September 2000

Staff -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2000

Belated but Worthy

One of our readers tallies up the things we've done right

First, an admission. I am just now getting to my pile of SLJs from the school year 1999-2000. So it is not until now that I am appreciating Walter Minkel's columns. There's nary a clinker among them; several are just fantastic, right on the money! Mr. Minkel is a great addition to your Internet/technology coverage. Also, I've been using "Surf For" for several years now. Continue both, please!

I would also like to congratulate you on the candor of the November 1999 editorial ("Poof Goes the Librarian: In a good economy, too many good librarians are vanishing," p. 9, www.slj.com/articles/opinion/19991101_6845.asp). Ms. Olson expressed consternation over one of the more recent efforts by ALA leadership, a Sister Libraries project. I'll go her one better: not only do I sometimes question the intent of ALA efforts, sometimes I really can't figure out what they're trying to accomplish despite their public pronouncements. Minuscule book budgets, no clerical help, and a mountain of unrelated, time-consuming non-library duties all take their toll. There is no lack of jobs, and suburban districts are aggressively recruiting. Meanwhile, ALA is matching people up with pen pals. I do not need to exchange chipper little letters with sister librarians. What I need is the knowledge that there will be somebody behind me to continue the work that I've started (I've been "starting" it for nearly 30 years).

In any event, I've been a devoted Booklist reader for decades. You have me paying much more attention to the total content of your journal, and I thank you for your hard, honest work.

Gwynne D. Mosch
Librarian
Rochester City School District
Rochester, NY

Finding the truth in fiction
I must take exception to Faith Brautigam's response to criticism of her review of My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl (SLJ, November 1999, p. 12). It is so very difficult to find well-thought-out reviews of Aboriginal materials anywhere within traditional reviewing circles that I felt it was time that those of us who are fed up with historically inaccurate and ethnocentric portrayals of Aboriginal peoples in print speak up and speak out. Perhaps the very core of the problem lies in Brautigam's statement, "I assessed [this work] according to traditional elements." Surely, somewhere within the list of traditional assessment elements, one should find historical veracity. Why is it that when a book deals with Aboriginal subject matter, it is somehow deemed acceptable to ignore historical truth? In no other subject area does one find historical accuracy treated in such a superfluous manner. (I am afraid that determining that the author has correctly set the story within a historically accurate time frame is just not quite enough confirmation of "basic historical facts.") Indeed, it is most certainly the responsibility of the reviewer to "speak to the details the author has incorporated into a fictional piece," particularly when the "details" are at the very core of the piece of work.

Let us begin a new era of reviewing wherein we demand that reviewers assessing materials about the Aboriginal experience rid themselves of such notions as "culture clashes." The experiences of Aboriginal peoples, beginning with European contact and continuing to the present day, were no more culture clashes than was the Holocaust. As one of a number of those who select books for a teacher resource library, I expect SLJ, by its very nature, to consider historical accuracy to be of equal importance to plot, theme, and characterization when reviewing new books. In the meantime, I suggest that anyone purchasing Aboriginal materials for a school or district resource library look first at How to Tell the Difference: A Guide for Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias (Oyate Press, 1996), or any of the other excellent guides written by Beverly Slapin, Doris Seale, and their colleagues--or have a look at the publisher's Web site: www.oyate.org. Let's take a giant step towards addressing five centuries of misinformation by changing the way we assess Aboriginal materials.

Lynda Gofsky Atherley
Library Technician
Marian Learning Resources Centre
Burnaby School District 41
Burnaby, B.C., Canada

Missing the Point
We feel compelled to respond to Ed Sullivan's article, "More Is Not Always Better" (April 2000, p. 42). Sullivan ignorantly asserts that avarice is the sole motivation for publishing series books, but he entirely overlooks the audience for which these series are written.

The books are not for teens who, like Sullivan, love to read nonfiction. They are for a group usually overlooked by publishers: reluctant teen readers. The fact that Enslow and Rosen titles are regularly nominated for consideration by YALSA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers committee is proof that there is a significant audience for these books.

Sullivan also discounts the need for these series, but Rosen in particular publishes books on subjects no one else will touch--a very risky enterprise, and by no means guaranteed to be lucrative. As one middle-school librarian said, "No one who publishes 56 titles on African peoples does it out of greed--but they fill a very important niche." Public and school libraries buy these books to provide young adults with information on topics that they are not likely to find anywhere else.

We doubt that Sullivan has ever spoken to the publishers of these series and asked why they issue these books. Yet he arrogantly assumes he knows why: "greed." We have spoken with the publishers and know that Roger Rosen, for example, constantly talks to teen librarians to find out what topics are lacking and which current issues would be most useful to young adult reluctant readers. He really listens to what librarians tell him. Rosen is genuinely concerned about helping youth to grow, learn, and flourish. This concern drives the publication of many of his series titles.

Finally, consider Sullivan's assertion that one volume covering all drugs would be preferable to a book on each drug. When a class studies drugs, students arrive at the library asking for information on a particular drug. With 20-25 teens in a class, it is difficult to satisfy their research needs with one book. Sullivan's views on teen parenting books also seem singularly offhand. There really is a difference between the issues affecting teen mothers and fathers. Both groups deserve titles that speak directly to each of their concerns.

Sue Rosenzweig
Independent consultant
former member, Quick Picks Committee,
Young Adult Library Services Association

Eve Lusk
Youth Services Coordinator
Spokane, WA County Library
Former Member, Quick Picks Committee,
Young Adult Library Services Association

Corrections
The review of Annie Fox's Can You Relate?: Real-World Advice for Teens on Guys, Girls, Growing Up, and Getting Along (Free Spirit, 2000; July, p. 116) was written by Sarah Smith Prielipp, Harrison Community Library, MI, not Mercedes Smith.

The name of one of the publications mentioned in last month's feature on kids' magazines ("Magazine Mania," pp. 40-43) has recently changed. The new name of the The 21st Century magazine is TeenInk.