Just to give all of you homeschoolers a taste of what you're missing! ;) The school year started on Monday (I started teaching last night), and while it's too early to gauge, I have great hopes that this year will be better for my son (and, hence, for me) than the last. There will, of course, be little glitches along the way. Try to imagine what prompted this email:
Dear Ms. Librarian,
My name is Literacy-chic, and we visited on "meet the teacher" night. You might remember that I was accompanied by my son, my husband, and my very mobile toddler, and we talked specifically about fantasy and about the difficulty of finding appropriate books at my son's reading level.
I wanted to email you today to see if I could clarify your policies on checking out books--specifically, what guidelines govern their selection of books. My son returned from library (from Ms. Language Arts Teacher's class) without a library book today because, while he was interested in several books, they were all part of different series, and he was told that he had to start from the beginning of the series, or read the series in publication order. When he looked for the appropriate books, they had apparently been checked out by other students.
You must realize, first of all, that this is the consequence of having library on a Wednesday. The students who have library earlier in the week--or even earlier in the day--have a much better selection of books than those who have library later in the week (or day). So if the students are limited by the fact that their chosen books are part of a series, they are then further limited by the library's holdings and other children's selections. In order for every child to read every series in its proper order, the library should ideally have enough copies of each volume for every child who wants to read it at a given time. Of course, this is not possible. When I was in 6th grade, I was introduced to the Chronicles of Narnia by a school librarian. The books were not available in their publication order (which has since been changed by MacMillan), but I was able to read them when they were returned (in more or less . In addition, the library was missing a volume--The Magician's Nephew, but I was able to continue reading the series in spite of that, and read that book at a later date, after buying a copy for myself. I don't feel that this circumstance lessened my enjoyment or my understanding of the series. In fact, I wrote my M.A. thesis on the Chronicles of Narnia.
The Chronicles of Narnia are an excellent example of how children's books published serially can function. As I mentioned, the original publication order of the books has, within the past 10 or 15 years, been altered from the original publication order as it was at the time of the author's death, with little more than the whim of a publisher and Lewis's letter to a 6-year-old child to substantiate this decision. However, while I personally prefer the original order of publication for reasons of authorial development and the structure of the series as a whole, I must admit that it does not lessen children's enjoyment of the books to have the order changed. Their experience of reading the books is different, but not necessarily inferior.
The test of a good children's book, even if it is a part of a series, is its ability to stand on its own. I read the first two Harry Potter books, became disillusioned with the writing, and then resumed after I saw The Order of the Phoenix because that story seemed so compelling to me. I might have never finished the series (and I'm still working on it) had I felt the need to read the books in their publication order. This same experience might be true for my son, or for any other child--that the desire to read some books in the series is stronger than others, and by starting in the middle, he or she might have the desire to read the entire series from the beginning. On the other hand, if reading the early books seems like it is forced upon the child, or a chore, or if the books are simply not available when he is ready and willing to read them, the child might not read the series at all, which would certainly not be the desirable outcome.
My ideal is for my son to be inspired to read, and to choose library books, with your help and advice at times, that he will really enjoy. If the availability of books becomes a problem, leading to frustration or to his inability to find a book in the specified time, then this goal is not being accomplished. Do you have any suggestions for how we might be able to work through this problem? Might he be able to check out the next book in line, even if the first (or whichever is next in queue) is unavailable?
I am cc-ing Mrs. Language Arts Teacher, so she will know why my son is reading a book from home (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) rather than a book from the library. He had not checked out a book, was afraid of a detention for being tardy, and was probably a bit discouraged when she came to tell the class it was time to return to class.
Thank you for considering my perspective on this. Children's literature happens to be a passion that we share!
Sincerely,
Literacy-chic
3 comments:
Reminds me of several tussles I had with my school library. Once it was when the librarian redirected me from the book I wanted, I no longer recall what it was or how old I was, to the picture books. I was quite capable of reading that book, had read others like it on my own; but it was beyond my supposed level and so it was forbidden to me. Shy child that I was, I didn't voice my disapproval except to my parents.
Of course my first grade teacher put me in the beginning reader group because when she asked if I could read a passage out loud to her, I said no. It wasn't that I was incapable; but shy. It took intervention from my parents when I went home in tears to get me in the proper advanced group, where
I was still bored; but less so.
I've enjoyed several series that I started in the middle. In fact, at one point I thought that mine was the preferred order, much better than that the author wrote them in.
I completely agree that the Narnia books are each worthy of standing alone. Though I've always been rather annoyed at the re-ordering of the series. The set I had as a child, which I still have, has The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe first. I can't imagine reading them in any other order. But even less can I fathom forbidding them to a child who wants to read them out of order.
I hope your letter falls on sympathetic ears. If not, you can always take him to the public library outside of school hours. I always had to do that anyway as at school there was a limit of two books per child for each library visit. I'd read those in the first two days and then need something to fill up the next five days. Yes, I was a bookworm.
I was being gentle about the Narnia re-ordering. I disapprove vehemently. ;)
I am not at all surprised by your experiences, I'm sorry to say. I am of course the kind of parent who marches over & straightens things out (by which I mean, makes things worse). My son has read Narnia, but today he was told not to read Redwall out of order (he has already read 2 of them) and other series. I hope this goes well!!
Good for you! I'm so glad that you wrote that. I don't know what it is about school librarians, but many of them just tend to not have it together, which is ashame. They really have the opportunity to make such an impact on a child's reading habits if they encourage them instead of being so nasty about things. My elementary school librarian was evil! I've met so many really cool public librarians though in the blogging community...if only they were in the school system.
I totally agree with you about the Harry Potter series, by the way. I don't think the books truly got any good until book three. The Prisoner of Azkaban was the first book that I considered to be a "good book". On Narnia, I'll always read them in the original publication order ;)
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