FB Report: Lots of Links on Speculative Fiction -- 3/9/11

Reading For the Future A series of 3 new blog posts based on the work of Rozalyn Mansfield was just posted: a puzzle, a book review, and a teaching with SF article. Enjoy!~Valerie

Reading for the Future Reflections: What SF Story for YA is This?
http://rff-reflections.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-sf-story-for-ya-is-this.html
rff-reflections.blogspot.com
[3/6/11]

Reading For the Future I asked Robert sawyer if the trilogy was suitable for YA. He said yes, but there is some mild profanity. He said that his American publisher was only marketing them to an adult audience, but his Canadian publisher was listing them as adult novels suitable for YA. Fans of Enderverse should like these.~Valerie

Start reading the WWW Trilogy now!
http://kobo.com/sawyer
kobo.com
Discover Wake, Watch and Wonder, a stunning and mind-bending trilogy from Canada's leading futurist Robert J. Sawyer.
[3/6/11]

Comments:

Reading For the Future. This comment is from one of R. Sawyer' friends:
Janet Wilson also commented on Robert J. Sawyer's link.

Janet wrote,"I'd say, definitely YA-suitable! (And probably less such "language" than the YA reader uses)"~Valerie
[3/6/11]

Reading For the Future: Heather Borean also commented on Robert J. Sawyer's link.
Heather wrote, "As a parent of former YA's who has always been very careful about what her kids read I would absolutely recommend Wake and Watch for YA's They might even make the kids... reading them THINK. Nothing gratuitous about them whatsoever."~Valerie
[3/6/11]

Reading For the Future Teaching with Science Fiction: 10 Reasons for Use in a Science Class

Reading for the Future Reflections: Teaching with Science Fiction: 10 Reasons for Use in a Science Classes
http://rff-reflections.blogspot.com/2011/03/teaching-with-science-fiction-10.html
rff-reflections.blogspot.com
Like any good book shared among friends and associates, science fiction offers conversation starters. Class discussions often need an example to get the students thinking and talking. Examples from books can lead to examples from personal experiences and then to examples from the textbook or the tea...
[3/6/11]

Reading For the Future From David Brin -- Twenty-five years ago, just after finishing my thesis on comets, I collaborated with Gregory Benford to write Heart of the Comet. Here, we discuss how we went about writing the novel together, trading off with the main characters. A few moments of humor, as when Gregory specifies why he wrote the sex scenes and I wro...te the more technical ones. Plus why he never reads his own novels!See More

Comets in Fact and Fiction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj8ZXaJtnEA
www.youtube.com
Science fiction authors David Brin and Gregory Benford discuss their collaboration on Heart of the Comet. The novel, published in 1986, coincided with the last return visit of Comet Halley to Earth. Heart of the Comet tells the story of an ambitious manned mission to visit the comet and alter its or
[3/5/11]

Comments:

Reading For the Future I loved Heart of the Comet. When will we build a generation ship like this?~Valerie C.
[3/5/11]

Reading For the Future

Google Docs - Online documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, file storage and more
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12e80e1400a773e9&mt=application%2Fvnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2&ik=328ed06f21&view=att&th=12e80e1400a773e9&disp=attd&realattid=f_gkujakly0&zw&sig=AHIEtbRg5fcp_v3__Xk1q7H5HoOe65ZE-w
docs.google.com
Reading For the Future Spotlight: People I want to see at Renovation - by David G Anderson
[3/4/11]

Reading For the Future Lindalee sent this out as an example of a Yu's illustrated Goodnight Dune. Compare to the previous post on Goodnight Dune. ~Valerie C.

io9.com
http://io9.com/#!5773911/good-night-dune-for-wednesday
io9.com Goodnight Dune, a children’s book straight from Arrakis - Were you impressed by the science fiction children's books Caldwell Tanner created a few months back?Artist Julia Yu was, so she illustrated an entire book based on Tanner's Goodnight Dune .
[3/4/11]

Reading For the Future Thanks to Moshe Feder for posting this earlier today. In his words:
'This portion of a recent show includes a segment no SF fan should miss. It's a conversation with a remarkably convincing Philip K. Dick robot who is much more than just audioanimatronic.'

Social Robots, NOVA scienceNOW, PBS Video
http://video.pbs.org/video/1801231960
video.pbs.org
Would you want a robotic friend who could chitchat, do chores, even take care of you?
[3/2/11]

Reading For the Future Something fun

Goodnight Dune
http://goodnightdune.com/
goodnightdune.com
[3/2/11]

Reading For the Future another new blog post~Valerie C.

Reading for the Future Reflections: Teaching with Science Fiction: 10 Reasons for Use in a Science Classes
http://rff-reflections.blogspot.com/2011/03/teaching-with-science-fiction-10.html">
rff-reflections.blogspot.com
[3/1/11]

Reading For the Future Lynda Williams reviewed this book for us. As it turns out, the book is suitable for youth and was actually listed on the ALA List of Best Books for Young Adults.~Valerie C.

Reading for the Future Reflections: Book Review: Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn
http://rff-reflections.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-review-summers-at-castle-auburn-by.html
[3/1/11]

[I included the Bradbury reference again for the comment on a book reference to the letter.]

Reading For the Future http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/02/28/love-what-you-love-ray-bradbury/

Love what YOU love – Ray Bradbury
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/02/28/love-what-you-love-ray-bradbury/
www.geeksaresexy.net
This amazing letter was sent to a child by Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury back in October 1991. Unfortunately, we don't have the context in which the
[2/28/11]

Comments
Jack Lessovitz Someday very soon,very very soon, There will be a great starship named Bradbury.
[2/28/11]
Mary Rose Love this! He talks about this letter in one of his books - Zen maybe.
[2/28/11]

From Other Walls

Cie McCullough How do they get these shots?

Solar Observations from around the World
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33207&id=118107518236480&fbid=170999999613898
There are many amateur astronomer and professional observatories also looking at the Sun. Here are some recent images from all over the world.
By: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (Little SDO)
Photos: 8

Welcome to WakeWatchWonder.ca | HOME
wakewatchwonder.ca
Blind from birth, Caitlin Decter received the gift of sight with the aid of a signal-processing retinal implant. The technology also gave her an unexpected side effect—the ability to "see" the digital data streams of the World Wide Web. And within the Web she perceived an extraordinary presence, and
[3/6/11]

To Share or Not to Share; How does one Decide what Books to Recommend to Youth? Part 2

The Birth of Human Intelligence, an image by ©AlienCat - Fotolia.com.

This image may only be used with permission of Fotolia.com. It is used here by Valerie Coskrey, who purchased a license for its use.

Some RFFers' Thoughts on Favorite Books

Have you read Part 1?

Mary, a teacher, wrote,

"I found that as a kid -- 4th grade and up -- I was generally drawn to "classic" authors with minimal gore and/or sexual content. I tend to recommend books like that to kids as well."

To which Alberto responded,

My 11-year-old is very interested in History and Greek Mythology; I can't think of any science fiction that has _more_ gore and sexual content than History and Greek Mythology.

Again, Mary responded, "Point well taken! (Of course, our school doesn't teach Greek and Roman Mythology either.)"

Librarian Sandy Moltz added these criteria,

"I think you have to take a number of factors into consideration when recommending an adult science fiction book. Difficulty of the language, length of the book can be reasons I wouldn't recommend an adult book. For example, I love Neal Stephenson but think that Cryptonomican is too long for a lot of kids.

"Also, many kids who read above their age level aren't ready emotionally for all adult books. I'm lucky enough to be in a small library where I usually get to talk to the kids and have a sense of what works for them. For example, a very smart 5th grader may not be ready for a book that has a violent rape scene (I don't have a specific title in mind, this is just a hypothetical example).

"I often recommend Brightness Reef, Blood Music, and The Man in the High Castle. For some, I'll suggest Snow Crash, William Gibson, China Mieville, and Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch.

Dave chimed in with books he asked Sandy to consider.

"What about David Gerrald's The Man Who Folded Himself or Bruce Coville's Skull of Truth or Orson Scott Card's Enderverse?

"Dave Farland aka Dave Wolferton wrote On My Way To Paradise (c) 1987 Bridge Publications, Inc He expanded it into a novel. I have given copies through RFF Utah. Dave does not see it as YA.

"The Man Who Folded Himself is very adult in subject matter. RFFUtah sent it to a Junior High School teacher in Davis CA for the club library.

"School of Truth is that when the skull from Hamlet is in the room you can only tell the truth. The younger brother tells the family he is gay. The family says so, we have known that for years.

"Scott aka Noam D. PLUME, Byron WALLEY, Dinah KIRKHAM wrote plays and edited/wrote LDS magazines. He invented the game when he was 17. Ben Bova, Analog editor, said he would never buy a it-is-a-computer-game story. Changed his mind. Ender's Game was nominated for a Hugo and lost. Scott had a book contract to write Speaker for the Dead but expanded Ender to a book. Both books won Hugos and Nebullas. The Ender books according to Scott are grades 7, 8 and 9. The Bean cycle (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon and Shadow Puppets) I used the original Ender at 2001 MilPhil and after 9/11 in an alternate high school. The students wrote about the ethics of training young children to kill. This Rustycon a woman said she would never recommend the Enderverse to kids. TOR sends boxes of Ender to inner city schools."

Tentative Conclusions

In our search for criteria to use in recommending an adult to a YA audience, we have conflicting values to reconcile. Some, including me, see no problem with youth reading about controversial subjects, alternative life styles, a bit of violence, and limited sexual content. I notice that so far there has been no mention of profanity. So many science fiction authors use little to none profanity in their books that some might consider this a non-issue.

So far we have these 5 questions to ask about a book.

• Does the young adult have the reading skills for the reading level and length of the book?
  
• Is the book one with enough action to interest a young reader?
  
• Is the violence, sexual content and profanity handled in such a way that one would not mind one's grandmother reading the book? (RE: Part 1)
  
• Is the young reader emotionally mature enough to handle the subject matter?
  
• Do I know this young reader well enough to push the limits?
  

Although many science fiction books are written for an adult autdience, there are some that are highly instrutive, just plain fun, or both that young adults, grades middle school through high school, would enjoy. After all, the bottom line for promoting literacy is to foster the enjoyment of reading.

There is more to come. Look for Part 3 at a later date.

~Valerie

Reflections Collections -- 2/15/11

What a busy few weeks! Some activities listed below will be discussed in this blog post, some in other blog posts. Watch for the links. (Check back in few days for some items that are not yet posted. I will edit this page by adding links when these are posted.)

Alien ©julien tromeur - Fotolia.com
Licensed for use only by Valerie Coskrey

• A committee is working on setting up the newly incorporated RFF, Inc. Mission, goals, bylaws, projects, officers--all must be finalized. Look for an official report on all this activity soon when the Board of Directors authorizes a press release.
• Dave Anderson took part in a couple of book give-aways to young readers. In one, he gave 40 books to a kindergarten class, commenting that it was hard to find this many quality books of speculative fiction for this age group. All in all, he has recently donated 119 books to 3 kindergarten classes. He claimed to have learned that a ratio of just slightly more than 2:1 books per child seems to work best.
• Links to lessons using science fiction are in the first post of the new series "Teaching with Science Fiction." To introduce the series, Andy Love sent links to his educational essays;  Michael Kingsley sent a link to a short paper on Steppenwolf, the Rogue Planet; and Dave Anderson instructs us in what not to ask during a lesson.
• Several conversations at the rff Yahoo! Group, called Talking RFF, produced additional information of interest, including a booklist, opinions on what to call science fiction, how to decide what to recommend to youth, and personal opinions on numerous books. Read about them in the linked individual blog posts.
• A friend sent in a book review on The Grandmother's' Hive, a book suitable for youth written by new member Donna Barr.
• A new series of blog posts called "To Share or Not to Share" continues the search for a rubric began last month.
• David Brin sent an excerpt from his new non-fiction book in a topic called "Skeptical Environmentalist".
• Facebook links were highly informative, as always. Read the FB Reports for 2/3/11 and 2/18/11.
• Review the stats for this blog and the RFF Facebook page.
• Finally, there are additional snippets of historical information contributed by Dave Anderson and by Andy Love and others.

Snippets of History

Dave Describes the Past and Present of RFF

Reading for the Future enters our sixteenth year. RFF, Inc is meeting on line working on bylaws and nonprofit status. RFF, Inc is made up of the old guard and the young turks.

In 1995, Dave Brin, Greg Bear and Gregory Benford were the Killer Bs or young turks who wanted kids to read science fiction. I joined RFF in 1997 when Dave was CONduit's writer guest of honor who asked us what were we doing to get science fiction to the kids. CONduit is Utah's spring sf convention.

RFF will always be a grassroots organization with a common mission. I am giving a Kindergarten 40 pass-it-along books Monday..Friday I gave two Earthsea books to a sixth grader. Not all books are sf. The first word in RFF is reading. So if a kid reads Ender's Game that I passed it along to him -- success. Will he read more sf? Chances are good.

David-Glenn Anderson

Andy Asks for another Hugo Award Category

Andy Love sent a copy of a letter sent to WorldCon a while back. He provided Talking RFF with a copy of the letter during a recent discussion.

Andy Love

Who was Hal Clement, Really?

Some of our members of Talking RFF attended sci fi conventions with Hal Clement, author of numerous SF books suitable for youth; some worked with him on convention projects; some know him personally. Some of these RFFers provided us with this information.

Hal [Clement] used a different name for his teaching life, his writing life and his art life.

Hal was once LGoH, FGoH, & AGoH at the same con using his different names. :-)

Hal's real name was Harry Stubbs.

George Richard was his name as an artist.

One of the organizations with which RFF works closely is the Golden Duck Awards committee of the organization Duckon. Along with the Golden Duck Awards presented annually by Duckon is the annual Hal Clement Award for YA science fiction.

In a message to the RFF member who is also active in Duckon, Dave Anderson offered this snippet of history:

"I presented the Golden Ducks at Conucopia, the 1999 NASFiC on Friday,Aug 27. [http://www.99.nasfic.org] The two real Golden Ducks advocates were at Aussicon Three, Mebourne Australia. Attendance at the presentation included Hal Clement."

Thanks to Dave, Jim, and others.

Stats

Reflections Collections Stats for 2/10/11

Pageviews for last month, January 1011: 160
Pageviews since creation, October, 2010: 889.
Most Popular Post: Wake, Far-Seer and their author Robert J. Sawyer (December 2010)
Second Most Popular Post: Reflections Collections -- 11/7/10 (November 2010)
Third Most Popular Post: Krysia Anderson, A YA herself, Writer and Poet... (November 2010)

Reading For the Future page on Facebook Stats for 2/11/11

214 monthly active users; 20 since last week
325 people like this; 7 since last week
20 wall posts or comments this week; 20 since last week
90 visits this week; 40 since last week

'Til next time~Valerie C.