Juvenile picture books about the Holocaust: Extending the definitions of children’s literature

Despite a variety of definitions, children’s books and picture books generally adhere to certain conventions. Depicting the Holocaust in children’s books challenges these conventions. The authors review the Holocaust literature for children, paying special attention to two picture books: Let the Celebrations Begin! by Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas, and Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti and Christophe Gallaz. Their analysis leads them to conclude the books for children that deal with horrific events should be viewed as a category of their own. Virginia A. Walter is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has a Master of Library Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Susan F. March is on the faculty of Kehillath Israel Religious School in Pacific Palisades, California. She has a Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and a Master of Library Science from UCLA.     

Another look at the relative impact of workplace design on training transfer for supervisory communication skills

This ethnographic study extends the findings of earlier research that authenticated the impact of workplace design features on newly acquired communication skills back on the job. The qualitative nature of the earlier study, however, limited quantitative measurement of workplace design features that may have an impact on learned skills. This study examined supervisor perceptions about the relative importance of organizational factors that affect transfer and prioritized the importance of specific design features to support learned communication skills. Research findings validate earlier research that workplace design is another work environment influence that may facilitate or impede the ultimate success of a training intervention for performance improvement.     

It’s never too late to remediate: Teaching word recognition to students with reading disabilities in grades 4–7

Twenty children in fourth through seventh grade participated in 16 one-hour individual tutorials over a four-month period. Half of the children received structural analysis and alphabet principle training; half received only alphabetic principle training; all received training in orthographic and phonological skills, practice in oral reading of connected text, and monitoring strategies for comprehension. Results showed that the children improved reliably in reading and related measures. Treatment condition did not predict rate of growth. Only rapid automatic naming of letters predicted response to intervention and only on rate of real word reading. Results of this study indicate that upper elementary and middle school students who have not yet mastered accuracy and automaticity of word recognition should be given explicit instruction in word recognition, especially in the alphabetic principle. The benefits of structural analysis training were evident only in trends for individual students on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth analyses. This dissertation research by the first author, and supervised by the second, was supported by Grant No. HD-33812 and Grant No. HD-25858-09 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.     

Book reviews

Northeastern University