Collection Developments @ Sno-Isle

Posted Jun 17, 2008 | Published in issue #999-1000 Jun 27, 2008 |

Scholastic Report: Kids Still Read for Fun—Teens, Less So
By John A. Sellers — Publishers Weekly, 6/11/2008 7:42:00 AM

A new report released today from Scholastic corroborates the findings of the company’s 2006 report on children’s reading habits, finding that pleasure reading in children begins to decline at age eight and continues to do so into the teen years. The study found that a majority of children (68%) think it is “extremely” or “very” important to read for pleasure, and “like” or “love” doing so. However, that number decreases with age: 82% percent of children ages five to eight “like” or “love” reading, compared to 55% for children ages 15 to 17. It also found that although children can readily envision a future in which reading and technology are increasingly intertwined, nearly two thirds prefer to read physical books, rather than on a computer screen or digital device. Additionally, a large majority of children recognize the importance of reading for their future goals, with 90% of respondents agreeing that they “need to be a strong reader to get into a good college.”

The 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report, conducted by TSC, a division of consumer trends research company Yankelovich, is based on interviews with 1,002 respondents (501 children ages five to 17 and a parent or guardian for each). It explored kids’ attitudes toward reading, as well as the roles that technology, parental input and the Harry Potter books play in their reading habits.

Nearly one in four children was found to be a “high frequency” pleasure reader (reading daily), with an additional 53% qualifying as “moderate frequency” readers, reading for pleasure between one and six times per week. When children were asked why they do not engage in more pleasure reading, the top answer selected was “I would rather do other things,” followed in frequency by “I have too much schoolwork and homework,” and “I have trouble finding books that I like.” (This third answer was the top response selected in the 2006 survey.) Boys outnumbered girls by 10% in all age categories in stating that they had trouble finding enjoyable books.

In terms of technology, the study found that more children ages eight and up spend time online than read for pleasure on a daily basis. However, the finding has a silver lining. “High frequency Internet users are more likely to read books for fun every day,” said Heather Carter, director of corporate research at Scholastic in a statement. “That suggests that parents and teachers can tap into kids’ interest in going online to spark a greater interest in reading books.” Nearly two-thirds of children ages nine to 17 “extended” the reading experience online, including activities such as visiting an author’s Web site, using the Internet to find books by a particular author or visiting a fan site.

In terms of parental involvement, the statistics were in keeping with those reported in 2006, demonstrating a strong correlation between parents’ reading habits and those of their children: parents who read frequently were found to be six times more likely to have children that read often, compared to those who read infrequently. Around one quarter of parents (24%) said they read frequently, up from 21% in the 2006 survey. And 82% of parents responded that they wished their children read more for fun, with nearly the same percentage citing reading skills as one of the top three most important skills for their children to possess, along with critical thinking and math skills.

Mothers were cited as the family member most likely to read to children among parents with children ages five to 11, and they were also the top source of ideas for pleasure reading for those under age 11—children ages 12 and up, however, reported that they were most likely to get book ideas from friends. Fathers did not fare as well in either the book recommendation (coming in behind mothers, friends, teachers and librarians overall) or “reading with children” categories (just over three-quarters of children reported mothers to be the most likely person to read to them at home, versus around half who said their father was most likely to read with them). The study also found that the frequency with which parents read to or with children drops sharply after age eight.

As to the influence of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, of the children who had read the books, almost three-quarters said the series had made them interested in reading other books. Some, however, would be happy simply to have more Harry in their lives: 31% of children don’t believe the series is over.

To read the full report, click here.

Francoise Mouly (founder of Raw Books & Graphics) and Art Spiegelman (author of Maus) are launching a new line of children’s comics called TOON books.  The husband and wife team have published books of comics for kids by well-known children’s authors and illustrators in the Little Lit series.  Ms. Mouly states that TOON books are the books she wishes had been available when our kids were in the first grade.  When her children’s teacher started assigning “easy readers” for them the joy went out of reading for the whole family.  She shared French comics and Art sacrificed a valuable collection of old comics to fatherhood.  She realized how few good children’s comics were being published in the U.S. and decided that this was where she wanted to turn her attention.

The first three books of this series are coming out this spring and are on order for Sno-Isle libraries:

Benny and Penny: Just Pretend by Geoffrey Hayes

Silly Lilly and the Four Seasonsby Agnes Rosenstiehl

Otto’s Orange Day by Jay Lynch

R.L. Stine and Scholastic books are hoping that the publishing gold of the Goosebumps series which was so popular in the 1990s can be found again with a new series: Goosebumps HorrorLand coming out this year.

During the heyday of the earlier series, Scholastic was selling four million copies a month and USA Today named Stine the best-selling author in America for three consecutive years. Stephen King, writing in Entertainment Weekly, suggested that Stine’s success helped persuade Scholastic to pursue J. K. Rowling’s boy wizard. “He’s largely unknown and uncredited,” Mr. King wrote. “But of course, John the Baptist never got the same press as Jesus, either.” New York Times, March 25, 2008.

The first four books of this series are on order for Sno-Isle:

• v. 1: Revenge of the Living Dummy;
• v. 2: Creep from the Deep;
• v. 3: Monster Blood for Breakfast;
• v. 4: The Scream of the Haunted Mask.

We seem to be having a run on Dr. Seuss books in our collection. Even though we have many copies of each title, they are so popular that they are rarely found on the shelf.

Collection Development is trying to help with this matter. Multiple copies of popular titles have been ordered for the system so that every library should have some. The titles are:

Cat in the Hat

Fox in Socks

Green Eggs and Ham

Horton Hears a Who

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

A total of 140 copies of these favorites have been ordered for our library system. They should be coming to you soon.

from today’s Shelf Awareness:

How cops “book’em” in the Pacific Northwest. The Seattle Times reported on the “by-the-book” habits of five local police officers, who are also voracious readers.

Adrian Diaz, for example, said that the book that changed his life was The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: “It’s more about life and how we perceive and how we deal with things surrounding us. I think it helps in the context of my job, just trying to deal with all the different things we face.”

History is his preferred genre. “I have gone back into a lot of the historical Roman type books,” he said, “kind of the foundation types of leadership. I read a lot about the Spartans and Troy. Things that happen hundreds of years ago will happen today–it’s a circular system.”

Two of the five said that To Kill a Mockingbird changed their lives.

Book Sense

The winners of the 2008 Book Sense Book of the Year Awards, honoring the titles ABA members most enjoyed handselling, are:

• Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead/Penguin)
• Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
• Children’s Literature: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press)
• Children’s Illustrated: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books for Children)

The awards will be presented at ABA’s annual Celebration of Bookselling on Thursday, May 29, at Hotel ABA (the Renaissance Hollywood) during BookExpo America. For the honor titles, click here.

The sharp eyes of Chy Ross and the staff at the Lake Stevens library caught a children’s nonfiction book with a completely incorrect statement.  The book is Mammals: What  is an Animal?by Ted O’Hare.  On page four they found this: “Mammals are one of the vertebrate groups of animals.  This means they have backbones.  Amphibians, reptiles, and birds are also mammals.  So are human beings.”  Since amphibians, reptiles and birds are definitely NOT mammals, we will be withdrawing this title from our collection.  The Collection Development department will take care of the withdrawal.

Thanks staff at Lake Stevens!

The winners were announced this morning at the annual American Library Association winter conference by ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children).

The 2008 John Newbery Medal winner is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz.  Journey to an English village in 1255 where a cast of characters, from millers to maidens, are introduced through colorful portraits and personal stories, in an informative guide to the Medieval era.

Newberry Honor books:

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis.  In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family’s freedom.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.  Set during the 1967-1968 school year, Holling Hoodhood finds his seventh-grade year one filled with many challenges as he spends afternoons with Mrs. Baker discussing the plays of Shakespeare, defends his tasty cream puffs from a determined bully, and prepares for his big debut in the school play–all while the issue of Vietnam looms on a daily basis.

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson.   Inspired by a poem she read at school, Frannie begins to see her world in a new light and deals with her brother’s deafness, her mother’s fear, and her best friend’s faith in a hopeful new way.

The 2008 Randolph Caldecott Medal winner is: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.   When twelve-year-old Hugo, an orphan living and repairing clocks within the walls of a Paris train station in 1931, meets a mysterious toyseller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.   This is the first time that a novel has won the top prize for illustration.

Caldecott Honor Books:

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine.  A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry “Box Brown, escapes to freedom by shippin himself in a wooden crafte from Richmond to Philadelphia.
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.  Simple die-cuts magically present transformation — from seed to flower, tadpole to frog, caterpillar to butterfly. 
 

The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtin by Peter Sís.  Readers are taken on an extraordinary journey of how the artist-author’s life was shaped while growing up in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, as well as the influence of western culture through the influx of banned books, music, and news, in a powerful graphic memoir.
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems.  When she arrives at school, excited to show off her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny, Trixie is quite upset when someone else has the exact same bunny.

Jon Scieszka, author of “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” has been named the first National Abassador for Young People’s Literature. “We think it’s very important to have an evangelist for reading,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. The library’s Center for the Book has teamed up with the Children’s Book Council, a publishing industry trade association, to create the national ambassador program.

Scieszka has already been promoting reading for boys on his website Guys Read. He should be an excellent advocate for reading for all kids.