Laminack, Lester L. and Reba M. Wadsworth

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, c2006. xviii, 222 p. ; 24 cm., 9780325009827

An excellent annotated list of read aloud pictures books in various subject areas. Lots of suggestions for use and correlation to standards.

Bonnie Burns

If teacher-librarians are to be literacy leaders in the school, then they must have an extensive knowledge of various methods of teaching reading. Burns provides a good review of the history of reading instruction and then pursues her definition of balanced reading to advocate for a whole-part, whole-direct teaching system. This means that you give the learner a strong reason for learning to read; provide direct instruction on various skills; and, finally, help the reader put it all together, resulting in fluency. Burns likes a balance between teaching skills directly and then using literature. To her, each classroom needs 500 books, half of which are fiction and half informational. These books are easily found, perhaps in the school library, if that collection has been updated since 1974. Thus, the word library is used once in the book, and the term librarian is never used—nor are any of its cousin terms. But reading specialist is not mentioned either. Burns concentrates solely on direct instruction done by the classroom teacher but mentions no other resources upon which the teacher can draw. Tragic. The strength of this book is its easy-to-understand explanation of the balanced approach to reading. But I am looking for a book that links the school library into the reading program. This is not the one. Perhaps you as a review reader will write one. Put that on your to-do list today. In the meantime, you can skip reading this one. (Corwin Press, 2006. 288 pp. $39.95. 1-4129-3742-6.)

Bottom line: The strength of this book is its easy-to-understand explanation of the balanced approach to reading, but teacher-librarians are looking for a book that links the reading program to the school library. This is not the one. David Loertscher

Betty Diamant-Cohen

If you have a preschool in your school or district, this resource is a must-purchase. Based on brain research and the psychology of children aged 3 and under, the author has developed—over many years of experience at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD—a plethora of fun and developmental activities with rhyme, dance, song, and programming. The first section discusses the psychology of these tots and then presents full directions, rhymes, music on the CD-ROM, graphics, and patterns. Excellent ideas for building and assessing a learning-readiness program are offered herein. (Neal-Schumann, 2006. 440 pp. Looseleaf binder and CD-ROM. $85.00. 1-55570-536-7.)

Bottom line: A must purchase for the preschool program. david Loertscher

Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher

It is time to celebrate! Here are two authors discussing literacy in the secondary school, and they see the value of large book collections and teacher-librarians. They get it! Ivey and Fisher present a model of what a literacy-centered middle school and high school look like—not just from the perspective of the language arts teacher but as the focal point of every classroom teacher in the building, working together on a common set of literacy principles. Yes, they use two sample schools that have highly diverse student populations, large libraries, and outstanding teacher-librarians and encourage every student to read widely. However, I called the teacher-librarians at the featured schools—Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, CA, and Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrisonburg, VA—and I inquired about their roles in literacy. I learned that they are both on the leadership literacy teams; they both have amassed large book collections; and they both support teachers and students in the provision of thousands of books at many reading levels. Thomas Harrison Middle School has a main library and a literacy library (multiple copies of topical titles that are part of the library collection but in a separate storage area), and it also has rotating classroom collections. In San Diego, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on classroom collections and on a superlarge library collection. Reading levels in both collections begin at grade 2 so that every child has many choices on a variety of topics and at the appropriate reading level.

    The central focus of this book demonstrates—in a chatty style—the major concerns that need to be addressed for literacy to flourish in a secondary school. Chapter titles help to define the authors’ concerns: “Reading and Writing in the English Classes” (discusses wide reading as opposed to every child studying the same book); “Transportable and Transparent Strategies for Content Literacy Instruction” (how all teachers immerse their students in reading); “Time Spent ‘Just Reading’: A Nonnegotiable” (yes, yes: sustained silent reading); “Interventions and Support for Struggling Adolescents”; and “Leadership and Schoolwide Support for Literacy” (actually discusses large budgets for books). So, if your school is looking for an easy-to-read literacy title for a professional learning community topic, this is a great candidate, and the teacher-librarians can rejoice in the fact that they are seen as an integral part of a schoolwide initiative. (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2006. 160 pp. $23.95. 978-1-4166-0321-4.)

Bottom line: A must-read for every teacher-librarian. david Loertscher

Donovan R. Walling

The ideas in this book are worth considering because so many school library research assignments end up as written work. We know that students have varying learning styles, and Walling carries this a step farther by saying that the end product will be better if the writing task matches the learning style. There is logic here, but this idea really needs tested in your school—in collaboration with a classroom teacher—to determine if it really works for your students. Walling provides plenty of ideas and examples to skim through in order to have a long discussion about its potential in collaborative projects. (Corwin Press, 2006. 136 pp. $27.95. 1-4129-2520-7.)

Bottom line: Recommended for the interesting ideas in varying the writing results in the research. David Loertscher

Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz

Teacher-librarians who are responsible for PreK children should pay attention to this title.  The book begins with a review of the research about literacy and the PreK child in understandable language rather than “researchese.” This review is followed by a large section of activities, ranging from finger plays to storytimes. Just the right amount of directions accompany the activities. Additionally, a wide variety of suggestions are provided for working with children who are growing up in non-English speaking homes, making storytime enjoyable, planning whole programs around storytime, keeping your program going across time, and evaluating your results. (American Library Association, 2006. 272 pp. $45.00. 0-8389-0899-3.)

Bottom line: A valuable resource for this audience. David Loertscher

Gerri Bates

Are the works of Alice Walker studied in your curriculum? If so, consider this book. Students can get on the Internet and find a plethora of material about Alice Walker both in free material and also in the various databases, including electronic reference tools now available from Gale. The question becomes both one of format, coverage, and authority. The current work has a lengthy biography of Ms. Walker and then contains lengthy discussions and analyses of individual works like other books in the Greenwood “A Critical Companion” series.  While not all criticism is created equal, this work is as good as any, providing the more advanced high school student with substantive materials for analysis. Like all critical analysis, the challenge is how the teacher and teacher-librarian design learning activities for its use. How can a student separate what the various critics have said, see various critical camps, digest the various criticism, and gain confidence as a young reader that it is acceptable to have an opinion of one’s own? Check your both your print and digital collections on this topic to determine whether you need more material on Alice Walker for the more advanced student. (Greenwood Press, 2005. 240 pp. $49.95. 0-313-32024-1.)

Bottom line: Recommended if it fits your needs.David Loertscher

Judy Bradbury

Whatever happened to just reading aloud a wonderful book to children and letting the context of the story and the literary wonders impact the listener? The supposition of this book is that the listener does not “get it”—that the author’s words are not sufficient to deliver a message and understanding. It is part of the effort to use every minute of the day teaching reading, building background, and building understanding. For example, in the reading aloud of Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco (1994), there is a recommended discussion and explanation at the reading of every single page or double-page spread. Such an analysis could interfere so much with the narrative that the listener could lose track of the story line with its cadence and building excitement. Bradbury provides suggestions that any thinking adult would find interesting but not prescriptive. That is the point: There are ways to build understanding and skill without killing a piece of literature. The best thing about this collection is that it is an excellent list of read-alouds for this age group. There are also other good things about this book, such as interesting author pages, bibliographies of many interesting read-alouds with no detailed prescriptions, and pull-out pages for parents that provide tips to enjoy reading with their children. So, the value of this book depends on how the reader will use the suggestions—to enhance a read-aloud experience, or to kill it with over analysis. (Libraries Unlimited, 2005. 360 pp. $32.00. 1-59158-046-3.)

Bottom line: Recommended for the many lists of great read-alouds and helpful tips for parents, but as a prescriptive analytical read-aloud strategy, it is over done. David Loertscher

James W. Barnes

There are many advantages to the use of readers theatre. First, it requires little preparation time; second, it involves a group of learners instantly; and third, it brings the richness of literature painlessly into a learning experience. Barnes has done a masterful job of acquainting readers with the stories of creation and other ancient tales from New Zealand’s Maori culture. Whenever there is an opportunity in the curriculum to explore mythology, particularly where a comparison across cultures will help learners see more deeply into the world of the past and understand its impact on our thinking today, teachers want to seize it; here is a very rich source to help them do so. For each piece, Barnes provides some background, and a longer story is separated into smaller reader’s theatres so that the teacher-librarian can do a brief or an in-depth encounter. For its excellence in presentation, its coverage of a culture largely ignored in normal curriculum, and its ease of use toward enriching a learning experience, this work is highly recommended for the contribution it offers to the middle and high school grades. (Teacher Ideas Press, 2005. 192 pp. $29.00.1-59158-077-3.)

Bottom line: Excellent. Highly Recommended. david Loertscher

Carol M. Butzow and John W. Butzow

The Butzows are well known for their approach of having a class read a book together and then doing activities around that book. This approach was extremely popular during the days of whole language. The idea was to have children immersed in a piece of literature and then to do extensions or pursue interests based on the theme of the book or issues raised in the text. One did not want to kill interest in reading by doing too many onerous tasks connected to the book.

In this latest work, the authors create the activities surrounding the book contents so that they point to the mastery of curriculum standards. For a specific title, there are extension activities in social studies, science, the arts, library skills, and technology. The problem is that these activities are the finding and reporting kind, rather than the thinking kind. For example, the reader is told to locate the city in the book on a map and find out what other rivers are close by, or chart some of the buildings mentioned in the book on a map of the city. This leads one to ask, so what? Teachers who are pressured to have students achieve are reluctant to spend class time on activities that have no clear payback in building deep understanding of the prescribed state standards. The book extensions here are like a spider web building outward without the connecting threads between the main spokes. Teachers and teacher-librarians need more creative uses of literature that tie together main concepts and foster deep understanding. It is not here. (Teacher Ideas Press, 2005. 152 pp. $25.00. 1-59469-004-9.)

Bottom line: Not recommended. David Loertscher

Thomas Fensch, ed.

Hurray for Dr. Seuss! We still love him and so do the kids! Fensch has collected numerous essays, newspaper articles, and magazine articles from Dr. Seuss’ lifetime, providing a perspective of the reaction to his work across the decades. Even though there are a number of published volumes about the life and work of Dr. Seuss, there is value in this reprint of articles—taken from across the decades—to provide a perspective for fresh interpretation. So, if you are planning a Seuss event, are an addict of his life and work, or want some tidbits to share with young children or even adults when you talk about or tell Seuss stories, this volume provides interesting background from across the years. (McFarland, 2005. 231 pp. $29.95. 0-7864-2447-8.)

Bottom line: Recommended. david Loertscher

Nancy Polette

Every elementary and secondary teacher-librarian should consider this book. Over the years, teacher-librarians have become experts in assisting learners to find and locate information, and even more recently, they have taught the research process in its entirety, including the critical skill of evaluating what qualitative information is. Information Power requires that we assist learners in the use of information, and that involves much more than learners or even teacher-librarians expected would come out of any “library skills” lesson. Polette’s volume therefore pushes the teacher-librarian’s repertoire for what should be taught in the library to the teaching of thinking skills as a part of the use of information. What are those thinking skills? Here is a partial list from her book: analyze, associative thinking, attribute listing, brainstorming, classify/categorize, compare, comprehension, conceptualize, creative thinking, decision-making, deductive thinking, elaboration, evaluation, fluency/flexibility, and forecasting. Now the question is: “Do we know the meaning of these terms, and do we teach them regularly as part of information use?”

The one-page, reproducible definitions of each term are a great feature of this book that can be used as handouts or projected on a screen. They can be used for a quick lesson about how to think a particular way as the learner works with the information on the specific topic. Polette then provides practice examples and quick exercises.

This book works very well within the scheme of teaching information literacy skills “just in time.” As learners are faced with a tough topic and must use a particular type of thinking to attack it, using a brief example from a folk or fairy tale is useful because it is familiar territory to the learner, allowing the learner to do a quick practice example and to then transfer that knowledge immediately to the more challenging topic at hand.

All of this means inserting a quick teaching moment just at the point when learners need them, rather than attempting to teach the complete research model. In looking over Polette’s examples, I am not sure I would use them as presented, but she provides enough examples that adaptation is quite easy. Thus, when the teacher-librarian does collaborative planning, the Polette book should be close at hand to look up the thinking skills—arranged in alphabetical order—as needed to inspire both teaching partners’ activity creation. (Teacher Ideas Press, 2005. 168 pp. $25.00. 1-59158-320-9.)

Bottom line: A must purchase. David Loertscher

Mother Goose Rhyme Time: Animals. Kimberly K. Faurot. Upstart Books, 2006.

Mother Goose Rhyme Time: Night. Kimberly K. Faurot. Upstart Books, 2006. Each of these titles provides early literacy and musical activities with popular Mother Goose Rhymes for preschool and Kindergarten teachers and librarians. The author encourages the creation of packets of materials created from her books that are instantly ready to use with children. For those needing fresh ideas for the use of Mother Goose, this source is recommended. Combining pre-reading instruction with fun is in the mainstream of focus, particularly with children who don’t have very strong literature backgrounds or who are unfamiliar with the traditional American culture. – David Loertscher, Dec. 15, 2006