Thursday, February 21, 2008

Kids Lit on a Water Bottle

I was inspired tonight by a post on ShelfTalker. In it, she talks about her water bottle, which she got at Powell's and which is kid-lit themed. On the lines marking the ounces, it gives a children's author that would typically be appropriate for the corresponding age.

To quote:

"At the 4 ounce mark = Seuss
At the 6 ounce mark = Sendak
At the 8 ounce mark = Lobel
At the 10 ounce mark = Pilkey
At the 12 ounce mark = Cleary
At the 14 ounce mark = L'Engle
At the 16 ounce mark = Hinton"

Then she calls for our lists. What would be on YOUR water bottle? And it made me think. I think if I based my bottle on what's popular at my library, it would go a little something like this:

4 ounce = Numeroff
6 ounce = Wick (as in Walter, author of the I Spy books)
8 ounce = Gutman (My Weird School, specifically)
10 ounce = Horowitz
12 ounce = Harrison (as in Lisi)
14 ounce = Meyer (as in Stephenie)*
16 ounce = Westerfeld*

Now. If I based my list on the books I loved as a child, it would go a little something like this:

4 ounce = Harris (as in Joel Chandler... yes, I loved the Disney Uncle Remus stories!)
6 ounce = Van Allsburg (Polar Express and Two Bad Ants)
8 ounce = Cleary
10 ounce = Lowry
12 ounce = Pike (as in Christopher)
14 ounce = Mazer (Norma Fox)
16 ounce = Steinbeck (I read The Grapes of Wrath my junior year and I was hooked...)

Now. If I based my list on the children's/YA books I've read as an adult (say, since I started the process of library school), it would go a little something like this:

4 ounce = Willems
6 ounce = Lester
8 ounce = Pennypacker
10 ounce = Clements
12 ounce = Oppel
14 ounce = Dessen
16 ounce = McCafferty

(Oh my goodness, that was incredibly hard to keep it to one author per line... I could make many, many more lists with all different authors, I know...)

What would be on YOUR list?

*I don't actually work with kids this age, so I can't be certain, but here are my best guesses.