tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post610426098873356756..comments2024-03-09T05:53:59.542-05:00Comments on Oz and Ends: Stinky: Another Kind of Easy Reader?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-53728305441064188022009-01-29T17:43:00.000-05:002009-01-29T17:43:00.000-05:00But do all beginning readers need to be pedagogica...<I>But do all beginning readers need to be pedagogical?</I><BR/><BR/>Once we call them “books for beginning readers,” I think there’s an implicit message that the books are educational. That label says they’re not for anyone who simply wants simple stories. They’re stories for readers at a particular stage of intellectual development. The word “beginning” might further imply that those readers will progress to another stage. It’s not necessary to classify books that way, but our culture does. <BR/><BR/>And given that classification, I thought it significant that the ALA committee found <I>this</I> book for beginning readers worth honoring, given that people read it in a different way from the other honorees. <BR/><BR/>It’s been so long since I looked in a <I>Captain Underpants</I> book that I don’t recall how much of them comes in prose form and how much in comics form. Obviously, their superhero milieu owes a lot to comics. And might keep them from being considered for such an honor.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-46073388791085550682009-01-29T13:20:00.000-05:002009-01-29T13:20:00.000-05:00All good points. But do all beginning readers need...All good points. But do all beginning readers need to be pedagogical? Why can't they be for fun? There'll be plenty of teachers to tell the kid the proper use of exclamation points and question marks in prose, and to stifle her/his use of little hearts.<BR/><BR/>And on a pedagogical note, I have seen reluctant readers turned around by Captain Underpants -- because of the comics. Although there's a significant prose element, the pictures are what brought the reader to the book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-62095191607860522152009-01-29T10:37:00.000-05:002009-01-29T10:37:00.000-05:00I think a beginning-reader book in comics form is ...I think a beginning-reader book in comics form is a challenge in the same way as a beginning-reader book in prose form. They both are enticing young children to develop new skills. I'm not sure which form, if any, is more challenging. <BR/><BR/>I also think there's a secondary challenge lurking here, which is figuring out what's acceptable in one form but not the other. Combining punctuation marks (e.g., "?!?!") is common in comics, non-standard in prose. (Though there's an example in <I>Alvin Ho</I>.) <BR/><BR/>Expressing fondness by drawing a little heart is acceptable in comics, emails, personal letters, and on Valentine's Day. Doing so in a literary novel or business letter would be thought askance.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28103455.post-53559655678218850782009-01-29T10:14:00.000-05:002009-01-29T10:14:00.000-05:00I agree that it's a different way of reading. I di...I agree that it's a different way of reading. I disagree that it's a challenge. Kids are bombarded with images from birth: television, signs, boxes, toys, billboards, board books (on a literary level), and more. They learn to read faces very early on and interpret simple lines. Punctuation as emotion may be new, but reading pictures dates back to Neolithic times, and was used with powerful effect in stain glass for illiterate church goers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com