Yard Saleby George Bilgere
Someone is selling the Encyclopedia Britannica
in all its volumes,
which take up a whole card table.
It looks brand new, even though it must be sixty years old.
That's because it was only used a couple of times,
when the kids passed through fifth grade
and had to do reports on the Zambezi River
and Warren Harding.
Der Fuhrer was defunct.
The boys came home,
and everybody got the Encyclopedia Britannica,
which sat on the bookshelf
as they watched Gunsmoke
through a haze of Winstons.
Eventually
these people grew old
and were sent to a home
by the same children who once wrote
reports on Warren Harding.
And now the complete and unabridged
Encyclopedia Britannica,
bulging with important knowledge,
is sitting on a card table in a light rain.
On our whirlwind tour of the 50 Nifty, my students are using the encyclopedia to do some quick research on states as we travel region by region.
Encyclopedia the BOOK, not Encyclopedia dot com.
It was quite funny the day I launched them. They had chosen their state and they ran to the cart and grabbed a volume.
"How do you turn this on?"
"Hey, this book only has words that start with G!"
I had to hold my tongue carefully in reply to the first (I wanted to use the punchline from
It's a Book
), and I was incredulous when I heard the second. Their lack of knowledge about the way the encyclopedia works started with the fact that each volume contains a letter or few letters-worth of information!
Needless to say, we had an unplanned minilesson right there and then on the layout of the set, and then another on the structure of the articles on the states.
As we travel region by region and students repeat the research (landforms, economy, native people, settlers), every single day I have conversations with students reminding them to read the graphics, read the captions of pictures, use the bold headings as clues about what information is being presented, skim and scan for key words.
This is good stuff.
The thing I like the very most about the encyclopedia is that you can't just ask it the question and wait for it to give you what it thinks you'll want for an answer.
The thing I like second most about the encyclopedia relates to the first: you have to turn actual pages. The text sits still.
Also, when you use the encyclopedia, you don't have to wait for it to turn on, you don't have to log in, and slow Internet never concerns you.
And whether they believe it or not, everything they are learning about reading a book-encyclopedia article will make them a better reader of online articles.
Three cheers for the unsung hero -- the ENCYCLOPEDIA!
Ever since I was a girl, I've dreamed of living in a house with its own library. You know-- the kind of room wealthy people in movies always have, with floor-to-ceiling-built-in bookshelves and a rolling ladder to reach the top shelves.
The fantasy was inspired not only by my love of reading, but also by the fact that we had very few books in our house when I was growing up. (One of the few I can recall was a light blue softcover my father studied to prepare for his "citizenship" test.) For my working-class Italian-immigrant parents, books were a luxury we couldn't afford.
Then one day when I was around ten years old, a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman rang our front bell. You can imagine my amazement when the salesman managed to convince my father to buy a brand-new 20-volume set of the
World Book Encyclopedia. I don't know how the salesman did it, but he was my new hero! And since my younger sister and brother were too young to read at the time, I considered the set
mine.
As nerdy as it may sound, I loved reading those books. We didn't have the Internet back then, and a trip to the public library meant taking two buses each way. So having my own encyclopedia was indeed a luxury. I used it not only to research class assignments, but for recreational reading, too. I never read a volume from front to back as you would a novel. Instead, I flipped the pages until something struck me as interesting.
I tell students at school visits that my favorite volume was the letter "
B," and it's true. As a girl, I pored over the color photographs of
Birds and
Butterflies from around the world. I studied the rules of
Baseball and memorized the stats of many of the record-holders. (I believe Joe DiMaggio
still holds the record for the longest consecutive hitting streak at 56 games.) I learned the hand signals for right and left turns on a
Bicycle.
Those books held more than information for me. They took me places I could only dream of visiting. They introduced me to presidents, poets, and painters. They sparked my curiosity in mathematics and music.
As I grew older, I became more interested in reading fiction and drifted away from the encyclopedia. But every so often, I still went back to my old
World Books. And every time, I inevitably learned something new and interesting from their pages.
I'm happy to say I still own that set of encyclopedia--you can see it pictured here:
Now, whenever I pull out the "
B" volume, I'm reminded of how it felt to be ten years old and own not only one book, but a whole set of 20. I was the richest girl in the world!
* * * * *
This is the last in our series of posts for the
National Day on Writing, sponsored by NCTE. I will be submitting this entry to the "
A Lifetime of Reading" Gallery of the
National Gallery of Writing. I hope you'll use the following
Writing Workout to inspire your own contribution to the gallery.
Writing Workout
The first book I ever owned . . .
What's the first book you recall as your very own? Was it a picture book, a reader, a novel? Was it brand new, or a hand-me-down? Who gave it to you? What memories are evoked when you think about that book?
Post the title of the book as a comment here on our
TeachingAuthors blog, then write a 250-500 word description, essay, or anecdote about the book. When you're done, I encourage you to submit your piece to the gallery called "
A Lifetime of Reading," curated by Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn, who blog at
A Year of Reading. You can read more about the gallery
at their blog.
Happy writing!
Carmela
When I saw The Ultimate Book Of Knowledge: Everything You Need To Know on the 
shelf I immediately knew my niece would love it. This encyclopedia specially written for young students is full of pictures and answers to questions about our world. In honor of it being Friday and of my niece’s love for all things royal I am excerpting the section on Knights and Castles below. I only wish I had access to the images which truly bring this section to life!
Knights were noblemen who fought on horseback. In medieval Europe it was a great honor to be a knight.
Knights served the king. In return, he gave them land. Many knights lived in castles - strong buildings that could withstand attack. Other knights served lords who lived in castles.
Knightly equipment
Each knight paid for his own weapon and warhorse. The steel armor protected the knight from head to toe. Knights carried a sword, a shield and sometimes a long, heave lance. Knights became less important on the battlefield after the invention of guns.
Heraldry
Each knight wore a ‘coat of arms’ a design on his shield. This meant he could be recognized easily in battle.
The background color of the shield was called its field. The field was split up into divisions or it had a picture or shape, called a charge.
Jousting tournaments
Jousting was a sport for knights. The tournament was a mock battle that allowed knights to show off their fighting skills.
Fast Facts
- Sieges - where enemy troops surrounded a castle - could go on for months.
- Captured knights were usually held hostage. Ransoms could be huge!
- In the 1400s, powerful cannons were developed that could break through castle walls.
Knightly behavior
Knights followed a set of rules. A knight had to be brace but kind to the weak (especially women), strong but polite, determined but honest.
Early castles
Motte-and-baily castles were built all over western Europe from the 900s. They had a wooden tower (the keep) built on a high mound (the motte) with a fenced area (the bailey) at the foot of the mound.
Walls of stone
From the 1100s, castles were rebuilt in stone. The tops of the walls were called battlements. Defenders could fire arrows through slits in the battlements. Castles also had a drawbridge that could be raised at the first sign of attack.
The crusades
The crusades were eight wars that were fought after the pope asked Christian soldiers to drive Muslims from the lands mentioned in the Bible. Kings, knights and many ordinary people took part. When the crusades ended, all of the Holy Land was in Muslim hands.
You think Junior High is tough? Ha! It’s nothing compared to Sara Thurman’s eighth grade year! It all starts when Sara finally “becomes a woman” and – get this – her mother sends her – PERIOD flowers! On Valentine’s Day! Yeah. You heard right. Ever try to keep a secret in Junior High? Only one person knows who sent those flowers besides Sara, and that’s her best friend Arlene. You can imagine Sara’s hurt and confusion when she realizes everyone knows why she got the flowers. And it’s only lunchtime!
You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law? You know. If something can go wrong, it probably will. And it does for Sara. Things go from bad to worse. To top it off, she and Arlene have their first ever fight in front of everyone. How can she trust her best friend when Arlene’s the only one who could have betrayed her?
Luckily for Sara, she’s made a new friend. She met her that same fateful day that she received her red-tipped, white roses. Together, they vow to turn Sara’s embarrassment into a nomination for class favorite. They watch the popular girls. The read magazines and clip out pictures and articles. Soon, they have a list of things Sara must do to become popular, which Sara follows faithfully. Will the popular kids notice her? Talk to her? Will her crush, Jason, like her new look? And will she and Arlene ever be friends again?
Taylor Morris has captured the heart of an eighth grader in CLASS FAVORITE. The characters were believable, although, at times, I felt they just as easily could have been sixth or seventh graders. I feel certain that any girl who has ever wished to be part of the popular crowd will totally relate to this book. And because it made me laugh out loud more than once, I give it five stars!
This review can also be found here at Teens Read Too.
I too loved our set of enclyclopedia. It was American People Encyclopedia and was a warm rich brown color.
I also loved these little magazine type books that one glued pictures into. I don't remember the name but I do remember the picture of a caterpillar very well.
And how many of us remember the dictionaries that we bought piece by piece from the grocery store. The book ended up almost a foot thick when it was done.
Thanks for bringing up these great memories.
Nina
The Day of the Wind by Robert Pierce.
A hand-me-down, but I learned to read using this book when I was 4 (my 12-year-old sister was an awesome teacher). Because this book taught me the joy of reading, I felt it was MINE.
I now lead a tortured life of wanting to make all books MINE - but sadly I do not have the room or money. I am a frequent guest at our local library.
Charlotte's Web was my first book. I remember my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Gross (who I thought was the most beautiful woman in the world) read it aloud to us everyday before school ended. I will never forget how she cried at the end - the first time I saw an adult shed tears in the presence of children. I bought Charlotte's Web at the Scholastic Book Fair that year and read it over and over. I still cry at the end...
My first book was one of The Bobbsey Twins series. It was a Christmas gift from my grandmother. The grandmom who lived with us was functionally illiterate, but my the book-gifting grandmom was a Reader. (Yes, her tastes tended toward Danielle Steele, but she always had a book in hand.) My mother, who was emphatically not a reader, read me the whole Bobbsey Twins series. And for some weird, magical moment in my childhood, wherever we moved, every other girl my age was also reading them. (I think the series had been reissued around this time, and the books were also being sold in military PXs. Perhaps only fellow military brats read them, but I digress.)
I still own the whole series, and I can't wait to share them with my daughter! The original books in this series were, of course, published before my grandmother was born -- talk about speaking across the generations.
And Carmela, we had a 1967 Encyclopedia Brittanica set. (I was born in 1971.) I longed for the World Book! My mom (child of Italian immigrants) grew up with only a Dick and Jane book in the house. She is going to love your family story!
Thanks, everyone, for sharing your "first book" stories.
Nina, I'm so glad to know I'm not the only encyclopedia-loving writer!
Michelle, I think it's great that you wrote a blog post in response to my question. If others would like to read it, see http://michellesussman.blogspot.com/2009/10/eating-my-words.html#comment-form