Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 26, 1993 TAG: 9304260321
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI GIBSON RICHERT NEWSFUN WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Ditto for the Hardy Boys mystery solvers, and the Boxcar Children.
All are still read, and seem to be as popular as the R.L. Stines and Christopher Pikes of today.
Of the responses the MiniForum received on favorite book series - responses written while most schools were closed for spring break - it seems that most everyone likes to read, and most everybody has a favorite kind of book.
The most popular kinds of books were mysteries. Authors Stine and Pike came up a lot. The Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book series, which have been around since your parents were kids, and the mystery-solving siblings of The Boxcar Children collection are also hot.
Chad Myers of Roanoke County thinks he's got a clue why mysteries make such great stories: "When you read a mystery you are on the edge of your seat the whole time." Many others echoed Chad's thoughts, saying they simply couldn't put a mystery book down, and that the suspense in it made them want to keep reading.
One writer mystery fans may want to check out is Joan Lowry Nixon. Demetria Childress, Roanoke City youth services librarian, says Nixon is her favorite kid's mystery writer.
Scary books also were mentioned as favorites in your MiniForum letters.
Beth Garst, manager of Ram's Head Book Shop in Roanoke, suggests these best-selling titles for thrill-seekers: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," which is Alvin Schwartz' collection of folk stories that comes in series of three books, and "The Random House Book of Scary Stories."
For a funny scare, Garst suggests the Bunnicula series about a rabbit vampire and its animal friends, and the "My Teacher is an Alien" series that also includes "My Teacher Flunked the Planet," "My Teacher Fried my Brains" and "My Teacher Glows in the Dark."
Also high in the favorite book category were biographies - books about the lives of real people.
Garst says there are several books out about the childhoods of famous people, including the series of about 20 books, "The Childhood of Famous Americans" written for third- and fourth-graders. For older kids, fifth- and sixth-graders, try the "Great Lives" biography books.
Underscoring what kids are looking for in most books they read, is a character they can relate to, says Roanoke County assistant children's librarian Fannie Bolden. "I think they're looking for the real thing."
That explains the popularity of the "Baby-sitters Club" series, which includes about 90 titles about kids who, what else, baby-sit.
"I like them because they can really happen, and I want to baby-sit when I'm older," wrote Laura Hodges of Wytheville.
Books, Strings and Things book buyer Shelly Maycock says the "Baby-sitter" series is hot because it's about issues that occur in kids' every day lives - getting braces, being popular, meeting boys.
Other real-life fiction readers said they enjoyed are the "American Girl Collection," books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and "Sweet Valley High."
This last series is the favorite of Roanoke's Princess Etzler who says she reads them because they're about "growing up and stuff. I want to learn about what other people my age are doing."
And we can't talk about kids' books without including the classic Dr. Seuss. If you're looking for other silly, goofy, weird and loony tales, try some books by Shel Silverstein or "The Stinky Cheese Man" author John Scieszka who rewrites traditional fairy tales into twisted, crazy stories.
Of course, there are many other kinds of books out there for kids, including books about sports heroes and kids who play sports, adventurous animals, Greek myths written for kids and history books. To avoid missing out on some really great books, though, it's best not to concentrate on one kind, but to read books by many authors about many topics, suggests Garst.
One reading list recommended by librarians Childress and Bolden is the Virginia Young Readers Program, which rates the top 10 books for primary, elementary, middle and high school readers. The winning idea behind the Virginia Young Readers list is that kids vote on the best books.
Here are the 1993-94 best books for elementary and middle school readers:
Elementary: "Cousins" - Virginia Hamilton
"Cricket and the Crackerbox Kid - Alane Ferguson
"Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka'iulani - Fay and Diane Stanley
"Our Sixth-Grade Sugar Babies" - Eve Bunting
"Pennywhistle Tree" - Doris Buchanan Smith
"River Ran Wild: An Environmental History" - Lynne Cherry
"Shades of Gray" - Carolyn Reeder
"Shoebag" - Mary James
"Ten Kids, No Pets" - Ann M. Martin
"What's Cooking, Jenny Archer?" - Ellen Conford
Middle School: "Away Is a Strange Place to Be" - H.M. Hoover
"Dead Man in Indian Creek" - Mary Downing Hahn
"Finding Buck McHenry" - Alfred Slote
"Forbidden City" - William Bell
"Molly By Any Other Name" - Jean Davies Okimoto
"Mossflower" - Brian Jacques
"Reluctant God" - Pamela F. Service
"Striped Ships" - Eloise McGraw
"Susanna Siegelbaum Gives Up Guys" - June Foley
"Woodsong" - Gary Paulsen
by CNB