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The topic of reading levels is always contentious for librarians, educators, booksellers, and authors. A recent article by author Sergio Ruzzier argued against the merits of using reading levels to determine which book is right for a child. In this guest post, author and bookseller Rosanne Parry offers her thoughts on why reading levels can be valuable, despite some of the drawbacks. Welcome, Rosanne!

Reading levels posted on trade fiction for children are a bit of a hot-button issue for those who work in the book world and periodically I hear calls for their complete abolition.  I agree that people use reading levels on books unwisely all the time. I believe that in general kids ought to have the widest possible access to the books they choose for themselves. I think there are many mistaken assumptions about what those reading levels mean. However there are useful purposes for reading levels on books.

I started my career as a teacher with a specialty in reading. I did most of my work with learning disabled students. If you are choosing books to use in school for instruction with children who are struggling, then keeping them within the parameters of a book that is just challenging enough but not too frustrating gives optimal progress toward reading fluency. An accurate reading level, manageable book length, accessible font, generous leading and kerning, and affordable price all help a teacher choose useful material for each student.

The temptation to make reading instruction leak over into at-home recreational reading is very strong for a highly motivated parent who is ashamed of a child’s low reading level or overly impressed with a high one. Sometimes this prompts a parent to steer their child away from high quality books that would be developmentally appropriate and captivating, and push them toward books that are decodable but outside the child’s emotional sphere and therefore not very engaging.

Most of the reading levels that publishers put on books are there as a shelving aid for booksellers, rather than a prescription for readers. They have almost nothing to do with the readability of the text and much more to do with the maturity of the content. To be perfectly honest, the vast majority of adult books are written at a 5th-6th grade reading level. The current literary fashion is toward a plain-spoken prose style and simple sentence structure.  This drives down the reading level of adult books. But it doesn’t make adult content in a book appropriate for children.

Here’s an example of where I think the publisher’s reading level is helpful. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit is a short novel about a seven-year old girl. At first glance a bookseller might just toss it on the shelf with Clementine and Captain Underpants. Fortunately, the reading level says 7th grade and up (12+ years). It’s a story about the atrocities of WWII. The seven-year old girl is a fugitive on the run with an adult of dubious motives. She steals from battlefield corpses; she is raped; the ending is ambiguous and not particularly hopeful. It’s a stunning piece of writing and will likely be in the buzz come book award time and rightly so. Nevertheless it’s not a book that serves a second grader well. The reading level helps us get the book in the right spot in our store and because it’s at a discrepancy with the outward appearance of the book, it encourages us to read the whole book and figure out where to best recommend it.

Sometimes we decide to ignore the reading level on a book. When we got Symphony for the City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson last year, we opted to ignore the grade level recommendations and shelve it in adult history where our avid World War II buffs and professional musicians were most likely to find it. It would be less work for the bookseller to shelve all of an author’s work in one spot. But if the author is Ursula LeGuin or Suzanne Collins or Neil Gaiman, the reader is better served by having the adult, young adult, middle grade, and chapter books shelved in separate areas.

Reading levels are one tool among many a bookseller can use. Even in a small bookshop we get in hundreds of new books a week in addition to the classics we always carry. There’s no way even a cohort of dozens of booksellers can analyze every book we carry. So I’m glad there’s a reading level marker that we can use or ignore as we see fit. I’d love for it to be in a magical ink that only a bookseller can see, but until then, part of a booksellers job is to help anxious parents feel good about the quality of books their child is choosing and help them anticipate other books that will give their family joy.

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About Rosanne Parry:  Rosanne Parry is the author for four middle grade novels from Random House, including her most recent title, The Turn of the Tide. She has been an elementary teacher and is now a part-time book monger at the legacy indie bookstore Annie Blooms. She also teaches children’s and YA literature in the Masters in Book Publishing program at Portland State University. She lives in Portland, Oregon and writes in a treehouse in her back yard.  You can find out more about her online here.

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Further Reading:
Lexile: A Bookseller’s Best Friend or Worst Enemy?

5 Strategies to Help Parents Navigate Lexile

7 Strategies to Help Booksellers and Librarians Navigate Lexile

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In support of Independent Bookshop Week, a campaign run by the Booksellers Association that supports independent bookstores, we asked the Oxford University Press UK office what their favorite independent bookstores were.

The post OUP staff discuss their favourite independent bookstores to celebrate Independent Bookshop Week appeared first on OUPblog.

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In support of Indies First, a campaign run by the American Booksellers Association that supports independent bookstores, we asked OUP-USA staff what their favorite independent bookstores were. We received quite an enthusiastic response, and discovered that our staff visits and revisits indies all over the country thanks to the love that these bookstores inspire. Here’s what they had to say about their personal favorites:

“My favorite thing about walking into town is grabbing a cup of coffee and stopping into Watchung Booksellers (Montclair, NJ). The store has a great collection of local authors, a nice selection of literature, and a fun and interactive children’s room. The staff is friendly and they are super creative in their events and workshops. It is a true neighborhood treasure.”
— Colleen Scollans, Global Marketing Director

* * *

“Unnameable Books – This is my local store in Prospect Heights on Vanderbilt Ave. I considered it a good omen that the store opened a few months before I moved to the neighborhood in 2009. Unnameable has a great selection of new and used books, and I still remember finding a copy of Anais Nin’s diary that I wanted to give a gift (published last year by Swallow Press, an imprint of Ohio University Press) and by some miracle they had a copy on the shelf. They also had a great event a few summers back in the backyard, where they screened Godard’s A Married Woman, with New Yorker writer Richard Brody.”
— Jeremy Wang-Iverson, Publicity Manager

* * *

“There are few things better than stepping off a Chicago street, unraveling the many layers of clothing required for -10°F weather and stepping into the warmth of the Seminary Co-Op. It’s easy to start gushing about the Sem Co-Op’s maze of books, where you can hide in a corner for hours reading store’s eclectic, charming and comprehensive collection.”
— Alana Podolsky, Assistant Marketing Manager for History, Academic and Trade Marketing

* * *

“I’ve been in the book business for over 30 years, starting as a part-time bookseller at Atticus Books in Richmond, VA to my current job working with indie stores nationwide. Throughout this time, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting some of the largest independent stores to the smallest specialty stores across the country, each with its own charm and treasures. Indie bookstores offer a chance to discover new authors, a connection to the local community, and a wonderful antidote to the “sameness” that pervades much shopping today.”
— Richard Fugini, Field Sales Manager

* * *

“One of my favorite places in the world is Von’s Books in West Lafayette, Indiana, near the campus of Purdue University. It is jammed with great books – so many that they overflow onto stacks on the floor between shelves – and there is reliably a familiar face from my undergraduate days behind the front desk when I go back for visits. (Von’s is also very conveniently located down the block from Harry’s Chocolate Shop, another Purdue institution.)”
— Kandice Rawlings, Associate Editor, Reference

* * *

“While visiting Seattle media in the winter/spring of 2014 my sales rep for the great northwest, George Carroll, took me around to some of his account (indie stores) in town. My favorite store was Ada’s Technical Books on 15th Ave. East in Seattle. It was a small intimate store with interesting lab equipment and technical gadgets displayed throughout the space. I remember walls lined with books about science, engineering, mathematics and technology, of course. And a few tables made out of shadowboxes in a café space, and a small backroom for events. The store has reclaimed and repurposed a lot of its decor from whatever had been in the space before it became a bookstore. Most memorable, however, was the congeniality of the staff. George and I had arrived just after they had closed, but they opened their door to me so I could browse the space for possible future events for OUP authors coming through Seattle. They never rushed me or complained, instead they halted their closing ritual and chatted amiably with me about books, publishing, bookselling, and the vibe they were trying to create at Ada’s and the neighborhood that surrounded them. The whole experience was rare and extraordinary. They will have a lifetime fan in me for their graciousness.”
— Purdy, Director of Publicity

* * *

“The community has really taken to Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, as they offer a great selection of books and they have held numerous readings and book signings of local Brooklyn authors/artists. I’ve purchased a few books on reggae and cookbooks. The staff there is super friendly and they have a well-curated inventory of books on lots of subjects. It’s been great for the neighborhood.”
— Alan Goldberg, Demand Planner, GAB Operations

* * *

“Litchfield Books in Pawley’s Island, SC, has been a magical place for my family and me ever since we started vacationing on the SC coast 20 years ago. I don’t think any of us have ever left there without a half-dozen titles! Everyone who works there is so knowledgeable and kind, and you feel their love for books just as soon as you walk in the door. I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you are ever at a completely loss for a new book—they are bound to point you in the right direction!”
— Sarah Pirovitz, Associate Editor, Classics, Ancient Art, and Archaeology

* * *

“My favorite indie bookstore is Quail Ridge Books located in Raleigh, North Carolina. I started visiting Quail Ridge as an undergraduate at North Carolina State University located just down the street. I love this store mostly for their selection (I especially love their section on regional books) and also for their helpful and courteous staff. There is truly something to be said about Southern hospitality…it is definitely present at Quail Ridge.”
— Victoria Ohegyi , Sales Assistant

* * *

“Cobble Hill’s Book Court has been my dealer ever since I moved to Brooklyn seven years ago. They have a great selection, amazing author events, and if they don’t have it on the shelf, they’re happy to order it. As a new parent, I get to share their kids section with my one–year old, who already loves books and story time. We love to wander among the shelves and find new books to read. The neighborhood has gone through tremendous changes since Book Court first opened and it’s great to see that this indie book store is a true foundation of and for the community.”
— Burke Gerstenschlager, Acquisitions Editor

* * *

“Readings in Carlton, Melbourne, Australia is my favorite independent bookstore. I discovered it while studying abroad at the University of Melbourne when I was in college. The staff is so helpful and the store’s location on Lygon Street is perfect for grabbing a cup of coffee and spending an afternoon browsing through their great selection of books and cards.”
— Ciara O’Connor, Marketing Assistant

* * *

“My favorite bookstore is and will always be Rakestraw Books, in the heart of my hometown in Danville, CA. They’ve been around since 1973 and have hosted events with a diverse and often eclectic range of authors over the years, making the store a favorite destination for both me and my mom. I still remember roaming the stacks as a kid, painfully deliberating between dozens of books before finally selecting on ‘just one’ book to bring to the check out. Even just thinking about Rakestraw Books still brings a nostalgic smile to my face.

“I also have a huge soft spot for Bookworks, a literary wonderland in my parents’ hometown of Albuquerque, NM. One of my most treasured Christmas gifts was a beautifully illustrated copy of the first Harry Potter book in Italian, Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale, which I received from my grandpa the year after I started learning Italian in college. Apparently, my grandpa and the Bookwords owners had teamed up to locate a copy and ship it over all the way from Italy — now THAT’s a dedicated staff!”
— Carrie Napolitano, Marketing Associate for Linguistics, Religion & Bibles

* * *

“One bookstore that really caught my eye is WORD Bookstore in Jersey City. It’s really a lovely place to go because there’s a coffee bar in the back, and they regularly host book group meetings, music shows, and a bunch of other types of events in addition to the typical author appearance and book signings. They also stock a lot of neat stationery, which (unfortunately for my wallet) happens to be one of my weaknesses…”
— Connie Ngo, Marketing Assistant

* * *

Heading image: A cubbyhole with education/sociology books, Seminary Co-op Bookstore, Chicago, IL, by Connie Ma. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr.

The post OUP staff discuss their favorite independent bookstores appeared first on OUPblog.

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What happens when there is a lack of or break down in communication between stakeholders about the tools used to assess children’s reading? One bookseller shared her experience when parents, booksellers, and students attempt to find the right book within a leveling framework.

In our previous post, “7 Strategies to Help Booksellers and Librarians Navigate Lexile,” we presented strategies for the book experts out in the field on strengthening the communication lines, sharing resources and context, and building a community invested in each child’s education. In doing so, we show our students, children, and customers that they have a whole team cheering for them and invested in their growth, joy, and success.

Now for educators! Want a child to achieve a year and a half of reading progress and develop a life long passion for learning? The more adults you have involved in your students’ success, the better chances you have for meaningful growth and creating a love of reading.

Next week, we will offer strategies for parents.

For teachers and school staff who want to invest more stakeholders:

1. Don’t wait for summer break to provide reading lists. After each assessment cycle or parent-teacher conference period, provide parents with book ideas to help students get to the next level. Research or create booklists to hand parents at a parent-teacher conference. Except for the outliers, you can generally get away with making 3 lists (above-, on-, and below-grade level) of where students are reading.

• For pre-made lists: Literacy organizations, such as Reading Rockets and Reading is Fundamental, have created top-notch reading lists. Libraries, such as Phoenix Public Library who built its own reader’s service to search titles by Lexile, often have ready-made booklists by grade and theme and may subscribe to NoveList K–8 Plus.
• To create your own: Search by book titles or by levels on Scholastic Book Wizard, Perma-Bound, Lexile’s Find a Book, Accelerated Reader BookFinder, and specific publishers like Lee & Low.

2. Assume that no one knows your leveling system outside of school. Create a toolkit (that can be re-printed each year) for parents when they go to a library or bookstore. At parent-teacher conferences or Back-to-School Night, arm parents with 1) pre-made booklists (see above) 2) addresses and directions to the public library, bookstore, or community center you trust or have reached out to 3) a level conversion chart—If your leveling system doesn’t provide one, download one from Reading Rockets, Booksource, Scholastic Guided Reading Program, Lexile, or Lee & Low.

3. Hold information sessions at Back to School Night or other times in the year for parents. Explain what leveling system you are using to assess a child’s reading ability. Demonstrate how to find books at that child’s reading level when in a store, online, or at a library. “What does an such and such level book like? Below-level book? Above-level book? What should a child be able to do at such and such reading level?” With colleagues, consider another session for nearby bookstores or public librarians. All leveling systems have websites and FAQs sections addressing misconceptions and how-tos that you can show parents, librarians, or bookstore staff.

4. Find out where your students and families are going for books. My students borrowed books from the local community center or bought books at the nearby discount retail superstore. We built a community by reaching out to the children’s librarian and community center coordinator. Reaching out to these places helped me learn about my students outside of school and familiarize staff with our goals. Share any booklists and conversion charts. Libraries and bookstores will be thrilled to be a part of your community. As I said last week, students may move on, but you and book staff are in it for the long haul.

5. Extend the classroom to your local library or bookstore. When I learned where my students were looking for books (and what poor quality those offerings were at a discount store), I realized that many had not been to the neighborhood branch of the public library and did not know what the library had to offer.

• Invite a librarian to class to talk to students about finding books when they are outside the classroom. Show students how to find books when they don’t know a book’s level (Hello, five finger rule!)
• Post in class or send home the library or bookstore’s calendar of monthly events.
• Encourage families to join you at a weekend storytelling event at the library or an evening author event at the bookstore (you might be able to persuade your school to count these events as parent community service hours).
• Is your local library or bookstore on Pinterest, such as Oakland Public Library TeenZone? Check out your branch’s or favorite bookstore’s new releases and collections. Show families how to engage with the library or bookstore from a school computer or on a mobile phone.

6. Simulate the real world in your classroom. Many teachers organize their classroom libraries around their guided reading levels or assessment leveling system to make it easy for students to find the right book. Yet, students need experience interacting with books that aren’t leveled—as most books in bookstores and libraries won’t be. Consider organizing your classroom library by author, theme, genre, or series—or at least a shelf or bin—so students can practice figuring out the right fit book.

7. Remember: You will most likely have at least a few parents whose first language is NOT English. They will rely even more heavily on librarians and bookstore staff for help finding the right fit book for their child. The more you help librarians and local bookstores and the parents, the more you help the child.

8. Think about the message. Parents may hear that their child is at Lexile level 840 and try to help you and their child by only seeking out Lexile level 840 books. Coach parents to continue to expose students to a wide range of texts, topics, and levels. Parents may need a gentle reminder that we want our readers to develop their love of reading, along with skills and critical thinking. This may include children seeking out and re-reading favorites or comfort books that happen to be lower leveled or trying harder books that happen to be on their favorite subject.

Next week, we will offer strategies for teachers and parents.

For further reading:

7 Strategies to Help Booksellers and Librarians Navigate Lexile

What have we missed? Please share in the comments your tricks, tips, and ideas for helping families and children navigate the bookshelves.

 

Jill Eisenberg, our Resident Literacy Specialist, began her career teaching English as a Foreign Language to second through sixth graders in Yilan, Taiwan as a Fulbright Fellow. She went on to become a literacy teacher for third grade in San Jose, CA as a Teach for America corps member. She is certified in Project Glad instruction to promote English language acquisition and academic achievement. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators. 

Filed under: Common Core State Standards, Educator Resources, ELL/ESL and Bilingual Books Tagged: Book Lists by Topic, booksellers, Bookstores, CCSS, children's books, close reading, Educators, ELA common core standards, independent bookstores, librarians, libraries, reading comprehension

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I highly recommend all educators and parents read a bookseller’s perspective on leveling systems, Lexile in this case, which we re-posted on our blog last week. There are great firsthand examples of parents and booksellers striving in earnest to help children improve in reading.

Regardless of where one comes down on leveling books and assessing students with leveling systems, last week’s post laid bare the lack of or breakdown in communication between all stakeholders about the tools used to assess children’s reading growth.

Whether a child’s reading abilities are measured using Lexile, Accelerated Reader, DRA or another, we must equip any and all stakeholders in a child’s education with knowledge about what these tools mean and concrete ways to further support the child.

Children spend 7,800 hours outside of school each year compared to 900 hours in school. The National Center for Families Learning asserts that “the family unit—no matter the composition—is the one constant across the educational spectrum.” I am extending the definition of a child’s family to include afterschool volunteers, librarians, booksellers, pediatricians, and anyone else involved in a child’s education journey.

Below are strategies for strengthening the communication lines, sharing resources and context, and building a community invested in each child’s education. In doing so, we show our students, children, and customers that they have a whole team cheering for them and invested in their growth, joy, and success.

This week we are tackling what librarians and booksellers can do in preparation for hearing those magical words, “My child has a Lexile score of…” Next week, we will offer strategies for teachers and parents.

For librarians and booksellers who are asked which book for which level:

• Know the local feeder schools to your library or store and ask teachers or the school librarians what leveling systems they are using. Find out how the classroom libraries are organized (by theme, genre, Lexile level, AR level, guided reading level, author). Reaching out to neighborhood schools helps you learn about your customers and build relationships with educators. Ask schools for any booklists or level conversion charts. Schools will be thrilled to recommend their families to places that know their curriculum, leveling systems, and community. Students may move on, but you and teachers are in it for the long haul.
• If schools use multiple or differing leveling systems, ask schools for level conversion charts to have on hand for customers or download your own from Reading Rockets, Booksource, Scholastic Guided Reading Program, Lexile, or Lee & Low. A conversion chart will help you translate what grade level a customer is reading on and books you can recommend within that range.
• Design your own booklists based on grade levels or popular leveling systems. Search by book titles or by levels on Scholastic Book Wizard, Perma-Bound, Lexile’s Find a Book, Accelerated Reader BookFinder, and specific publishers like Lee & Low. Parents and students can reference these handouts as they explore the store.
• Even better: Use other pre-curated lists of popular leveling systems. Remember, you are neither the only nor first bookseller to have a confused nine year old asking what they should read at a Lexile level 930. Share and reach out to teachers and school librarians who may have created lists from which parents and children are requesting. Other persistent souls are tackling these issues as well: Durham County Library and Phoenix Public Library both built a reader’s service to search titles by Lexile, as well as graded and themed booklists.
• Know the Common Core Appendix B text exemplar list. It may not be perfect, but many schools are using these texts to benchmark against other works. Recognizing these books will give you a sense of what the expectations are for each grade level and what students across the country are reading. Pair books in your store or library with this list to help readers discover more contemporary, diverse, and multicultural books.
• If you have children who are reading significantly above their typical grade level and parents that are concerned that higher levels equal too mature content or themes, encourage expository nonfiction. Nonfiction often has higher technical and academic vocabulary bumping up the Lexile or Accelerated Reader levels (as they measure linguistic complexity), but the themes and concepts won’t be mature. When I had three students who were reading two plus grade levels above their peers, I sought out more STEM books that aligned with my third-grade science units, the solar system and animal adaptations. They were able to explore more in-depth about black holes and gravity than we could cover whole group.
• Remember ELL, EFL, ESL, and non-English speaking families. You will most likely have at least a few parents whose first language is NOT English. They will rely even more heavily on you (librarians and bookstore staff) for help finding the right fit book for their child. The more you learn about leveling systems and engage with the neighborhood schools, the more you help the child.

Next week, we will offer strategies for teachers and parents.

What have we missed? Please share in the comments your tricks, tips, and ideas for helping families and children navigate the bookshelves.

Jill Eisenberg, our Resident Literacy Specialist, began her career teaching English as a Foreign Language to second through sixth graders in Yilan, Taiwan as a Fulbright Fellow. She went on to become a literacy teacher for third grade in San Jose, CA as a Teach for America corps member. She is certified in Project Glad instruction to promote English language acquisition and academic achievement. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators. 

Filed under: Common Core State Standards, Educator Resources, ELL/ESL and Bilingual Books Tagged: booksellers, Bookselling, CCSS, children's books, close reading, Educators, ELA common core standards, librarians, Reading Aloud

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The following post by bookseller Melissa was cross-posted with permission from her blog, Scuffed Slippers and Wormy Books. Thanks to Melissa for allowing us to share her perspective!

Fall has (almost) arrived.  Cool weather, pretty fall color, yummy drinks composed of apple cider or hot cocoa, and I get to wear scarves (I like scarves as an accessory).

And standardized testing, if you are or have a school-age child.

In my area of the country, it seems school districts have chosen testing that calculates a Lexile score for a child’s reading level with an associated score range.  Lexile is a company that uses a software program to analyze books for word usage, sentence length, etc. and produce a Lexile Text Measure for each book (I copied the description from the Lexile Analyzer site):

The Lexile ® measure of text is determined using the Lexile Analyzer ®, a software program that evaluates the reading demand—or readability—of books, articles and other materials. The Lexile Analyzer ® measures the complexity of the text by breaking down the entire piece and studying its characteristics, such as sentence length and word frequency, which represent the syntactic and semantic challenges that the text presents to a reader. The outcome is the text complexity, expressed as a Lexile ® measure, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length and mean log frequency.
Generally, longer sentences and words of lower frequency lead to higher Lexile ® measures; shorter sentences and words of higher frequency lead to lower Lexile ® measures. Texts such as lists, recipes, poetry and song lyrics are not analyzed because they lack conventional punctuation.

I’m not a huge fan of putting a “score” on a book based simply on a computer generated metric because the software doesn’t take into account context or content of a book.  Or form, cf poetry.  But this seems to be accepted by the educational powers-that-be, so it’s here for the time being. However, I don’t know how well or often the scores are explained to parents, because I wind up in a lot of parent-bookseller conversations like this:

Parent: My child has a Lexile score of XXXX.  She has to read books in the range of XXXX-XXXX.  Will this work?
Bookseller [thinks]: Craaaaaaaaap.
Bookseller [says]: Well, let’s pull up the Lexile site to see what it suggests for that range and go from there.

The major problem here is that the parent hasn’t THE FOGGIEST IDEA what books go with the child’s Lexile score or how score ranges line up

with likely grade-levels.  They don’t have/haven’t been provided with a list of suggestions for the range.  They haven’t looked up Lexile on the Internet to get a handle on what this thing is (I mean, hello, the Internet is the Information Superhighway, Google it).  And their poor child is off in the corner trying desperately to read another Warriors book by Erin Hunter or Wimpy Kid or the new Babymouse before the “grown-ups” force her into reading stuff that she thinks she doesn’t want to read.

As booksellers (and by extension librarians, a population I am not a member of but respect greatly), we are the information gatekeepers the parents turn to in this situation.  We are the ones to take an abstract range of numbers and turn it into a physical pile of titles and authors.  We have to differentiate between editions because scores can fluctuate wildly and Lexile isn’t very informative (type “The Sun Also Rises” into Lexile – the old Scribner edition has a score of 610L, the ISBN for the reprint isn’t found, and the Modern Critical Interpretations edition is listed with a score of 1420L….confusing, right?).  And we are the ones who have to know what stories lay between the covers of those books so we can explain the contents to the parents.

In almost every customer interaction regarding Lexile, I have had to find books for a child who reads significantly above grade level (at grade level is generally pretty easy and parents with children under grade level often have a list of recommended titles as a starting point; for some reason, those children who read above grade level don’t have many recommendations).  For reference, Lexile gives a grade approximation for the score ranges:

Even though the approximate ranges are pretty wide, a book or series that is popular among peers isn’t often in the “right” score range for an advanced reader.  Some titles are marked “NC” meaning a non-conforming score (higher than intended audience) but it’s hard to tease those out of a range during a search (I’ve tried).  It can get pretty emotional when the child cannot find anything he or she wants to read or that parents will allow them to read that “counts” for their Lexile score.

The biggest grade-to-score discrepancy I’ve come across was a seventh grade boy (and a bit young socially for his age) who had a Lexile score greater than 1100.  His Lexile range was approximately 1150 – 1210.  The boy had to read at least five books that semester in his range to pass English and he was already behind. His father had done some online research and was at a loss – he was having trouble finding content-appropriate books in that score range (there was also a religious consideration, so a lot of recommended fantasy titles were automatically out).  The boy was very open to reading Stephen King, who has a lot of high-Lexile score titles, but the idea was vetoed by Dad due to language (and probably the religious consideration as well).  Dostoevsky was perfectly acceptable to Dad, but the kiddo really couldn’t get excited about it (he was into Gary Paulsen’s Brian series, but that wasn’t even close).  Some Dumas was in the right range but not the more appealing titles (The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask are both under 1000).  Gary Paulsen’s My Life in Dog Years was just in range, so I was able to interest both parent and child in that.  I sold them on The Hound of the Baskervilles and then hit paydirt with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  The boy had a friend with an Asperger-like syndrome and they were friends in their advanced math classes. Whew.  Finally, three books and a reasonably happy father.  But I couldn’t help but think – what are they going to do as the child continues through the school system?

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this since this isn’t quite the usual tone for a “‘Tis the Season” post.

Well, I really just wanted to put this out there to maybe help save parents, children, and teachers (and possibly other booksellers and librarians) some grief.  I would like to ask school administrators and teachers to work with children and parents to come up with lists of possible books appropriate to both grade-level and Lexile range (and I understand if you do this and the parents forget, are obstinate, or leave the list at home when they head to the bookstore).  For parents, Lexile provides a map with lists of titles for score ranges.  It’s a good place to start when trying to find books.

I would also like to ask teachers to be less rigid when assigning Lexile-related reading assignments because this seems to be where children have the most trouble.  I have so often helped kids who love, love to read but have found that none of the books they find appealing “count” for a reading assignment because they aren’t in the “right” Lexile range or have no score because either the book is too new or has an un-evaluable format.  These kids feel disheartened, that they’re failing, that the things they love are unimportant, and I hate seeing their disappointment when I’ve gone through the entire stack of books they’ve picked out and not a single one was in the right range.  I had a little girl just burst into tears once when I told her The Last Olympian  – the book she so desperately wanted to read – had a score of 620L; she had to have books greater than 700 or her teacher wouldn’t count them at all.  Please let children with high Lexile ranges count some of those lower-scoring books toward their reading assignment (say, an exchange of two non-Lexile books for one Lexile book, not to exceed half the assignment) or perhaps give them extra credit for those books as long as they’re keeping up with the Lexile assignment (if you’re already doing that, bravo!).  These kids are reading because they love reading and they’re already reading outside of school, which is sort of the point of those types of assignments.   I rarely hear of a child being penalized for reading above his or her range so I think there’s a compromise that can be reached for those kids who want to read but have trouble finding books due to age or content.

So bring your Lexile ranges to me and I and my fellow booksellers and librarians will do our best to find what you like to read as well as what you need to read – if we’re very good, that book will fill both requirements.  ‘Tis that sort of season.

Filed under: Common Core State Standards, Educator Resources Tagged: back to school, booksellers, common core, lexile

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In recent weeks, a trade dispute between Amazon and Hachette has been making headlines across the world. But discussion at our book-laden coffee tables and computer screens has not been limited to contract terms and inventory, but what books mean to us as publishers, booksellers, authors, and readers. So we thought this would be an excellent time to share some ideas on books from some of the greatest minds in our culture. Please share your personal thoughts in the comments below.

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
–Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, Czech novelist

“A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit.”
–John Milton, 1608-74, English poet

“Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can abolish memory … In this war, we know, books are weapons. And it is a part of your dedication always to make them weapons for man’s freedom.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945, American Democratic statesman, 32nd President of the US 1933-45, and husband of Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘Message to the Booksellers of America 6 May 1942, in Publishers Weekly 9 May 1942

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
–Joan Didion, 1934-, American writer, The White Album (1979)

“Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.”
–W.H. Auden, 1907-73, English poet

“Choose an author as you choose a friend.”
–Wentworth Dillon, Lord Roscommon, c. 1633-85, Irish poet and critic, Essay on Translated Verse (1684) l. 96

“No furniture is so charming as books.”
–Sydney Smith, 1771-1845, English essayist

“All books are either dreams or swords,
You can cut, or you can drug, with words.”
–Amy Lowell, 1874-1925, American poet, ‘Sword Blades and Poppy Seed’ (1914)

“Only connect! … Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.”
–E.M. Forster, 1879-1970, English novelist, Howard’s End (1910), ch. 22

“A good book is the best of friends, the same to-day and for ever.”
–Martin Tupper, 1810-89, English writer

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
–Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English courtier

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates’ loot on Treasure Island.”
–Walt Disney, 1901-66, American film producer

“There is no book so bad that some good cannot be got out of it.”
–Pliny the Elder, AD 23-79, Roman senator

“I hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.”
–Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-78, French philosopher

“All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time.”
–John Ruskin, 1819-1900, English critic

Ever since the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations published over 70 years ago, this bestselling book has remained unrivalled in its coverage of quotations both past and present. Drawing on Oxford’s dictionary research program and unique language monitoring, over 700 new quotations have been added to this eighth edition from authors ranging from St Joan of Arc and Coco Chanel to Albrecht Durer and Thomas Jefferson.

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By Trevor Naylor

The written word has always played its part in the spreading of revolutionary ideas and in the recording of historical events. Until the Internet, this was done principally by the bookshops of the world, nowhere more so than across the countries of Asia and the Middle East, where the humble corner bookshop sells not just books, but newspapers, magazines, stationery, and all manner of things to keep its daily customers up to date.

Often such stores have been places for the local intelligentsia to hang out, gossip, and ruminate on the events of the day, be they local or international. No wonder then that such places also attract the unwanted attention of government intrusion and censorship.

All the great centres of bookselling I have enjoyed working with have their stories and family histories to tell. Recounted during long pleasurable evenings over dinner, booksellers eager to record their own role in history and the ups and downs of their businesses.

Delhi, in particular Ansari Road and Connaught Place, teems with books and book people, the Hindu family bookshops that settled there after the terrible events of Partition, when the most exciting book capital in the world, Lahore, was ripped apart.

To go from one to the other was a joy, one day selling to the Indians and the next to the Pakistani families whose forebears used to have stores beside those now in Delhi.

In Lebanon, booksellers found a way to sell books as the city around them literally fell in pieces; Antranik Helvadjian somehow came to London and Frankfurt, with cash in hand, to pay his bills and ship new titles. Many publishers still have a sentimental side and such people continue to be honoured and supported.

One country’s book trade which has not fully recovered from a Revolution is Iran, where the complete reversal by those events of everything it had known and its ongoing sense of isolation from the world has prevented the import of books and news from returning and thriving — a huge pity for its people, whose history with books is one of the world’s oldest.

During the Gulf War the booksellers in Kuwait kept their heads down and survived, while in Turkey the ups and downs of both the military and the Turkish currency have seen stores thrive, then barely survive, but they continue because it’s all they know.

I come then to Egypt, centre of Arabic publishing, the home of AUC Press for over fifty years, and a haven for readers and bookshops for hundreds of years. From the backstreets of Islamic Cairo to the glorious riverside in Luxor, intelligent and brilliant family booksellers have greeted the millions who live in or travel to the country.

Today they sit mostly waiting, surviving and finding ways to keep the sales ticking over and to pay their faithful staff. They watch the turmoil that surrounds them, hoping it will settle soon, for they know that the draw of Egypt is indeed eternal and things will come back. They know that because they, or their father, or indeed their father’s father (ask Fahdy Greiss at the Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop) saw it all before. Revolutions, wars, and terrorism mean it’s never certain what is round the corner here, but this is one trade that won’t be beaten by them.

The AUC Press has several stores, the biggest and most famous on the corner of Tahrir Square itself. Some days we are busy, some days we are closed, some days no one visits, but we know they will again. The thirst for knowledge is undiminished here. Most people are not directly involved in the events you see and read of. They just want a normal life; they wish to study and move forward. When that time returns the bookshops of Egypt will still be waiting.

Trevor Naylor is the Sales, Marketing, and Distribution Director at The American University in Cairo Press, Egypt. Oxford University Press is proud to distribute AUC Press titles in North and South America.

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Image credit: Alexandria, Egypt – November 21, 2010: Young Egyptians relax and work on a book themed bench, outside the famous Library of Alexandria. (c) 1001nights via iStockphoto.

The post Booksellers in revolution appeared first on OUPblog.

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As Lin explains in her intro,

"Jon has been a great friend of the SCBWI" and oversees a lot of the philanthropic aspects of Amazon (and they've become a key player in children's publishing.)  He's the liaison between Amazon and the author/illustrator community, serving as Director of Author & Publisher Relations.

Jon Fine

In terms of the changes happening now in publishing, Jon is optimistic, saying

"I view this as an incredible time of opportunity for writers and readers."

He speaks of the biggest challenge we writers and illustrators face,

Tell your stories as well as you can and then
the real key is discoverability - how can people find your books?

And gives a shout-out,

"There is no group more supportive of its aspiring members than SCBWI."

He talks about transmedia, subscription services, serials, interstitial works, keywords and other tools to get the word out, his take on current trends and the age at which it's okay for your kid to read "Hunger Games" (it's dropping), skype author visits, and even predicts some trends yet to come...

Yet putting it all aside, he reminds us that the core issue is to tell a great story.

"It's all about the story.  It's all about reading."

The panel is a fascinating view of the side of the business AFTER your book is published!

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You maybe also plan your vacations around places to visit that have awesome bookstores? One of my dream roadtrips involves a stop at Books, Bytes, & Beyond in New Jersey, and Robert Brown is one of the reasons it's such a great, independent bookstore. Now Bob is shining up Scholastic Book Fairs, get to know him a little with Martha's great, pre-conference interview.

My favorite part of Bob's intro: How important it is to him to help children find the books that are right for them. Bob did this at his bookstore, and now with Scholastic he helps 35 million (!) kids via school book fairs find thousands of fiction and nonfiction titles.

Bob's answers to some of Lin's bookish questions:

Lin asks the panel to take the market's temperature:

Bob is upbeat about the children's book publishing industry. The biggest challenge is to get kids to read more. The book fairs provide unfettered access for kids to be in direct contact with new books, not only the bestseller listers, but wonderful midlist titles as well. In addition, it's a community event, families come to the fairs and the events continue to be well attended, with robust sales and enthusiasm on all sides.

How are Scholastic Book Fairs getting into the electronic book world?

Bob recommends checking out Scholastic's Storia, an app for Windows, iPads and Android designed for kids learning to read as well as readers and parents looking for a a curated set of great books.



Dream book type for Scholastic Book Fairs?

Contemporary multicultural!

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From Left to Right: Mary Brown, Robert Brown, Jon Fine and standing Lin Oliver.  (Peter Glassman has been delayed.)

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by Teri Terry   Martin Latham is the longest serving Waterstones Manager, having been appointed by legendary entrepreneur and founder, Tim Waterstone. He has authored 130 entries in the Oxford Guide to English Literature, and regularly features in the Bookseller. If that isn't enough, he somehow found the time to start a highly successful writing group at his Canterbury Branch, and author a few

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E-books are expected to account for 17% of Simon & Schuster's total revenue in 2011,... Read the rest of this post

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A new fiction and commercial non-fiction publisher will launch its first list in the new year,... Read the rest of this post

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The offices of the American University in Cairo Press and its Tahrir Bookstore, both situated on... Read the rest of this post

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Independent publisher Choc Lit has bought the world rights to two debut romance novels.... Read the rest of this post

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A joint open letter urging culture minister Ed Vaizey to intervene over library closures is... Read the rest of this post

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International Creative Management, which works in partnership with Curtis Brown, has been bought... Read the rest of this post

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U.S. book publishers need to respond to the book publishing company crisis, even while expanding its segmented self-publishing economy remains a poor country when its income is cast against its huge human demands. Revenues will always be far too small, and this fact should drive the whole issue of how the government manages its finances, both income and expenditure. The expansion and enrichment of the economy is providing the government with more revenue, and this permits it to make some important decisions about how to capture it and how to spend it. To begin with, the government must first get its hands on the added revenue through changes in how it handles its tax system, and the collection of other revenues. That is the first urgent reform. In some jurisdictions, only about 10% of the population pays income taxes. Then, these publishers revenues must be used to better target public budgets which, in India, are very much a process of the allocation of scarcity. There are two philosophies for the allocation of funds in a government budget – the rational and the “political”. Right now, the Indian government rejects the rational and favors the political, and the second great reform would involve a reversal of these preferences. These great publishing houses and book publishing houses means first that governments at all levels will need to make major changes in the policies that drive their budget allocation decisions in ways that mitigate many current budget costs that are wasteful, ineffective, or simply stupid. If this can be done, then even without increasing taxes, the public budget can be allocated instead to a whole new range of vital priorities that the government now deliberately and shamefully neglects. For India now, the problem is not so much one of deficit, but one of finding the courage to set rational priorities

Book publisher and Self Publishing Information provided by S&D book publishers and christian book publishers as a courtesy.

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Google is partnering with Bloomsbury's Public Library Online, sponsoring two of the digital... Read the rest of this post

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Mary Portas is expected to suggest cutting regulations for traders and launching a national... Read the rest of this post

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Mary Portas is expected to suggest cutting regulations for traders and launching a national... Read the rest of this post

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Constable & Robinson has grown turnover by 16% to £7.46m for the nine months to 31st... Read the rest of this post

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Literary agent Fiona Spencer Thomas has sold a thriller by Alex Churton to Anthony Cheetham's... Read the rest of this post

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My friend Carole Horne, general manager of the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, MA, told me a story about this man who came into her bookstore last summer to browse. He thumbed his way through their “recommended” section, then came up to the cashier seemingly empty-handed. Nope. He put a five dollar bill on the counter and said that he was going on a trip and would download his books but had spent a lot of time browsing and felt like he owed the shop some money.

The story is a mixed bag, but there is a measure of good in it. The guy recognized the intrinsic worth of the local bookstore. This time he forewent its paper products that would weight down his luggage. But he did value the expertise of independent bookstore buyers, the taste of those who curated that special section of books worth his attention, the opportunity to look into familiar books to see if they appealed and browse unknown ones to find a treasure. And at least it translated into some value for the store as well.

A worse story. This week I was picking up a book and a calendar (yes, I still write down my appointments in little white squares) at nearby Brookline Booksmith and noticed a shopper jotting down titles on a list next to people’s names. Wanna bet that list is going home to a computer and amazon.com?

The WORST story. Quite simply, the Amazon app. For those of you who haven't heard or read about it, Amazon has created an app called, “Price Check.” People go into stores, enable the app’s location feature, scan products using their phones and are immediately offered 5 percent off 3 identical Amazon purchases for up to 5 dollars. In other words, the app is turning brick-and-mortar stores into unwilling showrooms where consumers can check out the product, and leaf through a few pages before they click a button to save five bucks (plus, don’t forget, the sales tax!)

Right now, Price Check (or as I see it, the Death Star) is only using consumers as its foot soldiers to do reconnaissance on products like electronics, toys, music, sporting goods, and DVDS. Then, with a click, it sucks up this market. How long before books, the product that defined Amazon, will follow? Then how long before all our favorite bookstores will no longer exist?

People in all parts of the book business know something about death by a thousand cuts. But writers—especially kids’ book writers, especially nonfiction kids’ book writers—know that losing local bookstores is more like the Sword of Damocles. The pricelessness of booksellers has been written about so often, I’ll just print the keywords and you can fill in the blanks: know their stock standards, take chances, word of mouth, hand sell, actually read, actually care.

Let's not lose all those beautiful keywords for five bucks and some sales tax.

Come on everybody, it’s the Christmas buying season. There will

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