[to Jawa]
“Hey, what are you trying to push on us?” – Uncle Owen, Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Maybe it’s just me, but I think books have perhaps lost something in the push to put as much on a page as possible. While I love the info to be gleaned from pictures and side bars, they can get a bit distracting when they’re over-done. Padawan Learner and I are reading (and enjoying) both of Joy Hakim’s series as read-alouds, The History of US and The Story of Science. But man, there’s so many side bars and pictures and topic-related inserts (that take up an entire page or two) in these books that it gets confusing to follow. Sheesh. There’s many a day that I long for the “good ol’ days” of black words on a white page with only the occasional block print illustration.
It kind of reminds me, although obviously a lower level, of Magic School Bus. It seems ike it should take 15 minutes to read. but if you read everything, you’re into those books for an hour.
Your comments are the most often heard comments about those books. Some kids get overloaded from all the sidebar stuff.
Yes, I think of the Magic Schoolbus books too.
Couldn’t agree more. I’m reading the first Hakim book to my 10-year-old now, too, and I almost always skip the sidebars. I don’t mind one of the long ones that takes up a whole page because it’s a well-thought-out article on its own. I can’t stand the smaller ones all over the place, and they just make things more confusing.
My youngest adores all the sidebar stuff – - he is definitely of the “supplemental” generation. Me – - I start hyperventilating from the information overload after about two pages of books like the Usborne series, etc.
It’s the thing in textbooks too. I find it equally distracting. If sidebars are the goal, I like those books done like newspapers. We had some the Romans, the Greeks, and one on Vikings (If memory serves). My kids were in lower and middle elementary grades. They loved them.
I end up reading the main text aloud and then hand the book over to Padawan Learner to read the side bars to himself. We both enjoy the info, it’s just too.much.info all at the same time. Catherine, I know the books you mean; they were some of Padawan Learner’s favorites a few years back.
Yep—Sort of like ADHD on a page.
I taught my kids to read with Teach Your Kids to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and then I moved them into some Mennonite readers….mainly because I DID find the text soothing…just black and white with simple illustrations.
When you’ve got a kid with attentional issues, all those sidebars really are too distracting.
Hey, did you mean to close comments on your recent post?
Hey—regarding your post today (the one with the closed comments.) I just wanted to say…I feel your pain. But I’m afraid my reaction hasn’t been as graceful as yours. It royally ticks me off when someone’s treating me as their ministry project. Grrrrrrrrrr.
Good for you for speaking up. I know their intentions were in the right place but still……..argh!!!!
I have all of the Hakim books. They really are great books and I love her writing style, but those darn sidebars get on my last nerve. I totally agree with you. If she had that much extra information to say, she should have just written more books. The sidebar is not the place for all of that stuff.
Sadly, I think the information may be missing its intended audience, because half the time, I ignore it.