This highly lauded text, with a “reader-response” approach and extensive inclusion of culturally diverse literature, has been updated to include coverage of such important topics as technology in the classroom, visual literacy, and the influence of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2000 on reading instruction in the public schools. Framing the content within a perspective of cultural diversity, renowned authors Charlie Temple, Junko Yokota and Miriam Martinez take the reader inside the workings of children’s literature, focusing on ways in which literature elicits responses from young readers, genre by genre and book by book. The text provides a full range of thoughtful and practical suggestions for sharing and exploring literature with children. Thus, there is a natural connection between the presentation and exploration of good books for children (including more than 2,000 annotations) and the rich repertoire of reader-response-based techniques. This connection prepares the reader not only to choose good literary works for children, but to understand their dynamics and be able to engage young readers.
At Hobart and William Smith Colleges I teach courses in literacy, children's literature, and peace studies. My professional books are shaped by what my students want to know--they are amazing young people preparing to teach all over the US and in many parts of the world. The books are also influenced by many friends from graduate school (the remarkably creative group who have carried on the late Edmund Henderson's legacy from the McGuffey Reading Center at UVA), from textbook writing projects at McGraw-Hill and elsewhere, and from carrying on workshops in places like Tbilisi, Georgia; Poiana Brasov, Romania; Moshi, Tanzania; Kakata, Liberia; and Montecarlo, Argentina. I tend to write my books with others; and while that has its own challenges it is hugely inspiring to bat ideas around with friends from East Los Angeles, Chicago, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Charlottesville, and San Francisco--essential, really, since we're writing books that are being read all over the country.
I had an enjoyable stint as a children's author in the 1990's. As a storyteller and folk musician, I spend a fair amount of time going around to schools promoting older forms of enrichment that don't require video screens or headphones, and it was a natural step to start writing books for children. Natural but not easy: and I'm grateful to the Rochester Writers Group and Ellen Stoll Walsh, MJ Auch, Vivian Van de Veld, Robin Pulver, and Cynthia de Felice for generous encouragement and lofty examples. Also for the great things Kent Brown and the Highlights Foundation do to help writers turn out works that just might be good enough for children. About the books: I started writing "On the Riverbank" in church during a long sermon (Always keep a notebook with you! That's the best advice for would-be writers). "Cadillac" was written with help from 5th graders at a local school (It's a true story, except my grandmother drove a 1953 Chevrolet. And I'm a guy). "Train" was inspired by the long strings of gleaming cars and elegant and not so elegant people that rolled through the little North Carolina tobacco town where I was born. About the rhythms to those books: They all came to me one way or another as songs, and most of them were written to a banjo accompaniment. My late wife, Frances Temple, wrote six books for young people during her short career including "Taste of Salt" "Grab Hands and Run," "The Ramsay Scallop," "Tonight, By Sea," and "Tiger Soup."
Overseas I was one of the founding directors of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) Project, which serves teachers in some forty countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. The project was selected by UNESCO as an exemplary practice in peace-building. Who knew? After an endorsement like that, teaching courses in peace studies seemed like the thing to do.
My wife Codruta and I live in the Finger Lakes of New York State. We have five very fine children between the two of us. And a sturdy grandson. And a remarkable 100 year old grandmother in Transylvania.
