ALA 2010: The Changing Face of Books for Beginning Readers
By Henrietta Thornton-Verma, SLJJun 28, 2010
Look out Dr. Seuss and Arnold Lobel, there are new books in town. That was the message delivered during "Move Over Dick and Jane: Reconsidering Books for Beginning Readers," a packed session by recent Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winners and their publishers, which took place June 26th at the American Library Association's annual conference in Washington, DC.
Librarians were charmed as they listened to Laura Vaccaro Seeger, author of the 2009 Geisel honor title One Boy (Roaring Brook, 2008), and watched a lively slideshow highlighting the gentle humor and expressive features in the characters she creates. Seeger's books--full of innovative writing and design--are a clear departure from the traditional "Frog and Toad" early readers that librarians have always known.
Seeger is just one example of someone who writes early readers without text blocks or chapters--but whose books are hugely popular with the younger set. There's no denying that her books offer wonderful new experiences for kids with beginning-level reading skills.
So what exactly constitutes a book for beginning readers? These days there's no clear answer, since they come in so many formats. Take a look at some recent winners of the Geisel Award, bestowed annually to authors and illustrators of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers. Two-time winner Mo Willems is a fine example of someone who likes to go in a "totally different direction" says HarperCollins's Alessandra Balzer, who edits the bestselling author and artist. When she suggested that Willems write a young adult novel, he came up with Cat the Cat: Who Is That? (HarperCollins, 2010), an upbeat series that introduces young children to a new cast of animal friends and is written in large, bold type that is well-suited to brand-new readers.
Willems, Balzer explains, draws simple shapes because he likes children to be able to draw his characters. "He respects kids and lets them in on the joke."
Seeger talked about her "Dog and Bear" series, which came about when her publisher asked for a narrative picture book, and she immortalized her "grabby, self-centered" dachshund. Young readers find it hard to resist the pages that are filled with big, bold color and expression, and the charms of picture book pals Dog and Bear, whose playful misadventures are much like those of the beloved Frog and Toad.
Seeger says Dog is exactly like her editor Neal Porter--and the two brought the house down with an author/editor readers' theater-style rendition of Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories (Roaring Brook Press, 2007).
The refreshingly opinionated Françoise Mouly, editorial director of Toon Books and art director of New Yorker magazine, says high-quality early readers are essential because we shouldn't wait until kids become reluctant readers.
"You can do as much phonics as you want, if there's no pleasure, you're not going to create a life-long reader," says Mouly, stressing the importance of exposing kids to classic comics, which she says her husband, Maus (Pantheon, 1986) creator Art Spiegelman, describes as "gateway drugs for literacy." She then described the creation of Geoffrey Hayes's Geisel-winner, Benny and Penny in the Big No-No (Toon, 2009), which resembles those old-time works.
Lisa Triggs, lower-school librarian at Maret School in Washington, DC, closed the session by thanking attending members of the Geisel Award committee for "changing our world."
Visit ALA Annual Conference News for ongoing coverage of the conference by the editors of Library Journal and School Library Journal.
