Children's Reference

After the Infant Storytime on April 22nd, I had my first shift at the Children's Reference Desk at Bellevue Library. Bellevue Children's is unique at KCLS in that it is a seperate section, so all the quesitons you get are from children or adults on behalf of children. This helps me familiarize myself with the children's collection more quickly than if I was answering a combination of children's and adult questions.

Here are the questions that came up the first day:

1.) A woman holding her 12-month old baby girl asked what movies would be appropriate for her daughter. I recommeded the Reading Rainbow and Weston Woods collections. I wanted to say that movies are not appropriate for a 12-month old, but I didn't know how to say it. I talked about it with the other children's librarian afterward. She said that situation is an opportunity to educate parents about early literacy and suggested saying, "watching movies is not helpful for children under 24 months. Studies have shown that they are not developmentally ready to focus on a screen. Another solution would be to check out a music CD to play in the background while the child plays with toys & board books on a blanket on the floor." If the parent really wants to take home a video, Reading Rainbow and Weston Woods, which feature readings of picture books, are a good choice.

2.) A mother came to the desk and said that her son who is in 4th grade (8-9 yrs old) is reading the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. One of the books referenced Fahrenheit 451 and she was wondering if it was appropriate for a 4th grader to read. Fahrenheit 451 is not age appropriate for a 9-year old because they haven't experienced the world to the extent that they would understand the meaning of the story, even if they had the reading level to understand the words. This is the essence of age appropriate book advisory and seems to be the crux of children's collections services. I remember when I was in 5th grade I read Shakespeare because I had read everything else in the house and I needed something to read. I didn't understand any of it and I hate Shakespeare to this day. Maybe if I approached Shakespeare with a clean slate today, I could enjoy it, but that early exposure did nothing for my appreciation. I looked for other books with a book-burning theme that would be age appropriate. I found one called "I Believe in Unicorns" by Michael Morpurgo, but the reading level was not challenging enough. I ended suggesting the "Gregor the Overlander" series by Suzanne Collins - not for a censorship angle, just because it's good adventure for a 4th grader!