Guidelines for Creating a Usable Book List

Your book list will be your record of the children’s books you have read this semester. (75-100 books)

It will be a record of your growth in:

·        Selecting and evaluating children’s books

·        Making connections among books

·        Making connections among books and readers (children, classmates, family, and friends)

·        Thinking and writing about literature

Each entry in your reading list will include:

(1) author and illustrator name(s)

(2) Book Title underlined

(3) publisher’s name

(4) date of publication, and

(5) annotation.

·        Writing annotations is an art

·        Note first impressions, basic facts, and questions as you read (in the library, in class)

·        Edit and type later

·        For some books you may want to write lots, but for other just a sentence or two

·        I will push you to write more, to think more deeply

·        Annotations allow you to practice thinking and writing about literature, to explore contradictory feelings and questions

·        They are a process that will reveal your growth

·        They need not be finished products

·        Don’t attempt to retell the story – summarize in one sentence and concentrate on your response to the book

·        One quotation can be worth a thousand words, give flavor, and help you remember

·        Go beyond liking and disliking to explore why you feel as you do

·        Consider the author’s goal, intended audience, choice of techniques (artwork, writing style, genre, organization)?

·        What worked, and what didn’t?

·        Compare with similar books

·        How might you use this book with children, which children, with what other books?

·        The word "cute" is a four-letter word that is not allowed!

 

"Literature is words that provoke interpretation."-- Alan Garner (interview with Donna White).