5
( 'II j ; Ii" II. ( I 1111 nu: ) L II :" I .vt tv r -, , \ i l' \ \ �,
Th family
aquar um
Bducatioa i not something
which to happen only
within the walls of the school.
There are many ways in which
parents can provide education
al experiences right in the
home. Those things which
parents and children learn
about together take on a spe
cial significance and a very
pecial kiDd of enjoymenL
An excellent item fOl open
the door to ucb an ex-
perience the quarium,
·cb provides the oppor
tunity to learn bout fish,
plants, and how an ecosystem
operat We can help
children learn much pos-
e ut this ter environ-
ment by providing an
quarium, encouraging their
questio about it and helping
them to seek out the answers
to those questio through
boo .
There are a number of
good boo availab e for
children which will n only
answer their questio , but
. ch will eep the ole
family inter ed in learning
more d more bout this f -
cinatiDg ubject.
A very good boo for begin-
. of aquariums is
John Holce's Aquariums
(Watts 1975). This boo sho
to t up an quarium;
to oose the differe
p ts for it; what kinds of fish
to select and ho many, and
also· very pecific instruc-
. to put fish in the
uarium so that they will con
tinue to 1iYe.
Aquarium Fisla From
Arocuad The World by KIa
Paysan (Lerner 1970), -
boo containing beafutiful
p ogr p . ch tell how to
. dentify various fish. With
each peci it gives impor-
tant information uch
Dorothy
Robin so
Reading
Togethe.r
where it comes from, things to
watch, and the best water
temperature for that par
ticular fish.
WIuIt Do YIJU Want To
Know About Guppies by
Se our Simon (Four Wmds
Press 1977) tells how to set up
a guppy aquari�; how to
. dentify different tupes of gup
pies; how to care for them and
what to do if they become
. This boo also contains
an excellent list of books
·ch will help in learning
more about guppies.
A Grtal Aquarium Book by
Jane Sarnoff and Reynold Ruf
fins (Scribner's 1m) is filled
with an array of hooks to pull
youngsters into the aquariuum
hobby as well as into the read
ing habit. Along with the basic
information on ho to estab
lish, care for and maintain a
�cedaquarium,itinclu�
an extra bonus of fish-y facts
and riddles. Here's a sample
fish-y . ddle: What part of a
fish ights the most? The
scales. 0 for a sample bit of
important fish-y information:
"More than one fish in water
or a museum can be called
fish or fishes. More than one
fish in a frying pan are always
called fish." This is the kind of
boo which youngsters are
sure to like, whether they own
an quarium or not.
Boo on aquariums can be
found in libraries under the
Library of Congress number
SF457. In libraries using the
y Decimal system, the
number is 590.7.
Whe e are African Amefca
chil ren' oo?
By Benjamin F. Ch vis
In previous columns we have
encouraged the purchase of
multi-cullltural children's
boo . The response from many
in our udience indicates this
may be easier said than done.
In most areas of this country,
African American - or Hispanic,
or Asian American or N alive
American - children's books are
almost non-existent. But this
was not always the case .
Back in the late 1960's, fol-
lowing the urban rebellions, the
federal government made large
sums of money available to
schools and libraries, especially
earmarked for the purchase of
multi-cultural children's boo
With this pot of gold gleam
ing in their eyes, publishers
rushed too their presses. Now,
many of the books that were is
sued were poorly written or
authored by those who knew
nothing about the culture they
were delaing with.
ALL children can learn to read
Schools are failing to teach
many of our children to read
. Once children fan behind,
catching up during the school
year. hard to do. The Southern
Coalition for Education Equity
(SCEE), an organization that
works to m e public schools
humane institutions that in
crease op
tions for all
children,
.proves that
children can
catch up,
even in one
ummer.
The
SCEE Sum- CHILD
merProgram I WATCH
has improved
the re ding
s ills of
hundreds of inner-city minority
students in Ne Orleans,
Louisiana. There is nothing
magical about tlle Program. It
simply puts into practice the best
principles of sound instruction
and effective schools. These in
clude:
- Primary emphasis on read
ing comprehension, which is
taught for three hour every
morning with students actively
involved.
-An ample supply of boob
that are challenging and inter
esting to young minority
children.
-Daily program-wide meet
ings that create enthusiasm for
reading and give students 0p
portunities to perform.
-An energetic director 0
kno exciting ways to teach
reading and ho to work well
with teachers.
-Intensive training of
teachers for a wee before the
program. Teachers meet weekly
to exchange ideas and often ob
serve each other.
The academic emphasis is
balanced by an afternoon of
electives including swimming.
drama, and art, taught by volun
teers from the local public high
school for the performing arts
who also help out in the reading
classes.
In only five wee students in
the SCEE Summer Program in
crease their readiDg scores
much or more than they d
in an entire school year. Equally
important, they learn that read
ing is both fun and interesting.
The SCEE Summer Program
operates on a shoestring budget.
Considering
the double
payoff of in
creased
reading
skills for
children and
exceptional
s t a f f
develop
ment for
teachers, the
expense is
ell within
any public school system's
budget.
Encourage your school sys
tem, community agency, or
church to start such a program.
For more information write, the
·Southern Coalition for Educa
tion Equity, Box 22904, J cbon,
MS 39225, 601-355-7398.
Marian Wright Edelman .
President of the children's
Defense Fund, a national . ce
for children.
Lett
leom
The Michigan Citizen
.16032 Woodward Ave.
Highland Pk, MI 48203
But a lot of good books were
also part of that rush ome of
them, like Sharon Bell athis'
"Sidewalk Story" or Virginia
Hamilton's -Zeely" are still in
print and now even in paper
b ck, Most, however, were al
lowed to go out of print after the
federal money dried up.
As one noted African
American children's author,
Walter Dean Myers, revealed
in an article in the New York
Times -Book Review," "In 1974
there were more than 900
children's books in print on the
Black experience ... By 1984 this
number \VS cut in half."
"Walking through (last
year's) American Library As
sociation meeting in New Yor
City was, for me, a sobering and
disheartening experience. Were
Black writers suddenly in
capable of writing well? Of
course not, but we were per
ceived as no longer being able to.
sell well," Myers said.
be
PART 0 THE WHOLE
Eloise Greenfield, another
famous children's boo author,
agrees. 'The whole country is
much more conservative now.
This has resulted in losses in
many areas. The decrease in
African American children's
boo is just part of that total
picture."
Yet the demand - and the
need - remain. The experience
of Gryphon House, a major na
tional distributor of early
childhood materials attests to
this.
As Leah Curry-Rood, one of
Gryphon's founders told us,
"There has been some improve
ment, suchas putting more
books in paperback and using
multi-ethnic illustrations. But
this is not enough. We know
there's a market because we've
been selling for 15 years. yet
really good (racial and ethnic)
boo are still allowed to go out
of print or out of stoe for long
periods of time. And don't even
talk about Hispanic books; you
can't find them. We've had to
import them in order to fill our
orders."
Jewell Stoddard, one of the
owners of Cheshire Cat, a major
children's· bookstore in
W. hington, D.C., echoes this
. entiment: "There is a much
greater market (for Black and
other ethnic children's books)
than 'We have boo to supply.
People even call us from ew
York City because they can't
find the titles up there.
SO BOO
Yet, Greenfield and others
also point to some of the newer
C Un
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