RIP Else Holmelund Minarik

On July 12, Else Holmelund Minarik, author of the Little Bear I Can Read series (so wonderfully illustrated by Mauruce Sendak), died at age 91. The Little Bear books helped this blogger learn to read and to love reading and so I owe Minarik my gratitude. In my school first graders were given Dick and Jane primers to practice on. I never got far with them, but at home there was a stack of well-thumbed Little Bear books. My mother read them to me, and I would mimic her, pretending to read the words when I had only memorized them. (I wasn't fooling anyone, myself included.) Then, one day, I picked up one of the books and--miracle of miracles--I wasn't reciting. I was reading! The letters on the page had magically shifted and suddenly made sense. So thank you, Else Holmelund Minarik, for writing words that mattered.

Read the New York Times obit here.

Gallimaufry Friday

What a week it's been! Valentine's Day, the Westminster dog show, and the Cybils awards crammed into seven days (and all overlapping on the 14th). Here's my take on the week that was.

Release the hounds! The Westminster started on Monday with the hound breed and ended the following night with Best in Show. The winner? Malachy the Pekingese from the Toy Group took top honors. I watched the annual event with my faithful pug by my side, who was unimpressed with the competition. He's secure in the knowledge he won my heart long ago.

The Cybils announced the winners of their Best in Show. As I mentioned in a previous post, among the expected favorites, there were a few welcome surprises.

Scholastic's Parent & Child listed their picks for the 100 Greatest Books for Kids. Except for the first ten books (with Charlotte's Web leading the way), the rest of the list seemed arbitrary. Good books all, but I doubt many will stand the test of time. According to the editor, the list is supposed to stir up controversy. All it provoked in me was "eh". What do you think?

Pinterest is a hot new media site, one worth checking out. The New York Times had an interesting article about the free Web pinboard that allows you to scrapbook photos you come across while trolling sites. Here's my board on books. Don't you just love the reading tub?

This week I received a letter from a third-grader. I posted the following on my Twitter account: "A nine-year-old fan wrote me a letter saying he liked my books and requesting my autograph. How sweet!" All three of my sisters responded.

NC sister: "That's really cool"
NYC sister: "That's great!"
CT sister: "Cougar"

Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Picture Books

The New York Times has started a tempest in a teapot with its October 7th article "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children." To summarize, picture books aren't selling well and consequently publishers are producing fewer of them. The reason? The current economic climate doesn't help, of course, nor does the growing number of digital playthings at a child's disposal. But another major component, according to the article, is that parents (by which they middle-class parents) don't see picture books as relevant and are pressuring their offspring into ditching them to read chapter books. The thinking being: Why bother with Little Miss Spider when you can go straight to Charlotte's Web and from there it's a hop, skip, and a jump into Harvard?

To back up its claim, the article quotes bookstore owners and managers, book buyers, publishing executives, and children's publishers. One parent, a mother of three boys and writer of the book blog Zen Leaf, said of her six year old son, a reluctant reader, "He would still read picture books if we let him, because he doesn't want to work to read." (She has since written a post saying her comment was taken out of context.)

It's a nice theory, but, sorry, I'm not buying it. Picture books have been a hard sell (ask any picture book author) for years now. And while no doubt there are some parents who would rather their kids peruse the Wall Street Journal rather than The Wolves in the Wall, these types of parents have always existed. No. The reason for the picture book's decline is--hold on to your hats--they cost too much! A hardcover picture book is priced around $18. You can buy a paperback chapter book for under $10. It's a no-brainer. And when picture books are purchased, they are usually bought as gifts, and the choice is likely to be a classic, such as The Runaway Bunny or Where the Wild Things Are. It's too expensive to take a chance with an unknown book that the child might glance at once and never again.

When my daughter was young, we used to visit the library for picture books and buy others when they came out in paperback or in book clubs. (Though nothing beats a hardcover edition, I admit.) Nowadays, libraries are seeing their budgets slashed and can't afford to buy as many picture books, or indeed, any type of book. I'm not sure what the answer is, but my guess is that once the economy rebounds (or if) so will picture books. Fingers crossed.