"We must all recognize that factors other than word count-the look of the page, the space between lines, the amount of illustration and size of margins-contribute to making a book easy to read.
"Again we may ask whether we are being attracted to fool’s gold by a false snob appeal of the term 'classic,' if we accept abridgements and watering-down of texts because we believe that the slow or lazy child must read Alice in Wonderland or Treasure Island in one form or another. Is it not dishonest to allow children to think they are truly reading the classics when they read them in abbreviated form?"
--Virginia Haviland, "Search for the real thing: Among the “millions and billions” of books," Library Journal, 1961. Quoted in "Initiative and Influence: The Contributions of Virginia Haviland to Children’s Services, Research, and Writing," by Karen Patricia Smith.
Showing posts with label abridged books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abridged books. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
From the book sale
The pickings were a bit slim in the children's room, but the prices in there were reasonable and I did bring home a few books for the Scholastic shelf.
TX 1159 Charlie the Lonesome Cougar
TX 801 The Mad Scientists' Club
TX 1111 The Shaggy Dog
TX 945 Hans Brinker--oops, this one is abridged
TX 3330 The Magic of Oz
TJ 2904 Pigeon of Paris, by Natalie Savage Carlson (TJ's are harder to find)
I also found a French workbook...sort of a workbook...called Pourquoi? Comment? I'm still figuring out what that's about.
In the main room I found copies of J.B., by Archibald MacLeish; Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill; a nice copy of Longfellow's Evangeline; an extra copy of Babies Need Books, probably to give away; and an Abbey Classics copy of Lorna Doone. The cover art made it look like it's abridged, but I don't think it is--I'll check it against an online version, but it looks pretty genuine from here. (It turned out to be somewhat abridged, which surprised me since it was still full of dialect and didn't appear to be dumbed-down. Also I can't find anywhere on the book itself that says "abridged" or "adapted." But the Project Gutenberg version is definitely longer.)
So--not a bad trip!
TX 1159 Charlie the Lonesome Cougar
TX 801 The Mad Scientists' Club
TX 1111 The Shaggy Dog
TX 945 Hans Brinker--oops, this one is abridged
TX 3330 The Magic of Oz
TJ 2904 Pigeon of Paris, by Natalie Savage Carlson (TJ's are harder to find)
I also found a French workbook...sort of a workbook...called Pourquoi? Comment? I'm still figuring out what that's about.
In the main room I found copies of J.B., by Archibald MacLeish; Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill; a nice copy of Longfellow's Evangeline; an extra copy of Babies Need Books, probably to give away; and an Abbey Classics copy of Lorna Doone. The cover art made it look like it's abridged, but I don't think it is--I'll check it against an online version, but it looks pretty genuine from here. (It turned out to be somewhat abridged, which surprised me since it was still full of dialect and didn't appear to be dumbed-down. Also I can't find anywhere on the book itself that says "abridged" or "adapted." But the Project Gutenberg version is definitely longer.)
So--not a bad trip!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)