Showing posts with label Authors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authors. Show all posts

Monday, November 11, 2019

Story & Pictures By: The Documentary You’ve Been Waiting For via SLJ

Story & Pictures By: The Documentary You’ve Been Waiting For
SLJ: 11.03.2019 by Elizabeth Bird

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A new Golden Age of children’s literature is here. And it matters.

Emmy®-nominated Director Joanna Rudnick follows three contemporary children’s book authors and sheds a light on the artistry and industry in Story & Pictures By. (Watch O2:02)

“The stories that we read [children] are forming their worldview. They are the building blocks to how they make sense of the world and how they understand themselves. And the more diverse and expansive those stories are, the more diverse and expansive that worldview is going to be.” – Joanna Rudnick, Director

Director Joanna Rudnick is familiar with taking inspiration from her life and turning it into cinema. Her first film In the Family (PBS 2008) was a deeply personal exploration of living with an inherited risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Having survived breast cancer in her late 30s, coinciding with the birth of her two daughters, she threw herself into raising them and found that one of the most intimate experiences she had was reading children’s picture books at bedtime. This sparked a curiosity about the creators, history, and power of this often overlooked and underappreciated art form and became fodder for her current feature length film in production, Story & Pictures By.

The film explores the power of children’s picture books through the lens of three contemporary authors/illustrators: Mac Barnett, Christian Robinson, and Yuyi Morales. Together, they represent a new generation of storytellers who are working to challenge, transform, and expand the stories and experiences portrayed in children’s literature, marking a new Golden Age in the art form. From experimenting with gender identity to children visiting parents in prison—all creators, protagonists, and experiences are welcomed behind and in the pages of picture books.

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According to statistics from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), in the past 24 years, only 13% of children’s books featured multicultural storylines or characters. In 2002, 5% of protagonists were African American, 3% Asian American, 3% were Latinx, and 1% were American Indian. In 2018 these numbers slightly increased to 10% African American, 7% Asian, 5% Latinx and 1% American Indian. While these gains in diverse representations mark progress, we still have a long way to go. In a world where children of color continuously face increased levels of childhood trauma, it is incumbent upon children’s literature to represent their perspectives and experiences.  READ MORE >>


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Children's Book Week: Bernard Waber Literary Landmark

Street Made Famous by Bernard Waber’s Lyle the Crocodile Series to be Designated Literary Landmark in Honor of Children’s Book Week

Yorkville Community School – May 14 – 9:30 am

The children of the Yorkville Community School (421 E 88th St, New York, NY 10128) will gather to celebrate Children’s Book Week (May 12-18th, 2014) by helping declare their school and the street where it stands a Literary Landmark.

The street was made famous by children’s author/illustrator Bernard Waber in his book The House on East 88th Street.  The 1962 book, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, introduced the character Lyle, the Crocodile to the world of children’s literature. The story is about a family named the Primms who move into an old Victorian brownstone, only to find a performing crocodile named Lyle living in the bathtub.

The Literary Landmark program is administered by United for Libraries. More than 130 Literary Landmarks across the United States have been dedicated since the program began in 1986.


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A Love Letter to the Central Library

A Love Letter to the Central Library
Through Life’s Changes, the Downtown Landmark Remains
LA Downtown News: 11.23.2011 by Anne Marie Ruff

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - I love the Central Library. For almost two decades and through many life changes, the library has been a constant, like a good friend.

Obviously I’m not alone — this resplendent repository of art, literature and knowledge thrives on the multiplicity of people who pass through the doors and partake of what the library has to offer. I’m just one of many for whom the Downtown building has an inexorable hold.

I first met the Central Library when I was attending UCLA. Back in the days when the card catalog had just graduated to a computer, the Central Library offered books for my research papers not to be found in the URL (the decidedly un-cyber University Research Library). I found in the long block between Grand Avenue and Flower Street a safe place in an otherwise intimidating Downtown.

I know I am not alone in my passion for this place. Every day I see dozens of people, many marginalized or nearly discarded by the rest of the city, who eagerly await the opening of the library doors. In its rich rooms and elegant halls, they find refuge, rest, and who knows, maybe even help with their reading or computer skills.

More recently, I have been thrilled to know the library in yet another way. I provided two copies of my first novel — some of which was written within its walls — to the library’s fiction department. So now not only is the library part of me, but I am part of the library. READ MORE !

Anne Marie Ruff’s recently published first novel, Through These Veins, chronicles the development of a fictional cure for AIDS. All profits benefit Doctors Without Borders and the Ethiopian Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Teach Reading Without Using Labels

Teach reading without using labels
Sign On San Diego: 6.10.11 by John Corcoran

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” As children, we were taught those words. But as adults, we know that words and labels can and do hurt. One such label is “learning disability.”

Like the thorn in the lion’s paw, which others cannot see but the lion feels sharply, the pain caused by being labeled “learning disabled” cannot be discounted. Others may say the label is harmless, or that it is meant to be helpful in the allocation of educational resources. But that label, often given in childhood, can cause pain and shame into adulthood.

Coined in 1963 by Samuel Kirk, who was then a professor of special education at the University of Illinois, the term was first suggested to concerned parents as a means of describing “their children who had disorders in development of language, speech, reading and associated communication skills.”

Before the 1960s, terms that had been used by the medical and education community to describe these children included “brain damaged,” “minimal brain dysfunction,” “mentally retarded” and “emotionally disturbed.” Many parents embraced “learning disabled,” swallowing the psychological placebo in hopes it would make everything all better. But it has not.

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So what term should we use? How about “Susie” or “Jimmy”? Call each learner, child or adult by his or her name. Then identify their individual challenges with reading through diagnostic testing. Based on the results, prescribe the evidence-based treatment.

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It’s time to stop looking at learners with difficulties as disabled. They are “learning able.” I know because of my personal experience. If I had been in elementary school in the early 1960s, I would have been branded with that new label of “learning disabled.” Instead, when I was a little boy growing up in the 1940s, I was put in the “dumb row” because I was among the many children who had difficulties learning how to read and write.

The term “dumb” stuck with me until I learned to read at the age of 48. Finally, as an adult, I found a teacher who knew how to teach me. She gave me a battery of tests that diagnosed my difficulties (a severe auditory discrimination problem was the main one) and recommended proper treatment and instruction based on the findings. Never was I considered learning disabled by that teacher. She believed I was able to read with proper instruction.

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The way forward is clear. We have the research and the science to teach all learners. This is the level playing field that produces equal opportunity for all. Let’s do away with the labels and see each other for who we truly are: learning able. READ MORE !

Corcoran is a literacy advocate and author of “Bridge to Literacy: No Child – or Adult – Left Behind” and his autobiography, “The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read.” He has served on the National Institute for Literacy.

Friday, May 20, 2011

The Future of the Library

The future of the library
What is a public library for?
Seth’s Blog: 5.17.11


First, how we got here:

Before Gutenberg, a book cost about as much as a small house. As a result, only kings and bishops could afford to own a book of their own.

This naturally led to the creation of shared books, of libraries where scholars (everyone else was too busy not starving) could come to read books that they didn't have to own. The library as warehouse for books worth sharing.

Only after that did we invent the librarian.

The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work at a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.

After Gutenberg, books got a lot cheaper. More individuals built their own collections. At the same time, though, the number of titles exploded, and the demand for libraries did as well. We definitely needed a warehouse to store all this bounty, and more than ever we needed a librarian to help us find what we needed. The library is a house for the librarian.

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The next library is a place, still. A place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.

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We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime. READ MORE !

SETH GODIN has written thirteen books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

e-books and the "reading divide"

Technological changes may lead to "reading divide"
Reuters: 3.10.11 by Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) - The rapid rise of e-books could lead to a "reading divide" as those unable to afford the new technology are left behind, even as U.S. reading and writing skills decline still further.

At particular threat are African-American communities where many students are already falling behind their majority peers in terms of literacy, said award-winning writer Marita Golden -- and this despite the growing ranks of noted African-American writers, such as Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

"My biggest concern is that the technology will continue to widen the gap," she told Reuters. "It won't just be the digital divide but also a reading divide if reading becomes an activity that's now dependent on technology.

"If reading becomes dependent on technology that must be purchased, then I think we may see the literacy divide persist and even widen."

Years of discussion on the future of books amid the sweeping technological changes, along with a desire to make sure black writers were included in that discussion, prompted Golden to pull together her recent book, "The Word," in which African-American writers talk about how reading shaped their lives for the better. READ MORE !

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

It's a Book

It’s a Book by Lane Smith
- video from YouTube



Roaring Brook Press, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1596436060

Read On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reading Aloud


This part of Huxley's brave new world has come to pass
Daily Breeze: September 17, 2010 by Adell Shay

My husband, Jay, has been reading to me again. He's been doing that since his inaugural visit, me on the couch with the Hong Kong flu, him reading Edgar Allan Poe as I blew my nose in approval.

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Lately, he has been reading Aldous Huxley's essays.

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That's how he came to read me "Censorship and Spoken Literature," from "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and other essays."

In the piece, Huxley discusses how economic censorship is enforced - however unintentionally and blindly - in democratic countries by the steady rise in the cost of producing books, plays and films, and the unwillingness of publishers, studios, etc. to sponsor projects unless they promise commercial success. The essay, written in 1954, described a theme that has, like most of Huxley's premises, become more glaringly true over time.

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He notes:
"Listen to the reading aloud ...; you will find yourself getting more out of it than you got when you read it to yourself - particularly if you were compelled to read it under the threat of not getting a credit. Printed, the Hundred Great Books are apt to remain unopened on the library shelves. Recorded they can be listened to painlessly - at meals, while washing up in bed on Sunday morning."

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Huxley ends the essay with the following recommendations:
1. "Make the best of mankind's literature of wisdom available on cheap, slow-playing records."
2. "Do the same, in each of the principal languages, for the best poetry written in that language. Also, perhaps, for a few of the best novels, plays, biographies and memoirs."
3. "Encourage manufacturers to turn out phonographs equipped to play these recordings and at the same time arrange for (low-cost) distribution.


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Aldous Huxley's fondest desire has been realized. READ MORE !

Listen On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat

Brave new world - Read by Michael York
Aldous Huxley
Audio Partners, 2003

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Edward Fry: created Fry Readability Graph

Educator, 85, created Fry Readability Graph
Coastline Pilot: September 9, 2010 by Barbara Diamond


Educator, author and environmentalist Edward Fry died in his Laguna Beach home Sept. 2, surrounded by his family. He was 85.

"He lost his battle with leukemia, but we all know how he loved life," his wife, Cathy, wrote friends. "He especially loved teaching, whether in a Rutgers classroom or up in the hills hiking with a grandson. It was a learning experience and he made sure he learned something new every day."

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"I always thought of Ed as a gentle, thoughtful and wise person," said City Councilwoman Verna Rollinger, a member of many of the same organizations. "He was a person always involved in good works."

Near the end of his life, a doctor asked him if there was anything he would like to do, if he could.

There was one more book he wanted to write, Fry replied.

He wrote more than 31 books and more than 100 articles, including "How to Teach Reading," developed for the Peace Corps; "The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists," with Jacqueline Kress; and a video series for series for Time Life, narrated by Dick Cavett and Bill Cosby.

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In 1950, Fry married Carol Addison. Fry became an expert in teaching. He invented the Fry Readability Graph, which is a widely used tool for assessing the readability level of almost any type of reading material. He was on the faculty of Loyola University in Los Angeles and Rutgers University in New Jersey where he became a full professor.

During 22 years at Rutgers, he was president of the National Reading Conference, the International Reading Assn., and the New Jersey Reading Assn. He is a member of the Reading Teacher Hall of Fame. READ MORE !

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Diane Ravitch Defends Public Education

2010 NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA)
New Orleans, Louisiana — June 26 - July 6, 2010


NEA Friend of Education Diane Ravitch's Speech
Delivered at the 2010 Representative Assembly


Diane Ravitch Defends Public Education (full speech)
~ Researcher and former Assistant Education Secretary Diane Ravitch blasts ‘So-Called Reforms’ in No Child Left Behind in a speech to NEA members at the NEA Annual Meeting. She says the current education reform movement is pushing bad ideas.

. . . . .
Well, it’s kind of amazing that this convention is being held in New Orleans. I was, just a few minutes ago, interviewed by documentary filmmakers who said to me, “Well, don’t you know that New Orleans is proving a new model?” The new model consists of wiping out public education and firing the unions, and it’s spreading across the country. And I said, “God forbid.” I pointed out to them what we all used to know, which is that public education is the backbone of this democracy, and we cannot turn it over to privateers.

Since my book appeared in early March, I have started out on what I thought would be a conventional book tour, but it really has turned into a whistle-stop campaign. I have been to 40 different cities and districts. I have another 40 planned starting in September. I talked to union members, to school board members, to administrators, to left-wing think tanks, to right-wing think tanks. I have met with high-level White House staff. I have met with about 40 members of Congress. I would say that I have met so far about 20,000 teachers, and after today I think I am going to increase it to 30,000.

And in all of this time, aside from the right-wing think tanks, I haven’t seen met a single teacher who likes what’s happening? I haven’t met a single teacher who thinks that No Child Left Behind has been a success. I haven’t met a single teacher who thinks that Race to the Top is a good idea.

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I will continue to speak out against high-stakes testing. It undermines education. High-stakes testing promotes cheating, gaming the system, teaching to bad tests, narrowing the curriculum. High-stakes testing means less time for the arts, less time for history or geography or civics or foreign languages or science.

We see schools across America dropping physical education. We see them dropping music. We see them dropping their arts programs, their science programs, all in pursuit of higher test scores. This is not good education.

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The single most reliable predictor of test scores is poverty, and poverty, in turn, is correlated to student attendance, to family support, and to the school’s resources.
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The current so-called reform movement is pushing bad ideas. No high-performing nation in the world is privatizing its schools, closing its schools, and inflicting high-stakes testing on every subject on its children. The current reform movement wants to end tenure and seniority, to weaken the teaching profession, to silence teachers’ unions, to privatize large sectors of public education. Don’t let it happen!

So here’s a thought for NEA. Print up four million bumper stickers that say, “I am a public schoolteacher, and I vote — and so does my family.”

Do not support any political figure who opposes public education. Stand up to the attacks on public education. Don’t give them half a loaf, because they will be back the next day for another slice, and the day after that for another slice.

Don’t compromise. Stand up for teachers. Stand up public education, and say “No mas, no mas." Thank you.
The Death and Life of the Great American School System:
How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education
Basic Books, 2010

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Cheerios
Spoonfuls of Stories New Author Contest


Cheerios® is searching for the next great children's book author. It could be you!

Cheerios has launched its 4th New Author Contest to support previously unpublished children's book authors. You can enter the contest starting March 15, 2010 through July 15, 2010. Winners will be announced in March 2011.

Just enter your original children's book story by July 15, 2010.

Stories should be geared toward readers 3 to 8 and be no longer than 500 words. They can be written in English or Spanish (Spanish entries will be translated into and judged in English).

Winners will receive cash prizes and a publishing contract with Simon & Schuster, and their books will be included in specially marked boxes of cereal.

Past grand prize winners include:
2007 - Shellie Braeuner of Tennessee: “The Great Dog Wash”
2008 - Lori Degman of Illinois: “1 Zany Zoo”
2009 - Laurie Isop of Washington: “How Do You Hug a Porcupine?”

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Diapalooza

Diapalooza
April 2010

A month-long celebration of “El dia de los ninos, El dia de los libros.” Dia is a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures. It was founded in 1996 by author Pat Mora.

Dia is now housed at the Association of Library Service to Children that has an updated list of books and list of Web sites for Día 2010.

Culminating Dia celebrations are held across the country on or near April 30th.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Temple Grandin - HBO Feb 6

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world.

Now her fascinating life, with all its challenges and successes is being brought to the screen. HBO has produced the full-length film Temple Grandin, which premieres on Saturday, February 6th on HBO. [ watch preview ]

She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), major television programs, such as the BBC special "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", ABC's Primetime Live, The Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours and 20/20, and has been written about in many national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and New York Times.

Among numerous other recognitions by media, Bravo Cable did a half-hour show on her life, and she was featured in the best-selling book, Anthropologist from Mars.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Adult Learners - Writer-to-Writer Awards

2009 Writer-to-Writer Awards
- at CLA Conference – Literacy Interest Group
October 31 @ Bar Celona Restaurant

This year 188 adult learners entered the Challenge from 43 library literacy programs all over California. Their letters, based on their writing skill levels, were divided into four categories: Emerging, Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. [see earlier Post for more information !]

The letters of the winners will appear as a Four-part Series by the Literacy Interest Group E-newsletter.

2009 Writer to Writer Challenge Winners

Emerging Level Winner:
Anonymous, Alhambra Civic Center Library
wrote to Anne Frank - Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Beginning Level Winner:
Evonne Macias, Hemet Public Library
wrote to Dave Pelzer - A Child Called It.

Intermediate Level Winner:
Larry Evans, Palmdale City Library
wrote to Sidney Poitier - The Measure of a Man.

Advanced Level Winner:
Sima Tawakoli, Berkeley Public Library
wrote to Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist.

. . . more @ SCLLN Blog

Book about adults learning to read 'stirs the emotions'
Daily Gleaner: October 24, 2009 by Rose Burke
Breaking the Word Barrier:
Stories of Adults Learning to Read
Edited by Marilyn Lerch, Angela Ranson

Goose Lane Editions


Do not pass on this book because you think it will be academic; it isn't. It is personal and stirs the emotions.

Adults who have achieved success in literacy were paired with writers to tell their stories and the result is 17 compelling accounts that capture the struggles and joy of each journey. The reader sees the obstacles that prevented them from mastering reading skills in their youth, feels the frustration of the impact it has had on their lives, cheers at their motivation to take their first steps and rejoices for the well-earned pride that comes with success. READ MORE !

Friday, May 15, 2009

John Corcoran: The Teacher Who Couldn't Read

It is never too late to learn how to read.

Watch John Corcoran share his story live on-stage at The Moth !

Over the last 20 years, John has had the opportunity to speak to millions of people as a literacy advocate. In New York, however, he had the unique experience of sharing his life story in an artistic venue from a first person point of view, to an audience of theater-goers.

Part 1: Introduction through high school.

Part 2: Life at college.

Part 3: High School teacher.

"I'm a university graduate," I began, "with a bachelor's degree in education and business administration and over 90 additional graduate units. I attended school for 35 years, half of them as a professional educator. In acquiring these experiences, I could not read a textbook or write the answer to an essay question. This is the first public acknowledgment that I have ever made, that I have been a functional illiterate for almost 50 years.”

John Corcoran, October 1987

Thursday, June 26, 2008

George Carlin - It's amazing to me that literacy isn't considered a right.

1 of the 27 things that George Carlin knew:
from "What I've Learned: George Carlin by Larry Getlen – Esquire article

It's amazing to me that literacy isn't considered a right.

So light some candles, Woodja !

Braindroppings
George Carlin - HighBridge, 2000

See what other stuff your local library has by one of our greatest comedians. Read On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The End of Literacy . . .

The End of Literacy . . .

articles, opinions and comments about literacy and reading habits that have appeared since Howard Gardner's column in the Washington Post (Feb 17 2008)


The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading. by Howard Gardner
Washington Post, February 17, 2008

What will happen to reading and writing in our time?

Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy.

The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day?


Maybe neither. Let me suggest a third possibility: Literacy -- or an ensemble of literacies -- will continue to thrive, but in forms and formats we can't yet envision. READ ON

~ a reaction from:The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance

Mr. Gardner's essay is well worth reading, but how long it has been since he has spent any time in public elementary or secondary schools? A challenge for Mr. Gardner-- spend a month working with young people in Worcester,Massachusetts, or in East Cleveland, Ohio, or even any middle class/working class neighborhood public school across the country to see where our nation truly is concerning reading, writing, and education-- to see the state of actual school buildings, school libraries, and public libraries in many parts of our nation. Have a conversation with a real group of kids, ask them what they read, how much they read, when they read anything at all. And then see if he would draw the same conclusions. READ ON

~ issue of schools, school libraries and budget cuts {just a few}

Austin: Libraries short on money, books: Austin school librarians making do with old and moldy books, aging collections.
Modesto: Modesto City’s plan to eliminate junior high school librarians is irrational - Stephan Krashen
California: The Governor plans to cut $5 billion from education over the next 18 months because of the budget crisis. I suggest we accomplish some of this by dumping the High School Exit Exam - Stephen Krashen
South Carolina: Improving the K-12 system is not enough; the greatest oppurtunity lies within adult education.

~ the value of The Big Read or One City, One Book events

Jim Henley’s Los Angeles Times (2/25/08) column: Big Read or Big Waste?
Stephen Krashen’s comment: The Big Read is a bad solution that addresses the wrong problem

a bit of a mashup, catchup sort of post which will end with 2 Gardner titles

Five Minds for the Future
Harvard Business School Press 2007
~ outlines the specific cognitive abilities that will be sought and cultivated by leaders in the years ahead.

Howard Gardner Under Fire
Edited by Jeffrey Schaler, Open Court Press 2006
~ leading experts who disagree with Gardner on specific issues explain their reasons, with no holds barred, and Gardner replies cogently and pungently to each one of them.


Read On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat



Friday, January 4, 2008

National Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Popular Children's Author Named Reading Ambassador
Washington Post
: Jan 3, 2008: by Bob Thompson

Jon Scieszka, author of "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" and the "Time Warp Trio" series, will get the imprimatur of the Library of Congress today as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

"We think it's very important to have an evangelist for reading," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. The library's Center for the Book has teamed up with the Children's Book Council, a publishing industry trade association, to create the national ambassador program.

The appointment comes at a time when declines in Americans' reading proficiency and time spent reading have been widely noted -- most recently in "To Read or Not to Read," a report issued by the National Endowment for the Arts. For many reasons, including economic competitiveness, it is "a matter of crucial national importance" that young people read, Billington said.
READ ON

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Doris Lessing - Nobel Prize

With age comes wisdom, and Lessing's Nobel Prize:
Doris Lessing sees the world change and gives it her spin. A Nobel Prize won't change that.
L A Times, Calendar: 10.23.07 by Kim Murphy

. . . . . on the State of Literature
Lessing has been making notes for her Nobel acceptance speech, in which she plans to explore the odd see-saw of literacy that seems to be seeping from her current world, Europe, back into her past one, Africa. . . .

"And the funny thing is, you see, there's a real irony here. While our part of the world are not terribly interested in reading, you go to the Third World, and they clamor for books. They see books as they used to be seen here, as an entrance to a new kind of education. I don't know if you've been to Africa, but it's, 'Please give me a book. Please send me a book. Please give me a leaf of paper.'

"I will talk about this in my Nobel talk: this great reverence for learning, for education, for books, seems to have left Europe and has gone somewhere else. And what will come out of that? Who knows? I don't know."
READ ON

Doris Lessing @
BBC Interview @
Nobel Prize bio-bibliography @

Read On @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat

Time Bites
Harper Collins, 2005
~ in this collection of the very best of Doris Lessing's essays, we are treated to the wisdom and keen insight of a writer who has learned, over the course of a brilliant career spanning more than half a century, to read the world differently.