Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out!

First Book Podcast with Mary Brigid Barrett, NCBLA President about
Our White House:
Looking In, Looking Out!

Jenny Wrenn, the effervescent director of First Book's National Book Bank, interviews NCBLA President and Executive Director Mary Brigid Barrett about The National Children's' Book and Literacy Alliances incredible new book, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out.

To listen in on the podcast, go to:
http://blog.firstbook.org/2008/09/09/first-book-podcast-mary-brigid-barrett-welcomes-you-to-%e2%80%9cour-white-house%e2%80%9d/

To learn more about First Book, one of our nation's most stellar literacy organizations, and the First Book National Book Bank, go to: http://www.firstbook.org

Author Audios

Katherine Paterson,
Kate Di Camillo, and
Patricia McKissack
talk about
Our White House:
Looking In, Looking Out
on Washington Post Website!

Hear Katherine Paterson's, Kate
Di Camillo's, and Patricia McKissack's remarks about the NCBLA's new book, Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out on the Washington Post's website at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/audio/2008/09/05/AU2008090501980.html

Hurrah! In stores September 9th!

NCBLA's
Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out
Lands Starred Review from School Library Journal!


NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK AND LITERACY ALLIANCE. Our White House: Looking in, Looking Out. illus. by authors. 256p. Candlewick. Sept. 2008. RTE $35. ISBN 978-0-7636-2067-7. LC number unavailable.

Gr 3-8–More than 100 authors and illustrators contributed to this wide-ranging collection of short pieces about the First Family residence. Most participants are creators of books for youth, along with a sprinkling of other figures, such as historian David McCullough, and actual White House occupants. Arranged in general chronological order, the chapters are delightfully varied in form, tone, and subject matter. They include straightforward history, brief essays, personal narratives, and even fantasy, as in Meg Cabot’s lighthearted time-travel story. The handsome layout and excellent-quality illustrations provide strong appeal. The pairing of words and art is often inspired, as in Maybelle Mayer’s paper doll cutouts from 1938 that accompany Nancy Willard’s poem about White House dresses. There are powerful visual moments as well, such as the dazzling series of spreads featuring visual interpretations of Roosevelt’s "Four Freedoms," each by a different artist. Many segments convey personal details that humanize the presidential families, such as Virginia Euwer Wolff’s introduction to the musical sophistication of the Tafts and Anita Silvey’s look at Jackie Kennedy’s literary career. Humor plays a role too, as in Steven Kellogg’s artistic rendering of an imagined "Best in Show" contest among White House pets. Some readers will progress straight through from Jane Yolen’s imagined conversation between John and Abigail Adams to the first National Book Festival in 2001, while others may browse and jump about; either way, this entertaining introduction to the White House is full of fascinating information, challenging ideas, and appealing artwork.

Read more at: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6591908.html

The National Endowment for the Humanities Awards the NCBLA a Grant of $25,000 to Build www.OurWhiteHouse.org

The National Endowment of the Humanities has awarded the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance a $25,000 grant to build a companion educational website for the NCBLA publication Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out!

www.OurWhiteHouse.org will be written primarily for adults who live with and work for young people—parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, guardians, teachers, librarians, mentors, coaches, and community leaders. We hope that the additional historical content, and the ideas and activities we present on the site, will help adults ignite young people’s interest in our nation’s past as well as provoke them to thoughtfully consider our future. In her introduction to the first White House historic guidebook, Jacqueline Kennedy wrote, “it never hurts a child to read something that may be above his head.” With that in mind, we also hope that many young people will find our site compelling and useful.

In www.OurWhiteHouse.org you will find expanded Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out book content, as well as ideas, activities, and discussion questions related to book topics. And you will find an American history resource and literacy center, a guide to presidential field trip destinations, and an extensive young people’s bibliography. We will be continually adding to the site to include more book related content and activities, as well as information on civic education and media literacy.

NCBLA Riveting Publication!

OUR WHITE HOUSE:
LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT
in stores and libraries September 9!!!!

Rave reviews are already tumbling in for the NCBLA creative tour de force about American history and the presidency, just in time for our 2008 historic presidential election!


Kirkus Reviews writes:

"In this sumptuous pro bono volume, 108 children's authors and illustrators (with the occasional celebrity, president or other official chiming in) contribute original art, personal reminiscences, short stories, poems and historical vignettes about the White House and its residents. The generally chronological arrangement begins with a reproduction of the mansion's original 1792 RFP and closes with a nighttime view of an empty chair. In between, it offers comments on the early African-American connection by Walter Dean Myers and Milton Meltzer; Richard Peck's account of William Henry Harrison's search for a good milk cow; Steven Kellogg's envisioning of a Presidential Pet Show and much besides. The tone is positive overall, though occasional entries such as a fictive interview with picketing suffragist Alice Paul, and contradictory passages from the 9/11 Commission Report, supply a tincture of controversy. . . . even brief dips into this will leave readers with the clear sense that we do have a national history, and it's worth knowing too."

Richie Partington---librarian, former bookseller, and creator of Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults (a marvelous site for parents, teachers, and librarians) writes this about Our White House:

"OUR WHITE HOUSE is a rollicking literary and visual excursion through the history and mythology, the hijinks and tragedies, and the family moments that have accrued over the course of two centuries of presidential life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The National Children's Book and Literary Alliance has brought together the work of 108 well-known, children's book authors and illustrators. In addition to all of the stories and pictures, editors have interspersed some fascinating bits of primary source and historical material.

This is a collection of uber talent. Taking a look through the contributors list, I found sixteen authors who have been recognized by Newbery award committees, a dozen who have been recognized by Caldecott award committees, five National Book Award winners, and others who have won the Jane Addams, the Golden Kite, the CSK, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Now, some might wonder whether all of that award-winner talk means that this is a book akin to high fiber and low calories: it's good for you but not particularly tasty. But that's wrong! Above all, I had a great old time reading OUR WHITE HOUSE, and discovered some really neat stuff.

....From the little-known early-American history to be found in Walter Dean Myers' piece "Slaves Helped Build the White House!," to the amusing recollections from the era in which I grew up -- LBJ's daughter Lynda's "My Room," OUR WHITE HOUSE: LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT is a lively collection of fact, story, and illustration that one can be page through and read like a magazine, or dive into and enjoy cover to cover."

To read Richie's complete review of Our White House, and to find other great book recommendations for young people go to: http://richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/our_white_house.html

For a great informative article on Our White House written by Sally Lodge of Publisher's Weekly in PW's terrific Children's Bookshelf newsletter, go to:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6587034.html?nid=2788

URGENT!
Reading is Fundamental needs our help!!

Email your members of Congress today to help RIF get the $26 million dollars they need to get books and literacy support materials to 4.6 underserved children and families across our nation.
For more information go to : http://www.rif.org/get-involved/advocate/what/

Get involved! Write your congressman and senators! Today!

2008 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards
for Excellence in Children’s Literature Announced!!

Presented annually since 1967, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards are customarily given in three categories: Fiction and Poetry, Picture Book, and Nonfiction. This year, as happens occasionally, the judges also awarded a Special Citation. The 2008 winners and honor books are:

For nonfiction:
The Wall by Peter Sís (Foster/Farrar), the winner.

Frogs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic), honor book.
What to Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic), honor book.

For fiction and poetry:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney (Little), the winner.

Shooting the Moon by Frances O'Roark Dowell (Atheneum), fiction honor book.
Savvy by Ingrid Law (Walden/Dial), poetry honor book.

For picture books:
At Night by Jonathan Bean (Farrar)

Fred Stays with Me! by Nancy Coffelt, illustrated by Tricia Tusa (Little)
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee (Harcourt)

And a special citation to: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Levine/Scholastic)

The Boston Globe- Horn Book Awards were first presented in 1967. They are customarily announced in June, and are among the most prestigious honors in the field of children’s and young adult literature. Winners are selected in three categories: Picture Book, Fiction and Poetry, and Nonfiction. Two Honor Books may be named in each category. On occasion, a book will receive a special citation for its high quality and overall creative excellence. The winning titles must be published in the United States but they may be written or illustrated by citizens of any country. The awards are chosen by an independent panel of three judges who are annually appointed by the Editor of the Horn Book.

For more information about this year’s award winners go to: http://www.hbook.com/bghb/current.asp

For more information about The Horn Book Magazine an excellent source of information about literacy and books for young people for parents, teachers, and librarians go to: http://www.hbook.com/

OUR WHITE HOUSE: LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT
The NCBLA previews its innovative American history literacy project at Children's Literature New England's 2008 Colloquy!

Saturday, May 10, 2008; Essex, New York
Apple blossoms, emerald meadows, and the glistening waters of Lake Champlain provided the dramatic backdrop. NCBLA Vice-President Steven Kellogg's studio barn, filled with American antiques and distinctive folk art, provided the historic venue. And the gifted faculty and attendees of Children's Literature New England 2008 Colloquy, The Opening Page, could not have been a more perfect or appreciative audience for the unveiling of Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, the NCBLA's upcoming book, an extraordinary publication that uses the White House and the presidency as its unifying theme to tell the story of America.


After a sun drenched ride across Lake Champlain via the historic Charlotte/Essex ferry, CLNE participants were welcomed to illustrator Steven Kellogg's Blockhouse Farm. In Steven's barn, every nook and cranny a visual feast, participants were invited into his studio where they were able to see his work in progress as well as original art for his forthcoming books. Attendees were then able to pull up a chair and dive into preview copies of Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, provided by the NCBLA's publisher, Candlewick Press. Candlewick Press also generously donated the afternoon refreshments.

Later, Gregory Maguire and Steven Kellogg welcomed all to the afternoon's presentation.
NCBLA president Mary Brigid Barrett shared the news that the NCBLA will start construction on a companion website for Our White House, www.ourwhitehouse.org, that will not only expand the historical content of the book, but will also give adults the ideas and tools they need to get young people excited about our nation's rich history and cultural heritage. The NCBLA is most grateful to The National Endowment for the Humanities which has awarded the NCBLA a $25,000 grant to help build the Our White House educational outreach website.

A number of Our White House book contributors were present and read from their work. (Not one of the 108 contributors to Our White House have received any monetary reimbursement for their work.) The book begins with a beautiful poetic metaphor written by Gregory Maguire, which he read aloud to the attentive audience. Speaking in the voice of a British soldier, Susan Cooper shared the story of the burning of the White House in 1812. Marguerite Davol, read her piece about wild Andrew Jackson, written from Davy Crockett's perspective. Katherine Paterson revealed the evolution of the White House press corps, and she also read an excerpt from Natalie Babbitt's wonderfully wry examination of Ohio's prestigious position as the birthplace of multiple presidents. M.T. Anderson shared White House ghost stories. Virginia Euwer Wollf spoke of President's Taft's great love of music. Jeannine Atkins read from her piece on Woodrow Wilson and his work to establish a League of Nations. White House pets were covered by Steven Kellogg. Barbara Harrison, a Kennedy scholar, gave us a peek into the Kennedy White House. Brian Selznick read an excerpt from Jefferson's Monstrous Bones written by Barbara Kerley, and shared his illustration of that piece. And, Lynda Johnson Robb brought down the house, reading her humorous essay about the room she occupied in the White House when her father was president.

Children's Literature New England gave the NCBLA a unique opportunity to share their new publication with a group of caring, committed, and knowledgeable teachers, librarians, and children's literature aficionados. The NCBLA is thrilled to have had the launch of Our White House; Looking In, Looking Out with a readership that understands the underlying reason and need for a book that creatively addresses both literacy and historical literacy challenges.

Here are some thoughts from our board about the day. We invite those who were present to share their's!

From Gregory Maguire:
America's informal national anthem rings true once more. Oh--beautiful!--for spacious skies... . Abreast the sweep of Lake Champlain, with the old mountains of New York and Vermont ringing the horizon, one remembers that an original impulse of patriotism is the love of the beauty of one's land. No better a setting, with fruit trees in blossom above sloping lawns, to launch Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. And a few stray children hanging from tree limbs and racing across the fields, making the land, and the future, their own....

From Susan Cooper:
As for favorite memories of our Launch, I think mine is the sight of Lynda Robb, with CLNE laurel wreath round her hat, standing on Steven's beautiful blossoming hillside describing how she learned that two deaths and an autopsy (Lincoln's) had taken place in her childhood bedroom at the White House.

From Katherine Paterson:
Another favorite memory was Marguerite Davol being Davy Crockett talking about his old friend Andy Jackson. She was so obviously thrilled to be a part of the book and celebration and did such a super job of presenting her piece.

More photos!

ALL OF OUR KIDS DESERVE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO FULFILL THEIR POTENTIAL

A Nation at Risk-Does anyone in National Leadership Really Care? Does the American Public care? Why isn't the Media Raising Questions about Education during this Presidential Election?

During the Reagan administration, Education Secretary T. H. Bell put together a National Commission on Excellence in Education to address “the widespread public perception that something is seriously remiss in our educational system.”

The result of the commission's investigation, A Nation at Risk, reported that--

“The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a people. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

And what has been done to stop that erosion? A nation's true priorities can be easily assessed by determining where it's people and government spend money; by the attention, time, and creative problem solving a people and its leadership give to an issue. By any assessment, our young people and their education is a low priority on our national agenda.

Two recent op/ed pieces comment on the 25th anniversary of A Nation at Risk. The NCBLA does not necessarily agree with either of the essays, but we do encourage you to read and think about them; to email them to your friends, colleagues, and family; to use them as a catalyst for a broader discussion about our young people's, and our nation's future. Have we become so much of a "niche" society that we have forgotten that children, like adults, are integrated, not compartmentalized, beings? Have business interests had too strong a determining hand in shaping American education or not enough? How can we educate parents so that they understand their responsibilities in preparing their children for school, in providing a home atmosphere that values education and is conducive to learning? How can we help parents to help their kids? And in an age when every individual will not only have multiple jobs, but perhaps multiple careers, are we severely limiting our thinking and creatively problem solving because we confine "free" public education to servicing only the needs of citizens ages 5-18?

Edward B. Fiske writes this morning in The New York Times-

"....American education is in turmoil. Most troubling now are the numbers on educational attainment. One reason that the American economy was so dominant throughout the 20th century is that we provided more education to more citizens than other industrialized countries. 'A Nation at Risk' noted with pride that American schools 'now graduate 75 percent of our young people from high school.'

That figure has now dropped to less than 70 percent, and the United States, which used to lead the world in sending high school graduates on to higher education, has declined to fifth in the proportion of young adults who participate in higher education and is 16th out of 27 industrialized countries in the proportion who complete college, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education."

In this week's Washington Post, George Will writes--

"In 1964, SAT scores among college-bound students peaked. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) codified confidence in the correlation between financial inputs and cognitive outputs in education. But in 1966, the Coleman report, the result of the largest social science project in history, reached a conclusion so "seismic" -- Moynihan's description -- that the government almost refused to publish it.

Released quietly on the Fourth of July weekend, the report concluded that the qualities of the families from which children come to school matter much more than money as predictors of schools' effectiveness. The crucial common denominator of problems of race and class -- fractured families -- would have to be faced."

Again, the NCBLA encourages you to read each essay and form your own opinion, and most importantly, to ACT. Write a letter to the editor in response to these two essays. Write to your congressman or senator and share your opinion, your priorities. Post a comment on a blog. Contact your political party and your presidential candidate. Attend a school committee meeting. VOTE!

Read Mr. Fiske's essay at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/opinion/25fiske.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Read Mr. Wills essay at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042302983.html

UPDATE:
Newsweek Magazine must read "Nation at Risk" at:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/133846/output/print

"Clueless in America"

" 'We have one of the highest dropout rates
in the industrialized world,'
said Allan Golston, the president of U.S. programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a discussion over lunch recently he described the situation as 'actually pretty scary, alarming.' ”

Bob Herbert's column (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/opinion/22herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin) in today's New York Times continues:
"Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900."

Not only are literacy statistics nationwide very little improved, if at all, but historical literacy statistics, too, are dismal. That is why the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance has created OUR WHITE HOUSE:LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT, an incomparable collection of original poetry, nonfiction, essay, historical fiction, and art about American History using the White House as its unifying theme. Created for adults to share with the young people in their lives Our White House addresses both literacy and historical literacy, exciting young people ages 9-16 about our nation's rich heritage, inspiring them to read more. Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, will be published September 9, 2008.

Mr. Herbert also writes:
" We don’t hear a great deal about education in the presidential campaign. It’s much too serious a topic to compete with such fun stuff as Hillary tossing back a shot of whiskey, or Barack rolling a gutter ball."

The NCBLA agrees and encourages you to write to your chosen presidential candidate to demand that issues related to education not only become part of the national election conversation, but that the candidates give voice to their ideas and solutions that address serious educational issues.

Contact your chosen candidates and your political party to insist that educational issues be taken as seriously as health and economic issues. Education is at the core of every problem we need to solve.

Contact Presidential candidates and national political parties:

Democratic Party website and contact info:
http://www.democrats.org/
http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

Republican Party website and contact info:
http://www.rnc.org/
http://www.gop.com/Connect/ContactUs.htm

Presidential Candidates websites and contact information:

Hilary Clinton:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/


John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/landing/?sid=gorganic
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

For more information go to the NCBLA activist pages at: http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/becomeactivist.html

For Parents and Teachers

Why Don't Modern Poems Rhyme, Etc.Frequently asked questions about the business of verse.By Robert Pinsky

One of the modern maxims of good writing is "Show Don't Tell." In a recent Slate.com blog posting former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky does just that to explain modern poetry

Well worth reading, informative and enjoyable at:
http://www.slate.com/id/2189318/

Robert Pinsky's latest book of poems is Jersey Rain.

Esteemed Arbuthnot Lecture: Don't Miss It!

NCBLA Board Member David Macaulay to Give Arbuthnot Lecture!

If you can't get to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 17 to hear David Macaulay give the 2008 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture-Don't worry!

You can watch it on a live video stream. Just go to-- http://www.scls.info/arbuthnot08/ There you will find all the information about the lecture and about the video stream hookup.

David Macaulay, renowned author and illustrator of books for young people and adults including Black and White, The Way Things Work, Castle, Cathedral, Mosque, Angelo, and Romantics, will give a lecture intriguingly entitled, "Thirteen Studios.

You can read more about the Arbuthnot Lecture on the American Library Association's website at:http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/arbuthnothonor/arbuthnothonor.cfm
This year's host is the South Central Library System in Madison, WI which helps libraries serve the public in Adams, Columbus, Dane, Green, Portage, Sauk and Wood counties.

Family Field Trip: Whitney Biennial

Expand Your Kids' Imaginations:
Take them to the Whitney Biennial Art Exhibit!

Interaction with literature and the arts not only make for a "well rounded" young person, but also help young people to develop critical and creative thinking. This week the Whitney Museum in New York City opens its 78th Annual /Biennial show which features the work of 80 contemporary artists----paintings, sculpture, prints, installations, film and much more. Don't worry if your knowledge of art is minimal---go, take the kids, look, listen, look some more, and most importantly---talk about what you see! Ask your kids what and why they like or dislike different pieces. Remember, in art there are no right or wrong answers as to what you should like or dislike! See if your kids can figure out how each piece is made, and why an artist chose a particular material or medium, like painting, or film, to create his or her work. When you get home encourage your kids to experiment, to try and create their own work of art!

And if you cannot get to the Whitney--- visit the art museum closest to your home town. It is never to early to take your kids to see art---they will be delighted and you will so enjoy seeing their wonder! And check your local library before you go; many libraries offer free family passes to your local museums!

F0r information about the Whitney Museum of Art go to:
http://www.whitney.org/

Read in The New York Times about the Whitney Biennial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/arts/design/07bien.html?ref=design
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/06/arts/20080307_WHITNEY_GRAPHIC.html#/content=tab1

$5oo,ooo To School Libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi

Laura Bush Foundation Gives Money to School Libraries Hurt by Hurricane Katrina!

In The New York Times:

Nearly a dozen schools in Louisiana and one in Mississippi will get a share of more than $500,000 in grants from the Laura Bush Foundation to rebuild their libraries. Mrs. Bush made the announcement as she visited a school in New Orleans. The donations bring to $3.7 million the total amount of grant money the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries has given to schools in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Texas since Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma struck in 2005.

A SHOW NOT TO BE MISSED!

William Steig Art Show
at the Jewish Museum in New York

Author and illustrator William Steig's books for children--Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, The Amazing Bone, Brave Irene, Doctor DeSoto, Shrek, Dominic, Abel's Island, and many more---are sweet and sly, poignant and clever, silly and serious. He was a "sublime doodler;" but the black lines he drew were so imbued with integrity and clarity that his characters never appeared cartoonish. His stories and illustrations never condescended to children--- or adults either.

If you can get to the Jewish Museum in New York -- run and see the show before it closes on March 16th. Along with illustrations from his children books, the show includes work from his 50 years drawing for the New Yorker magazine. If you cannot get to the show, Yale University Press has published a beautiful book 0f Steig's work to accompany the show with an introduction by Maurice Sendak--The Art if William Steig.

For more information on the show: http://www.jewishmuseum.org/


Read the New York Tines Review:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/arts/design/14stei.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/arts/design/03conn.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

A MUST READ!

“Survey Finds Teenagers Ignorant on Basic History and Literature Questions”

“Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.

The survey results, released on Tuesday, demonstrate that a significant proportion of teenagers live in ‘stunning ignorance’ of history and literature, said the group that commissioned it, Common Core.”

This article in The New York Times is a must read, but more thought provoking are some of the responses from readers, a small selection of which are posted below.

Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27history.html?em&ex=1204347600&en=6192259c03f6bb5b&ei=5087%0A

Reader responses:

I am a teacher, and our public schools work as they are designed to. They produce a compliant citizenry, ill-equipped for independent analysis and pre-disposed to consume. Schools exist for two reasons: a jobs program for adults and an indoctrination program for our youth. I have yet to hear anybody debate why, in the No Child Left Behind act, schools are required to provide the Pentagon with student contact information--and this in an education bill. Unfortunately, we have the schools that we deserve.— Carl, Alaska

Any discussion of education today always ends up in a (virtual) shouting match. Yes it needs to be better, but we don't need to keep blaming someone else. It starts with yourself. If each of us, as an individual, values education in a public way it will get better. It's not just the schools, the policy-makers, and the parents. For whatever reason this society does not value curiosity. Everyone should be be proud of their curiosity without being condescending. It won't get better until we see popular entertainment that portrays the smart person as the hero. Be smart and be a hero.— PeteB, Missoula, MT

I am a senior college student. I went to a good public school and took all the required history and civics classes. But at an early age I knew I wanted to pursue science as a career, a decision which forced me to narrow my studies and interests into an attractive ‘hook’ for colleges. From that point on, History and English fell on deaf ears because they were not part of my long term goal.
I believe the major flaw in my privileged education was being encouraged to become so specialized at such a young age. I am 21 years old with a $120,000 education, yet I could not outline the American history of my two decades let alone the discovery of the new world. I can not balance a check book or list any basic economic principles. I know nothing of war or international law. I can tell you an awful lot about physics though. And as such, I feel very much like a child.— college student, Baltimore

It's more serious than just an ignorance of historical fact.
For over thirty years the US has been driven to the core by the idea that there is no such thing as a fact, and that factuality is just a concept subject to the user's preference. When the idea of "fact" becomes a political concept, every "fact" is a matter of politics, and one can credibly argue that global warming is or isn't real based on one's party, or that the Holocaust did or didn't happen based on one's prejudice, or that taxes are or aren't a good thing based on one's patriotism, or that a military engagement is a victory of a defeat based on whether or not one loves one's country...In such a climate the very utility of facts is questionable. The onerous work it takes to acquire them and to incorporate them into critical thinking is of dubious value when one can simply declare a belief instead, regardless of factuality, and be embraced by everyone who shares it.

Facts are humbling, challenging obstacles. When one can enjoy the emotional fulfillment of being a true believer, and when so many of our role models in government, business, sports, etc., have dispensed with them, why bother with them?

Our culture now suffers from the mental illness that equates one's own personal worldview with fact, and denies the value of any reality-based consensus. That illness has permeated into the highest circles, and the law itself, which must be fact-based, is threatened. — DFC, Los Angeles

I used to teach HS English and had my 11th grade classes memorize the first 14 lines of the intro to the Canterbury Tales - in Middle English. They complained, they moaned, they groaned but over the course of the semester they always learned it and as they progressed, we started every class by saying it out loud together. If I forgot, they reminded me. At the end of the year when they had to say it alone, aloud in front of the class, one of the boys came up and said,"I thought at first this was the stupidest assignment anybody could have but when I complained to my parents I found out my father knew most of it. It started out as a joke but we taught my mother and we've been saying it together. My father wanted to be sure I learned it right." The spirit and the soul have always been reflected and explored though the universality of literature. How else can we know that when we act like beasts that these actions are not what civilized humans do? — Dinah78, California

The ancient Greeks had a very different conception of the world than the dominant United States' culture of today. They imagined themselves situated in space facing backwards, looking towards the past, while the future rolled over their shoulders from behind like a wave at the beach. Over the years (many years at that), we have turned around so that now we conceive of ourselves as facing the future and riding atop the wave of progress. In this conception of the human body and mind, there is no reason to look to the past, and even if we do, by turning our head over a shoulder, we can only get a partial view. The Greeks valued mythos as much as, if not more than, logos; we have forgotten what mythos is.

However, I do not suggest that we drastically reconfigure our conception of the world and our place in it; that would be impossible. However, by focusing on local history, family history, cultural history, perhaps we can show students what can be gained from turning around every now and then and facing the past in its full panorama. — Stephen, Marblehead, MA

In my own completely unscientific study, I have repeatedly found "stunning ignorance" among my parents' generation about the world as it exists today, to the point that they are seriously impaired in their efforts to participate and experience today's world. This goes beyond being able to set the clock on one's VCR (what's a VCR, anyway?) -- that is just bad industrial design. It is more characterized by utter paralysis in the face of the expanding connectivity of the world.

These studiers, which seem always to decry the pathetic state of our youth today, would do well to turn the camera around. Instead, for whatever reason, such ignorance is given a free pass: can't teach an old dog new tricks, after all. And that's supposed to be OK.

The education of youth is important, no doubt, but the failure of many, if not most, adults to continue their education is just as serious. After all, what good is knowing what happened in the past if you have a) no clue what is happening TODAY? and b) no clue how to even find out what is happening TODAY.

PS No, having a hotmail account and abetting the transmission of mountains of virus-laden jokes, amusing pictures, and factually-challenged patriotic/religious messages to all your friends and relatives who bear the misfortune of being in your adress book does NOT count as functional participation.— Helen, Hawaii

Crass Commercialization in Children's Books?

Should Children's Publishing Let Commercial Product Placement Into Books for Young People?

"Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, said she was not concerned about a possible backlash against corporate sponsorship in books aimed at such a young audience. 'If you look at Web sites, general media or television, corporate sponsorship or some sort of advertising is totally embedded in the world that tweens live in,' Ms. Katz said. 'It gives us another opportunity for authenticity.' "

Authenticity? Read more in The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/books/19cathy.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

Choosing Stupidly; Celebrating Ignorance

In an article about Susan Jacoby’s new book, The Age of American Unreason, and in an op/ed essay by Jacoby, both state that not only are many Americans choosing ignorance for themselves and their children, but that we as a culture and society take pride in that ignorance.

Ms. Jacoby writes---
"The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself." Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today's very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble -- in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.

This is the last subject that any candidate would dare raise on the long and winding road to the White House. It is almost impossible to talk about the manner in which public ignorance contributes to grave national problems without being labeled an "elitist," one of the most powerful pejoratives that can be applied to anyone aspiring to high office. Instead, our politicians repeatedly assure Americans that they are just "folks," a patronizing term that you will search for in vain in important presidential speeches before 1980. (Just imagine: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . and that government of the folks, by the folks, for the folks, shall not perish from the earth.") Such exaltations of ordinariness are among the distinguishing traits of anti-intellectualism in any era.

The classic work on this subject by Columbian University historian Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life," was published in early 1963, between the anti-communist crusades of the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late 1960s. Hofstadter saw American anti-intellectualism as a basically cyclical phenomenon that often manifested itself as the dark side of the country's democratic impulses in religion and education. But today's brand of anti-intellectualism is less a cycle than a flood. If Hofstadter (who died of leukemia in 1970 at age 54) had lived long enough to write a modern-day sequel, he would have found that our era of 24/7 infotainment has outstripped his most apocalyptic predictions about the future of American culture.

There will be many critics of Jacoby, but we must ask ourselves why in our schools and greater society is athletic prowess esteemed and highly rewarded monetarily while intellectual achievement is derided as “nerdish” and young people who exhibit intellectual curiosity are often mocked by their peers? Why are entertainers given exorbitant salaries and our young people’s caretakers, teachers, and librarians given inadequate monetary compensation? And why are their efforts and professions held in such little esteem within our society and culture? What percentage of our federal budget is given to education, schools, and libraries and does that amount reflect a national commitment to making education and literacy a top national priority?

And most troubling, why do we, as a people, exult in our ignorance?

I grew up the granddaughter of immigrants, none of whom had achieved even an eighth grade level education in their country of origin. My grandparents’ greatest desire was to have their children and grandchildren receive the education they lacked. They sacrificed for their children’s education, denying themselves life’s comforts, working back-breaking jobs in order to give their children a road to a better life. I grew up surrounded by selfless people who worked to give their children and grandchildren opportunities they did not have. I thought in America everyone grew up with families that thought and acted like that.

It was not until I became a parent educational activist, fighting for school funding in a small town in New England that I encountered many people who did not share my family's priorities, people who did not believe that an older generation must sacrifice so that the next can have better opportunities. I can distinctly remember knocking on a family’s door asking a father, “Don’t you want your kids to have a better education than you did? Don’t you want your kids to have a smaller class sizes, better books, and good teachers? His response-“I had 45 kids in my class; what’s good enough for me is good enough for them.” Unfortunately, our nation, in words, in our actions, and in our monetary choices, seems to reflect the values expressed by that father rather than the values my grandparents lived.

In this election campaign, issues related to literacy, education, libraries, humanities, sciences and the arts are rarely discussed, and if they are, are discussed in the most unimaginative and pedestrian manner recycling tired ideas and programs that reflect old inadequate thinking and problem solving. Contact the presidential candidate and party of your choice and urge them to talk about education and the future of our young people. Urge them to seriously consider education issues to the same degree they do economic and health issues. Urge them to think critically and creatively and come up with new ideas, new problem solving.-- Mary Brigid Barrett, president, the NCBLA.

For more information go to the NCBLA activist pages at: http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/becomeactivist.html

To read about Susan Jacoby’s ideas, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502901.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?em&ex=1203483600&en=1d68ad601de3ed4a&ei=5087%0A

Take a moment and contact the presidential candidates, as well as your political party, and let them know that you want them to start talking about our children and their education, NOW!
Contact Presidential candidates and national political parties:

Democratic Party website and contact info:
http://www.democrats.org/
http://www.democrats.org/contact.html

Republican Party website and contact info:
http://www.rnc.org/
http://www.gop.com/Connect/ContactUs.htm

Presidential Candidates websites and contact information:
Hilary Clinton:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/help/contact/

Mike Huckabee
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=ContactUs.Home

John McCain
http://www.johnmccain.com/landing/?sid=gorganic
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

Barack Obama
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/contact/

For more information go to the NCBLA activist pages at:

http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/becomeactivist.html

The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading.

Howard Gardner Says Don't Worry

This weekend The Washington Post published an essay by Howard Gardner posing the question:

"What will happen to reading and writing in our time?

Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy. The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day?

Maybe neither. Let me suggest a third possibility: Literacy -- or an ensemble of literacies -- will continue to thrive, but in forms and formats we can't yet envision."

Mr. Gardner's essay is well worth reading, but how long it has been since he has spent any time in public elementary or secondary schools? A challenge for Mr. Gardner-- spend a month working with young people in Worcester, Massachusetts, or in East Cleveland, Ohio, or even any middle class/working class neighborhood public school across the country to see where our nation truly is concerning reading, writing, and education-- to see the state of actual school buildings, school libraries, and public libraries in many parts of our nation. Have a conversation with a real group of kids, ask them what they read, how much they read, when they read anything at all. And then see if he would draw the same conclusions.

Read Mr. Gardner's essay at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021502898.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

FINAL DAY TO BID! BOOK BASKET WORTH $1,000!

Scholastic Audiobook/NCBLA Book Basket Auction Benefits the NCBLA

Scholastic Audiobooks has donated 10 new audiobooks, including Gregory Maguire’s New York Times Best Seller What-the-Dickens! for an online auction to benefit The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (www.thencbla.org), a 501C3 not-for-profit that advocates and educates on behalf of literacy, literature, libraries and the arts. This audiobook collection includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Main Street #1 by Ann Martin; Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher; and Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

In addition, the NCBLA Board has donated many personally autographed audiobooks and books to this collection including works by M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Nikki Grimes, Patricia MacLachlan, Gregory Maguire, and Katherine Paterson. The retail value of this book basket exceeds $1,000. For a detailed list of books and audiobooks, go to: http://www.thencbla.org/ncblanews.html

The auction begins today, January 31, 2008, and runs until February 9. 2008. To find the online auction, on or after January 31 go to: www.ebay.com.

In the search window, top left, paste in the title of the auction:

Signed Wicked! +Unique Collection Autographed New Books

and click, Search.

If you like you can also select the category: Books.

Or go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Wicked-Unique-Collection-Autographed-NEW-Books_W0QQitemZ110220394075QQihZ001QQcategoryZ279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Celebrate Literature!!!

Celebrate the Poetry of Elizabeth Alexander!

If you haven’t discovered the work of Elizabeth Alexander, run to your library or bookstore and find Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color written by Dr. Alexander, with Marilyn Nelson, illustrated by Floyd Cooper, and look for her other extraordinary books as well.

Elizabeth Alexander was born in 1962 in Harlem, New York, and grew up in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Boston University (where she studied with DerekWalcott) and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her collections of poetry include American Sublime ( Graywolf Press, 2005), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Antebellum Dream Book (2001); Body of Life (1996); and The Venus Hottentot (1990).

Alexander’s critical work appears in her essay collection, The Black Interior (Graywolf, 2004). She also edited The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks (Graywolf, 2005) and Love’s Instruments: Poems by Melvin Dixon (1995). Her poems, short stories, and critical writing have been widely published in such journals and periodicals as The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Callaloo, The Village Voice, The Women's Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Her work has been anthologized in over twenty collections, and in May of 1996, her verse play, Diva Studies, premiered at the Yale School of Drama.

About her work, Rita Dove has said that Alexander's "poems bristle with the irresistible quality of a world seen fresh," and Clarence Major has also noted her "instinct for turning her profound cultural vision into one that illuminates universal experience."

In 2007, Alexander was selected by Lucille Clifton, Stephen Dunn, and Jane Hirshfield to receive the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers. She has also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Chicago, and the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks.

She has taught at Haverford College, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence, the first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, and a member of the founding editorial collective for the feminist journal Meridians. She has served as a faculty member for Cave Canem Poetry Workshops, and has traveled extensively within the U.S. and abroad, giving poetry readings and lecturing on African American literature and culture.

Alexander was a fellow at the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University, and currently, she is an Associate Professor in the school's African American Studies Department. ( from www.poets.org)

Listen to a fascinating interview of Elizabeth Alexander, and hear her read her own work on PBS/WGBH Basic Black at:
http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3637988

And discover more about Ms. Alexander and her work at:

http://elizabethalexander.net/home.html

Write Congress on Behalf of Our Nation's Public Libraries!

New Federal Budget Proposal Increases Funding for Our Nation's Public Libraries;

Contact Your Representatives in Congress and Tell Them You Want This Funding!

In a budget where domestic discretionary spending was severely restricted and funding for 151 programs was cut or eliminated, the Library Services and Technology Act saw several key increases. Included in LSTA, the most important federal legislation affecting libraries, are the following totals: $171.5 million for state grants, an increase of $10.6 million over FY 2008; this funding increase ensures that smaller states will have the resources to serve their populations, a priority the Congress recognized in 2003; $12.715 million for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries, an increase of $556,000 over FY 2008; $26.5 million for the Recruitment of Librarians for the 21st Century, an increase of $3.16 million over FY 2008; $3.717 million for Native Americans Library Services, an increase of $143,000 over FY 2008; and $3.5 million for library policy, research, and statistics (included in the administration total), an increase of $1.54 million over FY 2008; this will help libraries identify the programs that most effectively serve users. “This budget is fantastic news for library users across the country,” said ALA President Loriene Roy. “LSTA is a vital funding source for American citizens, especially children. LSTA monies go toward helping people of all backgrounds achieve literacy, including those with disabilities. And Dr. Roy added, “Across the country, libraries use LSTA funding for a wide variety of access services, including workshops on career information, family literacy classes, homework help and mentoring programs, information on religions and other cultures, access to government information, and so much more.” Go to the Literacy/Library Advocacy page on NCBLA's website to find who your congressman and senators are, and how to contact them, at: http://www.thencbla.org/BPOSpages/activistbasics.html

Great Book Event in Boston-Open to the Public!

Writers and Readers On the Hill:
The 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards to be held at the Massachusetts State House on February 7, 2008

The Massachusetts Center for the Book and the State Library of Massachusetts are co-hosting the 7th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards on Thursday, February 7. The awards event will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Grand Staircase, and a reception will follow in the State Library reading room.

The awards are presented annually to books from the previous calendar year that were published by Massachusetts authors or that convey important Massachusetts themes. Twelve books, an award winner and two honors books, in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult literature become part of a year-long reading promotion initiative sponsored by the Center in collaboration with Massachusetts libraries.

This year’s award winners include some of the most important voices writing in the U.S. today. Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Cambridge resident, Louise Glück, is the award winner in poetry. She will be joined by renowned Amherst poet Martín Espada and Pulitzer prizewinning poet Franz Wright, both honors writers in poetry this year.

Nathaniel Philbrick, one of our most important contemporary historians and Nantucket resident will receive the nonfiction award this year. Claire Messud, Somerville resident and acclaimed novelist will receive the fiction award. The award in children’s/young adult literature goes to Alice Hoffman, a much applauded Cambridge writer.

Also joining the celebration will be Kim McLarin, Milton resident, novelist, and current host of WGBH’s Basic Black, and Mameve Medwed, Cambridge novelist, both of whom are honors writers in fiction this year.

The event is open to the public. Porter Square Books will handle book sales during the reception and book signing. For more information and to RSVP, contact the Massachusetts Center for the Book by email – massbook@simmons.edu – or phone – 617.521.2719.

Wimpy Kid Keeps Kids of All Ages in Stitches

Share with the young people in your life-

Greg Heffley, Author of Popular
Diary of a Whimpy Kid interviewed
on NPR's All Things Considered

Greg Heffley's pre-teen diary, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is a big favorite —many kids find Heffley's books highly entertaining and love his humor. Teachers and parents can go to the NPR website and listen to the interview with their kids in class and at home!

Go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18591415

SCHOLASTIC/NCBLA EBAY AUDIOBOOK AND SIGNED BOOK AUCTION STARTS TONIGHT!

Scholastic Audiobook/NCBLA Book Basket Auction Benefits the NCBLA

Scholastic Audiobooks has donated 10 new audiobooks, including Gregory Maguire’s New York Times Best Seller What-the-Dickens! for an online auction to benefit The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance (www.thencbla.org), a 501C3 not-for-profit that advocates and educates on behalf of literacy, literature, libraries and the arts. This audiobook collection includes The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Main Street #1 by Ann Martin; Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher; and Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

In addition, the NCBLA Board has donated many personally autographed audiobooks and books to this collection including works by M.T. Anderson, Natalie Babbitt, Susan Cooper, Nikki Grimes, Patricia MacLachlan, Gregory Maguire, and Katherine Paterson. The retail value of this book basket exceeds $1,000. For a detailed list of books and audiobooks, go to: http://www.thencbla.org/ncblanews.html

The auction begins today, January 31, 2008, and runs until February 9. 2008. To find the online auction, on or after January 31 go to: www.ebay.com.

In the search window, top left, paste in the title of the auction:

Signed Wicked! +Unique Collection Autographed New Books

and click, Search.

If you like you can also select the category: Books.

Or go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/Signed-Wicked-Unique-Collection-Autographed-NEW-Books_W0QQitemZ110220394075QQihZ001QQcategoryZ279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Teen Poetry Writing Workshop in New York!

POETRY WESTCHESTER!
Begins with Teen Writing Workshop
at Mount Pleasant Public Library

Monday, February 4, 4:30pm

Poetry Westchester! — a new Westchester-wide initiative offering free writing workshops, poetry readings and discussions — is funded by the Westchester Library System, NY. Poetry Westchester! begins with a Teen Poetry Writing Workshop led by poet Hettie Jones on Monday, February 4, at 4:30pm at Mount Pleasant Public Library. The workshop continues on February 11, 25, and March 3.

Hettie Jones will act as "poet in residence" in Mount Pleasant, where she'll lead workshops for adults and teens and give a talk on "The Beat Poets." Joining her in a distinguished roster will be award-winning poets Edward Hirsch, speaking about How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry (the title of his best-selling book) and reading from his latest poetry collection Special Orders, and Tom Sleigh, the author of Space Walk, who has been hailed by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney as a poet of "lyric absolution."

For a complete schedule of Poetry Westchester! programs in Irvington , Hastings , Katonah, Larchmont, Mount Pleasant, Pelham, Scarsdale and White Plains, visit www.poetshouse.org/librariespitbr.htm

Contact:

Mount Pleasant Public Library
350 Bedford Road
Pleasantville, NY 10570
(914) 769-0548 (ph)
(914) 769-6149 (fax)