But I don't really have a problem with number 6. Seriously, historical fiction, broaden your horizons! She is wrong about the medieval Europe being overdone though. There's plenty of medieval books, but they're nearly all courtly stories. A lot more happened in the middle ages besides courtly knights and ladies, people! Move before or beyond the 13th and 14th centuries for a change!
As a once boy I feel I can speak out in defense of point #5. In this days we manly men are often excluded as protagonists in children/young adult literature - except for all the Harry Potter books, and the Entire Red Wall series, and the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Lord of the Rings, and Eragon, and Twilight, and the majority of books written prior to 1940, and the majority of books written today, and every PIXAR movie -
BUT besides those, we're really hard up for some male leads.
And (speaking from a female who'd love to get a little boy to read) those aren't necessarily just boy's books. All of those books are read by females on a pretty regular basis, in so far as I can tell (a Good Thing). Books that only boys read include....captain underpants? Books that a boy wouldn't be caught dead reading: a very, very long list
( ... )
I will say that I haven't kept up with children's lit since I stopped working at a children's library, but I do try to keep an ear to the ground for my nevvy, who is an 11 year old book hater - not because he dislikes books, but because the books with plot lines he'd be interested in are stupidly above his reading level. He could read Redwall, maybe, at a rate of a few pages a day if the sheer size of them didn't make him give up before opening the covers.
Practice makes perfect, but I can't seem to find good books to "practice" on for him.
She's right about a lot of it, though I feel some should be directed at authors and not publishers. Publishers DO have to keep their authors happy. But, still, something they should pay attention to. Librarians and teachers are overlooked far too often, and it's sad, because they often have the best insight.
Agreed. And in many cases, librarians and teachers are the ones exposing their students to the books first. It's a rare child who will go out of the way to find something cool to read all on their own. Unless kids have changed since I was one.
So in a way, teachers and librarians are also consumers of these books.
um... #9- that's unavoidable alot of the times: Legal issues and all. Some copyright here that isn't copyrighted in their heathen land of origin. Don't know if it applies in this specific case, can't find it, but I know it's happened before. Quite a bit.
I think this librarian needs to read more books... I've seen no problem in the amount of various historical fictions, and I read a lot of it. Only 162 war novels, eh? You know there was more than WW2, maybe some of those are from other wars? In other time periods? Or maybe not, it was kind of big and important after all.
Remember, she's talking about children's books. Not books in general. And children's books DO tend to be inundated with WW2 books from the Japanese POV. Just sayin'.
I wish I knew more about kids' books these days. I'd try to write something to fill the perceived gap, but it seems to me a lot of times adults are interested in writing kids books about things they would want to read about now, as opposed to when they were kids. If this list is accurate at all.
Which I wouldn't know. Because I don't spend my time in the kids' section anymore. Or hanging around elementary schools.
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But I don't really have a problem with number 6. Seriously, historical fiction, broaden your horizons! She is wrong about the medieval Europe being overdone though. There's plenty of medieval books, but they're nearly all courtly stories. A lot more happened in the middle ages besides courtly knights and ladies, people! Move before or beyond the 13th and 14th centuries for a change!
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BUT besides those, we're really hard up for some male leads.
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Practice makes perfect, but I can't seem to find good books to "practice" on for him.
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So in a way, teachers and librarians are also consumers of these books.
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I think this librarian needs to read more books... I've seen no problem in the amount of various historical fictions, and I read a lot of it. Only 162 war novels, eh? You know there was more than WW2, maybe some of those are from other wars? In other time periods? Or maybe not, it was kind of big and important after all.
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Which I wouldn't know. Because I don't spend my time in the kids' section anymore. Or hanging around elementary schools.
(It would be creepy if I did.)
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