Series and Mary Leonhardt, good prof.ref.

[Joan Kimball <jkim@BORG.COM>]

Hello!
I want to recommend Mary Leonhardt's book, "Parents Who Love Reading, Kids
Who don't", on using series books and other light reading with reluctant
readers, upper elementary through high school.

As I mentioned in December, when poor readers discover series books, such as
Goosebumps and Babysitters, their reading speed and ability to follow plots
increase.  Many then will turn to collections of similar but more meaty
offerings, such as Coville, Wright, Dahl, Nixon (for Goosebumps fans)
and Naylor, Park, Conford, Danziger (for BC fans).

My inspiration for this comes from Mary Leonhardt of Concord, MA, who wrote

Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don't
      Crown, 1993    ISBN: 0-517-59164-2

It includes a 67-page annotated bibliography, and though written for
parents, is a boon to teachers and librarians.

Mary's experience as a high school English teacher convinced her that
she could only reach non-readers by saturating them with what they want,
beginning with comics and Mad magazine.

She identifies 8 stages of reading beginning with leafing through
magazines and ending with Lifelong Avid Reader.  Her next-to-last stage
is Independently Finding Books.  My corollary: we can't wait for kids
to find the books on our shelves...we have to appeal to earlier stages
with book talks, reading clubs, special collections, one on one talks,
and make sure we have not only good literature on our shelves, but
also what appeals.


Joan Kimball (jkim@borg.com)
Clinton, NY
Hart's Hill Elementary School Library
Whitesboro, NY