October 2004

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Upcoming Events for Children's Librarians

NEWS AND NOTES

Pleasanton Public Library to host author talk: On Tuesday afternoon, October 19th at 4:00pm, the Pleasanton Public Library will welcome debut novelist Blue Balliett, author of the best-selling children's book, Chasing Vermeer. Dubbed "The Da Vinci Code for tweens", two precocious sixth graders become embroiled in an international art scandal when a valuable Vermeer painting is stolen. Warner Brothers Pictures has acquired the movie rights. www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/library.html
Sue Jones, Pleasanton Library

Children’s Book Week: The 85th annual Children's Book Week is November 15-21, 2004, and they ask that people around the country bring children and books together during this special week. They have many ideas for celebrating on the Website at www.cbcbooks.org

Blume Wins Honorary National Book Award: Judy Blume, whose candid children's books have attracted millions of readers and a wave of censors, has been named this year's winner of an honorary National Book Award for contributions to American letters. "I'm thrilled by this unexpected honor," Blume said in a statement, when the award was announced. "We don't write hoping to win awards. We write because we have to -- because of a burning need to share our characters and stories."
"We're very pleased to have Judy Blume receive the prize, because it is the first time we have given it to a young people's author. She is also someone who gives back a great deal to the community," said Deborah E. Wiley, chairman of the board of the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that sponsors the awards.

The author's many books include "Deenie," "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." In 1986, she sorted through her considerable fan mail and published "Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You." Blume will accept her medal Nov. 17 at the 55th annual National Book Awards ceremony, in New York.

“Kirkus Goes Commercial”: Look for an article in the New York Times, dated Oct. 5, 2004, regarding a new business venture from book review journal Kirkus. Kirkus’s online site will now be doing some book reviews for a fee of $350 to promote a book – something unheard of for a journal that prided itself on its objectivity.

Performers’ Showcase: Mark your calendars now for the 19th annual ACL Performers’ Showcase, to be held on Saturday, February 26, 2005 at the San Leandro Public Library. Registration forms and more information will be in next months BayViews.

The 10th California Indian Storytelling Festival:
Bridging the Pacific with Native Voices
November 6 – 7, 2004
San Leandro Public Library Theater • 300 Estudillo Avenue • San Leandro, CA 94577

On Saturday and Sunday, November 6-7, 2004 join us for a special celebration and cultural exchange between Native California Indian and Hawaiian storytellers at the 10th California Indian Storytelling Festival: Bridging the Pacific with Native Voices at the San Leandro Public Library Theater in San Leandro, California. Over the festival weekend Native storytellers from California, Hawaii and Oregon will present storytelling performances, panel discussions, and other presentations on indigenous oral traditions, folklore and storytelling. Join us Saturday evening for a night of California Indian and Hawaiian music in the "Story As Song" presentation.

The California Indian Storytelling Festival is presented in cooperation with the San Leandro Public Library in San Leandro, CA. The festival will be held in the state-of-the-art San Leandro Library Theater Center. The workshops are recommended for adults and teens, ages 15 and up. The storytelling and music performances are recommended for adults and children ages 8 and up. Suggested donations for admission: Day programs (each day) -- adults--$12.00, Elders/students/children 8-17--$7.00; Evening Story As Song program, all seats $10.00. Program times: Saturday, November 6th from 9 am to 5 pm and 6:30 to 9:30 pm (Story As Song), Sunday, November 7th from 9 am to 4 pm. Visit www.cistory.org/festival for more information.
The Festival is made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Indian Storytelling Association and audience donations.

Re-Issues & New Editions

Numeroff, Laura. Beatrice Doesn’t Want To. Illus. by Lynn Munsinger. Candlewick, 1981/2004. $15.99, ISBN 076361160-3.

I have an old edition of Beatrice Doesn’t Want To, with illustrations by the author, which I read aloud to preschoolers when they come for a library tour. The story involves a little girl who accompanies her big brother to the public library, where she repeatedly says “I don’t want to!” every time he suggests she do something. Finally, she says the catchphrase again when he tells her it is time to go home, because she is having so much fun at storytime that she doesn’t want to leave.

The story is great for library tours because the audience can chime in “I don’t want to!” every time the character says it, and the theme of library as a great place fits our goal of a tour. In the old version, the characters were all people. In Munsinger’s new illustrations, all the characters are dogs. Another small change in the story occurs when, in the original, a bored Beatrice waits outside the library and it starts to rain. In the new version, she waits inside in a big chair. It isn’t as dramatic but it is understandable that a small child wouldn’t wait outside the library by herself nowadays.

Munsinger’s characters, known in the Tacky the Penguin series and many other books, have very expressive faces. This new picture book version is larger than the original, which was labeled an easy reader, and had only a few colors. Munsinger’s full-color watercolors with ink details are set on white backgrounds, and are very open and inviting and should carry to a storytime group.

Picture Books With Surprise Endings

Recently on the PUBYAC listserv, Eric Norton from the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin posted a list of picture books with surprise endings. According to Norton, the big winner seemed to be Bark George by Jules Feiffer. Other suggestions included in no particular order:

Dear Readers: Should ACL Reviews Reveal Key Plot Points?

At the most recent ACL meeting, where we share book reviews that are published in BayViews, there was a friendly discussion on whether or not a review should reveal a key plot point.

On one hand, if the review reveals that someone dies, or it all turns out happily, those of us who read the review before reading the book don’t get the pleasure of finding that out for ourselves, and to tell if the foreshadowing is effective or heavy-handed. On the other hand, librarians can’t read every book, so it helps us in readers advisory to know about hot-button issues in the books we buy, so we don’t recommend a book with a parent’s death to one of our patrons who maybe isn’t ready for that.
Maybe it is an issue that is best answered by “it depends – a case by case basis.” In some books, like SPOILER ALERT – Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park, the reader finds out in the first chapter that the narrator’s brother has died in a bike accident. So giving that away in the review won’t really hurt anything. But telling about the death of SPOILER ALERT Sal’s mother in Walk Two Moons will really spoil the reading experience for most of us – we want to discover that for ourselves.
True, children’s librarians cannot read every book, but we read a lot of them; that’s part of our job. And if reviews give away the endings of most books, we miss out on a main component of experiencing literature. So, should a book review reveal a main plot point (especially the ending) so a librarian can know about the book just from the review, or should reviewers try to avoid that so librarians can enjoy the book, or does that depend on several factors, so revealing main plot points should only be revealed under special circumstances?

We would like to hear from our readers: Should ACL reviews reveal key plot points? Email Pikly@aol.com with your opinion.

Would You Buy a Children’s Book from Bill O’Reilly?

O’Reilly, Bill and Flowers, Charles. The O’Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America’s Families. HarperEntertainment, 2004. $22.95. ISBN 0-06-054424-4.

First, let me make this clear at the outset that this is not a review. I am not a big fan of Bill O’Reilly, so I cannot be objective in reviewing his new book. But having watched his show on the Fox News Channel, I was a little surprised when I received a review copy of his new book and saw that it was an advice book for kids. A guy who screams “Shut Up!” at guests on his TV show doesn’t seem like a guy who should be giving advice to kids.

During the first few weeks in October when O’Reilly appeared on talk shows to promote his book, his manners were not exemplary – he called Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” a pinhead, and told David Letterman to “Shut Up!” He yells at people in an intimidating way that borders on violent – and that’s on camera. It makes you wonder how he may bully people in private.
So what would this bully, whose verbal abuse would get him suspended from nearly every school I know of, have to say in a chapter called “Bullies?” For one, he describes a school incident when he punched someone who bullied him, and how that ended the situation. Great advice, huh?

It becomes clear fairly quickly that this isn’t really a book for kids, it is a book for adults. Both the subtitle mentioning that it is a guide for families, and the price, which is more in the adult trade book range than the average price of a kid’s book, mark this as a book for parents.

Even though it is written to sound like O’Reilly is speaking to the young reader, it seems more suitable for a parent who wants to adapt the dialogue when speaking to his or her own child. Adults have a right to read what they want, even from someone who may not offer the most sound advice. So this would work on a Parent’s Shelf if you feel you need to carry it to meet patron requests.

However, it is not suitable for the children’s shelf. O’Reilly’s advice on bullies includes “change your daily pattern to avoid the bully.” Why should a bullied child have to change where they eat lunch to avoid the bully? – that is blaming the victim. Parents who use it with a child could edit out these ill-advised ideas; children who read it may not know this is unfair to the victim.
In the chapter on dress, he spends nearly all his time warning girls not to dress provocatively. And he tells boys to wear a crisp white shirt to look good. But nothing on the baggy pants or gang-type clothing many boys still wear – why pick on the girls’ dress and not the boys?

Many of you may be wondering about O’Reilly’s current legal woes regarding charges of sexual harassment. But I believe a person is innocent until proven guilty, so those charges are not influencing my reaction to his book (in fact, I read the book a few days before those accusations came to light).

Even if you get patron requests for this, you may not want it in the children’s room – even on the parent’s shelf. Let the adult nonfiction section house this along with his other books, and get some of the other great parenting books available to offer to patrons.

Penny Peck,
San Leandro PL