{"id":20761,"date":"2013-11-24T18:23:21","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T23:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=20761"},"modified":"2013-11-24T18:23:21","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T23:23:21","slug":"what-childrens-authors-make-of-common-core-and-education-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/11\/24\/what-childrens-authors-make-of-common-core-and-education-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Children’s Authors Make Of Common Core And Education Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miami<\/a>

Sammy Mack \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Miami Book Fair International brought more than four dozen children\u2019s authors to Florida over the weekend<\/p><\/div>\n

More than four dozen contemporary young adult and children\u2019s authors were in Florida over the weekend for Miami Book Fair International<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Common Core State Standards for English and language arts are putting a national spotlight on what kids read in class<\/a>, many of those authors are thinking about the way literature is taught in school\u2014and how that\u2019s changing.<\/p>\n

StateImpact Florida spoke with several authors about how the new standards and other education policies shape the way they write.<\/p>\n\nhttps:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/11\/BookFairSI_web.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

MICHAEL BUCKLEY<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>

abramsbooks.com<\/p>

Michael Buckley is the bestselling author of the NERDS series<\/p><\/div>\n

Children\u2019s author Michael Buckley has spent a lot of time thinking about bullies. He\u2019s the bestselling author of the NERDS series, which features a bunch of nerdy kids who deal with bullies during the school day and moonlight as top-secret superheroes the rest of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow hard it must be to be a teacher in the United States. Every four years some new knucklehead gets elected and then tells everybody that they\u2019re doing their job completely wrong and we\u2019re going to have to fix the whole educational system,\u201d says Buckley. \u201cSo every four years I think writers for children have to evolve a little bit, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the Common Core emphasis on nonfiction in particular is changing expectations of children\u2019s writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFiction is the bread and butter of most of us and now they want us to write nonfiction, which I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do that,\u201d says Buckley \u201cWhat I fear is that we\u2019re so dedicated to making testing the priority that books and the love of books, there\u2019s just no time for it.\u201c<\/p>\n

SHEILA KEENAN<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sheila<\/a>

scholastic.com<\/p>

Sheila Keenan is the author of the new graphic novel, Dogs of War<\/p><\/div>\n

Sheila Keenan, author of a new graphic novel for kids, called Dogs of War<\/em>, says she tries not to think too much about classroom policies when she writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood storytelling is good storytelling,\u201d says Keenan.<\/p>\n

Her latest work is about the relationships between soldiers and dogs during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War. It\u2019s fiction, but she did a lot of research to make sure it was historically accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it straddles some of the intents of Common Core in a way kids really like because a lot of kids like war stories, adventure stories, and it has all of that to it, but it also has a good deal of information in it,\u201d says Keenan\u2014though she\u2019s not without her reservations about all the new standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish there were no rules about it. Let kids read whatever they want to read. \u00a0Often I talk to kids and they\u2019ll say aw I have to read 16 pages tonight.<\/em> I\u2019m like, who reads a book by 16 pages?<\/em> Nobody,\u201d says Keenan. \u201cThe joy of reading has to come first.\u201d<\/p>\n

SHERMAN ALEXIE<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sherman<\/a>

scholastic.com<\/p>

Sherman Alexie is author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian<\/p><\/div>\n

Sherman Alexie is also passionate about letting kids read whatever they connect with. Alexie is the author of a number of books including the best-selling young adult novel,\u00a0Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian<\/em>. It won a National Book Award and, in a few places, it\u2019s also been banned\u2014which, Alexie says, means he was doing something right.<\/p>\n

\u201cPercival Everett, the writer, always says that if you\u2019re getting banned then you\u2019re offending the right monsters\u2026 Repressive, conservative, religious freaks who want to control everybody\u2019s reading material\u2014not just their children\u2019s,\u201d says Alexie.<\/p>\n

JOHN LEWIS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Congressman<\/a>

topshelfcomix.com<\/p>

Congressman John Lewis co-authored March<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI wish that politicians would spend more time in the classroom. We would be better politicians, better political leaders, if we just spent a little more time with children,\u201d says Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who is on a book tour for March<\/em>, his graphic novel for kids.<\/p>\n

He co-wrote the story about his experiences as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement with Andrew Aydin and\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0best-selling artist Nate Powell. March <\/i>is the March on Washington.<\/p>\n

Lewis says when he was a young man, it was a comic book, The Montgomery Story<\/a><\/em>, that changed his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the person that I am today because of the stories of people coming together in a peaceful, organized fashion to stand up and fight for what they believed in,\u201d says Lewis.<\/p>\n

Lewis hopes his<\/i> writing can have that kind of effect on a whole new generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than four dozen contemporary young adult and children\u2019s authors were in Florida over the weekend for Miami Book Fair International. As Common Core State Standards for English and language arts are putting a national spotlight on what kids read in class, many of those authors are thinking about the way literature is taught in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1157,879],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20761"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20775,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20761\/revisions\/20775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}