When I was a school librarian, we called them "Everybody Books." My schools served grades Pre-K through fifth grade, and Everybody liked them. They weren't "Easy" even though the spine label sported a big E. The vocabulary could be challenging. The subject matter might be historical. They were perfect read-alouds, tremendously popular with all readers.
That's why this article in today's New York Times is so disturbing. Parents steering young kids away from picture books when that's their obvious choice? Worries that young readers won't be challenged enough to get into the best colleges? Give me a break.
I read the same article this morning and had a very similar reaction. I thought about my third graders, gathered together for read aloud. Imbedded in this activity was some very powerful teaching which produced some very profound thinking by the students in my class about the picture books and then about their own reading workshop selections.
ReplyDeletei came across that article (and sent it to my mother with the subject: 'This is Terrible!), but through the blog of someone quoted in the article, whos comment was taken completely out of context: http://zenleaf.amandagignac.com/2010/10/when-quotes-are-taken-out-of-context.html
ReplyDeleteThanks, Katie, for that link. I posted it to my original Facebook connection to my blog entry. I think she has a point, but I took the NYT article to mean parents who were discouraging older readers to steer away from picture books, which are totally terrific for older kids, as your mom knows so well.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with kids who love to read early, as hers obviously do. Just hate to see parents turning their kids away from anything the kids love.
Thanks for the comment and the link!