Kudos for K. C.

As a product of the DC Public School system, and an elementary librarian, THANK YOU for everything you do! Keep up the good fight!
—@fudjegirl Tracy Jensen, Woodrow Wilson High, class of ’91, on Instagram, in response to the announcement of School Librarian of the Year, K. C. Boyd

@Boss_Librarian has been our school librarian activist for so long. Now she is everyone's School Librarian of the Year!
@sljournal #sloty
— Kristina A. Holzweiss, @lieberrian, on Twitter

Supporting students

“Thank you for your comments. I did not realize asking children what they did the previous weekend could be fraught with possible landmines of discomfort for one living in poverty. I will try to be more thoughtful.”
—Joan Gagan, commenting on our story “Let’s Talk About Poverty: 10 Policy Ideas to Support Vulnerable Students and Eliminate Stigma”

Ending the reading wars

To the editor:
It is interesting that School Library Journal has published an article with the title “It’s Time to End the Reading Wars. Librarians Can Forge a Path Forward.” School and public libraries and librarians have been forging the path that leads to better reading for a long time.

We have known for decades that that self-selected pleasure reading (usually fiction) is the most powerful determinant of reading ability, vocabulary size, spelling ability, grammar, and writing ability. We have also known that school and public libraries provide free access to this reading material, and studies confirm that quality libraries (better collections, presence of a certified librarian) help develop better readers.

“It’s time to end…” clearly supports real reading but also promotes direct instruction in “cracking the alphabetic code,” known as phonics. The research shows that intensive phonics programs have limited value. Children in intensive phonics programs do better in the short run on tests that ask them to pronounce words but do not do better on tests that ask them to understand what they read. Reading comprehension is the result of real reading of interesting and comprehensible texts.
—Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California

Follett shifts course

“Yes! A win for libraries and patrons. And all parents have to do if they wanna know what their student is reading is have a conversation or open up the back pack. That’s always been an option.”
—Shara Marler Weiss, on Facebook

I'm an elementary school librarian and very glad you made the right decision. This should never have been contemplated in the first place.—Leslie Kitchin, on Facebook

Dear Senator

...and Ted Cruz should read SLJ, and sit down in the back.
— kline.karen on Instagram

Got ‘em

“Darn it! I made it almost to dinner without falling for something today.”
— Tracey Woodruff Brown, on Facebook, responding to “Welcome to World’s First Dog Man Library”

‘Beyond excited for these books’

“Ah - my college major was Education of the D/deaf and HOH. So many years later I am a librarian in a hearing public school, but I am beyond excited for these books from voices which have been underrepresented for so long.”
—Andee Zomerman, on LinkedIn, commenting about our feature story “Deaf Authors Talk About Imagination and Creativity”