doorstops

It being the height of vacation season, I wanted to display some books that don't take place in the U.S. I wanted some books that feature American kids abroad and others that feature kids from other parts of the world in their native land.

While I'm not in favor of making reading a numbers game, with less than two weeks left of summer reading club I wanted to appeal to kids' sense of economy. Besides which, many of these books don't usually get much action because they're thin! (I've mentioned before how many parents and kids in this community turn up their noses at books that aren't doorstops.)

As a librarian working in an on-average privileged community, I see a lot of bright kids—and even more pushy parents. I don’t mean “pushy” as in rude—though it happens, as in any community—but rather as in being extremely concerned about pushing their children toward academic achievement.

How many books their children read, and how thick they are, seems to be a bigger measure of status among parents than the kids themselves. We get no stronger proof than during our summer reading program, when kids look on, mortified, as their parents throw fits over page counts, when there’s nothing more at stake than a pencil, a beach ball, or a temporary tattoo.

We hear the phrase “exceptional reader” a lot. As in, “My first grader is an exceptional reader. He/she has read Harry Potter.” I’m sure there’s not a children’s librarian in this country who hasn’t heard that one, and probably hundreds of times at that. Harry Potter is the 21st century’s benchmark for literacy, it seems. One’s child has not truly “arrived” if she/he has not read Harry Potter. (Understood? Enjoyed? Not nearly as important!)

Of course, after 600+ page doorstops like the latter Harry Potter books, it’s hard to imagine how a slim volume like The Cricket in Times Square or Clementine could possibly measure up. Harry Potter has made—please pardon the expression—size queens of a whole new generation of readers and their parents. “Under 200 pages? Oh, my child couldn’t possibly… He/she is an exceptional reader, you know.”

The snark inside me wants to respond, “I know this great book called War and Peace your fourth grader might enjoy. Or how about The Stand?” But discretion is the better part of valor, yadda yadda.

Thursday, The Monkey Speaks posted about the challenge grade school teachers face when choosing age-appropriate (there’s another phrase I hear a dozen times a day) books to complement their curriculum, with a link to an interesting Washington Post article on that topic, “Question for the Ages: What Books When?”

The illuminating example given is Lester and Brown’s picture book Slave Ship to Freedom being denounced by parents as too violent for third graders because of its subject matter, while Treasure Island is dismissed as too easy for seventh graders. Many parents want their children to consistently read books the size of Harry Potter, but at the same time want to shelter their babies from the harsher aspects of reality.

I’m always relieved when I meet parents who recognize that their “exceptional reader” isn’t ready for the often darker subject matter of older middle grade and early YA books. They seem to accept more readily that size and subject matter are often positively correlated, and that size and quality aren't, and that maybe their child wouldn’t mind carrying a 150 page paperback for a change.