May 30, 2008
Finding books
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I was alerted to this today. If you sign up to Simon and Schuster’s mailing list, they will send you a free book (presumably to “pay you” for the inconvenience of future junk mail). Anyway, a free book is a free book. This is for Australian residents only (or those with an Australian address, I suppose) and you can select from “Crime and Mystery”, “Thriller and General fiction” (odd grouping, isn’t it?), “Literary Fiction”, “Womens Fiction” or “Action and Adventure”.
Sign up here.
May 27, 2008
Childrens, Why reading?
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By reading a variety of books, magazines, and newspapers, students gain exposure to complex vocabulary, and reading becomes a prime opportunity for learning new words. … Given the importance of reading to lexical development in school-age children and adolescents, reading should be promoted as a leisure activity during these years. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2005]
Literacy is vital to language development. It seems pretty obvious, but it is something we may sometimes forget. Parents of kids who don’t like reading are passionate about getting them to read “good books.” A group of researchers at the University of Oregon recently investigated what older children and young adolescents actually like reading, and what else they like doing.
The results were not particularly surprising. Music and TV, sports and video games were the most popular pastimes, while reading feel somewhere in the middle. Magazines were preferred to novels, and comics were also popular. Most importantly, reading time dropped as children got older. This has vast implications for language development in teenagers. Sure, you can probably “talk real good” by age fifteen, but at that age, english writing tasks are becoming increasingly complex, job interviews are beginning and comprehension is becoming much more technically demanding as students are asked to assimilate technical science and maths data from multiple sources.
In the opinions of the authors, speech pathologists should use students preferences to enable them to continue leisure reading, in whatever form. Why is it that I have multiple magazine subscriptions as an adult, but I had to go out and buy my favourite comics at the newsagent as a kid? I hope I can keep all this in mind when my kids slow their reading habit.
“Literacy as a leisure activity: free-time preferences of older children and young adolescents.” - Nippold MA, Duthie JK, Larsen J.
May 23, 2008
Review
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A DrCris quick Review of The Invention of Hugo Cabret
This is a children’s book which combines graphic novel-style narrative with conventional prose. It is presented in quite a thick volume, which is none-the-less quite accessible due to the small amount of text, and energetic style. Due to a series of personal tragedies, Hugo Cabret, a young boy and talented tinker, lives alone in the bowels of a train station. He steals food and spends his time maintaining the station clocks, to avoid being found out. He also attempts to repair a clockwork automaton that once belonged to his father. He is caught stealing by a shopkeeper and is befriended by his ward. With her help, Hugo finds out the secret of the clockwork man and manages to get him working again.
I paid full price for this book, because I found the combination of graphic novel and text captivating. The graphic sections are exceptional, with great suspense, energy and framing. Unfortunately, the text lets it down. It was written by a guy who has previously been well-known as a children’s illustrator. It should have had a lot more work on the text, which is clunky. The characters, particularly Hugo, seem to be in a perpetual panic, running here and there, never pausing. Although this builds action, it is really unbelievable. Like many childrens’ books, it also has a couple of pearlers of coincidences. I can accept the main one, but all of the others should have been trimmed. Kid books should be fantastic, but they shouldn’t rely so heavily on chance that they are completely improbable.
However, I think this book is worth reading, purely because of the graphic sequences. I suspect a less cynical child would have less problem with the text than I did, so I am planning to give my copy to my nephew, and I suspect he will enjoy it greatly.