T
T F
Number 11
(February 2007) “It is the function of some people to be a lamp and some to be a mirror. I have
been very pleased to function as a mirror of others’ work.” – Arne Nixon
THEMAGIC MIRROR
Four famous authors to speak
Lemony Snicket
here in March
Four critically acclaimed authors—Avi, Sharon Creech,
Walter Dean Myers, and Sarah Weeks—have joined
together to form A.R.T.: Authors Readers Theatre. The
A.R.T. authors will perform selections from their books in
Fresno on Friday, March 2, at 6:30 p.m. at Sunnyside High
School Theatre, 1019 South Peach. Sunnyside is located at
the southeast corner of Peach and Kings Canyon. The
entrance to the parking lot is from a stoplight on Peach.
The presentation is of particular interest to adults and
students in grades 4 through 12. This event is co-sponsored
by the School of Education at Fresno Pacific
University, the Arne Nixon Center, Fresno Pacific Univer-sity,
the Fresno County Public Library, Sunnyside High
School, and Petunia’s Place bookstore. Admission is free
but limited to 500 attendees: first come, first served.
Books will be available for sale and autographing at the
event. The presentation, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., will
last about 90 minutes, with time for questions at the end.
Avi has published 59 books and
is the winner of the Newbery
Medal for Crispin: The Cross of
Lead; two Newbery Honors, The
True Confessions of Charlotte
Doyle and Nothing but the
Truth; plus two Horn Book
awards and the O’Dell and
Christopher awards. His Web site
Avi
Please plan to join us!
March 2: Authors Readers Theatre
March 27: Lemony Snicket
April 15: Secret Garden Party
(See Lemony, page 7)
(See A.R.T., page 2)
The University Lecture Series will
sponsor “An Evening with Daniel
Handler” (also known as Lemony
Snicket), the bestselling children’s
author in the United States, on Tuesday, March 27, at 7:30
p.m. at the Satellite Student Union. Lemony Snicket’s
12-part series, A Series of Unfortunate Events, has sold
more than 27 million books worldwide. The books feature
the tragic and comic adventures of Violet, Klaus, and
Sunny (the Baudelaire orphans) as they escape from their
wicked guardian, Count Olaf, and a variety of other
villains. The first three books were made into a hit 2004
Meredith Heuer 2005
The Arne Nixon Center Ad-vocates
(ANCA) invites every-one
to its fifth annual Secret
Garden Party on Sunday, April
15, from 3–5 p.m. Held in a beautiful
Tuscan garden nestled in the Sierra foothills,
the party’s exact location will be revealed to
underwriters and ticket holders upon registra-tion.
This year’s theme is the art of the late Leo
Politi. The Fresno-born, Caldecott-winning
author/artist was a close friend of Arne
Nixon’s. The Party will raise funds to create
a Leo Politi garden outside the new Library.
Underwriters are needed; they will receive tickets to
the party and acknowledgements in promotional mater-ials.
The $1,000 Sponsor fee includes eight tickets;
Patrons, for a $500 fee, get six tickets; Contributors, for
$250, receive four tickets. Individual tickets are also avail-able
for $50. The garden party is ANCA’s major annual
fundraising event: all profits benefit the Nixon Center.
For information call (559) 278-5790 or send E-mail
to kelliew@csufresno.edu.
Secret Garden Party in April
October 6: SCBWI Regional Workshop
by Angelica Carpenter
CORNER
CURATOR’S
Vive la différence! 3
used to think that Accelerated Reader was the worst
product I had heard of in the field of education. That’s
the commercial reading program in which children
read books and take computerized, multiple choice
tests on them. Too often these tests focus on details (to
be sure the child has read the book) rather than on
important and complex questions, the kind that should be discussed when
children study literature. I flunked the AR tests on The Secret Garden and
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, books I had read dozens of times. I got
90% on one of my own books—a book I wrote.
As bad as Accelerated Reader is, at least it lets children choose (within limits)
and read actual books. Books and choice are endangered now under new rules
created by the No Child Left Behind Act. Under this, schools receive scores based
on standardized tests. If a school does not “improve” as specified, draconian
practices are implemented, including scripted reading lessons.
In California the most widely used scripted curriculum is Reading First.
Reading First teachers are supposed to be on the same page, at the same time,
every day—never mind that the children in their classes may not all be at the
same stage of development, or even at the same level of speaking or
understanding English. For these cookie cutter kids, Reading First prescribes
everything from bulletin boards to the questions that the teacher should ask, to
the one correct answer to each question. Specially funded Reading First “coaches”
(some say “police”) go from classroom to classroom to ensure that teachers do
not deviate. Every minute is planned to maximize test scores.
In primary grades, Reading First is phonics-based, emphasizing sounds rather
than interest or literary merit. In many cases textbooks are the only books
allowed. “Trade books” (real books) are banned from classrooms, along with
scissors, paste, and blocks.
“They took the playhouse out of my classroom today,” a kindergarten teacher
said recently. She was introducing herself as a newcomer at a meeting of EPATA,
Educators and Parents Against Testing Abuse. This organization, founded by
retired master teacher Horace “Rog” Lucido and Dr. Glenn DeVoogd, Fresno
State’s Reading Program Coordinator, is attracting national interest. For
information see http://testingabuse.blogspot.com.
EPATA helped sponsor the César Chavez Conference on literacy and high
stakes testing, held last year on this campus. To participate in this year’s
conference, March 23-24, contact Laura Alamillo at lalamillo@csufresno.edu.
EPATA and the Chavez Conference can help parents, teachers, and the rest of us
to fight back.
When I recall my favorite teachers, it’s the quirky ones who stand out. In the
fourth grade, Mrs. Kiper taught us what caricatures were, and how to draw them.
In the sixth grade, Mrs. Cosford taught us French. There were hand-lettered
signs on everything in our classroom—la pupitre, la fenêtre, le taille-crayon. I
doubt that French was part of the official elementary school curriculum at that
time in Omaha, Nebraska.
In high school I had Mr. Cox for current events. On the first day of class, he
wrote a list of recommended book titles on the board. Then he crossed out two
of them: Brave New World and 1984. “I am not recommending that you read
these books!” he said, pounding his desk. “I do not want to get fired like that
teacher in Florida!” We couldn’t wait to read them.
I The Arne Nixon Center for the
Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
California State University, Fresno
5200 North Barton Ave. M/S ML34
Fresno CA 93740-8014
Phone: (559) 278-8116
Please call for an appointment.
Web site: www.arnenixoncenter.org
Angelica Carpenter, Curator
E-mail: angelica@csufresno.edu
Jennifer Crow, Library Assistant
Matt Borrego, Student Assistant
Maria Carrizales, Student Assistant
Adam Real, Student Assistant
Angelica Carpenter, Editor
Janet Bancroft, Designer & Co-editor
Michael Gorman
Michael Cart
Maurice J. Eash
MAGIC MIRROR
MAGIC MIRROR
Published by
Staff
ANCA Board of Directors
ANC Governing Committee
Alma Flor Ada
Steven Mooser
Magic Mirror
Denise Sciandra, President
Phone (559) 229-5085
E-mail: denises@comcast.net
Jessica Kaiser,
1st Vice President, Programs
Jackie Sarkisian,
2nd Vice President, Membership
Audry Hanson,
Corresponding Secretary
Angelica Carpenter,
Recording Secretary
Cynthia MacDonald, Treasurer
Laurel Ashlock
Ruth Kallenberg
Jo Ellen Misakian
Judith Neal
Kristene Scholefield
Ellis Vance
ANC Advisory Committee
Thanks to artist Sean Qualls, who
donated this original piece of art
from The Poet Slave of Cuba by
Fresno author Margarita Engle.
4
Aliki and Karen Cushman
to speak on October 6
Donations of books,
materials, and services
M (as of January 8, 2007)
Donna Chandler: 1 book
Karen Cushman: 12 of her books & 3 boxes of papers
Sylvia L. Engdahl: 7 of her books
Margarita Engle: her new book, The Poet Slave of Cuba
Ivadelle Garrison-Finderup: 6 of her books
Michael Gorman: 6 books
Holiday House: 6 books
Houghton Mifflin: 54 books
Susan Jaeger: professional services
Kane/Miller Book Publishers: 24 books
Lydia Kuhn: 12 books, 32 periodicals, & 6 stuffed animals
Lerner Publishing Group: 51 books
William Loizeaux (via Farrar, Straus & Giroux): 1 book
Diane Majors: cat poster & other materials
Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Murray: 19 cat books
Rudy Najar: 1 book
Blossom Norman: 23 books
Sara Pagoulatos: 30 books
Pelican Publishing Company: 1 book
Michelle Poulton: professional services
Random House: 113 books
Roaring Brook Press: 8 books
Scholastic: 95 books
Denise Sciandra: 2 books
Byron Sewell: electronic version of his story “In the
Boojum Forest”
Shenanigan Books: 1 book
South Dakota State Historical Society Press: 2 books
John Taylor: 20 books
Tricycle Press: 11 books
Judy Weymouth: 49 figurines
Thanks to Alice Weiner for soft sculptures based on the John Tenniel
art for Alice in Wonderland. (A ruler in the back shows size.)
ark your calendars now to hear author/artist Aliki and
Newbery-winner Karen Cushman on Saturday, October 6,
at an all-day regional workshop co-sponsored by the
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Plans
are still being developed; more information will be
published in the next edition of The Magic Mirror. There
will be a registration fee, still to be determined. Members
of the SCBWI and ANCA will receive a discount and
ANCA’s annual meeting (very short) will be held on this
day. Save the date—October 6—so that you can help us
welcome these international children’s literature celeb-rities
back to Fresno.
5
What would Arne say?
P rofessor Arne Nixon’s most influential teaching may
have occurred when he visited classrooms and shared
stories with children. Teachers who were fortunate enough
to watch their classes mesmerized by the power of
literature and Nixon’s captivating style could not help but
be changed themselves. These experiences made teachers
bring more literature into the classroom, and as they did,
they discovered the powerful way in which good books
motivate children to read. Unfortunately, today many
teachers are finding it harder and harder to incorporate
literature into their classrooms. Recent federal mandates
are driving real literary engagement from schools and
replacing it with focused lessons targeting tests. What
would Arne say?
The No Child Left Behind Act places unprecedented em-phasis
on testing. Schools must assess students in reading
and math in grades 3 through 8, and by 2014 ALL students
are expected to score at the “proficient” level. Schools that
fail to meet annual targets face dire consequences that can
eventually lead to state takeover. The need to test makes
schools focus on reading and math to the exclusion of mu-sic,
the arts, literature, and even science and social studies.
Furthermore, NCLB insists that instruction in reading
be “scientifically based.” Federal officials define what
counts as “scientific.” They exclude findings from a vast
amount of research in the cognitive sciences, anthropol-ogy,
sociology, linguistics, language development, and
social psychology. As a result, instructional practice is
based only on narrow, experimental research studies.
Schools where students fail to meet yearly targets, gen-erally
schools in high poverty areas and schools with large
numbers of minority and immigrant children, are bearing
the brunt of such instruction for it is in these schools that
Reading First is often prescribed.
Reading First is a program that provides funds for
teacher training at the elementary level. Teachers are
trained to administer a one-size-fits-all “scientifically
based” form of literacy instruction. They cannot deviate
from the teacher’s manual regardless of student needs. The
pace of instruction is set, regardless of student learning.
Every second of teaching is accounted for. There is no
room for personalization, innovation, or creativity. Every
classroom is supposed to look and sound alike. Even the
arrangement of bulletin boards is explicitly prescribed for
each grade level. If one were to visit several first grade
classrooms on a particular day, one would expect to see
the same lesson going on at the exact same time. Teachers
are not to use their professional judgment; instead they
disseminate a predetermined, fragmented curriculum that
does not consider students’ background experiences,
personalities, interests, or learning styles.
Under this method, children who do not understand
are given more of the same type of instruction—more
worksheets and more tests. If they fall behind, they are
seen as failures who need additional, after-school tutoring,
which is equally fragmented and disjointed. No one is
allowed to suggest that it is the curriculum that is failing
the child, not the child failing the curriculum.
Over the years many children in my classes would have
been deemed failures under Reading First. Take Andrew,
for example. He entered my classroom as a first grader and
we moved together through his fourth grade year. Though
he was a year older than his classmates, he began school
with no kindergarten experience. He displayed little pho-nemic
awareness and could not read or write anything. He
would have faired poorly on the currently popular
DIBLES test, which requires children to read nonsense
syllables aloud as fast as possible. Early on Andrew made
it clear that he would not tolerate nonsense. For him,
language was about meaning, not about mastering sounds
in isolation. For him, reading about a fat cat that sat on a
mat was absurd. He took no pleasure in books with limited
vocabularies and simple plots designed for novice readers.
Yet Andrew was a brilliant child. His sophisticated sen-sitivity
to language was apparent in his ability to engage
in adult-like conversation. He told wonderful stories and
had a magnificent sense of humor. He delighted in playing
with language and his oral vocabulary was remarkable. He
was curious; he knew that words held meaning. He
enjoyed looking at picture books, often making up his
own stories. Luckily for Andrew, my class-room
was filled with hundreds of books. I
read to him, and with him, every day. I also
read several books aloud to the class every
day and Andrew participated in literary
discussions about those books. In fact,
Andrew’s contributions to those talks
By Debbie Manning with Jean Fennacy
Authors F. Isabel
Campoy and Alma
Flor Ada (left and
right, respectively)
with ANCA
President Denise
Sciandra at a re-cent
ANCA meeting.
(See What would Arne say? page 6)
Photo by Angelica Carpenter
6
S
often pushed his classmates to deeper understandings of
literature, as well as life. We read poetry and sang songs.
We wrote throughout the day about things that mattered,
and often I served as a scribe for Andrew in order to help
him get his ideas down on paper. Slowly, ever so slowly,
he began to read and write conventionally. By the time he
completed fourth grade, he was a proficient, engaged
reader and writer.
Under Reading First, Andrew would never have had
the opportunity to explore real books each day, to engage
in genuine conversation about literature, and to hear the
number of stories that he did. He would never have been
allowed the time it took for him to become proficient,
because he would not have been allowed to learn at a pace
that fit him. He would have been deemed a failure and I
would have been forced to retain him. Social humiliation
would have been constant in his academic life. I have no
doubt that he would have become an early dropout,
adding to the number of students our schools fail to serve.
Instead, Andrew did learn to read and write very well
and he mastered math, science, music, art, and social
science. He is now a junior at a University of California
campus, earning As and Bs and planning to become a
professor. Not bad for a kid who wasn’t reading “on grade
level” in third grade.
All too often those who understand the least about
books, literacy, learning, and children call the shots in
education. Teachers are forced to present lessons in ways
that deny students access to the world of literature that
Professor Nixon shared with so many of us. What would
Arne Nixon say today about what goes on in many
elementary classrooms in Central California? What would
he say when teachers complain that they are not allowed
to read literature to their students? What would he say
when teachers are told that classroom libraries are no
longer necessary? What WOULD he say?
Debbie Manning and Jean Fennacy, both former teachers,
are co-owners of Petunia’s Place bookstore.
Manning teaches children’s literature at
Fresno State and at Fresno Pacific Uni-versity.
Fennacy is the Director of the
graduate Language, Literacy, and Culture
program at Fresno Pacific University.
What would Arne say?, from page 5
hirley Harnish Brinker, a founding member of the
Library’s Leadership Board, has made a generous
donation to the Capital Campaign Fund for the new
Henry Madden Library. Brinker earmarked her gift
for the Arne Nixon Center, which will be housed
on the third floor of the remodeled South Wing.
Her donation will be used to create a dramatic
entrance to the Center, adding double-sided, glass-walled
display cases around the door to the reading
room. The cases will provide an inviting view into
the reading room while still maintaining security
and they will add a sparkling showcase for exhibits.
Shirley Brinker first became interested in the
Arne Nixon Center when she was invited to the
Beatrix Potter-themed tea held at the home of
ANCA President Denise Sciandra. As a lifelong read-er
and cat lover (she has four cats), Brinker par-ticularly
admires the Center’s
collection of cat books. “I
chose the Arne Nixon Cen-ter
[for this gift] because I
am very pleased with the
work they are doing,” she
said. “I think it is wonderful
to have a place where students
and scholars can go to learn
about how important children’s
literature is.”
A big thank you
to Shirley Brinker!
Shirley Brinker
All of the
illustrations in
this issue of The
Magic Mirror, with
the exception of Sean Qualls’
on page 4, are by Leo Politi.
Featured illustrations
California State University, Fresno
The Arne Nixon Center for
the Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
5200 North Barton Avenue M/S ML34
Fresno CA 93740-8014
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
P AID
Fresno, California
Permit No. 262
Can you identify book titles from these first lines?
(Answers on page 2) Q 1If you are interested in stories with happy endings,
you would be better off reading some other book.
Q 2“Where’s Papa going with that ax?”
Q 4The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out
and someone is being beaten up and screaming for help.
Q 5They still talk about it in the Kingdom of Didd as
The-Year-the-King-Got-Angry-with-the-Sky.
Q 3Ba-room, ba-room, ba-room, baripity, baripity, baripity, baripity—Good.
His dad had the pickup going. He could get up now.
