I'm glad I asked.

[sarren]

I took Bunny to get her first library card the other day. She was very excited. The children’s section is quite large, and includes one shelf labelled something like Fun for Boys, with books with blue stickers, and another shelf labelled Fun for Girls, with pink stickers. I asked quite neutrally why they had that, and got some stock standard answer which didn’t really seem to say anything, so I said, quite pleasantly, that it seemed out of touch with today’s reality.

That got the librarian’s attention and she explained quite enthusiastically that it’s a “Reluctant Reader” program – that while most kids will happily browse all the shelves, some boys are brought in by their mums and are reluctant to pick up books, and the ‘boys’ shelf is designed to appeal to them, full of exciting boy stuff, I expect. The only reason they have a 'girls' shelf at all is to make it 'equal'. She said the girls still read from the 'boys' shelf and that the books from both shelves are rotated into the wider reading section on a regular basis.

Comments

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

Well, given that justification, I can sort of accept it, but i'dlike to see what they include. There is reaearch to suggest that this is one way of getting reluctant readers to read-it provides a bit of guidance to cut through the overwhelming of books.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

The huge selection of books certainly was overwhelming Bunny. I watched her wandering around and getting discouraged while I was waiting for the cards to be sorted out. I had to show her that there were books that were for her reading age amongst all the other ones "with too much writing".

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

I wanted to borrow some for Bunny's age group the other day and was just as overwhelmed by the Junior Fiction section - it covers so many reading ages and development levels. We just studied this, I shall put some hints on y lj!

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

Very interesting - I'm also glad you asked. Still not sure it's a good thing, though. I suppose "Fun Books" wouldn't have the same effect?

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

*first library card*?! (*boggles*)

All of my kids have had library cards since before they could walk. Unfortunately, now they want to use them to borrow their own books, and I may have to resort to signing A up for a membership so that I can get more than my fair share of books....

[sarren.livejournal.com]

*defensively* Bunny has a million books. Dragonfly buys them secondhand by the box!

[sarren.livejournal.com]

by the box!

That may be a slight exaggeration.

[baby-elvis.livejournal.com]

emma has purchased pearl over 200 books before she was born. some may say that was excessive - i prefer to think of it as a sign of mental illness.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

*bursts out laughing*

[joandarck.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I discovered a "books for girls" section in Borders last year, I was horrified.