{"id":1865,"date":"2010-01-04T08:43:13","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T14:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2010-01-04T08:43:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T14:43:13","slug":"does-he-really-have-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1865","title":{"rendered":"Does He Really <em>Have<\/em> to Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/caricature.jpg\"><em>{Note: This is <a href=\"http:\/\/adamrex.com\/\"><strong>Adam Rex&#8217;s<\/strong><\/a> caricature of Jon Scieszka, revived from my 2007 interview with Jon.}<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Oh, I am Generally Not Prepared for this, but I <em>must<\/em> do this post today, which I am whipping up on the spot and so forgive any errors and my general lack of organization.<\/p>\n<p>Today the kidlitosphere is thanking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsworldwide.com\/\"><strong>Jon Scieszka<\/strong><\/a> for his wonderful work for the past two years as the nation&#8217;s first <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/today\/pr\/2008\/08-001.html\"><strong>National Ambassador for Young People&#8217;s Literature<\/strong><\/a>. The position, as you can read there at that link, was created by the Library of Congress in 2008 to &#8220;raise national awareness of the importance of young people\u2019s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Immediately after being given his sash, Jon said the following at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.schoollibraryjournal.com\/article\/CA6527343.html\">this<\/a><\/strong> <em>School Library Journal<\/em> interview, which just went to prove how perfect a choice he was: <\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;A big part of my platform will be to reach reluctant readers and to put their parents at ease, especially those parents who are worried about testing or their kids not reading. I can be the official guy who says, &#8216;Take a deep breath; relax. Let\u2019s not freak out about these tests. We know kids are having trouble reading. But we\u2019ve got the answer for you. Let\u2019s stop testing kids and beating them with a stick. Let\u2019s try the carrot. Let\u2019s let them read good books, because we\u2019ve got a lot of them. Let\u2019s let kids enjoy reading.'&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Oh thank you thank you, Jon. He also discussed the following things for the past two years, while touring the country: <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Expanding the definition of &#8220;reading&#8221; to include such things such as nonfiction, graphic novels, science fiction, and humor on teachers&#8217; and librarians&#8217; reading lists. (Sadly, this was necessary.)<\/li>\n<li>Not demonizing television and video games for children.<\/li>\n<li>Oh, just go and read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/jon-scieszka\/national-ambassador-for-y_b_389360.html\"><strong>this<\/strong><\/a> December &#8217;09 goodbye from Jon, in which he recaps what he accomplished.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The wonderful folks at <em>A Year of Reading<\/em> are <a href=\"http:\/\/readingyear.blogspot.com\/2010\/01\/thank-you-jon-scieszka.html\"><strong>rounding-up today<\/strong><\/a> all the we-love-you-Jon posts, and so I add this tiny one to the bunch. And I will do so by remembering when <a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=954\"><strong>Jon stopped by 7-Imp in 2007<\/strong><\/a> and my favorite part from that interview: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong><font size=4>7-Imp:<\/font>  <\/strong>I (Jules, that is) loved how -\u2013 in your recent <\/em>Horn Book<em> interview -\u2013 you talked about how sometimes we \u201ctyrannize kids\u201d by saying everybody has to love reading, that \u201creading is magic\u201d but that it\u2019s really hard work for many of them. It reminded me of when I interned in library school, and I found myself irritated with all those \u201creaders are leaders\u201d-type signs, draping from many elementary school walls, and I couldn&#8217;t quite figure out <em>why<\/em> they were bothering me. And I laughed when my husband said, \u201cI think it irritates you, because it\u2019s not necessarily true. A lot of forty-year old science fiction geeks still live in their mothers\u2019 basements.\u201d Not that there\u2019s anything <\/em>wrong<em> with that, but they\u2019re certainly not the CEOs that some elementary teachers and librarians suggested they would be, just \u2018cause they love reading. On that note, if you could change anything about the way in which instructors approach reading at the primary\/elementary level of instruction, what would it be?  <\/p>\n<p><strong><font size=4>Jon:<\/font> <\/strong>Your husband is a wise man. I think I love him already . . . and we just met! So I think the change he and I would make to teaching reading would be to try to get everyone to relax about the whole thing. A little more enjoyment of the reading itself, and a lot less testing and grading. Accepting a wider range of texts (like humor, non-fiction, graphic novels, war stories . . .) would be a good way to start adding to kids\u2019 enjoyment. Reading doesn\u2019t have to be everyone\u2019s favorite activity.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I love that&#8212;not because he calls my husband a wise man, though I admit that&#8217;s pretty flippin&#8217; great&#8212;but because, as a librarian myself, I hear a lot of this stress from parents. I&#8217;m not currently in a children&#8217;s library, but I still hear it from friends-with-kids. And I find myself echoing Jon&#8217;s words to them, because he is EXACTLY RIGHT. I think people are shocked to hear librarians like myself and authors like Jon say, &#8220;reading doesn&#8217;t have to be everyone&#8217;s favorite activity,&#8221; but it <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em>. And, for many teachers and librarians, hearing Jon say that, while he toured the country with his tiara these past two years, may have very well been an epiphany for them. A good, good epiphany, and we need more educators to be thinking about this, or so I think. <\/p>\n<p>When I worked in school libraries, my focus was always <em>story<\/em>. Let&#8217;s enjoy these books. There are lots of them out there. Let&#8217;s find what those so-called reluctant readers are going to enjoy, in whatever form it may be, and let them enjoy it. Not stand over them fretting. There will be enough time for that in their lives. <\/p>\n<p>So, in summary, could there have been a more perfect inaugural ambassador? I don&#8217;t think so. Thank you, Library of Congress, and thank you, Jon. <\/p>\n<p>Again, the <em>Year of Reading<\/em> round-up is <a href=\"http:\/\/readingyear.blogspot.com\/2010\/01\/thank-you-jon-scieszka.html\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>. Enjoy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Note: This is Adam Rex&#8217;s caricature of Jon Scieszka, revived from my 2007 interview with Jon.} Oh, I am Generally Not Prepared for this, but I must do this post today, which I am whipping up on the spot and so forgive any errors and my general lack of organization. Today the kidlitosphere is thanking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-etcetera","category-intermediate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}