Comments on: Summer Reading? Good! Assigned Reading? Bad.

By: Camilla

Camilla — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:42:17 +0000

Lisa, you are my 21st-century hero! This is just brilliant. I agree completely that reading should be voluntary, not forced, and it kills me to hear that many of my friends’ children HAVE to read for a certain amount of time every day. Way to build reluctant readers! I never had summer reading lists when I was in school, but one of my best memories is when my middle-school librarian got a slew of new books at the end of the year, and let me take home DOZENS of them for the summer to enjoy at my leisure. She, and you, and anyone who encourages children to read just for the fun of it, are why I am in the children’s book business today. Bravo!

By: LisaV

LisaV — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:47:44 +0000

I sent a copy to the Times but not to him personally. (not sure that would be appropriate) The Times did not respond. Thanks for the support. Lisa

By: Babette

Babette — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:38:46 +0000

You DID send Kristof a copy of your article, yes? (I love Kristof; I can’t believe he was so off base).

By: Alicia Conklin

Alicia Conklin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:54:36 +0000

Thank you, Lisa. I was depressed, not shocked, by the adult-o-centric list of books Kristol (who I love!) presented. Unfortunately, however, I’ve come to expect this sort of thing–most people are woefully out of date on children’s and teen’s reading choices.

It kills me that high school English teachers still assign the same “classics” that I read back in the 1960s! (Just one example: Orwell was never that great a writer to begin with, and the leftism/Communism he parodied in Animal Story is a dead issue. Even the dystopic future of 1984 is dated–there’s newer, better stuff out there now.) Mostly it’s inertia–they have the books, they have the lesson plans, and the choices certainly aren’t considered controversial any more, so they feel safe.

And they try to loosen up when they’re doing the summer reading list, but they haven’t read any of the newer books, so they’re clueless. Plus, it’s all about control. What if some of the kids don’t read “serious” books! So the dead books continue to get assigned, along with a few newer ones that middle-aged teachers enjoyed.

I’m going to make copies of your article and put them in our teachers’ mail boxes, so that maybe, next spring, they’ll take a chance and let the kids contribute to the list. Many thanks!

By: Janna Morishima

Janna Morishima — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:00:07 +0000

I had a funny experience last night related to Kristof’s editorial. I hadn’t read it or heard about it at that point.

I was visiting a friend of mine who has four grandchildren, and as we were about to say good-bye, she suddenly said, “Janna, since you work in children’s books, I didn’t want to forget to tell you about the most wonderful editorial in the New York Times this weekend. It was recommending good summer reading books for children, and I saved it so that I can send them all to my grandchildren.”

“What books did the writer recommend?” I asked.

“Hmm, Charlotte’s Web, and The Wind and the Willows, I recall…. And a book called “Lad, the Dog.”"

I was briefly stunned. With all the rich, diverse, compelling children’s books being published this year and in the past few years, these were the books being recommended by the New York Times?

I felt compelled to act so these four grandchildren wouldn’t be sent a library of books published before the second World War. I started rhapsodizing about what interesting writers are working now, such as Kate di Camillo, Phillip Pullman, Cornelia Funke, Nancy Farmer, Trenton Lee Stewart, Suzanne Collins, etc. etc. My friend was making a list assiduously as I spoke so I feel hopeful that my intervention was successful!