Ban This Book

Ban This Book
by Alan Gratz
Starscape, 2017

"...for all the amazing things books can do, they can't make you into a bad person." p.232

Nope. They open our minds, make us think, introduce us to new worlds and different ways of living and being, entertain us, and call us to action. But they don't make us into bad people, or good people, or any kind of people at all. It's up to us to take action and be the person we want to be.

And that's precisely what Amy Anne learns in this book. She has always been the quiet mouse of a reader, chewing on the ends of her braids, having conversations in her head but not standing up for herself out loud...until her favorite book in the world is banned from the school library. The book is not banned through the formal board-approved process of review. Rather, it is banned because one powerful mother goes straight to the board, bypassing all the rules, and gets what she wants.

Not only does Amy Anne learn to say what's on her mind, she also learns the importance of empathy. It's not until she looks at the situation from the point of view of the book-banning mom is she able to provide the school board with the argument that wins her case -- you can't ban books because a single reader finds fault with them. If you did that, you might as well ban all the books in the library.

Hooray for the teachers in this book and their study of the Bill of Rights. Hooray for Amy Anne's friend Rebecca who wants to become a lawyer and who knows all about Robert's Rules of Order (and wears a suit and carries a briefcase to the school board meeting at the end of the book). Hooray for Alan Gratz for giving book-loving kids a book where the reader is the hero, and a story where the misuse of power is defeated by democracy.

I'm going to add Mrs. Jones to our list of 100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature even though she's a librarian. She gets fired because of Amy Anne's BBLL (Banned Books Locker Library), but she doesn't hold it agains Amy Anne. She tells her, "Well-behaved women seldom make history. Consider this your first taste of behaving badly in the name of what's right." p.223

I'll end with this: "All the book challenges, the real ones, were because one person saw a book in a very different way than somebody else. Which was fine. Everbody had the right to interpret any book any way they wanted to. What they couldn't do then was tell everybody else their interpretation was the only interpretation." p.195.

Amen.

A Vision for School Libraries

I followed a conversation this week about libraries.  Two people who really have me thinking about literacy these days and about libraries. In a post this week, Doug Johnson shared his thinking on the roles of libraries with the changes in the ways we get information. In his post, he says:

The question our team was to help answer was supposed to be: How can the MS/HS library program and facilities be improved to support student learning and achieve the ISB Vision for Learning?

But somehow it changed in a meeting with school officials this afternoon to: Does a school need a library when information can be accessed from the classroom using Internet connected laptops?

The new question is uncomfortable, messy, and incredibly important and not restricted by any means to one particular school. It is one to which all library people need a clear and compelling answer.

As a school librarian, this is an uncomfortable question. But it is one worth thinking about.  What is the new vision for libraries with things changing so quickly.  And he didn't give us an answer--instead he asked for others' thoughts.

In response to Doug Johnson's question about libraries, David Warlick responded on his blog.  Such a smart answer.  Warlick gives us a lot to think about.  But the one part I keep coming back to is his ending:

...if the library might come to be seen more as a workshop where information isn’t so much a product, as it is a raw material (a “Kinko's for kids,” if you will), then it may remain not only viable, but an essential institution.

In my classroom, I always tried for a coffee-shop feel. I believed that the feel of people gathering to chat about books with people they liked, to have smart discussions and to learn with friends was what I was going for.  It helped me create the environment that I wanted.  I have a similar vision for the library. But now, I have this new vision of a "Kinko's for Kids" to add to my coffee shop vision. I love Kinko's--like a playground of fun tools to help you create what you have in mind.   And I love the idea of it even more than a coffee shop vision by itself.  Can you imagine a Kinko's and a coffee shop coming together? A coffee-shop feel. But with all the tools you need right at your fingertips. A great place to get together with friends to think, talk, learn and create.  I guess I always had creation in my vision but this "Kinko's for kids" idea gives me a better vision for what it is we might be trying to create.

READ IT, DON'T EAT IT! by Ian Schoenherr

I am not usually a big fan of books that obviously teach a lesson. But I really like this new book READ IT, DON'T EAT IT by Ian Schoenher that teaches young children how to take care of a book. Even though the lesson is a bit obvious, it is very well done and it is a great, supportive book for new readers.

In this book, animal characters teach us the ways to take care of the books we borrow from classrooms and libraries. Each page, gives us a tip on taking care of books such as "Find someplace else to sneeze."  and "Be careful with it at the pool." Each rule is accompanied by a colorful picture of an animal demonstrating the tip.  The text is large and simple and there is much rhyme and rhythm to the book. 

I can see this as a great book to start the year with for K-1 students next year in the library. It will be a fun way to start a conversation about library books and the library.  I can also see this as a great book for K-1 classrooms.  The text is predictable enough for new readers to be able to read on their own--the picture supports are great.

Poetry Month: I Love My Library

(Song lyrics count as poetry, right?)

Too bad I didn't find this when Jama and Susan and Sara and a bunch of other bloggers were participating in the "Library Lovin' Challenge" last week. I guess I can share it in honor of their commitment to libraries and to all the people who commented and helped them to meet their goals so they could donate to their favorite library.

Here's to everyone who participated in the "Library Lovin' Challenge" and to all of our favorite libraries and librarians everywhere: "I Love My Library" by Lunch Money.

(Thank you to Sarah Beth Durst's mom for the link.)

And while we're at it, here's a great poster via TeacherNinja:

A Teacher in the School Library

There's a lot to be said for having a library school-trained librarian in the elementary school library.  

But there's also a whole lot to be said for having an experienced and thoughtful teacher of reading as the librarian in an elementary school library.

Case in point:  Franki's got an excellent article over at Choice Literacy this week, "A Workshop Model in the Library: Time for More Than Book Checkout."