Mary Ann- I am a little puzzled by some of your
statements. For example :"It is another Grade 8 and Up
from School Library Journal that really should be High
School." As Ninth Grade is considered the freshman
year of High School, placing books for the High School
Age child in the grade 8 and up category seems
perfectly appropriate, and as you yourself say the
reviewer took care to indicate the presence of strong
language. I have been a school librarian for 27 years
and have been reviewing books for SLJ for the past 7
years. It is impossible to write a "one size fits
all" review in the allotted 150 words. Even within a
single state there is such variety in terms of the
needs and interests of any given community. A book
that flies off the shelf in urban Newark may sit there
in sleepy Ocean Grove, and vice versa, and the
librarians selecting books in the respective libraries
would probably like to see different areas of emphasis
in the reviews they read. It obviously isn't possible
to accomplish that. What SLJs reviews do and I feel do
quite well 99% of the time is evaluate a book in terms
of literary quality, accuracy, timeliness, and general
usefulness.It cannot be a reviewer's job to determine
if a book should have a place in any given
collection.The librarian who knows her school
population, particular curriculum and community must
make that determination.Reviewers do try to include a
mention of language or sensitive issues- I flag those
consideration cards and make it a point to see the
book myself before ordering .I depend on SLJ not just
for reliable reviews but also for information and
articles that keep me abreast of what is happening in
the library field. Booklist, by the way, only
publishes positive reviews- which is a whole other
discussion!Grace
--- Mary Ann Shaffer <ShafferMAS@AOL.COM> wrote:
> I noticed a few posters mentioned School Library
> Jounal the last couple of days. I am a little bit
> unimpressed with their reviews lately and I am
> wondering if I am too uptight - or if they are too
> liberal. One thing I have noticed is that an awful
> lot of SCHOOL Library Journal reviews are written by
> Public Library (not public SCHOOL)librarians. I
> purchased America by Frank last year and happened to
> take it home to read when it came in. It was a very
> interesting book - and I sent it on to a high school
> because it was definately high school material, not
> the Gr 8 and above it stated in the review. This
> afternoon, an hour after school was out, I was
> called into the pricipal's office about the book
> Angst - a collection of poetry. (I should have paid
> closer attention to Alice Yucht and left on time...)
> It was another 'Gr 8 and above' that was more of a
> way above than grade 8. This is what I wrote to my
> principal:
>
> The 'strong language'(the review did have a warning)
> should have been a tip - but I was focusing more on
> the "hard-hitting verse that may be just what
> today's teens can relate to." It is another Gr. 8
> and Up from School Library Journal that really
> should be high school. Although from what you
> showed me, it really doesn't belong in a school
> library at all.
>
> I apologize for the poor selection and I am not
> renewing my subscription to School Library Journal,
> I think that Book List and Book Report are more in
> tune with the school population.
>
> I am wondering, however, just how gentle your image
> of what we have in the media center is. We have
> Princess Diaries - the sentence that shocked some of
> the girls last year was a recounting of an actual
> news story where the doctor used vaginal tissue to
> fashion lips for someone. Then there is The
> Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants where a high
> school girl loses her virginity with a camp
> counselor, It Happened to Nancy where the
> protagonist gets AIDS from a much older guy who she
> thinks loves her - and even the Lottery Rose which
> is a story of child abuse. The later two are class
> sets. We don't have the most requested book at
> another Middle School - Death from child abuse-- and
> no one heard - a really graphic story of child abuse
> that I still don't think should be in a middle
> school library - and one that some students have
> asked for.
>
> When I was a young teen my reading focused on
> Marguerite Henry and Albert Payson Terhune books.
> We have some of the former - but they've been
> collecting dust - and the latter is out of print -
> but they are not the types of book students today
> (or even most of my contemporaries back then...) are
> interested in. I tell the students during
> orientation that they should read a page or two from
> the middle of a book to see if it grabs their
> interest - maybe I should also remind them that some
> books might disturb them (which reminds me of
> another book we have which I don't personally care
> for, "Cirque du Freak" - or even the Goosebumps
> books - but some kids like scary stories) but appeal
> to other students and that we have books for a wide
> variety of interests. I think the book you showed
> me today would really have appealed to some of last
> year's eighth grade students - but it definately is
> not for most of the sixth graders.
>
> I guess I am venting to all of you because it is
> after 10 at night and I still feel bad about being
> called to the principal's office over a selection I
> made - but I wonder how many others rely on reviews.
> I know Frerick Muller reads everything before he
> puts it on the shelf - I don't have time for that
> with all the books I ordered last year but maybe I
> should order a lot less books and take the time to
> read every one of them ?!
>
> Mary Ann Shaffer
> Media Specialist
> Carver Middle School
> Orlando, FL
> shaffermas@aol.com
>
>
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=====
Grace Oliff, Librarian
Ann Blanche Smith E.S
1000 Hillsdale Ave.
Hillsdale, N.J. 07642
grace_1335@yahoo.com
Library Web Page- http://home.earthlink.net/~david916
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