Book list

[kkersey_austin]

Hi Shaun -

Hope this doesn't sound too ignorant, but what exactly does a literacy
specialist do? I imagine that that field could cover a rather wide
range, especially considering different ages and skill levels. 

Anyway, for beginning readers, besides Dr. Suess there are classics in
a similar vein by P.D Eastman, for instance Go, Dog Go and Put Me in
the Zoo. Just about anything by Margaret Wise Brown is good for very
young children (especially as read-to books). It's not so much the
stories as the way she uses language that is special. The Little Bear
and the Frog and Toad books (authors escape me right now) and Esther
Avril's Fire Cat and the Cat Club are all good stories, broken into
chapters, for beginning readers. 

Then there is Maurice Sendak - especially A Hole is to Dig. He has
produced so many provocative books that appeal to a wide range of
ages. I had one of those wonderful teaching moments many, many years
ago when I was doing some volunteer work at an after-school tutoring
program - the boy I was working with was reading way below grade level
and really struggling with each word, although he was bright enough.
He had that 'getting by' skill that a lot of ESL students seem to
aquire, where he would sound out the words and move on as if he
understood, even if he didn't. We had one of those "a-ha!" moments
when I figured out that he had no idea what "dough" meant - as soon as
we worked out that it was "masa" he got so excited about knowing what
was going on in the story that we read it three times in a row. He
*loved* that book - In the Night Kitchen. (Unfortunately that book is
often banned because of a wee bit of nudity. Stupid prudes.)

Skipping on up to much older kids, high school, if you have someone
really interested in science then I would recommend Steven Jay Gould's
essays, which are widely available. As a kid I devoured Isaac Asimov's
science essays too, though I imagine that many of them are
considerably out of date. The ones on mathematics should still be
relevant though. For the record, I couldn't stand his fiction, though
I read it too in order to remain SF literate.

For anyone interested in reading Jane Austen or other Nineteenth
Century literature I *emphatically* recommend a book called "What Jane
Austen Ate and What Charles Dickens Knew" (or maybe that's vice
versa...? Forgot the author's name, too, sorry!). It explains a lot of
those little details that have to do with nineteenth century manners,
economics, dress, etc. Things like explaining what the "ho ho" is that
figures into the action of Jane Austen's Persuasion (a fence that is
sunk in a ditch so as not to obscure the view), why one sister is Miss
Surname and the others Miss Firstnames, the significance of dancing
the quadrille, an explanation of the legal system, inheritance, pounds
and guineas and shillings and pence and what they are worth, etc. etc.
There's at least one companion volume written by the same author. If
I'd have had that book in high school maybe I'd have had better luck
getting past the second page of Pride and Prejudice. (One of my
favorites now, of course!) It fills in a lot of those details that the
author just took for granted that her readers would know.

Honestly, there are a lot of books that I loved as a child that aren't
necessarily going to be all that appealing to every child. Madeline
L'Engle wrote a lot of wonderful books for young adults, but I suspect
many kids would find them rather dated now. One thing that she does
well is write about teenagers interacting with the adults in their
lives. On the opposite end of the spectrum in that regard is S.E.
Hinton, specifically the Outsiders. Very popular when I was in junior
high school, but that may be because she was a local author. No idea
if kids are still reading those. I also loved E.B. White, which seem
to be still popular,  when I was younger.

Oh, I almost forgot - Wiliam Stieg! Everything he has written. Highly
recommend his stories to parents of young kids who are getting a wee
bit, er, annoyed with the lack of sophistication in most children's
stories. Dr. De Soto has saved my sanity on a number of occasions, and
of course kids love the books too.

Elisabet, who has been having some interesting conversations with her
spouse about childhood reading habits, thanks!