LISNews: Librarian News

As reported in The Economist, the President of Chile, a medical doctor and breath of fresh air after the cruel rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, has instituted a project to give a box of nine books to over 400,000 impoverished families. Her choices, among others, are Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye".

In today's The Lede (blog) from the New York Times...If You Had to Pick Nine Books...you are welcome to view other reader's opinions, and offer your own choices if you so desire. What would you choose?

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, an analysis of issues affecting how much, or how little boys read.

There is plenty of blame to go around -- disengaged parents, uninterested publishing houses, distracting video games and teaching styles -- but not as many clear answers.

"I would say there is a crisis," said Walter Dean Myers, a children's book author. "Too many parents have walked away from this idea ... that education is a family concept, is a community concept, is not simply something that schools do."

"A lot of times, when boys get to middle school they are feeling sort of disenfranchised from the educational" experience, said Pamela LaBorde, children's librarian at the Seattle Public Library's Ballard branch.

The problem isn't necessarily that boys don't read, it's that they are often practical readers, LaBorde said, reading magazines and even manuals.

"I think we feel like boys just aren't good readers because they aren't curling up with 'Little Women,' " LaBorde added.

What do you get when you bring children, dogs and books together? You get happy, confident children who love reading books.

The Beaverton Valley Times paints this cozy picture for its readers: If you've spent much time in the Beaverton Library in recent years, you may have noticed children huddled comfortably in small-sized chairs reading aloud to fluffy dogs resting nicely on the floor.

Eager to sit at the feet of these youngest of readers, the lucky dogs completed a rigorous screening and training with their handlers (owners) in order to earn this privilege. The kids doing the reading need only to sign up and choose a text they are able to read independently, and make sure they show up on time to read to the dogs. This program was coordinated by children's librarian Ginny Watt.

How judging a book by its 'girlie' cover is putting boys off reading: Attempts by parents and teachers to persuade boys to read more are being undermined by publishers whose insistence on using lurid "Barbie" pink covers on books is turning away young male readers in their droves.