SWEET ON BOOKS BLOG

Coming Soon - Nook for Kids...

Continuing our conversation on e-readers, here's some news from Barnes & Noble.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the retailer will be launching 12,000 e-books geared toward children ages 3 to 8. There will be thousands of chapter books available and by November there should be 100 picture books.  Apparently, B&N also has deals with more than 15 children's book publishers to develop enhanced e-books that will include features like "a page with a sky full of falling blueberries, which kids can pop with their fingers."  They're also thought to be planning the launch of a color Nook with touch-screen features.    

Check out nookkids.com to see some of the book titles and get a sneak peak.  As it says on the website, "Storytime comes to life with enhanced NOOKbooks that invite kids to interact with the text and pictures on the page — allowing them to follow along as their adventures are read aloud to them. With NOOK kids children have a whole new way to immerse themselves in their favorite stories and bond with their beloved characters through the largest selection of eBooks available."

So, here's the question...With all the interaction and the option to have the story read aloud, are these books or video games?  When kids sit down with their "enhanced" Nooks, should it count as reading time? Will these tools help our kids learn to love reading or even to learn to read?

Those e-books just won't go away...

Following up on our post about the future of books, check out this USA Today article on digital readers.

According to the article, e-book sales account for 9% of the consumer book market and their sales are up 193% from last year. Harper Collins CEO Brian Murray reports "a sea of change in the past few months" among new best-selling books. In some cases, the e-books are doing better than hardcovers.  One poll sited, however indicates that while 8% have an e-reader and 12% are likely to buy one in the next six months, 80% say they're not likely to make this purchase.  Are the answers different when we talk to kids?  Well, when children ages 9 to 17 were asked about digital books in a recent Scholastic poll, 57% said they're interested in reading e-books and 33% said they'd be more likely to read for pleasure if they had greater access to ebooks.  Young or old, maybe there's enough room in this world for both digital books and printed ones.  Personally, I think that both deserve a place in my house!

Are e-books the future for children's books?

According to Publisher's Weekly all 150 titles in The Boxcar Children Mysteries series will be published in e-book format, with 19 released by this Christmas.  So is this the future for all children's books?  Will there still be books or even bookstores in the years ahead?  Will the technology be good enough to do justice to Picture Books which as we've said, are so vital to our kids?  Well, the path we're on now definitely seems as if it is leading us in this direction.  The question is, will we be better off when we get there?  And which path do you take - Kindle, ipad, the Barnes & Noble NOOK?  As if we didn't have enough decisions to make these days!  Maybe it will be a change for the better but for the record, my books are already treasures and they're not even endangered species yet.

 

Don't Let Picture Books Go!!!!

An article published in the NY Times yesterday really, really, really depressed me and alternately made me crazy angry. The article was about the decline of the picture book.  It explained kids don't want to read picture books anymore because they view them as "baby" books and how parents are viewing them as too easy and are pushing their kids to tackle more "advanced" books.  Oh boy.  I have so much to say on this topic, I need to take a breath and collect myself.

Firstly, pushing our kids on to more "advanced" books at six.  Stop.  The.  Madness. Now.

Secondly, for those out there who think picture books are "too easy", they are entirely missing the point of picture books.  

Picture books are often a celebration.  They commonly have sophisticated themes, vocabulary and humor.  They can teach so much about so much.  They give our children exposure on how to handle tough situations, friendship, interpersonal skills;  generally touching on life's bigger issues.  They are often masterpieces of artwork.  They give parents and children wonderful bonding opportunities.

These are just a few of the virtues of the picture book, there are so many more, too many to list. Chapter books or harder books can accomplish some of these things, but not all.  Comparing picture books to chapter books or other levels of reading is like comparing apples to oranges.  Picture books have their own valuable place in our lives and our children's lives, that no other type of reading can replace.  

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't take picture books out of your children's lives.  For some beautiful examples to support my pro-picture book argument, take a look at the links below to read book reviews on our site.  These are priceless pieces of literature, and the literary world would be bereft without them...and please remember that these are just a sampling, there are so many more to discover!

Click here to read the entire article on the NY Times website.

Don't Forget to click the comment button below and let us know your thoughts on this issue!

 

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Links to some FABULOUS picture books you don't want to miss...

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

A VIsitor for Bear, Bonnie Becker

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Woolbur by Leslee Helakoski

It's 2010...are people still trying to ban books?

 

Well, the answer to that question is YES and that is why the American Library Association (ALA), the Library of Congress and others support Banned Book Week which took place from September 25th to October 2nd this year. According to the ALA, Banned Book Week is an annual celebration of "the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment." The goal of this event is to address the importance of maintaining our rights to share ideas and information.  It is also designed as a reminder that books are still being challenged in this country.  In fact, in the past 9 years, over 4,000 challenges were made to libraries in this country.  Most challenges came from parents and, according to the Christian Science Monitor, over half of the 2009 challenges came from Texas and Pennsylvania.  But it is happening in other places too.  Believe it or not, according to The Guardian, a few Merriam Webster dictionaries were taken off the shelves this year in some California classrooms because a parent complained about the content.

Here are the ALA's Top 10 most frequently challenged books from 2009:

10. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier.

9. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.

8. "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things" by Carolyn Mackler.

7. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult.

6. "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger.

5. "Twilight" (the series) by Stephenie Meyer.

4. "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

3. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky.

2. "And Tango Makes Three" by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.

1. "ttyl; ttfn; 18r, g8r" (the series) by Lauren Myracle.

So where do you stand on this subject?  Are there some books that shouldn't be printed and shared?  If so, who should get to make those decisions?  And once you let someone else make those choices, where does it end?  Or should we, as individuals, have that control?  Should we alone be the ones to make those decisions for ourselves and our children? What do you think?

 

 

PLEDGE TO READ TO A CHILD AND TARGET WILL DONATE!

        In an effort to help with the educational crisis in this country, Target Corporation (or Tarjay, as it is affectionally known around our house) "has announced plans to donate more than $500 million by the end of 2015 to support education, doubling its support to-date, for a total of more than $1 billion. The financial commitment is part of Target’s new reading initiative, Target Read With MeSM, aimed at helping more U.S. children read proficiently by the end of third grade. As part of the initiative, Target also announced a reading pledge, a donation of up to 2 million books to kids in need, and plans for an innovative reading center that will reach communities across the country through a physical and virtual presence."  For the complete press release, click here.

SO what does this have to do with you?  First of all, a little round of applause for Target, a corporation who does a LOT of good.  Second of all, click here to make the plegde to commit to a regular reading schedule with a child.  

Your pledge does two great things:  it reminds you of the importance of READING with your child.  We all get real busy these days, but don't forget to do this OH SO IMPORTANT THING!  We all want success for our kids, and reading is the fastest route to that.  The second thing your pledge will do is enable Target to donate a book to a child in need.  Target partners with the lovely organization First Book in this endeavor.

So what are you waiting for!  Please get pledging!!!!

Getting Boys to Read...

There was an interesting article by Thomas Spence in the Wall Street Journal last week addressing the issue of boys and reading, or lack thereof.  The fact is, according to a recent study by the Center on Education Policy, boys score much lower on reading proficiency tests than girls do.  This trend, which began in 1992 (around the same time that video games took off), spans across all ethnic and economic groups.  So, why is this happening and more importantly, how can we reverse this trend?

According to Mr. Spence and many other reading experts, a huge part of getting boys to read well is getting them to read enough.  Now that brings us to the million dollar question - how to get boys to read enough?  

It seems that these days the basic assumption is that boys are bored with most subjects and the only way to peak their interest is to focus on all things disgusting, gross and basically inappropriate.  Apparently a July Associated Press study indicates that experts believe "meeting them where they are" is the only way to get boys to read.  Unfortunately when we meet them where they are, they sometimes don't go very far from that safety zone.

Mr. Spence proposes an alternative strategy to get boys to read more.  He suggests that we reduce the access to and time spent with video games and therefore give books - all books - a fair shot at a boy's attention. He goes on to say that this exposure to books will have a profound effect on the adults these boys will one day grow to be.  A boy who reads and acts civilized too - now that's a winning combination! 

If you click on the link below you'll see the article and then you can click through to see the many comments this topic has inspired.  Don't forget to comment back to Sweet on Books too so that we may hear where you stand on this controversial subject.

Wall Street Journal article

Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 Announcement!

OK.....we have a date....November 9, 2010.  And the color of the cover......drumroll please....PURPLE!

Amulet (Wimpy's publisher) announced all this today.  The book's title will be released in July.

Click here to read the full press release.  Get your Wimpy fans excited!

Katherine Patterson...

Is our new ambassador for Young People's Literature.  Author of such classics as Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins (an all-time favorite book when I was a child), Jacob I Have Loved, to just name a few, Patterson has now taken on this new position.  Lucky us!  She takes over where Jon Scieszka left off.  

The Children's Book Council just announced Patterson has embarked on a writing project and she will be writing monthly essays over the two year tenure of this post about her work writing for children to be published by Clarion Books entitled, Read for Your Life: Speeches and Writings of Katherine Paterson. Each essay will be available for download individually or by subscription.  At the end of the two years, they will be published in a paperback edition.

Click here to get to a the Children's Book Council website, where you can download the first essay free (but only until May 24th, so hurry!

Cybils Finalists are announced!

Take a look at the finalists for the Cybils awards 2009, just announced on New Year's Day.  The lists are the result of a herculean effort on the part of all the Cybils volunteers, who read (and read and read) and narrowed down large lists of nominated titles to 5 finalists for each category.  Sweet on Books helped by serving on the Easy Reader/Short Chapter book panel.  The winners will be announced on February 14! Happy reading!

Click here to view finalists.