Introduction to Children’s Literature

To be useful to students in a School Library, I think it’s fair that Teacher Librarians work hard at getting to know their collection… especially their fiction collection. Some of this happens by osmosis… really! Having conversations with booksellers and high end readers – and it’s amazing how much information we can pick up about genres, authors, reading trends and series. Engaging with our borrowers can lead to all sorts of valuable titbits of information.
Visiting favourite bookshops that provide short reviews of books as shelf ornamentation is another invaluable means to gather information about children’s and young adult fiction titles. One of my favourite such bookshops is Kinokuniya in Sydney – a treasure trove of children’s literature with lots of book reviews displayed to read and learn.
This leads us to another item on the Cunning Plan for 2016 – the addition of book reviews to both our Oliver catalogue and our shelves. Here’s an example of the type of information that we can add to the shelf to increase our borrowers interaction with wide reading:
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Title of Book:
Author of Book:
Personal Reaction to the Book and your Reading Experience: (Prompts to get you thinking)
What did you think of the book?
What resonated with you?
Where were you most drawn into the story?
Where was your transaction with the text the most powerful?
What will you carry with you from the reading experience?
Would you recommend the book to others, and why?
Number of stars out of five stars:
Three words to describe the book:
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