For the past five years, I've been lucky to serve as a judge on the panel selecting the Baker's Dozen: The Best Children's Books for Family Literacy. The panel includes my friend, mentor and all-around inspiration, Dr. Steven Herb, the wonderful (and equally inspiring) Dr. Sara Willoughby-Herb, and my dear colleague Karla Schmit. Really, I would pay to be in a room with these people and discuss children's books. You would pay too, trust me! Nobody loves or critiques children's books like this panel.
This year, the Baker's Dozen started with a field of over 500 picture books. We gradually whittled down the list to the very best thirteen books for family literacy. In other words, a book has to be amazing to make this list. My personal favorite this year: Chicken, Pig, Cow by Ruth Ohi. It's the story of three Fisher-Price farm figurines and the trials and tribulations of the imaginary world they inhabit. If you have small children (or if you just love picture books, like me) I encourage you to check out the titles on the 2009 list.
This is going to sound absolutely crazy ... but do you think a panel conversation at learning design summer camp about "what makes a great childrens' book" would be interesting? Something about it makes me like the idea -- great story telling, killer design, learning opportunities, etc. Might it make for something that a group like ours would get behind? Especially with the folks you mentioned? What do you think?
Possibly including panelists who can relate encouraging children to read and family literacy with reading for information and pleasure as a student and adult? How images and texts attract, entertain and inform throughout a lifetime is applicable to any group. Considering the growth of graphic novels and sequential art the topic has a great deal of relevance.
Crazy, but good crazy.
The selections in the Baker's Dozen are indeed amazing. Thanks for this post- I've learned that it's an annual event, and one I've never heard of. Hopefully, the Library will feature the collection somewhere so I won't have to buy every one!
The list of judges only features one male (though Mr. Herb is one highly esteemed judge.) Is that by design?
It would be interesting to see if this could be tied into digital storytelling as well. There's certainly enough fodder here to be interesting and viable, and more collaboration with these crazy cool smart librarians is definitely worthwhile.
Neat idea!
Cole, Dave and Robin, thanks for your comments and encouragement! I *love* the idea of possibly doing something related to this at the next LDSC.
Cole, thanks for suggesting this! I never would have thought of it in the context of the LDSC.
Having a panel discussion related to children's books, literacy, and digital storytelling (as Robin suggests) is a fabulous (and not at all crazy!) idea. I will consult with Steven and get his take on this.
The other interesting part of this (to me, at least) is the adaptation of children's books into multimedia format--and how the interpretation and message changes with adaptation. Take a look at this short video (a recent book that is one of my favorites): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZr0wiG1Hg
More and more books which previously would have existed in only one medium are moving online in a variety of formats.
Dave--We have all of the Baker's Dozen books, past and present, in the collection. They should all be up in the Education & Behavioral Sciences Library. The only intentional component in the Baker's Dozen jury is that we have a family literacy expert every year--someone working directly with at-risk families and children. This gives the group the practitioner's perspective on whether or not a title is truly accessible to a diverse audience.
I'll talk with Steven about the general idea of this and will be back in touch!