LISNews: Librarian News

Maybe reading isn't so good for kids after all? Telegraph UK has a report that says Food manufacturers are using sophisticated tactics to market sweets, fast food and sugary breakfast cereals at children in their homes, the Food Commission pressure group said yesterday.

Following criticism of junk food adverts on television, youngsters are being exposed to marketing through story books, educational materials, toys and games.

Kathleen de la Pena McCook writes "The National Book Center of Greece celebrates International Children's Book Day at the Technopolis in Athens.

Their website offers the best umage of the 2005 poster.
"The books are our magic eyes. They offer us knowledge and information and they guide us through difficulties and gnarled paths of life." That is the conclusion of this year's message, written by Manorama Jafa, one of the most important writers of children's book in India while the poster, inspired by the Indian mythology, was designed by Jagdish Joshi."

In Escanaba (MI), children (and adults) around town are seeing a curious person, draped in a cape, heralded by Superman-theme music, stopping by the library, the meeting of the library board and a few other places around town.

Looks like a super-hero (of the reading variety), but the children of the Lemmer School in town have vowed to keep his identity a secret. But we want to know...
just who can that man be...

Thomas Fuchs and Ludger Wossmann of Munich University have a new study out that claims to show The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do in international tests of literacy and maths. This Telegraph Article has more, as does So Does /.. The study, published by the Royal Economic Society, said: "Despite numerous claims by politicians and software vendors to the contrary, the evidence so far suggests that computer use in schools does not seem to contribute substantially to students' learning of basic skills such as maths or reading."

I *think* This Page has the study. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

"Holding the other family-background characteristics constant,
students perform significantly worse if they have computers at home. This may reflect the fact
that computers at home may actually distract students from learning, both because learning
with the help of computers may not be the most efficient way of learning and because
computers can be used for other aims than learning."