Some authors only create books. Alexis O’Neill has created opportunities. This author of four picture books has taught, consulted, and led, helping other authors, teachers and, most of all, children.

1. What’s good right now about children’s literature?

There has been an absolute explosion of phenomenal books for kids, beautifully produced, with many available on a variety of platforms, print and electronic. I never would have imagined when I was a kid that I might someday be reading a story on a telephone! So, to me, what’s really, really good is that stories are more accessible than ever to children at all economic levels.

2. What can make that “good” better?

Ah! But here’s the downside of that “explosion” of books. In this new democratization of publishing, anyone can produce a document and call it a book. Our country is bleeding from the loss of librarians, the very people who match young readers with just the right books and who know the difference between “literature” and, as Jane Yolen says, “litter-ature.”  We’re also reeling from mandates to teachers to eliminate reading aloud in the classroom as there’s “no time” for it.  When faced with so many titles, how does a kid find a well-written book without some kind of guidance?  Even adults have trouble wading through the dross of self-published, self-indulgent books (not to mention the unprofessionally illustrated ones), so how does a young reader find books of worth?

Here’s how we can help.

• Insist that every elementary school in your own district have a librarian permanently on staff.
• Educate ourselves and others on the differences between self-published books and books for children that have been produced by bona fide trade book publishers whose books go through the crucible of intense in-house scrutiny and a public review process.
• Invite “real” authors and illustrators to meet students in your schools to show not only the writing process, but to demonstrate how essential persistence is in creating and producing true literature.
• Read aloud every day. Good stories sing. Reading aloud allows us to share that experience communally, to delight in the sounds that tickle our ears and stay inside our hearts throughout our lives.

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Alexis O’Neill is the author of award-winning picture books about friendship including The Recess Queen, The Worst Best Friend, Loud Emily, and Estela’s Swap. Alexis teaches writing for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and is a Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators in California.  She was recently honored by the California Reading Association with the Dr. Marcus Foster Memorial Award “for making significant and outstanding contributions to reading throughout California.” A popular presenter, she visits students all over the country sharing with them, through lively interactive assemblies and writing workshops, strategies for writing and reading with their whole body. Visit her at www.alexisoneill.com