Early literacy is a crucial component to a child’s success in school – so much so that multiple benchmarking tools have been developed to assess whether a child is reading at a level comparable to his or her peers. If a student is found to be reading below grade level, librarians and teachers can easily find information about intervention strategies. In contrast, what do we do for the child who reads at a level beyond their peers? Often, these high achieving students do not receive much special attention because they are not a cause for concern. However, it is important to remember that children who love to read and do so successfully at an early age offer unique considerations. Kathleen T. Isaacs’ Excellent Books for Early and Eager Readers offers valuable discussion of these issues as well as book title suggestions for early and eager readers, specifically those aged 4 to 10 years.
As Isaacs explains, the biggest challenge in recommending titles to advanced young readers is ensuring that the child’s reading ability is matched with age-appropriate content. The maturity of a book’s content often increases as text difficulty increases, and while a 6-year-old advanced reader may be fully capable of reading a book at a typical 10-year-old level, the ideas may be beyond his or her experience. Those mature ideas could be confusing or even distressing. Children’s books are often challenged for myriad reasons, including sexual content and adult language. Excellent Books for Early and Eager Readers is a useful tool to identify selections that will not cause uncomfortable, fearful or negative feelings in very young children (or that might inspire questions which will make the surrounding adults squirm). The author instructs the reader to “take my selections with a large grain of salt”, as she repeatedly emphasizes the individualized nature of reading preference as well as the necessity to know and understand each child’s unique interests and abilities before recommending titles. Isaacs identifies a frustration that parents and children may encounter when asking for book recommendations: some librarians may be inclined to recommend the same titles that they themselves read and enjoyed in their own youth. This could be for multiple reasons – we want people to love the books we love, it is hard to keep up with the incredible number of children’s books published each year, or we do not know the child’s interests. However, to a parent or guardian trying to keep his or her child interested and engaged with great reading material, it may seem like a lazy response. Charlotte’s Web is a classic and will remain so, but telling a child that “I loved this when I was your age” may not be the glowing recommendation that we think it is, especially if the child does not already know and respect the librarian’s expertise. While it is an incredible (and irritating) stereotype that librarians get to read on the job all day, it could be argued that those who work with children’s literature have some responsibility to keep up with what is current, which titles are appropriate for different age groups, and what books are challenging versus “fun reads”. As Isaacs notes, it is also important to remember that children’s books are a reflection of the time in which they were written, and as a result may portray cultural insensitivity, unflattering stereotypes or antiquated and potentially offensive language.
Another thought-provoking point made in this text is the difference between reading for pleasure versus reading for information. When teachers and librarians recommend books to young readers, the impulse may be to make sure that the book has literary or educational value. In contrast, Isaacs clearly states that her list of recommended books “includes many titles that are, frankly, forgettable”. The academic part of us may want to discount those titles in favour of those that touch on serious themes and impactful emotions. However, many adults (even librarians!) read for pleasure and may not be advertising some of the less intellectual entries in their own repertoire. That does not negate their enjoyment of the reading experience, and we should not hold children to a higher standard than we hold ourselves.
The bibliography itself consists of 300 book titles spread throughout 14 topic and genre-based chapters. The topic headings are fairly broad and represent those that are commonly found in children’s literature, such as Families, Friends and School, and Quests and Adventures. As mentioned earlier, each entry should appeal to early and eager readers aged 4 to 10 years. A plot synopsis, cover image and publication information are included for each entry. Less often seen are two additional pieces of information: Lexile measure and Interest Level. For academic librarians not familiar with the Lexile Framework for Reading, the Lexile website (lexile.com) offers an explanation: “Recognized as the standard for matching readers with texts, Lexile measures connect learners of all ages with resources at the right level of challenge”. The entries also include a general interest-level recommendation that is one of three choices: younger, middle and older. For example, Peggy Parish’s Amelia Bedelia is listed as “younger”, Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted is “middle”, and Chris Grabenstein’s Escape from Mr Lemoncello’s Library is “older”. Both a subject index and an author/title index make it easy to locate entries.
As Excellent Books for Early and Eager Readers lists resources appropriate for very young children, the content will not be applicable to the majority of academic librarians. Academic librarians who work with children’s literature do not typically find themselves in a position to make reading recommendations to parents and children. Parents, public librarians and school media specialists will find this to be a useful resource. It is also a great reminder to all information specialists about the importance of keeping our knowledge current and the necessity of tailoring reference assistance based on the individual needs of each library patron.
