The metro Detroit area has been blistering under the 3-digit temperatures these past couple of weeks--the sun so warm and air so thick you'd think you were walking through a blast furnace. But in true Michigan weather form, if you wait one hot second, that sticky air clouds up and turns dark for a thoroughly quenching thunderstorm.
One such thunderstorm rolled into my little lake-side city recently. It was night--I had been asleep for a few hours before strong torrents of rain began pelting my bedroom windows. Still in that half-cognitive sleepy state, I kept a light ear to the sound. I happen to like thunderstorms, particularly at night. That pitter-patter of raindrops soothes away any busy, wandering thoughts. Then a low grumble of thunder accompanied by a lightning clap zig-zagging across the sky filled my room. I snuggled down further into my bed and had just reached the threshold of deeper sleep when a loud buzz culminating in a static-y zap awoke me in time to see electric spit-fire through the trees and my digital clock's digits grow dim--our block's transformer had blew.
Soon after, I heard a long squeak and a pattern of creaks emanating through the hall, those familiar sounds registering as my brother's squeaking door and parents' creaking footsteps down our wooden stairs--everyone was up. As I wandered downstairs, white light beamed across the kitchen. I nodded to everyone that I was okay and continued down to the basement, my dead flashlight in hand.
Now, my basement is one part my dad's business, one part standard creepy basement--and in the dark, the creepy basement is the more prominent part! I ventured gingerly down the steps, peering under the ceiling as I descended. It was completely pitch dark; the kind of dark where you wonder if you should even bother keeping your eyes open. Dodging around all my dad's equipment, I reached the shelves where he kept extra batteries. I grabbed a couple, too aware of my invisibility in the darkness, and rushed back up to my parents.
Up and about with my working flashlight, I felt fully awake. So I decided to grab an old stand-by book: a Nancy Drew Mystery. My mom is a collector--not in the monetary sense, but rather as a dedicated fan. An entire column of a bookshelf in our sun room houses nearly all books from the Nancy Drew series. I grew up on these books and still love reading the simple yet admirable stories. I went straight for my favorite, The Hidden Staircase, and curled back into my quilt to read by flashlight--as if I were transported back to my 4th grade self.
Since beginning my job search in publishing, I've acquire the habit of reading the publishers page first. Flipping through the first couple of pages, I recognized the publisher--Applewood Books (Check it out here: http://applewoodbooks.com/) and it was only then that I realized I had picked up the reprinted original edition of this first Nancy Drew book. I hadn't actually read through this version before so I decided to start with the prologue, written by Nancy Drew fan and fellow mystery writer Nancy Pickard.
I thoroughly enjoyed her insights into the series. Written in the 1930s, the original Nancy Drew books by today's modern societal views are not very politically correct, featuring the stereotypical white Christian patriarchal-esque American family, references to African Americans with dated names, etc. However, Pickard clarifies that while some aspects of the series are better left to rest, the essence of Nancy Drew's spirit provides an unparalleled relateable female role model for young girls.
I hit my Nancy Drew phase in 4th grade. I was thoroughly invested in her character. I loved her spunk, her witticisms, and even her unrealistic, too-perfect circumstances in which she found herself. Just good, old fashioned who-done-its without the Criminal Minds creepy factor or CSI gore. As an English major, my fascination with diction reached new heights as I re-discovered the very staged but yet sincere dialogues between Nancy and her friends and family. I honestly think her knack for using words like "nonplussed" and using formal sentence structure in every day conversations inspired my love and study of diction. Even the extremely detailed background thoughts about Nancy's mood are full of didactic descriptions. I love that Applewood Books has continued to provide these experiences with their genre niche in historic American Literature.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Written Words Speak
As of this past Friday, I have managed to survive my first week of summer camp! Now, I have been working as a camp counselor for the past 3 summers, so I am by no means a newbie to all of the various camp activities. But every year, going from flexible, spontaneous summer vacation to this structured, high-energy full-time job involves a bit of a transition! And the first week is always the hardest.
My group, the Cardinals (all the groups are named after birds) in particular always provide a challenge. I work with 4-5 year-olds--a very adorable and exhausting age. And it is my favorite! At this age, kids are just beginning to form opinions about their favorite things, make friends, and most interesting to me, learn the basics of reading. I was their age when I first fell in love with books and story-telling and I try to include some kind of book time during each session of camp for my group. This year, my mom gave me a bunch of her old teaching supplies to borrow for the summer. And what did I re-discover?
Audio books on cassette tape.
Most of these tapes were of stories like Hop on Pop and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. And I immediately thought they'd be perfect for our daily "quiet time" at camp. Not all the kids in my group need naps, but they all do need some kind of rest in the middle of the day and what better way to keep them entertained and quiet than listening to a story!
On the first day of camp, I told my group that we were going to listen to a story and popped in a cassette tape into my old boom box. At first, the kids did not know what to think. They started to chit chat when I said "just hang on one second, it has to get to the beginning"--the concept of rewinding completely foreign to them. But then a booming voice said "This is the story of Beauty and the Beast." And immediately, the kids perked up with exclamations of "Oh, I know this story!" Soon, they were utterly captivated, taken in by the various voices of the characters.
This reaction got me thinking. What is it about listening to stories that makes the experience different from just reading it? Do audio books still have a function in our culture? Are there advantages or disadvantages to having something electronic read to children?
Later that week, I was sending out some networking e-mails to various publishing houses. One of them in particular had caught my attention--Barefoot Books. This company has a whole page dedicated to podcasts (seen here: http://www.barefootbooks.com/story/childrens-crafts-activities/podcast/). I immediately linked podcasts to the cassette tapes I was using with my group at camp. As I continued writing my e-mail to Barefoot Book's Editor-in-Chief, Tessa Strickland, I inquired about their use of podcasts and their opinion of electronic reading sources for children. And she gave me a very thought-provoking answer. She said:
"The main advantage is the privacy they afford for young readers who are trailing the field. Rather than feeling embarrassed by being given 'baby-ish books' by the teacher, they can be given simple texts which only they see; and the teaching of reading can be delivered in a much more bespoke way. I think that where adults need to be careful is in exposing children to screens too early. There is some very interesting research emerging in many quarters about the damage being done to children's emotional development through a lack of adult-to-child communication. See the very interesting lecture given recently by neurologist Susan Greenfield at the School of Life in London if you are interested in this topic."
I was particularly intrigued by the concept of "privacy for young readers." I equated this privacy with a freedom to think and imagine for purely the sake of thinking and imagining. It is not being tested by a teacher or laced with an inner motive for education. Rather, podcasts--listening to a story in any way--allows for a completely independent story experience.
I also agreed with her view on e-readers for children. But up until now, my perspective was based only on my gut feeling that reading from books, especially for children, provides a deeper reading experience. I was thrilled to investigate the lecture by Susan Greenfield.
(Found here: http://www.theschooloflife.com/Sermons/Susan-Greenfield-on-Storytelling)
She emphasizes that one's environment highly impacts how the human brain grows and therefore interprets life--creating one's own "life story." From what I understood in the lecture and then extrapolated myself, Greenfield's findings relate to tangible learning tools. Printed books provide an "enriched" environment, and this physical stimulation seems to help children learn better. Now, this definitely defends the importance of print books over e-books. But what does this have to do with podcasts? Well, these principles for creating an enriched environment for children can be applied to audio books as well. E-reading devices, where the device turns the page, provides short-cuts for sounding out words, etc., mandates a specific, repetitive reading experience. It focuses more on rote memory learning as opposed to critical thinking. Listening to stories engages the imagination and prompts children to think for themselves; sensory experiences evolve into cognitive experiences.
This discussion also prompted me to reflect on my own experiences with audios, which led me to remember a very important teacher I had in high school, we'll call him Mr. Fulton. He was my AP Statistics teacher and taught at a secondary campus associated with vie different high schools and catered to advanced and creative courses. Before I go further, I must tell you, the reader, something: I am not the best at math. Though I always managed to do well, I really struggled with all things mathematical and was always far more interested in the interpretation of a story problem as opposed to actually solving it--if that didn't foreshadow my English Lit. major, I don't know what did! However, Mr. Fulton was the first math teacher who actually engaged me in math. He wasn't like other teachers. He had a unique sense of humor, an admirable devotion to this children, an honest heart, and most of all, a love of reading. During one laid-back afternoon in class, our discussion had meandered off in a tangent and Mr. Fulton shared with us a website he created: loudlit.org. He said that growing up, he struggled with dyslexia, and still does, but he also has this absolute love of books. For him, it was easier to read a book while listening to it, particularly those written in a dialect. I remember trying out his website to read Huckleberry Finn and found the experience very enjoyable as well as more comprehensible. Instead of stumbling over the dialect, I could follow along while experiencing the character's words simply by listening. It really added to the overall story experience.
Audio books are a smaller niche of publishing. But they are worthwhile resources not only for kids and schools but also to expand one's reading experience.
My group, the Cardinals (all the groups are named after birds) in particular always provide a challenge. I work with 4-5 year-olds--a very adorable and exhausting age. And it is my favorite! At this age, kids are just beginning to form opinions about their favorite things, make friends, and most interesting to me, learn the basics of reading. I was their age when I first fell in love with books and story-telling and I try to include some kind of book time during each session of camp for my group. This year, my mom gave me a bunch of her old teaching supplies to borrow for the summer. And what did I re-discover?
Audio books on cassette tape.
Most of these tapes were of stories like Hop on Pop and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. And I immediately thought they'd be perfect for our daily "quiet time" at camp. Not all the kids in my group need naps, but they all do need some kind of rest in the middle of the day and what better way to keep them entertained and quiet than listening to a story!
On the first day of camp, I told my group that we were going to listen to a story and popped in a cassette tape into my old boom box. At first, the kids did not know what to think. They started to chit chat when I said "just hang on one second, it has to get to the beginning"--the concept of rewinding completely foreign to them. But then a booming voice said "This is the story of Beauty and the Beast." And immediately, the kids perked up with exclamations of "Oh, I know this story!" Soon, they were utterly captivated, taken in by the various voices of the characters.
This reaction got me thinking. What is it about listening to stories that makes the experience different from just reading it? Do audio books still have a function in our culture? Are there advantages or disadvantages to having something electronic read to children?
Later that week, I was sending out some networking e-mails to various publishing houses. One of them in particular had caught my attention--Barefoot Books. This company has a whole page dedicated to podcasts (seen here: http://www.barefootbooks.com/story/childrens-crafts-activities/podcast/). I immediately linked podcasts to the cassette tapes I was using with my group at camp. As I continued writing my e-mail to Barefoot Book's Editor-in-Chief, Tessa Strickland, I inquired about their use of podcasts and their opinion of electronic reading sources for children. And she gave me a very thought-provoking answer. She said:
"The main advantage is the privacy they afford for young readers who are trailing the field. Rather than feeling embarrassed by being given 'baby-ish books' by the teacher, they can be given simple texts which only they see; and the teaching of reading can be delivered in a much more bespoke way. I think that where adults need to be careful is in exposing children to screens too early. There is some very interesting research emerging in many quarters about the damage being done to children's emotional development through a lack of adult-to-child communication. See the very interesting lecture given recently by neurologist Susan Greenfield at the School of Life in London if you are interested in this topic."
I was particularly intrigued by the concept of "privacy for young readers." I equated this privacy with a freedom to think and imagine for purely the sake of thinking and imagining. It is not being tested by a teacher or laced with an inner motive for education. Rather, podcasts--listening to a story in any way--allows for a completely independent story experience.
I also agreed with her view on e-readers for children. But up until now, my perspective was based only on my gut feeling that reading from books, especially for children, provides a deeper reading experience. I was thrilled to investigate the lecture by Susan Greenfield.
(Found here: http://www.theschooloflife.com/Sermons/Susan-Greenfield-on-Storytelling)
She emphasizes that one's environment highly impacts how the human brain grows and therefore interprets life--creating one's own "life story." From what I understood in the lecture and then extrapolated myself, Greenfield's findings relate to tangible learning tools. Printed books provide an "enriched" environment, and this physical stimulation seems to help children learn better. Now, this definitely defends the importance of print books over e-books. But what does this have to do with podcasts? Well, these principles for creating an enriched environment for children can be applied to audio books as well. E-reading devices, where the device turns the page, provides short-cuts for sounding out words, etc., mandates a specific, repetitive reading experience. It focuses more on rote memory learning as opposed to critical thinking. Listening to stories engages the imagination and prompts children to think for themselves; sensory experiences evolve into cognitive experiences.
This discussion also prompted me to reflect on my own experiences with audios, which led me to remember a very important teacher I had in high school, we'll call him Mr. Fulton. He was my AP Statistics teacher and taught at a secondary campus associated with vie different high schools and catered to advanced and creative courses. Before I go further, I must tell you, the reader, something: I am not the best at math. Though I always managed to do well, I really struggled with all things mathematical and was always far more interested in the interpretation of a story problem as opposed to actually solving it--if that didn't foreshadow my English Lit. major, I don't know what did! However, Mr. Fulton was the first math teacher who actually engaged me in math. He wasn't like other teachers. He had a unique sense of humor, an admirable devotion to this children, an honest heart, and most of all, a love of reading. During one laid-back afternoon in class, our discussion had meandered off in a tangent and Mr. Fulton shared with us a website he created: loudlit.org. He said that growing up, he struggled with dyslexia, and still does, but he also has this absolute love of books. For him, it was easier to read a book while listening to it, particularly those written in a dialect. I remember trying out his website to read Huckleberry Finn and found the experience very enjoyable as well as more comprehensible. Instead of stumbling over the dialect, I could follow along while experiencing the character's words simply by listening. It really added to the overall story experience.
Audio books are a smaller niche of publishing. But they are worthwhile resources not only for kids and schools but also to expand one's reading experience.
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