An article by Thom Barthemess in the November-December issue of the Horn Book Magazine offers tips for a good book discussion.The author of the article has worked in public libraries across the country and is a lecturer at Dominican University for the Graduate School of LIS in Illinois, according to his bio. Since the Mock Caldecott and Mock Newbery discussions are coming up in January for the RCLS children’s librarians, I thought I would see what he had to say. His tips include the following:
1. Trust your opinion. You bring value to the discussion, regardless of your level of expertise.
2. Question your opinion. Remember to keep an open mind and listen to what others have to say.3. Follow the criteria. It is helpful in maintaining everyone’s focus and also provides a frame for the discussion.
4. Ignore the criteria. Don’t ” follow a rule off a cliff.” Sometimes one’s expectations need to be relaxed a bit in order to see the whole picture.
5. Trust the process. Don’t allow your decisions to be influenced by how others in the group may react to them.
6. Do your homework. This seems like a no-brainer. Take detailed notes and cite specific examples to prove your points.
7. Talk about the books (not yourself). Instead of relating your feelings, stick to how how the author or illustrator was able to demonstrate the book’s excellence.
8. Be specific.Choose your descriptives carefully in describing the ways the book distinguished itself from others in the group.
9. Play nice. Healthy debate is fine, but stop short of being rude or overly argumentative.
10. Accentuate the positive. I think this should have been rule #1. It’s often been stressed to start with the positives, and eventually bring the negatives up in the discussion, instead of the other way around. It is easier to find fault than to find the positive qualities. Barthemess suggests thinking about the books as “hot- air balloons”, with our job being to choose the title that flies the highest by identifing the qualifiers that make it so.