As far as parents pushing kids out of picture books goes, that is neither new nor news. As Robin Smith and Dean Schneider told us in “Unlucky Arithmetic,” “throw out the picture books” is one of thirteen time-tested ways to raise a non-reader. When I was a children’s librarian, which was probably before the Times reporter was even born, I was regularly told by parents that such-and-such book for Junior was “too easy.” People who think reading is supposed to be difficult most often–surprise!–don’t like to read themselves and, in a perfect world, would have their interference met by a friendly but firm “you don’t know what you are talking about.”

And, as many in the blogosphere have been pointing out, anecdotal evidence of bookstore behavior is not going to give us the complete picture. It was the wise Jane Botham of the Milwaukee Public Library who told me that the book to buy in the bookstore was the one the child had already checked out of the library over and over again. Start there.

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I like this award not only because of my long association with and continuing respect for BCCB but because books for younger children need all the help they can get. Those people relying on YA to keep the publishing industry and youth librarianship going had better mind that, as a population bump, those readers are aging out. What will you do then?

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