Leave No Child Be . . .

ALAN Review, Winter 2004 by Weiss, M Jerry

Have you been reading about the different states that have found teachers cheating? Yes, getting that federal money is important, and the word is out, "GET THOSE SCORES UP!" The consequences of this are ironic. At a recent meeting I attended with an assistant to the superintendent of schools, I was told, "Yes, we have a library budget for schools. It's marked Library Materials and Supplies." But supplies also include toilet paper and janitorial items, leaving some school librarians a grand total of $500 per year to update their collections, which include technology as well as reference materials, magazines, newspapers, and, pardon the expression, books.

Some school districts are coping with budget crunches by laying off librarians in great numbers. How are students and teachers going to find those newer books among the test papers? Publishers are complaining because public and school library budgets are shrinking. They are. And shrinking along with them are staffs of a number of publishing houses.

Fantasy Stuff

With the popularity of Harry Potter, I wonder why teachers aren't using such books more as a part of their curriculum. Many students out there will find total enchantment in Donna Jo Napoli's Beast (Simon & Schuster, 2002), Ellen Schreiber's Vampire Kisses (Harper Collins, 2003), Jane Yolen's Sword of the Rightful King (Harcourt, 2003), Nancy Springer's IAm Mordred (Puffin, 2002), Isobelle Carmody's The Farseekers (Tor/Starscape, 2003), Cornelia Funke's Inkheart (The Chicken House/Scholastic, 2003), Christopher Paolini's Eragon (Knopf, 2003), Alison Goodmian's Singing the Dogstar Blues (Viking, 2002). Herbie Brennan's Faerie Wars (Bloomsbury, 2003), Science Fiction Stories, edited by Edward Blishen (Kingfisher, 2003), Eoin Golfer's Artemis Fowl (Hyperion, 2002), Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (Starscape/Tor, 2002), Charles De Lint's The Riddle of the Wren (Firebird, 2002), Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty (Delacorte, 2003), M. T. Anderson's Feed (Candlewick Press, 2002), Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare (Little, Brown, 2001), David Lubar's Flip (Tor, 2003), Neal Shusterman's Downsiders (Simon and Schuster, 1999), William Sleator's The Boxes (Puffin, 2000), John Christopher's When the Tripods Came (Simon Pulse, 2003), and New Magics: An Anthology of Today's Fantasy, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Tor, 2004).

I do admit that I have checked on a number of colleges and universities and found out that very few offer elective courses in fantasy and science fiction. What a tragedy! The traditional course of study over the four years is pretty much the same as it was in 1944 when I was an undergraduate student. Some English chairs admitted that they didn't have anyone on their faculty who felt qualified to teach such genres. So when a school finds out the interests of students, what then?

How Would You Like ... ?

Recently, a school district encouraged middle school teachers to update their curricula. One teacher, who attends all of the state English Council meetings, admitted she was familiar with many young adult authors, but never used their books. She did maintain a class library and encouraged her students to read these books on their own for which they could write book reports. Yes, she gave some credit for these writings, but they weren't as important as the required books. In addition, teachers admitted that, among the currently required authors, there were a few whom they didn't like to teach. They did not admit, however, that they were passing their dislikes on to the kids. So the new principal and curriculum coordinator asked, "What books would you like to teach? Some of these books could be purchased out of the new budget." No suggestions came in. No books were ordered by these teachers. A consultant was brought in to make suggestions based on the interests the teachers had expressed. Sample books were purchased for the teachers to read based on their preferences. None were read or reported on. The students deserve better!

In The Real World

In visiting school media centers, I find that the media specialists often do buy some nonfiction books; however, very few are checked out. Is it because the students are getting their information from the Internet? I am not talking just about reference books, but about well-done and interesting nonfiction.

Here are some newer nonfiction books I think students and teachers should become familiar with: Witch Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials, by Marc Aronson (Atheneum, 2003); Kennedy Assassinated! The World Mourns: A Reporter's Story, by Wilborn Hampton (Candlewick Press, 1997); Witness To Our Times, by Flip Schulke (Cricket Books, 2003) ; The Beginning: Voyages Through Time, by Peter Ackroyd (DK, 2003); A Day that Changed America: The Alamo, by Shelley Tanaka with paintings by David Craig (Hyperion, 2003); Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps, by Andrea Warren (Harper Trophy, 2002); Voyages Through Time: Escape from Earth, by Peter Akroyd (DK, 2003); An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, by Jim Murphy (Clarion, 2003); The Life and Death of Adolph Hitler, by James Cross Giblin (Clarion, 2002); Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown V. Board of Education Decision, edited by Joyce Carol Thomas (Jump at the Sky/ Hyperion, 2003); Wonders of the African World, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (Knopf, 1999); Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany, by Eleanor Ramrath Garner (Peachtree Press, 2003); The Hero's Trail: A Guide for a Heroic Life, by T. A. Barron (Philomel, 2002) ; Tapestry of Hope: Holocaust Writing for Young People, compiled by Lillian Boraks-Nemetz and Irene N. Watts (Tundra, 2003); We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History, by Phillip Hoose (Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2001); Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (And What the Neighbors Thought), by Kathleen Krull (Harcourt, 2000); Words That Built a Nation: A Young Person's Collection of Historic Documents, by Marilyn Miller (Scholastic, 1999); Words West: Voices of Young Pioneers, by Ginger Wadsworth (Clarion, 2003). I know I have omitted some of the excellent nonfiction books available, but I'm just interested in pointing out that these are books that might appeal to some students and teachers who might be inspired to explore the genre further.