Author Focus: Pamela Allen

Pamela Allen is one of Australia's finest author/illustrators for young readers. I say Australian but she is actually a Kiwi who has lived in Australia for over 30 years. She has published over forty picture books since her first, Mr Archimedes' Bath, was published in 1980.

Her recipe is a combination of strong characters caught in humorous life situations, with simple illustrations that young children find captivating.

One of the great advantages of the author/illustrator is that they can apply both the craft of writing and illustrating in harmony. The good picture book has unity of word and illustration. The illustrations should contribute to the emerging story, not simply mirror it. Pamela Allen is a master at this and uses every device at her disposal to execute it with rare distinction.

Meg Sorenson (Australian Book Review) writes: "The characters in these books exude life, caught at the highest point of action, and animated forever on the page. Every curve, stretch and twist communicates exactly the way they feel, the sentiment or momentum each embodies."


Titles by Pamela Allen include: Mr Archimedes’ Bath (1980), Who Sank the Boat (1982) Bertie and the Bear (1983), A Lion in the Night (1985), Simon Said (1985), Watch Me (1985), Herbert and Harry (1986), Fancy That (1987), Simon Did (1988), Watch Me Now (1989), I Wish I Had a Pirate Suit (1989), My Cat Maisie (1990), Black Dog (1991), Mr McGee Goes to Sea (1992), Belinda (1992), Mr McGee and the Blackberry Jam (1993), Alexander's Outing (1993), Clippity Clop (1994), Waddle Giggle Gargle (1996), The Bear's Lunch (1997), Ordinary Albert (1997, text by Nancy Antle), Mr McGee and the Biting Flea (1998), The Pear in the Pear Tree (1999), Mr McGee and the Perfect Nest (1999), Inside Mary Elizabeth's House (2000), Can you keep a secret? (2000), Brown Bread and Honey (2001), Who Sank the Boat (2001), The Potato People (2002), Cuthbert's Babies (2003), Grandpa and Thomas (2003), Mr McGee and the Big Bag of Bread (2006), Fancy That (2005), Waddle, Giggle, Gargle (2005), Where's the Gold (2005), Inside Mary Elizabeth's House (2005), Where's the Gold? (2005), Daisy All-sorts (2005), Doodledum Dancing (2006), Grandpa and Thomas and the Green Umbrella (2006), I Wish I had a Pirate Suit (2007), Is Your Grandma a Goanna? (2007). Share said the Rooster (2007)

The sheer variety of ways she is able to tell an amusing story is remarkable. And each book teaches children about language and their world. In Mr Archimedes' Bath (1980) she introduces children to the scientific principle that a body or object will displace water in the bath. In Grandpa and Thomas (2003) children learn about the movement of tides and the consequence for sand castles. But she also delves into life's substantial human challenges like learning to share (Herbert & Harry, 1986) and the difference between reality and fantasy in Inside Mary Elizabeth's House (2000). All the while she is examining the richness of human emotions and relationships.

Allen has won many awards as both an author and illustrator. She is the only person to win the Australian CBC Picture Book of the Year award in two consecutive years (1983 & 1984), for Who Sank the Boat (1982) and Bertie and the Bear (1983). She has been shortlisted for the prize in five other years. She was also the 2004 winner of New Zealand's most prestigious award for children's literature, the Margaret Mahy Medal. In 2007 her book "Doodledum Dancing" (written by Meredith Costain) was an Honour Book in the Picture Book category. She is short listed yet again in 2008 for one of her latest books "SHHH! Little Mouse".

For more information about Pamela Allen's books you might like to look at the Penguin website which has good sections for teachers and children.

Boys and reading success: Get them reading

Paul Jennings is a well-known Australian (well he came here from England at age 6) children's author who has written many books for boys. In a recent article that appeared in the Melbourne Age, he shared his thoughts on why he writes the books he does and the challenges in helping boys to become readers. Some of his key points were:

• Parents are important to children's reading success because much of the groundwork occurs before children start formal schooling.
• Half an hour a day with a "skilled helper" is what a child needs to help them with reading.
• Men are examples for boys, and fathers who read are likely to have sons who read.
• It doesn't matter what a father reads as long as he reads for pleasure and demonstrates that this is a choice men make.
• Boys have some interests that are different from girls and we need to recognise this fact.
• Starting with books about sport or humour is a good place to start.
• But ultimately, the quality of the story is the most important thing, not the topic although books need to recognise the diverse range of interests of boys.
• While boy's might seem to have limited reading interests at first, no matter where boys start reading, ultimately quality will be what keeps them reading.

The ideas in Paul Jennings AGE article are based on his book for parents 'The Reading Bug'.
To his ideas I would add the following points:

• Boys need a lot of help choosing books that they will not only like but which they will be able to read.
• Take the time to help your sons choose books, if they pick up a book with an exciting cover and find that they can't read it this will be a disincentive.
• It is helpful to read with your sons (certainly right through primary school) - a good way to do this is to read the first few pages aloud and then ask your son to read on. In this way you'll find that your son can read for longer and cope with harder books.
• Don't forget the importance of non-fiction - boys want to learn and non-fiction is often a good way in - books about sea creatures, space, sport, transport, technology of any kind.
• There is also a place for riddles, joke books, poetry and silly rhymes.
• Comics and magazines are also a good place to start - get them reading.
• Online reading and research is also a good source of reading challenge for boys.
  

Boys, because they are boys (and are different) will enjoy books more when they help them to discover, experiment, explore, learn new things, make them laugh, consider the curious or unusual, help them to play, see how things work, share trivia tricks and facts with other boys, explore the unknown, and generally do stuff!

Motivating boys to read can be done by people other than fathers but what Jennings is saying, and what research from many disciplines supports, is that fathers have a special role to play in supporting their sons, motivating them and providing good models for them. Fathers have a significant impact on their children’s learning and behaviour. As my previous post on the subject of fathers indicated, the quality of the relationship between boys and their fathers matters.

For the full text of the AGE article 'Boy Story' click here. For more information about Paul and his books click here. For information on 'The Reading Bug' (his book for parents) click here.

If you want a great list of books for 11-14 year old boys suggested by the School Library Association in the UK click here. You can download the entire publication for free with its list of 160 books with quick summaries organised by category (e.g. discover, play, spy, experiment, laugh etc). Every parent with a teenage boy should have a look at this resource. I plan to do another post later on motivating younger boys.

Board games and early literacy

I have written previously on this blog about the importance of play for children (here and here) but I was reminded recently of the impact that structured games can have on learning. The journal "Child Development" recently reported on research conducted by Robert S. Siegler, a professor of cognitive psychology and Geetha B. Ramani, assistant professor of human development at the University of Maryland. They found that games can help preschool children learn mathematics, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The article reminded me of the many benefits of games for learning as well as for literacy and language.


The general usefulness of games

There are literally hundreds of games that have been designed for children and adults today. When I was a child the choice was much more limited (e.g. snakes and ladders, ludo, scrabble, monopoly, draughts) but the enjoyment and benefits were fairly similar. Some of the general benefits include learning:

• That you can't always win
• How to take turns
• Team work
• To be more patient
• Risk taking
• The importance of persistence
• Anticipation skills
• Memory
• Colour and shape recognition
• Pattern recognition
• Vocabulary

But as well as these general benefits, there can be more specific benefits for learning that are related to other forms of learning, including:

• Basic counting and mathematics
• Word recognition
• Problem solving
• General knowledge
• Writing (numbers and words)

Board games as learning aids

Schools have long used games in recognition that they can be a beneficial way to learn many things, especially for young children and those with learning difficulties.

The use of board games as part of school literacy and mathematics is motivated by the perceived benefits of:

• repetition and over-learning (i.e. the repetition of something until it becomes second nature and increases the speed of recall);
• incorporating some forms of repetitive learning into game situations to increase enjoyment and help concentration and time on task;
• providing foundational knowledge for other more complex learning.

Some simple board game applications for literacy

The application of games to literacy has taken many forms. Here is just one example. It relies on board games that traditionally use a dice to determine the pace of the game. You can take existing games and simply replace the dice with a set of cards that require some simple reading task; each with the number 1 to 6 in small print that dictates the number of spaces moved. There are endless variations. For example:

a) You can choose basic sight words (i.e. words like 'were', 'said', 'there' - that is, words that can't easily be sounded out and are more easily recognised as whole words based on their shape and some partial letter clues. There are a number of these lists available such as the Dolch List that has been in use since 1948. Write the words in print at least 2 cm high and then write a number between 1 and 6 on the top right-hand corner (in much smaller print). You can use existing games like snakes and ladders, but instead of using the dice you have a pile of cards face down that players turn over one at a time and read. If successful, they move a counter the appropriate number of squares to progress the game.

b) Do the same as the above but use sound cards as appropriate for the child's age.

c) Use phrase cards instead of single word cards.

d) Use colour or number words.

As a teacher I often used games with children who were struggling with reading. In fact one of the things we did for struggling readers was to create our own simple board games that had a theme that matched the interests of the child (e.g. car racing, football, space, dinosaurs, cartoon characters, super heroes etc).

While there are some electronic games that attempt to use repetition and over-learning in similar ways, many of the other general benefits of games seem to be achieved more readily with board games.

Basic Literacy Support 3: Is Phonics all we need?

As a parent, one could be forgiven for being confused about the best way to teach young children to read. I've been studying early reading for 35+ years and while we've managed to learn lots of things about literacy and language from research, few new understandings have been gained about the best methods to teach literacy. Good teachers have always known what is required. Public debate tends to make pretty simple stuff complicated. The debate seems to end up being distilled into two major competing claims - it's either about phonics (decoding words) or whole language (reading 'real' stories).

One approach stresses the learning of reading from part to whole (first learn sounds, then words then read longer texts). The other (often referred to as Whole Language) stresses the need for children to encounter language in the form of stories or non-fiction, and assumes that decoding and other language skills are learned as children read. Few teachers actually believe either of these extreme views, but much public debate is stimulated by a minority of teachers, academics, doctors, psychologists, businessmen, and parents who do.

In this post I want to do just two things:

Stress what young readers need to experience if they are to learn to read successfully.
Outline some basics about phonics.

1. What do young children need to experience to learn to read?

First, you need to understand that children first begin the process of learning to read from birth. The child who arrives at school aged five ready to take off in reading has usually experienced many things. They've had parents and caregivers who have:

* spoken to them, listened to them, asked them questions, and answered their questions - from birth children should experience almost constant immersion in language;
* read to them, shown them what it is to write, and generally allowed their child to see literacy demonstrated in varied forms;
* actively tried to get their child to look at print and make sense of it - at first this might have involved pointing to symbols (e.g. the McDonalds logo "M"), encouraging them to recognise the names of TV shows from the symbols (e.g. ABC Kids) and so on. In such households children have been introduced to the fact that language can be represented by symbols as well as the spoken word;
* taught them songs, rhymes, chants, limericks, jokes (e.g. Knock, knock...). This trains memory and teaches key aspects of language (rhythm, intonation, phrasing etc);
* provided them with varied experiences in which language has been a vital and integral part;
* taught letter names, numbers and perhaps some sounds;
* encouraged them to 'read along' with books, predicting from the pictures, looking for key details and events from the pictures, looking at publishing devices such as enlarged letters, coloured print to provide impact, thought balloons etc;
* encouraged them to predict repetitive language patterns in some picture books - "But where is the Green sheep?";
* drawn their attention to print everywhere in their environment.

Children who have experienced the above find reading easier when they get to school. Children who haven't experienced this will struggle in comparison.

2. How do I help my child to be better at decoding (phonics)?

The ability to decode words is obviously a critical part of reading. How is this learned? Is there only one way? Decoding is what most people know as phonics - the ability to sound out words. Knowing that letters represent sounds and when put together that these make words. My website has a detailed overview of common approaches to phonics for teachers and interested parents, but below I've provide a basic overview on how to help your child.

You can begin some simple phonics and whole word recognition from about age 4. This should happen naturally if you’ve been doing all of the things I talk about above. Some children will be ready earlier than others but once they reach 5 you should more systematically focus on print. But be careful, if you have your child sitting down to ‘do school’ as a preschooler, then you run the risk that you might make reading more difficult and take all the joy out of it (with obvious negative long-term impact). Experiencing the joy of books and language is still the main task of any parent. But here’s a sequence that can be used for phonics:

a) Teach some consonants (e.g. b, t, c, s, g, s, m, f, l) – try to make it fun. Use the letter name as well as the sound. “Look, that’s a ‘b’.” “Can you see the ‘r’ in Rebecca?”.

While you’re pointing out letters teach a few whole words. For example, their name, mum, dad, kids (as in ABC Kids), STOP etc.

Point to letters, numbers and words as you read things and also write them down with them and encourage them to write as well.

b) Introduce the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) – while you can point to the vowels separately these are better introduced as part of words or in combination with consonants. “That says ‘u’ in mum”. “Let’s look for some ‘at’ words on this page”. “Let’s write some ‘at’ words together.” You might even sound out special words in stories. For example, in books that use sound words you should say them and point to them. “Mr McGee is saying OWWWW and OOOOO”. “Look, that says BANG”.

c) Point out other print conventions – as your child begins to learn more about written language he/she will have lots of questions that you should try to answer. As well, you might point out punctuation, the difference between upper and lower case letters. You might label their drawings with words they give you to describe their creations. Read the words back to them and encourage them to likewise.

d) Play games that use words, sounds and numbers – Word BINGO and I Spy are simple examples but there are many commercial examples. Many games can make car trips seem shorter and act as a catalyst for families doing things togethers (including brothers and sisters).

e) Other sounds and words – your child’s responsiveness to reading will determine how much more that you will need to do before school, but in the first two years of school most children should learn all the sounds commonly encountered in written language. If you want a more detailed and comprehensive overview you can visit my website for more information.

The challenges of choosing books for children

I have written previously about the importance of reading to and with your children. In the previous post I talked a little about the need to help children choose varied books that match their interests and reading levels. There are many issues to consider:

• is the book at the right reading level;
• will my child (or children if you're a teacher) enjoy it;
• is the content appropriate developmentally?
  

The task of helping children to choose appropriate books is common to parents, teachers and librarians. A recent article by Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post Question for the ages: What books when? discusses some of the challenges that teachers and librarians face every day just choosing books to read to their classes.

In an age where children are often introduced to ideas at younger and younger ages - something I see as problematic - just how do you make wise choices? For example, is the book too violent? Does the child need to be introduced to that life issue (e.g death, war) at this age? And how do I match my professional judgment as a teacher against the rights of parents? Is it a book that the children can handle emotionally?

Parents at Green Acres School in Rockville (USA) complained when the teacher read the book "From Slave Ships to the Freedom Road" by Julius Lester to third-graders. The book tells the story of African Americans and is a popular book acclaimed for its historical accuracy.

It begins like this: "They took the sick and the dead and they dropped them into the sea like empty wine barrels. But wine barrels did not have beating hearts, crying eyes, and screaming mouths. . . . No one knows how many millions died. Except the sharks."

Such a graphic opening would certainly raise lots of questions; including moral questions. Is it appropriate for 3rd graders. My quick reaction is maybe, it depends on the 3rd graders. However, if parents don't like it then teachers have no choice but to respect their views on this and to talk with them about it and to perhaps try another book.

The National Council of English Teachers (USA) has issued guidelines to help teachers make wise choices. But this is not an easy task for teachers. Some of the helpful comments within the guidelines include:

• There should be balance in the books chosen.
• They need to be age appropriate (language and concepts that children can understand) - this will include consideration of the complexity of the plot, abstractness of the language, familiarity of vocabulary, and clarity of syntax.
• The children should be able to relate to the content - there needs to be some connection between their life and that portrayed (this might be as basic as the age of the main characters).

Our children need to be introduced to a wide variety of books, the challenge is to help them to make good choices. As part of this we need to model how we make choices as well and explain to them why. This is an important task when supporting young readers which parents and teachers need to consider carefully.

Author focus: Dr Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss and sometimes Theo LeSieg) was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often sang her children to sleep "chanting" rhymes. Theodor (Ted) gives credit to his mother for his ability to create the rhymes that made him famous.

Theodor left Springfield to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern, Dartmouth's humour magazine. It was here that he began signing his work as "Seuss" which was both his middle name and his mother's maiden name.

When he finished his course at Dartmouth his father inquired as to what he was going to do with his life. His father was keen for him to become a university professor and paid for him to attend Oxford University. One day in class he sat next to Helen Palmer and she saw him doodling. She suggested that he become a cartoonist rather than a professor. He took her advice and they were later married.

The Cartoonist

When he returned to the USA he began a career as a cartoonist. The Saturday Evening Post and other publications published some of his early pieces, but the bulk of Theodor’s early career was devoted to creating advertising campaigns for Standard Oil, which he did for more than 15 years. His first major product to be marketed was "Flit" fly spray, and it has been suggested that he created the first advertisement that ever used humour to sell this product.

He pursued a very successful career as a cartoonist and in advertising before trying to publish his first children’s book. Interestingly, many of his early sketches published in newspapers resemble the characters that eventually found their way into his books. For example, Horton-like elephants, nizzard-like birds and yertle-like turtles.

The children's author

It took him 27 attempts before a publisher took his first book - And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Vanguard Press eventually published it. The story is about a young boy named Marco who as he wanders down the street sees a horse and cart that suddenly through his eyes appears to take on some special qualities. A horse and cart becomes a chariot pulled by a zebra, then a chariot pulled by a reindeer, then a sled pulled by an elephant and so on. The images have the characteristic Seuss colour, sharp lines and simplicity of language and structure. The language is rich, repetitive and rhythmic. His style never moved far from this wonderful recipe but the trademark of his work was the wonderful and inventive way he used language, rhyme and repetition. It has been suggested that his work contributed words to our lexicon for the first time. For example, he used the word "nerd" before anyone else (as a nonsense word) and eventually it found its way into our language as a way to describe someone with quirky personality who is bright and somewhat eccentric.

Perhaps his most famous book is The Cat in the Hat. Houghton Mifflin had asked Ted to write and illustrate a children's primer using only 225 "new-reader" vocabulary words. He was never a fan of basal readers and so this was his non-boring attempt at a limited vocabulary book.

At the time of his death on September 24, 1991, Ted had written and illustrated 44 children's books, including such all-time favourites as Green Eggs and Ham, Oh, the Places You'll Go, Fox in Socks, and one of my favourites, I Wish that I had Duck Feet. I suspect that the latter owes much to his father's hobby of taxidermy that was developed when he was superintendent of the Forest Park Zoo. Apparently, his father would give Theodor left over parts from his efforts and eventually some of these were made into imaginary creatures. He literally had a box of spare parts. This is a story about a child struggling for an identity, wishing that he had this and that so that he could impress Big Bill Brown. If only he had duck feet, antlers, a whale spout and so on, all would be different. But with each scenario he realises that there would be problems with this new identity. Eventually, he concludes "And that is why, I think that I, just wish to be like ME". And all the animal parts are thrown into the bin.

Seuss was very much a social commentator not just a funny cartoonist. His book How the Grinch Stole Christmas explores whether there might just be more to Christmas than presents, greed and excess. The collection of stories titled Sneetches and other stories explores racial identity, the consequences of people being unprepared to compromise, and fear of the unknown. The Lorax is a commentary on a world that ignores the need for environmental sustainability.

His books have been translated into more than 15 languages, and over 200 million copies have been printed.

Besides the books, his works have provided the source for eleven children's television specials, a Broadway musical and a feature-length motion picture. Other major motion pictures are on the way.

His honours included two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award and the Pulitzer Prize.

The work of Dr Seuss is timeless and will continue to amuse, challenge and teach future generations of children.

For those interested in his art exhibition is currently running in Sydney - The Secret Art of Dr Seuss. The exhibition is at the Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery in Sydney until the 6th April 2008. While this is not an exhibition of original art it contains limited edition prints and hand-painted cast resin replicas of some of his zany mythical creatures like the "Goo Goo Eyed Tasmanian Wolghast" that were made from the left-over animal parts from his father's taxidermy. Seuss began creating three-dimensional sculptures in the 1930s. What was most unusual about these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals.

The Dr Seuss National Memorial website and the Seussville website were helpful in preparing this post.

The problems with a TV in a child's bedroom

A New York Times article written by Tara Parker-Pope has warned of the problems associated with children having a TV in their bedrooms. Key details from the article include:

• Estimates on how many American children have TVs in their bedrooms vary from 50-70%.
• There is a growing body of evidence to suggest strong associations between excessive TV viewing and numerous health problems (e.g. obesity, smoking etc).
• One study found that a TV in the bedroom increased viewing time by almost nine hours per week (increasing to 30 hours).


A leading professor of paediatrics, Leonard H. Epstein, commented that: “If it’s in the bedroom, the parents don’t even really know what the kids are watching.”

Reasons for the negative impact of TV in the bedroom?

The reasons for the impact of TV in the bedroom are still being investigated but the article points to the distraction that they cause from sleep, homework, reading etc.

However, I suspect that the reasons are more subtle than this and could include:

* reduction in the amount of family interaction time (which we know is invaluable);
* reduced physical activity outside the home;
* reduced language interaction with other children and adults (the latter is critical for language development in the preschool years);
* negative impacts on relations with parents and the associated levels of support that parents give.

In other words, I suspect that it is the impact on family relations and use of time that are the critical factors leading to the negative impact of TV in children's bedroom. There will of course be other impacts such as problems caused by uncontrolled viewing of varied television content without discussion and advice from other trusted adults. TV can be a valuable way in which parents build common ground with their children, it should not lead to alienation from them. If it does, then we can expect negative impacts and should do something about it.

Click here to read the full article from the New York Times article

Read my previous posts on problems with TV here and the need for better televison here