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From
the November/December 2003 issue of The Horn Book Magazine Letters to the Editor The American Library Association recently established a task force to explore the possibility of adding one or more new awards to those named at ALA Midwinter. Among the few being considered by ALSC is an award for audiobooks. In a proposal made last spring to ALSC about establishing this award, I shared my views that children’s audiobooks are an important link between the visual worlds of TV and computer/video games and the world of imagination children discover through books. Audiobooks — played in cars,
in libraries, in classrooms, and by families at home — recall
the pleasure of being read to at bedtime, or during story hour.
While teachers read aloud to students in elementary and middle school,
the opportunities to hear stories read aloud dwindles as children
move on through school. I believe audiobooks provide special opportunities
for stories to be shared, and I think they can introduce children
to new authors, books, and characters whose stories can then be
pursued on the printed page. Susan Salzman Raab
Our small group has had considerable success locally in addressing a specific need. We are hoping to encourage others who believe in the power of books for young readers to take up similar projects in their own regions. In the current climate of budgets strained to the breaking point, many critical needs go unmet. Often, the most vulnerable must try to succeed with the least. Against great odds, they attempt to learn and grow and ultimately to value themselves. We have chosen to help those young people who reside in juvenile correctional facilities. To dream, to aspire to lives of meaning, these at-risk youths must be exposed to great ideas and literature. They need books! We urge involvement by individuals and groups in furnishing books to these young people. It is a way to make a difference and to invest in the future. Jean Russell Larson
Finding shiny new copies recently of the Trixie Belden series delighted me. I snatched them up, eager to add them to my school library, telling myself, “I loved Trixie, surely my children will, too . . . ” I loved them for all the reasons Terri Schmitz (“Guilty Pleasures,” September/October 2003 Horn Book) mentions — and more. The “Bob-Whites of the Glen” was the first taste of community this lonely little girl ever experienced, and the camaraderie — the shared secrets, the loyalty, and the dependence upon one another — held me from volume to volume. Now, forty years later, I ask myself Ms. Schmitz’s question: do the books stand up over time? As soon as school gets under way it will be my pleasure to introduce Trixie and her friends to a new — and very different — generation. I owe her that much. With enthusiasm and sincerity I’ll try to explain how I grew up with the Bob-Whites of the Glen. But when it’s time to check out books, I doubt if very many of these pre-teens will visit Sleepyside on their own. S. Dorothy Sconzo |
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