On Gianni Rodari, curriculum, and the taste for reading

Happy snow day from my corner of the world!

Join me in this short and sweet video reflection on something that happened in my library as it intersects with Mac Barnett’s NYT essay (gift link), “A Literary Genius Who Championed Nonsense: Gianni Rodari used puns, topsy-turvyism and zany names to invent stories for children and help children invent their own.”

Have the kids in your library or your life been victims of a pedagogy that privileges technique over taste?

Also mentioned in the video:

• Telephone Tales by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Valerio Vidali

• The Grammar of Fantasy by Gianni Rodari, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe (out 5/13)

Happy reading,

Chrissie