told from the perspective of a family of slaves (mother, father and daughter). "Interlude I" is a monologue by Emma (the slave daughter) as an old woman, and presents her remembrances of the auction. "The Dining Room" is largely monologues and dialogues of the master and slave seller, though a few other voices and perspectives are heard. I don't read beyond the second page of the chapter. Here are the last two paragraphs I read.

I want to tell them how sorry I am to have to do this. But I don't know if it would matter to them. I see them standing on the auction block and I wonder what they're thinking, what they're feeling. Some of them cry, but most don't show any emotion. Their faces are as blank as tree bark.

They probably aren't feeling anything. That's one of the ways niggers are different from white people. Their emotions are not as refined as ours. Things that would hurt a white man or woman don't affect them. If anybody tried to take my Sarah or Frances away from me, I think I would kill them. Their mother thought she could take them from me. By the time my lawyers got through she was grateful I allowed her to see the girls for two months every year.

These last words are so hard for me to read, so hard for students to hear. I stop. I ask them to close their eyes and just think for a moment. Breathe deeply. Open your eyes. I ask:

• How do you feel?
• Answers - angry, ashamed, awkward, embarrassed, uncomfortable. Some blush, some fidget, others can't look at me or others in the classroom.
  


• Could you read this aloud to a classroom full of kids? Kids of any race or ethnicity? Why or why not?
• Answers - No. Absolutely not. It's too hard.


• Would you want kids to read this?
  
• Answers - Yes! All of them.


• Then why not read it aloud? This is a difficult books that raises important issues. Why are you afraid to confront them? Why not talk about them?
• Parents' won't like it. Kids will be uncomfortable. I'll be uncomfortable.
  

We keep talking, and the conversation goes deeper. The African-American students admit to being prepared in advance. They talk about the value of having been warned, how it raised their comfort level to know that I was aware this would be difficult, and how I told them outright that they would be safe in my classroom and that I would value their feelings and ideas. The class begs me to continue reading, but I don't. The book is long, it demands attention that I cannot give it in one class session, and begs to be read and pondered by each student individually. In the weeks that follow, some students borrow my copy, others write to say they have read it. It moves every one who reads it. It moves me.

Why this story? There are some things that are difficult to negotiate in the classroom. For me, words like the one in The Higher Power of Lucky simply don't present a challenge. Words that name anatomically correct parts of the human body and even their slang equivalents, need to be treated matter-of-factly. If the teacher (or librarian) doesn't make a big deal of it, neither will the kids. However, when it comes to issues that get to very core of who we are, how we treat others, and how history has treated people who are different, then I am challenged to think about how I can make my classroom a safe place for all students. I worry about the words that I must read aloud, the ones the author has chosen for a very specific purpose, that I know will offend or hurt. Should I skip over or leave out the n-word when I read Day of Tears? At the end of the discussion, I ask my students this very question. They all say no.

I believe these are the issues we should be discussing, and not the (somewhat) foolish comments of a few folks who feel that the word scrotum is offensive.

**Just Added - Forgive me for being behind the times, as I've been out of town for several days. Over at educating alice, Monica Edinger wrote about this very topic before I did. She, of course, presents her ideas much more eloquently. Please head on over and check out What I Do With Discomforting Words, Scrotum Not Being One of Them.

On Reading Aloud

I have been thinking a lot about reading aloud these days. Last fall I had a student teacher (let's call her R.) working in a first grade classroom with a very rough schedule. There was a fifteen minute slice of time between resource classes and recess that needed to be filled. I suggested that this was the perfect time to read aloud. R. liked this idea, so together we selected some books that might be appropriate. The plan was for R. to share this idea with her teacher, the book selections, and then together, they would choose the book. A few days later, a very dejected R. entered my office. Here's a snippet of the conversation:

Me: What's wrong?
R.: I need to find a way to fill that 15 minute time slot with instruction.
Me: Aren't you going to read aloud?
R.: No.
Me: Why not?
R.: My teacher says the kids can't handle it.
Me: What do you mean, "can't handle it."
R.: Mrs. X. has been teaching a long time (30+ years) and says that these kids are not mature enough and not well-behaved enough. She thinks it will be a classroom management problem.
Me: Uh-huh. What else did she say?
R.: I need to find something academic for them to do.

This is the point where I turned away from R. to stare at my computer screen, shake my head, and mouth a few choice words. What kind of teacher believes that kids can't handle being read aloud to? What kind of teacher believes that this is not an academic exercise?

Months later, I still cannot shake this exchange. Ladies and gentlemen, this was an experienced first grade teacher. Every child/student needs to have books read aloud to them. I read to my middle school students ALL THE TIME. I kept an enormous library of science and math books that they regularly perused and even enjoyed! There were days when they begged me to read aloud. I simply cannot imagine a first grade classroom where the children would NOT want to have a story read aloud to them.

The sad reality here is that as I send more and more students to Title I and Reading First schools, the emphasis is on worksheets and basal readers. There seems to be little reading for enjoyment or modeling of that process. I suppose that is why I try to get my students (preservice teachers) to think about integrating children's literature wherever possible. When they write lessons for math, science and social studies, I require them to look at the English curriculum standards and include those that are appropriate as lesson objectives, recognizing that while we may choose to think about the curriculum in compartmentalized ways, real learning never happens in such a single-subject vacuum.

I still read aloud to students these days, though now it is to college students preparing to be teachers. Sure, they roll their eyes at me sometimes, but what better way to model the very behaviors I want to encourage? The first class of the semester in my Foundations of Math Instruction course I read aloud Math Curse by Jon Scieszka. We spent one whole session on reading and writing in math, where we looked at criteria for evaluating children's literature for use in math and practiced using them to examine a set of books. Last week when I taught counting and number sense, each student selected a book, did a quick review, and shared it with the class while outlining the concepts the book could be used to teach. This week when I begin to teach about place value and understanding large numbers, I will read How Much is a Million and an excerpt from G is for Googol, both by David Schwartz.

Reading aloud has a place in MY classroom, and I'm a college professor. So, where does it belong in the elementary classroom and where does it "fit" in the elementary curriculum? Anywhere and everywhere. Period. No excuses. Any good teacher will tell you so.