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« on: January 01, 2005, 10:00:03 PM »
I know this is long, but I have a point. I promise.
So I was helping my mom clean up her classroom today. She teaches 8th grade English to the low level students, mostly English language learners and kids with learning disabilitys, but also kids who've just sort of slipped through the cracks and gotten to 8th grade without really learning to read. These kids hate to read, and it's no wonder why, because they feel stupid that they can't do it while it seems like everyone else can.
I was sorting my mom's library into bins according to reading level. Most of these kids are reading at a third grade level or below. As in, there are 120 kids in her classes, and only five can read at a fourth grade level--everyone else is somewhere below that. To give you an idea, Harry Potter is a sixth grade level book. So is Lemony Snicket. Bunnicula is upper fourth. Third grade level books are things like the Babysitter's club and the Amber Brown books--stuff I read in elementary school, because that's the interest level.
I was thinking, there must some books out there that are written for these kids, books in the Hi/Low market category. I mean, these kids need something that deals with real issues that teenagers care about, the kind of books that have the content of the eighth grade level books and the vocab of a third grade level book. My mom says the only one's she's been able to find are the Time Warp Trio books, which are fun (fantasy even), but don't exactly deal with real life issues. Plus, that's only one series. It makes me so sad that these kids don't really have access to the kinds of books I read in middle school. I'd never really thought about it, because I can't remember a time when I couldn't read whatever I wanted to pick up.
So here's my question. Does anyone know of any books that are like this? More to the point, does anyone have any ideas how you'd go about writing something like this, and then getting an editor to pay attention to you? If one could write a book in a teen voice, about real issues, geared toward someone with teenage emotional and cognitive capacities (as opposed to third grade, like the stuff that's available to these kids) and then aim it toward an educational market (and do it well, of course), I'd think there'd be a huge demand for it. Anyone have any ideas, or know where I could find information? EUOL? Stacer?