In New York City, any library patron with $15 or more in fines can’t check out books. To ease this restriction, the New York Public Library and the Queens Public Library will allow 143,000 blocked kids a chance to “read down” their fines this summer.
Children who sign up on Summer Reading can take part in this program. Every fifteen minutes of reading reduces an overall fine by one dollar. The kids then record the titles and the time they spent reading on their Summer Reading 2011 account. The program kicked off on July 25th and will run until September 9th.
NYPL official Jack Martin told The NY Daily News: “Kids might be afraid or ashamed because they are delinquent with the library. The idea of this program is to bring them back in. We are in such hard economic times and children and teens depend on the library.” Do you think this is a fair trade-off? Would adults be open to “reading down” their fines too? (via BookTV)
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The Webster Branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) tested the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
The library wrapped several books with plain brown paper with a short description pasted on top. If the description intrigued the patron, they were required to check out the book before unwrapping it. The point is to try to withhold judgment until the content is examined.
Here’s more from the NYPL blog post: “One of the first books to go out, and one that sparked a lot of discussion, was labeled ’3,856 stories. One book.’ … The secret book in question is Meanwhile by Jason Shiga. It’s an old school ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ story, in graphic novel format, with about five thousand more twists and turns.”
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I love reading what other children’s writers have to say about the craft of writing for children, being a writer, reading, or really anything that relates. Here are a few quotes that I hope you’ll enjoy, too.
“A real adult, someone who is really grown up and adult, someone like Mrs Thatcher, couldn’t possibly write a book for children. Somebody like me, even when I’m 85, is pretty damned childish. I laugh at things that young children laugh at.”
–Dick King-Smith
“You have the power to make the reader feel something. That’s what you have when you’re writing books.”
–Anne Margaret Lewis
“It’s the ability to bring events and characters to a resolution that draws me to writing, especially writing for children. I don’t want to ever be didactic, but if there’s something I do want to say, it’s that you can bring things around. You can make a change. Adult novels are about letting go. Children’s novels are about getting a grip.”
–Tim Wynne Jones
“”I never [wrote for children]… for the money, though it’s very nice; nor the critical acclaim, which is very nice too. … The most satisfying aspect of [my] work is the … fan letters that [I] receive from children.”
–Dick King-Smith
Many children’s and teen fiction books address painful subjects, and are honest in a way that the adults around children and teens may not be. I believe that fiction with painful truths in them can help children and teens to know that they are not alone, or to think about and experience issues in a safe way that they may not yet have had to deal with, but might have a friend who has. I think truth in children’s fiction is vital. And I love reading what children’s and teen authors have to say. So here are a few quotes about this:
“We read to know we are not alone.”
- C.S. Lewis
“Children read to learn what might happen to them next. As writers, we have an obligation to be honest in our writing. We’ve lived longer, had more thoughts about our experiences; we know what life is like. We do children a disservice if we present life in a sentimental light. We need to be completely honest, as long as we use common sense about the type of experiences that are suitable to the readers’ ages.
…Children want to know what might happen next. A story is a safe place for them to experience dangerous situations. When a child reader finds him/herself in a real-life dangerous situation, they can remember the lesson they learned from the book.”
-Barbara Greenwood
“I like to feel that a children’s book can address worrying or even terrible things, but I’m not in the business of worrying children unnecessarily. I try to have realistic endings, and there are hard times, but I also try to show that, with a bit of luck, you can get through things.”
-Jacqueline Wilson
“Edgy is REAL without hesitation, even if it’s not a reality we all want to acknowledge.
But those books, with their inclusionary, ’so I’m not alone after all,’ value, can literally save lives.”
- Kelly Milner Halls
“These sad, unfair, frightening, discouraging, impossibly hard things come at us–if we let them, if we keep working to peck our way out, they can help to make us stronger.
What I try to do in my novels is create characters that are pecking out of hard shells. I use humor to help them through. I pull from experiences I had, feelings I remember. … I hope you’ll see some of yourselves in the lives of my characters. We’re all in this struggle together. The best part about stories is how they help us remember that.”
-Joan Bauer
“The Y.A. books I was reading seemed to have such strong voices and such heart. No B.S., no filler. I was hooked. … Some of the most compelling, tightly written, emotionally honest, risky, taboo, glorious work I’ve read is Y.A.”
- Libby Bray
“You get into that place where you’re writing from deep inside. You just want to tell the best stories you can. With me, I wanted to be honest - maybe because I felt grownups hadn’t been honest with me when I was a kid.”
-Judy Blume
“It’s a tough world out there that kids are exposed to. … I think we need to show that life can be hard, but we need to show how things can be overcome through emotional strength and getting help. I see being a writer to young people as a bearer of light. We are teaching whether we think about it that way or not. You can teach by all kinds of examples. …
I try to show how great adversity, if it’s addressed, can really make us stronger. Having traveled some difficult roads myself as a teenager, I can underscore the importance of strategically placed adults in my life.”
- Joan Bauer
“I believe in the healing power of love and creative expression in the face of fear. It’s not a conscious thing, but it is in my books.”
- Francesca Lia Block
Books can give so much, in so many ways, and I love reading about that. It’s so affirming, and just speaks to the book lover in me, as well as the writer. I love reading quotes about reading and books–especially quotes from children’s and YA writers. So I’ve pulled together a few quotes from some of my favorite children’s and YA authors on both what they get out of reading, and how to help children and teens read (or how not to put them off reading).
“Why do I read?
I just can’t help myself.
I read to learn and to grow, to laugh and to be motivated.
I read to understand things I’ve never been exposed to.
I read when I’m crabby, when I’ve just said monumentally dumb things to the people I love.
I read for strength to help me when I feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.
I read when I’m angry at the whole world.
I read when everything is going right.
I read to find hope.
…
Reading isn’t passive — I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when they’re about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them.
Reading for me, is spending time with a friend.
A book is a friend.
You can never have too many.
-Joan Bauer
–From Shelf Life: Stories by the Book, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
“I always loved stories that could carry me away from day to day life. I’m not saying I had a hard or sad life–because I didn’t–but I loved how words could transport me to a different time, a different place. Stories could even make me feel as though I was a different person. It was like magic.”
-Vivian Vande Velde
“Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.”
- Beverly Cleary
“The best thing I know to tell parents and teachers about motivating young readers is that reading should not be presented to them as a chore, a duty. It should, instead, be offered as a gift: Look, I will help you unwrap this miraculous present. I will show you how to use it for your own satisfaction and education and deep, intense pleasure. It distresses me that parents insist that their children read or make them read. I think the best way for children to treasure reading is for them to see the adults in their lives reading for their own pleasure.”
- Kate DiCamillo
“Parents have to bring the book to the child, so when the children go to school they’re familiar with them. They need to read with the child at least 20 minutes a day. It gives the parents a little island of privacy and love. With the proper encouragement the child will become a reader, and learning to love books and stories will be something important for the rest of their lives.”
-Rosemary Wells
“Parents risk putting children off reading by dragging them around bookstores and force-feeding them literary classics. … We…forget the inestimable value of spending 15 minutes a day reading with our child. There is no better way to get to know your child than to share their books with them.”
- Anthony Horowitz
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