2018 School Spending Survey Report
>Abridge too far?
>In proofreading the Fall issue of the Horn Book Guide today, I came across a series published by Sterling called Classic Starts, a series of--well, let's not here get into a discussion of the term "classic," we'll instead go with "famous and copyright-free"--novels abridged and retold for young readers.
Even for a gifted young reader, getting through long chapters with dense language can easily become overwhelming and can obscure the richness of the story and its characters. Reading an abridged, newly crafted version of a classic novel can be the gentle introduction a child needs to explore the characters and story line without the frustrations of difficult vocabulary and complex themes.
Reading an abridged version of a classic novel gives the young reader a sense of independence and the satisfaction of finishing a "grown-up" book. And when a child is engaged with and inspired by a classic story, the tone is set for further exploration of the story's themes, characters, history, and details. As a child's reading skills advance, the desire to tackle the original, unabridged version of the story will naturally emerge.
Oh, sure. Here's what it really wants to say:
Attention Walmart Shopper: For only $4.95, you can buy this hardcover version of a book you have definitely heard of but have probably never read. And not just any old famous book but a classic, the kind of book your third- or fourth- grader should be reading rather than wasting his or her time with an easy and probably demonic "children's book." This book used to be a grownup book, which means your child will be smarter and more advanced after reading it. And think of the sense of pride and satisfaction you will have that your child read a classic. Go ahead and brag. You've earned it.
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rindambyers
>Well, speaking of A Bridge Too Far...I have this to say about being a dyslexic reader: Homeschooled far, far away, and I mean far away from public schools in the U.S., dyslexia was uheard of when I was little. No one knew I had it.I painstakingly taught myself to read by memorizing word after word after word, absorbing meanings through context. Math was a hideous endeavor; I could not read equations or numbers. My mother tried phonetics, a few times, and oh, the tears! Painful for us both. Once word shapes were memorized,though, I started gulping in familiar senteneces and word linkage and now read very, very fast. Always scored very high in vocabulary. Still terrible with numbers and music scores.
But I wanted to read so badly. I kept trying and trying and trying...the books wouldn't leave me be. And I won! I was able to get into books at last!
I had few "children's" books. We were too poor.I read adult books, anything available. I skipped the things that bored me and re-read the parts I loved. The things I didn't understand, that were "too above" me, I wondered about, asked questions about, tried to find out more about.
The Classics comic books, which I loved, too, introduced me to many classics I didn't have. But I always got back to to the book. I still do always, always go back to the book.
My parents, fundamentalist, evangelicals that they are, never worried about what I read. Only that I would hurt my eyes. I'm glad they didn't buy me abridged books.
Don't you WISH every child had the freedom I had as a child? To have had so few books but so much freedom?
Posted : Aug 10, 2006 04:03
Lelac Almagor
>I didn't mean to imply that money for college is the only right way to get a guided reading of a book. Only that if a student came to me and asked, How can I help myself read this difficult book I'd love to get to know, then I would recommend a footnoted edition or a companion, not an abridgement, for the reasons I described earlier. Taking what you can get doesn't seem to me to pertain here.Posted : Aug 09, 2006 06:08
Melinda
>Believe it or not, college is still out of the question for a lot of people. There still aren't many people in my family that go to college; most of us work in the trades. They might not get the kick that I got from Dante, or indeed, from anything else in the Intro to Lit class.I did get a lot of help from a good teacher; later, I persuaded another teacher to teach Dante in his medieval lit class because nobody else was teaching Dante. But not everybody has that advantage.
If we'd had Cliff Notes when I was in high school, and I'd known about them, I would have picked one up. That really would have helped me. Sometimes if you want to learn and you don't have a lot of money, you have to take what you can get. For some, abridgements will have to do until you can work your way through the real thing.
Posted : Aug 08, 2006 04:49
Lelac Almagor
>Melinda, the sort of guiding-through you experienced in college seems like an expanding and enriching of the text, not a narrowing of it -- like reading a copy with extensive footnotes and someone's handwritten exclamations in the margin. Imagine if your professors had instead simply told you their own short version of "what happens" and "what he's trying to say" in the Inferno. Would it have become one of your books then? And would you have decided to go ahead and struggle through the original anyway -- or would all that extra complexity have seemed even more superfluous?Posted : Aug 07, 2006 09:28
Melinda
>It is always best to read the libretto first, esp. when it comes to those quartets when everybody's singing different texts at the same time, and in *Italian*. I mean, honestly.Well, you know these publishers want to convey that sense of urgency, read these right now! Because that's how you get us parents to shell out the big bucks. And we're helpless when it comes to choosing familiar books over unfamiliar ones. Even I do it. And my kid especially does it; I turn around and there's Miss Thang unloading shelves of work-for-hire editions of Dora and Sponge Bob. I tried to raise her right! I really did!
What we need is a children's book fiend in every store who can gently but firmly drag people away from the crap and over to the good. Or body check, if necessary.
*sigh* Sometimes I wonder why I'm not in charge of everything.
Posted : Aug 07, 2006 05:48