Strollerderby

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• Dinos and Dragons: On the Scientific Method for Kids

  On my post about errors about the natural world in kids books, a few people piped up to say that the social biases in kids books bother them more—stupid fathers, prissy girls, everyone white, etc. I wish it were as easy to dispatch those with a simple top ten list, but they're far more insidious and numerous. However, here's one tiny stab at the overlap: A bit of a commentary about the blinders that social biases put on scientists. The book in question is called Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs. Read More... Posted Mar 04 2009, 02:00 PM by Miriam Axel-Lute with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: China, gender, dragons, scientists, children’s books, dinosaurs, gender bias, science education, kiddie lit, Egalitarian parenting, kids’ books, nature facts, Axel-Lute, Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs, fact-checking, dino dads, Eurocentrism, ethnocentrism, scientific method, animal fathers, paleontology

• Smackdown: I Won't Read That Thing Again

  "Sheep live on farms. Sheep like to eat grass. Sheep apparently have shiny, reflective, slightly pink fleece in order to captivate small children when the text of a book is too damn inane to do so." Do you have any books whose actual rendition when read out loud starts to sound kind of like that? I sure do. Or did. Read More... Posted Jan 06 2009, 04:31 PM by Miriam Axel-Lute with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: books, reading, sarcasm, smackdown, children’s books, picture books, kiddie lit, reading to kids, kids’ books, Axel-Lute, Dr. Suess, things we hate, teaching values, A. A. Milne, passing on good taste, reading outloud, board books

• 5 Nature Facts Kids' Authors Should Tattoo on their Forearms

  It's not just the creationists and global warming deniers who make us an anti-science society. It's also lazy children's book authors, editors, fact-checkers, and reviewers. The very popular Rachel Isadora can't tell a french horn from a tuba. Even the venerable Richard Scarry depicts corn growing from an already cooked seed and bread being baked before it has risen. It drives me crazy. Read More... Posted Dec 31 2008, 01:00 PM by Miriam Axel-Lute with | with 41 comment(s) Filed under: education, science, children’s books, picture books, birds, science education, Richard Scarry, kiddie lit, kids’ books, bloopers, Rachel Isadora, nature facts, environmental education, Axel-Lute

• Will Libraries Go the Way of Video Stores?

  Anyone who has both used Netflix and had an overdue library book knew it was only a matter of time until the same model was used for books. And in fact, there are a few companies out there who have set sail in those waters, like Booksfree and Book Swim. Book Swim is now specifically promoting itself to pregnant women ("It costs a lot to buy all those pregnancy books only to discover that most of them are useless and mostly designed to scare the crap out of you." Ahem, my words, not theirs) and also parents of the voracious read-to-me set ("save money spent on buying lots of children's books that can be rented instead." Their words, not mine). While it appeals on some level, I have quibbles with the execution Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 02:15 PM by Miriam Axel-Lute with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: books, reading, Amazon, libraries, community, taxes, convenience, netflix, pregnancy books, time savers, book rentals, kiddie lit, Book Swim, Booksfree