It's good to celebrate new books in children's literature, but I've been wondering, what about all the older books that were just as good in quality. For adults, we've already read the older books and are always in need of the new, but for children, they're new to the literature. An older book is just as new to them as a new book. Some classics still remain, but many very good titles you don't hear about or see anymore. Do they go to an old book graveyard? I wonder if some of those titles need to be resurrected so today's readers can also be enriched by them as we once were.
Great point! I know at a lot of the schools that I have been at librarians will give books to teachers that they have discarded. I have found some treasures over the years this way.
Some books can stand the test of time and remain in circulation even once they become "old". Besides that, it's up to parents and teachers to share good books with kids, pushing them towards the old stuff if it's still good.
Our librarian did that too. I found an old computer boom I grabbed because it talked about the computers being as big as the room. I thought it was funny. My mom kept a lot of books from when we were kids. I would bring books in & read to class once in awhile. They love hearing the books that were read to me. Lol!!!
I was going through my collection and came across The Indian in the Cupboard, which I had never read but always meant to read. I read the first page and flipped through it and saw that the "Indian" spoke in cliché Wild West dialect, like "Me give you food." I couldn't see myself ever having that in my classroom for a child to read, so I tossed it.
Topsy... That was one of my favorites.. My 3rd grade teacher read it to us. There were only a few copies in school library so we would have to take turns so we could follow along!!!
Topsy reminded me of something I did to counter books in my classroom library that might contain controversial content but were still worth reading. Of course, some books I thought should wait until the students were more mature to properly understand, but in many situations, I would write a little note in the cover explaining that section of the book so that the student could more appropriately understand those passages.
Not sure how "old" you mean, but I do try to have both in my library. I have a few as book club books - this tends to get them into books they might not usually picked. I've used Bridge to Terabithia, Tuck Everlasting, Maniac Magee, and Freak the Mighty, to name a few. I recently got sets of The Westing Game and The Great Gilly Hopkins. I recommend older books as I find kids who I think will like them. I have a student who loved A Little Princess and is currently reading through all the original American Girl books she can get her hands on. I've seen a thing on Pinterest where a teacher wrapped the covers of books and included only descriptions for a special event where the kids picked books that way, without even seeing the covers. I've always thought about doing that. I wonder what would come of that if I tried it.
Yellowdaisies, that sounds like a wonderful idea, students unwrapping books! Maybe it could be a "book birthday party" with cake and games. Just now, I thought of a Pin the Tail on the Donkey type game, perhaps with Velcro or magnetic tape, Pin the Consonant on the Phonogram. Have a board with spaces, and each space has a large phonogram such as "at" or "ud". Have consonants in a bag that students pick by random after being blindfolded, and they stick it onto the board and see if it forms a word.
I have thought about this often. We are always pushing the Golden Sower nominees, last year's Newberry (yeah, I misspelled that) winner and nominees, and the books being sold at the book fair, bur rarely are older classics promoted. When I had my own room I made a point of reading older books from my own childhood or before. Alice in Wonderland, Ramona, Hardy Boys, Follow My Leader, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the kids loved them all.
If you have any that aren't of quality to save, check out Pinterest for loads of ways to get creative and upcycle them.
I know the school I subbed at got new reading books. One of the teachers & I had a table at an open house and wrote discard in them & gave them to who wanted them so students had books to read at home.
I'm kind of thinking that eventually old books and old book readers are reunited in the great beyond. (sorry, I couldn't help myself)
