reviewing books
TRANSCRIPT
SHARING THE GOOD STUFFREVIEWING BOOKS & AUDIOS FOR THE SCHOOL LIBRARY
Karen Perry VAASL
Old Dominion University October 20-22, [email protected], VA
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http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/photos/new-titles-childrens-books-covers
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http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/224872-better-book-titles
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http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/better-book-titles/photos
GENERAL REVIEWING PRINCIPLES“A book review describes, analyzes and evaluates. The review conveys an opinion, supporting it with evidence from the book.” - Bill Asenjo (http://www.writing-world.com/)
Read the bookKnow what kind of review you are writingConsider all your audiencesBe fair in your assessment
Other writing tips:• http://www.booktrust.org.uk/• http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Book-Review
DESCRIPTIVE WORDSLord of the E-Files
Not Far Enough From the Maddening Crowd
Little Library
on the Prairie
HOW CAN YOU REVIEW BOOKS PROFESSIONALLY?
Volunteer!
Your building level perspective makes you very valuable –
• School level• Minority perspective• Fluent in another language• Special expertise
JOURNALS USING VOLUNTEERS
School Library Journal (Media Source)
School Library Connection (ABC-Clio)
BLOGS/NEWSPAPERS/LOCAL PUBLICATIONSNerdy Book Club
Viriginia-Pilot -- Richmond Times-Dispatch -- Roanoke Times
Start your own review blog
EXAMPLE PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
REVIEWING FOR YOUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY
NewslettersWebsitesIn Your Public Access CatalogSocial Media (School accounts in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)
EXAMPLE FOR PARENTS Old MacDonald Had a Truck by Steve Goetz, Illustrated by Eda Kaban (Chronicle Books) is a fun follow-up to the classic song with a farm full of big machinery. Old MacDonald not only has a truck, he also has a front-end loader, a bulldozer, a dump truck, an excavator, a grader, a steamroller, and a cement mixer. His wife is handy with tools and so are the animals on the farm, as pictured in the cartoonish illustrations rendered in an earth tone palette. This book will be excellent fun for those young readers who know the song and love big machines. Parents could even sing along!OROld MacDonald Had a Truck by Steve Goetz. Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a...TRUCK?! With a DIG DIG here and a SCOOP SCOOP there, this classic folk song just got revved up! Beloved machines --- the excavator, dump truck, bulldozer, and more --- will have the vehicle-obsessed of all ages reading and singing along.
SCHOOL LIBRARIANS WHO TALK BOOKS ON TWITTER1) Travis Jonker @100scopenotes
Dorr Elementary School in Dorr, MI
2) Andy Plemmons @plemmonsaDavid C. Barrow Elementary in Athens, GA
3) John Schumacher @MrSchuReads formerly of Brook Forest Elementary School but now a
spokeman for Scholastic Book Fairs
4) Sherry Gick @LibraryFanaticRossville Consolidated Schools in Rossville, IN
5) Mary Ann Scheuer @MaryAnnScheuer Emerson Elementary in Berkeley, CA
6) Colby Sharp @colbysharpThird grade Teacher (#SharpSchu Twitter Book Club)
TWITTER IS READING OUTREACHStudents, parents, community
What’s newWhat’s hotIn 140 characters or lessWith photosWith video
SAMPLE TWEETS
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
TWITTER PRACTICEAim for genre, author-- if a name students might know, sequel info if any, a little plot info. A HOOK.
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TWITTER PRACTICESerafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty. Disney-Hyperion, July 14, 2016.
More mystery in Serafina & the Twisted Staff, sequel to Serafina & the Black Cloak. Animals & humans unite to fight evil at Biltmore!_ _
REVIEWING CONNECTS BOOKS AND READERS
CHELSEA CLINTONMATT DE LA PENA
REACTIONS TO REVIEWSRead the bookKnow what kind of review you are writingConsider all your audiencesBe fair in your assessment
You review from your perspective.
THERE IS A TRIBE OF KIDS
A TRIBE OF KIDSPOSITIVE REVIEWSBooklist starred review: “Clad in a leafy tunic and little stick horns, a boy embraces a blue mountain goat before it wanders up a nearby cliff…don’t expect this to linger on your SMACK of SHELVES.”
SLJ: “Arrayed in pixielike footwear and a leafy tunic, his protagonist is constantly moving… A shift from past to present tense upon the return home, plus the second use (new meaning) of "a tribe of kids," contrasts a raucous, Pan-like forest civilization with the quiet goats that opened the story.
Hornbook: “The trip comes full-circle in a satisfying blast of green trees filled with a "tribe of kids," this time the human kind. Seeing our hero dancing and playing with new friends and family -- finally, with no need for disguise or imitation -- one can easily imagine young readers joining in: cavorting, dancing, and generally living the wild life of happy children, free from worry and care.
NEGATIVES AND CONTROVERSYIl Sung Na’s ‘The Opposite Zoo,’ and More by Minh C. Le (New York Times)Le feels that the “juxtaposition of the word ‘tribe’ with the woodland utopia conjured uncomfortable associations,” and a particular image is problematic “in its echoes of the longstanding trope in children’s literature that uses Native imagery or ‘playing Indian’ to signify wildness.”Lane Smith’s new picture book: There Is a TRIBE of KIDS (plus a response to Rosanne Parry) by Debbie Reese (American Indians in Children’s Literature)Reese details the picture book and focuses first on the word play and the repeated pattern of a child going through the natural world, mimicking behaviors of groups of animals, while garbed in leaves. Reese then moves on to discuss the double spread that features a TRIBE of KIDS (children) and the specific images she finds objectionable. She also delineates many counter-points to Rosanne Parry’s review of the book . Reese uses words like “rolling your eyes” and “grinding your teeth” to express how irate she is with Parry’s proposed interpretation of the book’s images.
Reviewing While White: There Is a Tribe of Kids by Sam Bloom (Reading While White) Bloom finds himself in agreement with Le’s (NYTimes) take on the book and ponders why all the reviewers for the major publications have given this book such favorable feedback when he sees even more images that are problematic. He also links to a page delineating the negative associations that the word TRIBE contains from the Teaching Tolerance site. Bloom concludes his essay by strongly indicating that he does not recommend this book. He writes, “If it wasn’t Lane Smith’s name on the front cover, could we more easily see the problems inherent in There Is a Tribe of Kids? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know that this is a book that I personally won’t be sharing with (human) kids.”
NEGATIVES AND CONTROVERSY
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
AFFIRMING ENDING
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF
REVIEWING ADVICE AND QUESTIONSReview is not a personal commentBut a professional comment, using all your skillsNot a censoring tool.
How do you put the ideas/facts from your perusal of the book into concise words the review reader (professional) will understand?
Secret language/euphemisms/ code words?
CLARITYLibraries are not neutral, neither are reviews.School Library Journal: Libraries are Not Neutral