LIS 721 Reviewing Children's Literature

 This week I was able to expand my knowledge on how to find new materials for children, about the expanse of digital materials, and how to write reviews for children's materials. With approximately five thousand new books for children being published every year, it may seem like an overwhelming task to wade through and stay up to date with these titles. It is important for us to determine which titles are worth recommending and which we may use sparingly. By outlining and understanding reputable sources to find recommendations and clear parameters of how to create your own reviews and opinions one can strengthen their reader's advisory skills and build their own professional collection.

Finding New Materials for Children

When selecting resources for children it is important to consider the contents, scope, and style of the material, in addition to who it's target audience is. Resources like School Library Journal or Booklist are great places to start for children's materials. They provide new posts and content on a large scale monthly but will post supplemental blogs and updates as relevant (usually weekly). They release and recommend new content as well as archive older posts that you can review at a later date. Another option to network and find new children's materials would be to attend continuing education opportunities through local events such as the Anderson's Book Breakfast or LITapalooza. You may even attend large scale events such as the American Library Association's (ALA) annual national conference to meet authors, educators, and librarians who share presentations on a range of topics from advocacy, leadership, programming, strategic plans, budgets, collection workshops, book banning, and more.

Other sites to enhance your reader's advisory skills and recommend read-a-likes are GoodReads and Novelist. These sites generate additional titles based on similar qualities between the works. If you like this, you might like this... 

Photo Credit: Jenny Marose, screengrab of NPL catalog search.

Expanse of Digital Materials

While reviewing Shelby Wolf's piece titled the Children's Literature on the Digital Move I was able to make some connections to my previous blog post The Expansion of Literacy in 2024, specifically a piece by Renee Hobbs titled Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom. Wolf and Hobbs share similar viewpoints around the topic of access. Wolf is more general in their approach discussing access as whole, how will they physically access the material and is there a cost in addition to the technology to support the material such as a fee for an app + cost of iPad/tablet/etc. Hobbs on the other hand takes it a step further discussing how users should also have access to resources to help them find and share appropriate and relevant information using media and technology. In addition to access, there should be freedoms in place to allow users to access materials freely and by their own volition. This connects me to Pat Scales article It's About Choice: Tactics for Fostering Intellectual Freedom. Scales refers to the freedom to read and how it is important that people, "regardless of [their] age, ... have the right to make his or her reading choices, and only parents have control over what their kids read. If you are successful in conveying that, then you will have just introduced them to the principles of intellectual freedom." (Scales, 2015) Scales continues to share examples on a small scale of requests from teachers to withhold certain titles that are coming up later in the curriculum. They do a nice job with providing examples on how to respond to these situations while still allowing the children at their library access to the titles they prefer to read.

How to Write Reviews for Children's Materials

My last takeaway was when reading Kathleen T. Horning's book From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books and Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature by Sheila Egoff, et al. Both authors state the division there is between adult and children's book reviews. Consistency and remaining unbiased when writing reviews are critical skills to maintain when writing reviews. Rebecca Luken states, “To fail to apply the same critical standard to children’s literature is to say in effect that children’s literature is inferior to adult literature.” (Hunt, p.3) When reviewing children's materials one must consider the true audience of the material, because many times it is an adult reviewing the material for children. They have additional lenses that they can see the book through. 

Horning does a nice job outlining the steps to take when preparing to review the material and while reviewing the material. A helpful point was to, "Describe the contents, scope, and style of the book; critically assess its quality; and suggest its potential audience." (Horning, 2010, p.181) Phyllis K. Kennemer has reinvented the terms of contents, scope, and style into the following categories: descriptive, analytical, and sociological traits. 

Photo Credit: Infographic by Jenny Marose on Phyllis K. Kennemer 

"One of the most common criticisms of children's book reviews today is that they rely heavily on description and include very little in the way of analysis." (Horning, 2010, p.181)  There should be a balance of qualities assessed when reviewing children's literature. Horning also reminds the reader that when they are writing reviews they should remain impartial. Personal opinions are important to have and share through appropriate channels such as personal or professional blogs, through recommended reading lists, or reviews on a social book site like GoodReads. If a reviewer cannot review a book due to personal or professional biases, they should ask for it to be reassigned to someone else. This can include work of someone you know that you like or work from someone you know that you don't like. The goal is to review the material solely on it's own content, not a personal opinion.

Keep reading!

Jenny