Books Every Child Should Know: The Literature Quiz Book

Citation

Ellis‐Barrett, L. (2007), "Books Every Child Should Know: The Literature Quiz Book", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 7, pp. 633-634. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710776079

Books that are used as whole class readers can be fun but for some children they can also be dry. They present teachers with a challenge – how can books be taught in a fun and educational way; how does one engage the children whilst encouraging them to read and enjoy it? For librarians the challenge is similar: if a child is disenchanted with the book they are reading in class, will they choose to borrow others or will they be turned off reading? With these questions in mind, there is then the question of how to encourage children to read the types of books considered to be Books Every Child Should Know. Literature quizzes are Nancy Polette's answer: they make reading fun and set a challenge that is both encouraging and testing.

The very word “quiz” usually conjures up fear – a test of knowledge, almost as difficult as an exam. For this reason, Polette writes, it is very important that the teacher or librarian who administers these or similar quizzes ensures that they are viewed as a fun activity. This, she writes, should promote learning and, if an incentive scheme is adopted alongside the quiz, children who are able to complete their quiz should feel a sense of achievement and pride.

The quizzes included in the book range from the straightforward – testing the child's knowledge of the text – to word searches, anagram puzzles, and word‐matching games, as well as written passages containing hidden titles of books by a particular author. She provides quizzes for books from a number of different genre, following the theme of the book – Books That Every Child Should Know, that is have a knowledge of and perhaps have read. She also provides a section dedicated to winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals which includes a list of all the winning titles, which in the case of the Newbery Medal date back to 1922. Although this may not have much relevance to an audience outside America, it is an idea that could be adapted. In the UK the CILIP Carnegie and Greenaway Awards or one of the many other book awards that now exist could be used.

Each quiz is designed to be used by individuals, groups or teams and as such can be very creative and great fun. They are presented in a very easy‐to‐use format and could easily be adapted for use with other books or with different questions reflecting specific aspects of the book that teachers may have chosen to focus on. The stories for which quizzes are included are: Mother Goose, Aesop's Fables, Hans Christian Andersen, Greek and Roman myths, folk tales from Germany, France, Africa, fairy tales from Scandinavia, the British Isles and Hispanic countries. There are also quizzes for American tall tales, Native American stories, the classics, fantasy and the medal winners.

The text of the stories is not provided, so the reader unfamiliar with some of the suggestions may need to find and read the stories for themselves in order to decide if they are relevant for their children. This would be a useful exercise, providing the teacher with a very good knowledge of the story. It may even direct their chosen method of study and ensure that the class achieves the most from their reading. This book has three key aims – helping children to enjoy literature through the use of quiz games, promoting a fluency of reading using a variety of genre, and assessing literary knowledge. The categories provide a wide range of literary suggestions and the quizzes are useful stepping stones to further discussion, in this way the aim of promoting fluency should be achieved. By using a resource guide like this, the librarian and teacher can achieve a lot.