Lots of educators are talking this summer about e-readers, especially now that the iPad has captured our collective imagination. T.H.E. Journal has an article summarizing the agreement between the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and several universities who piloted use of the Kindle DX that reminds us that accessibility for our visually-impaired readers must be part of our thinking when we consider adopting these devices.

Although the Kindle DX, the device specified in this agreement, does read text aloud, making it initially a groundbreaking tool for those with visual impairments, the device itself cannot be navigated using voice commands. I don’t know if this is also true for the iPad, but it’s something to consider before making a purchase.

Department of Ed Lays Down Law on Kindle E-Reader Usage — THE Journal via kwout

Today is the official Free Comic Book Day at many local comics shops. Stop in to meet comic book authors and artists and to pick up some free samples.

But even better, today I heard about an amazing new resource.  Many of you already know the publishing line Toon Books, run by Art Spiegelman (Maus) and his wife Francoise Mouly.  We have many in our library and the rest on order.  Toon Books creates comic books with very simple language for emerging readers — and they definitely caught the eye of this year’s Geisel Committee!

I just learned today from The Graphic Classroom that Toon Books - the whole line - are available for full-text reading online.  A simple navigation device lets kids control the speed at which they change pages, and a “read to me” option highlights the word bubbles as they are read orally to the child.

Wait — are you a secondary librarian thinking this post isn’t for you? It is — many of these simple texts are available in other languages like Russian, Chinese, French, and Spanish — perfect as supplemental texts in world languages classes!

Click the link at the bottom below to explore.

Toon Book via kwout

I’m sitting in our classroom as my children’s lit  (aka, “Media for Children and Young Adults”) students do a pair of reflection projects.  First, they reflect as a group about the major ideas and themes of the course.Then, I ask them to reflect alone. The instructions:

This semester, you’ve heard a lot about what I believe about literature and resources for children and young adults.  Now that you’ve reflected on the course content, what do you believe about selecting media for children & YA?You can write your response as:

• a “This I Believe” essay
• a policy statement
• a Children/YA Bill of Rights
• a philosophical statement for your portfolio
• something else

I like spending the final hours of a course having students synthesize the ideas so that they can leave the course reminded of all we have done, but I’ve only this year added the individual reflection.So … what do I believe about media for children and young adults? I asked myself, watching them write, and I figured I should answer my own question.

I believe that books still matter and that they can help us grow our thinking and our world view.  They can make us laugh, teach us how to do things, or help us know our world.

While print books are still my preferred mode, I believe in multimodal and multimedia formats: digital texts, ebooks, audio books, audio mp3s, graphic novels, magazines, Web sites, and more.

Keeping kids reading is more important than being picky about what they read.  I am excited that we have passionate readers throughout our K-5 building.

I believe that our library collections should be real havens for pleasure reading, not just give lip service to that. 

I don’t expect my students to love what I loved, even if I wish they did.

I believe in library spaces that welcome children in and value them for who they are.

I believe in library spaces that build a sense of community and thoughtful excitement about learning.

I believe that library spaces should adapt to the needs of its users, not vice versa.  My hat is off to whoever invented casters for library furniture.

I believe that kids should be allowed to check out what interests them, not what is good for them or what is “on their level,” and that we should help them make good choices for their developmental level, not decide for them.

I believe that making good selections based on student needs and available budget is not censorship, no matter what School Library Journal put on its cover.

I believe that reader’s advisory is two-way: that I can recommend resources to kids, and that they can advise me right back.

I believe that libraries are safe places to explore new, unfamiliar ideas.I believe that a kid saying, “I love the library” should be the rule, not the exception.

I’ll close now so I can see what my students have to say.  Knowing their track record this term, it will be far more profound than what I have written.

What’s your manifesto?

{Post-class afterthought: I’m sitting in my office with tears in my eyes reading what they wrote. I’m a very lucky prof. Very lucky.}