How are the reviews on Follett not reliable? They are from respected sources and
they are not truncated. And not all of the reviews are positive. The reviews I
have written for SLJ, including negative ones (e.g. The Devil's Tango), are
reprinted in full in Titlewave. If the reviews omit information about
controversial aspects of a book then the fault probably lies with the original
reviewer and/or the editor. Most reviewers are practicing librarians and we have
our own tastes, standards, and prejudices. What we might find objectionable in our
school libraries may not even register as a concern for a public librarian
Titlewave is one of the most useful-- maybe the most useful, ordering tools around.
I think it is crazy to write off the reviews because it comes from a vendor.
Tony
--------------------------------------------------
Tony Doyle, Teacher Librarian
Member California Young Reader Medal Committee
Livingston High School
Livingston, CA
tdoyle@MUHSD.K12.CA.US
Http://www.lhswolves.org/library/index.htm
Http://lhsblog.edublogs.org <http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/>
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture; you just have to get people to
stop reading them."
Ray Bradbury
WARNING: The contents of this e-mail are confidential and are intended only for the
recipient(s) identified in the To and CC fields. Comments made herein do not
represent the opinions or positions of the Merced Union High School District, only
the (sometimes uninformed) opinions of the sender. This message is protected by
copyright law, an alarm, a guard dog, a video surveillance system, and powerful
magic. If you are somehow offended by this message don't feel obligated to notify
the sender of your outrage/anger/hurt feelings. Just delete it. It was probably
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message to others, stop and think, is this message really so interesting that you
want to bother other people with it? I mean really, is the content of this message
so profound that it bears repeating? The author is given to long-winded ramblings
and everyone I know gets enough of that in their inboxes already. Sure, he's
handsome, funny, and a great cook (and modest to a fault), but that doesn't mean
everyone wants to read his e-mails.
________________________________
From: School Library Media & Network Communications on behalf of Kay Goss
Sent: Tue 12/11/2007 11:49 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] UPDATE: Zero to Sixty Comments
Dear LM_NETters:
I thought I would share with you the few comments I received about the
content of two of Gary Paulsen's books being unsuitable for our elementary
library collection.
Most of the respondents were happy to receive the warning about the titles.
I did receive one comment that criticized us as professional for not only
ordering from the authoritative best book lists and/or making sure there was
a credible review of the book before any book was purchased. It was pointed
out that reviews given on Follett are not credible because after all they
are selling us books..
After that comment I searched the following web sites for any review on Zero
to Sixty.
The only review I could find was one editorial from the publisher which did
not mention the profanity or sexual situations found in Zero to Sixty. I did
find some negative Customer Reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. There
was also a comment AsIf--a web site of authors supporting intellectual
freedom.
Booklist--Requires a $350 per building subscription
Bookspot
Barnes and Noble
VOYA
NY Times
Allreaders.com
Bookpage.com
Kirkusreviews.com
Library Media Connection
Atlantic.com--requires subscription
Hornbook--requires subscription
Good luck finding only the right books for your collection.
Kay Goss
Mansfield Secondary Library
316 West Ohio Ave.
Mansfield, Mo. 65704
Home of Laura Ingalls Wilder
417-924-3236 Ext. 311
klg@tnp.more.net
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