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Do you feel that there are any authors or books that are overrated?
One of my kids had to read every book ever written by Tomie de Paolo..one was okay...and that seemed more than enough...not for the teacher though.
Then a librarian recommended The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron as a book my daughter should read...not entertaining at all. It was actually given the Newberry award.
For the past 20 years or so the Newberrys have been given to esoteric books that the Librarians who are judges for the award love, and that the general public doesn't enjoy as much. Since the Newberrys are for excellence in children's literature, the judges tend to pick books that show new trends or experiment with language or highlight current issues. I've never agreed with that, but that's what you get when you have people in the profession picking vs members of the general public. That's why there are regional and state awards where the public gets to choose their favorite.
I don't understand a teacher asking a student to read ALL of the books by any author - I can't think of any author at any level whose works are all consistantly good. That was a weird assignment for a teacher to give.
Right now, YA author Neil Gaimon is about as overrated as they come, IMHO.
For the past 20 years or so the Newberrys have been given to esoteric books that the Librarians who are judges for the award love, and that the general public doesn't enjoy as much. Since the Newberrys are for excellence in children's literature, the judges tend to pick books that show new trends or experiment with language or highlight current issues. I've never agreed with that, but that's what you get when you have people in the profession picking vs members of the general public. That's why there are regional and state awards where the public gets to choose their favorite.
I don't understand a teacher asking a student to read ALL of the books by any author - I can't think of any author at any level whose works are all consistantly good. That was a weird assignment for a teacher to give.
Right now, YA author Neil Gaimon is about as overrated as they come, IMHO.
601...interesting answer, especially about the Newberry award.
I think that any of the children's books that were written by celebrities are over-rated.
That is exactly what I was thinking when I saw this thread subject!
Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Jaime Lee Curtis, Madonna.... I could go on and on.
I also agree about Tomie De Paolo. The only book of his that I enjoyed was "The Art Lesson". His others all seemed so flat.
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