Skip to main content

Better than Billy Idol


LITTLE REBEL CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS 2016


Subversive, intelligent children's books.  Could I find a better topic to talk about?

 The Little Rebels Children's Book Awards (administered by the UK's Letterbox Library as part of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers) are a relatively new thing, having been around for only a few years (since 2013 it seems).  Is this because it is only recently that authors have felt the need to tackle big societal issues in children books?  I pondered this for a while and then realised that Dr. Seuss would argue with me (and win) on that point.

 Let me start by saying that although I think the title "Little Rebels" is awesome, I am actually going to say that I think there should be nothing deemed "rebellious" about reading literature that encourages us to think and form our own opinions.  In fact, I dislike my own description of the nominees as "subversive", but I'll maintain that adjective to argue my point.  Subversion as a concept has such underhanded and negative connotations.  This is not the kind of judgement I wish to pass on these books.  They are informative, they are novel (pun fully intended) and they encourage questioning and thought.  Working in a school, I see a lot of teaching of facts and information, with the purpose being memorisation of that information to apply and/or recite under controlled circumstances.  The art and science of questioning, inquiry, debate and critical thought are there...... but do they feature boldly enough?  And so it falls to literature to fill in the gaps; to promote deeper thought, expose new and unknown situations, highlight things that once were or might have been or could be in the future.  To make you question the status quo, and in so doing, yourself.

 OK, so I may have got a wee bit philosophical there, we are only talking of children's literature, but never underestimate how perceptive children can be - especially if you ask the right questions to guide them to think more deeply.  What better way to start that process than with a book that tackles just the kinds of themes you want to discuss?

 Below is a link to the award's Wordpress site, including previous nominee lists and the current 2016 list:

 Little Rebels Award

 Get rebellious people, now is the time!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using librarian skills to uncover a network of dodgy shopping sites!

In all my posts over the years I'm not sure if I ever mentioned I am an avid steampunker.  Like many of my quirky fellow librarians, I love a good dress up and recently found myself searching for a great pair of boots to go with the Steampunk Aviator Superhero costume I'm assembling (trust me, it will work!). One evening whilst idly thumbing through Pinterest I found a picture of these undeniably AWESOME combat-boot style boots.  I followed the link to the website ( www.chichola.com ) and although it didn't look dodgy and offered PayPal, I am a cautious online shopper and always check the customer reviews first.  They were 1000% abysmal.  Like the kind of reviews that say SCAM, THEFT and CAN I LEAVE 0 STARS.  So despite loving the shoes, I was definitely not parting with my money on this occasion. Fast forward a couple of months and I see an ad for Victorian-style cosplay boots in my Insta feed.  Did I mention that I am an avid steampunker? ...
24 comments
Read more

Saturday Librarian be like...

It's Saturday.  I'm at work. I work Saturdays - Saturday is my permanent shift and I gotta say I am used to working them now, it also helps that I don't have any other family routines to conflict with the concept of the weekend.  I used to think that one day was pretty much like the other.  The sun rises, you do stuff, the sun sets.  Turns out though the cultural attitudes and expectations that are associated with certain days (Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday), still linger quite strongly, even if your schedule is no longer based upon the routines that give these days their flavour. So now my Saturday is like my....  Tuesday.  Kind of.  Friday is Monday.  Monday is Friday.  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Either way, working in an institution that is open every day is a little weird (and I'm also talking Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years, even if it just for chute clearing).  The entire year just morphs into a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ambidextrous Me

After a minor interruption to service, I'm back and I've installed an upgrade! For those of you out there who may actually read this blog (the one or two of you, hi Mum), life has been more than a little busy of late and has interfered with my ability to read, and to blog.  Basically, I have been experiencing a career crisis.  Actually that's a bit dramatic it wasn't really a crisis (I just like the familiar-sounding alliteration), it was more that I really didn't like my job.  Don't get me wrong, my colleagues were AWESOME and that counts for so much in a workplace, but as a new Librarian, the job itself was probably as unchallenging and backward as it could get.  A career cul-de-sac.  A dead end.  A career coffin.  A place of final rest. So what was the position?  It was at a school.  A lovely school of a certain educational philosophy that was rather anti-technology and fairly set in its ways.  I sort of knew this when I started,...
Post a Comment
Read more