Series Made Simple

One thing is certainly clear about this spring’s new nonfiction series: publishers are focused on helping educators understand and deliver on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

The fall of 2012 was a strong season for new series in American history and geography. In comparison, the spring of 2013 has a small turnout. However, that does not mean that these books are also-rans. Quite the contrary is true.

Ever responsive to changing fads in educational theory, nonfiction publishers are, with varying success, already tweaking their new titles to conform to the Common Core science standards. These efforts range from inserting a few vague ideas for activities or demonstrations into otherwise conventional surveys of well-traveled informational territory to festooning texts with review questions, primary-source documents, photos and graphics, and suggestions for ongoing projects or lines of thought.

In the spirit of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, these sports and exercise-related books encourage children to keep active and avoid obesity. Students will find inspiration in titles about their favorite teams, players, competitions, or forms of exercise.

With a few notable exceptions, the entriesin this mixed bag of high-tech offerings are aimed at casual readers enthralled by images of big, noisy machines–preferably the sort that carry guns and bombs.

Biographies are the perfect tools with which educators can engage students and ask them to think critically about how important figures affected the past and the world today. The Common Core State Standards mean that children and teens need strong options from which to choose when faced with having to write reports or research papers.

Any elementary school librarian can tellyou that trying to keep books in the 590s in reasonable order is a herculean task. However, that’s not a negative. Children in this age range devour books about animals.

Animal books are perennial favorites for pleasure reading and report writing. This spring, series about pets, both common and unusual, are prevalent, as are titles about attention-grabbing (big or scary) creatures. While many of the sets cover standard report elements such as habitats, life cycles, and the food chain, others have a more specific focus.

Kings and queens. Generals and enlisted men. Flamboyant outlaws and gangsters. Intrepid explorers and treasure hunters. Much of the world’s history has been made by people who lived outsized lives, pursued outsized dreams, or achieved outsized deeds.