Photograph of courtesy of R. Jenkinson
For February’s profile of a CLASC member, we have the pleasure of bringing you a feature interview with Dave Jenkinson, editor of CM Magazine: Canadian Review of Materials. Read on to find out about the history and future goals of CM, and how you can help promote Canadian children’s materials in your libraries.
1. Could you tell us a bit about the history of CM? What are some of your goals for its future?
Almost every day of the week is like my birthday as numerous presents are delivered to me by brown & gold UPS trucks, red, white & blue Canada Post vans and blue and white Canpar vehicles. Having been taught at my mother’s knee that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” I open my gifts, look at them briefly, and then repackage them and regift them to more than one hundred of my friends who stretch across Canada from St. John’s, NL, to Victoria, BC.
Of course, the “presents” are books, DVDs and CDs that are being sent to CM’s HQ (a repurposed bedroom vacated by a now adult son) by publishers or producers, and my “friends” are the librarians (both school and public), teachers, professors, authors, graduate students, parents and other fans of Canadian literature for children and adolescents who write CM’s reviews.
Though CM: Canadian Review of Materials now publishes on the Web (www.umanitoba.ca/cm) every Friday from September through June, its roots go back to 1973 when the Canadian School Library Association (CSLA) began publishing Canadian Materials, an annual retrospective selection tool that began with 1971′s output. In 1980, the publication was transformed into a quarterly periodical and was renamed CM: Materials for Schools and Libraries. Unfortunately, the printed CM’s subscriptions and advertising revenues never covered its production costs, and CSLA’s parent body, the Canadian Library Association, axed it in 1994.
Fortunately, two farsighted employees of Manitoba’s Department of Education Library, John Tooth and Lorrie Anderson, recognizing the need for a national reviewing journal of Canadian books and other materials for juveniles and seeing the potential of the Web, persuaded the Manitoba Library Association to purchase CM’s assets from CLA, something MLA was able to do with some external grants. During that period, the federal government was attempting to increase Canadian content on the Web, and it provided startup funds which allowed the “new” CM to hire a part-time editor. On June 16, 1995, Vol. I, No. 1 of CM: Canadian Review of Materials made its appearance on the Web with a whopping three reviews.
When the startup funding expired and attempts at securing other sources of monies were unsuccessful, the editorship of CM became a volunteer position, and my first issue as editor was Vol. III, No. 20 on June 6, 1997. Weekly issues now contain some 25-35 items, and CM maintains its goal of reviewing the nation’s output of print and nonprint materials authored, illustrated or published/produced by Canadians for our nation’s children and adolescents.
2. What are some challenges or new trends you foresee for the future of Canadian children’s publishing?
My connection with the field of children’s literature really began in 1965, the year I assumed my first teaching position in the public school system. Now, almost a half a century later, I’ve been around long enough to see the authoring, illustrating and publishing torches being passed to the next generation of creative talents. (I won’t name names lest people think I’m suggesting they are “old.”) However, I’m excited by the new talent I see and read (and again, I won’t name names because I’m certain to overlook someone.)
Just as the mass market paperback invaded our school libraries and classrooms in the 1960′s, another book format, the e-book, is now making its way into schools and public libraries. Though this new format seems to be being adopted quite quickly and readily by adults (including my wife, Rhea. I still prefer the physical book.), a piece of research I read recently on one of the listservs to which I subscribe says that e-books are not being as readily embraced by the hordes of tech-loving adolescents as one might have imagined they would be. Evidently, e-books are not “social” enough (you can’t lend your dog-eared e-book to a friend), plus there’s that practical problem of needing a credit card in order to acquire the book. At the moment, CM is not reviewing juvenile titles that appear only in e-book format, simply because the publication’s volunteer reviewers don’t necessarily own the required hardware. As well, protocols have yet to be developed for the downloading of review copies of e-books.
For the most part, the “little” Canadian publishing companies of the 1960s have become today’s major publishers for juveniles, but they have been joined (and continue to be joined) by new houses which offer additional outlets for Canada’s emerging creative talents. What impact that self-publishing, particularly on the Web, will have on traditional publishing remains to be seen.
3. What are some Canadian children’s books for 2012 that you are excited to read, or one hidden gem/great unsung Canadian children’s book from the past that you feel deserves more recognition?
Since almost every book published in Canada for juveniles goes through my hands on its way to a reviewer, I find myself excited by a lot of them (and then face the ethical issue of which ones do I choose to keep and review myself and which do I send out to CM’s reviewers. The arrival of a new granddaughter has magnified this moral problem as she’s a real book lover.) I find myself wanting to read all of the books that receive a “Highly Recommended” rating from reviewers.
My personal favourite reading consists of free verse novels and collections of short stories. As a once-upon-a-time high school English teacher, I think the former can do a lot to dispel the negative attitudes that some high schoolers have regarding poetry. I like the latter because they don’t have to be read cover-to-cover and can be sampled like a box of chocolates over a longer period of time (or, if the reading sweet tooth overtakes you, can be devoured in a single sitting). Again, for the non-reading high school student, short stories are less intimidating that novels.
4. How can we as librarians/writers/children’s literature scholars work to promote Canadian children’s literature in libraries and schools?
I firmly believe that we must focus on the gatekeepers of Canadian children’s literature – teachers and librarians. We need to lobby our library science and teacher education programs to ensure that courses in children’s and adolescent literature are available to those who will work with children and adolescents. In Faculties of Education, most teachers-to-be in the Kindergarten-grade 6 area must take a course in how to teach reading, but rarely are they mandated to take a course in children’s literature, the one area that would encourage emerging and new readers to practice the skills they are learning or have learned.
While this pre-service reading disconnect might have been marginally acceptable if newly graduated teachers were in-serviced about Canadian children’s literature in their schools, the significant decrease in the number of teacher-librarians over the last decade has meant that these catalysts who link teachers, children and books are sadly often not present.
At a personal level, you can help to promote Canadian children’s literature by becoming a volunteer reviewer for CM. Drop me a note at cdn.mat@shaw.ca telling me what types of materials you would like to review (fiction, nonfiction, DVDs, etc,) and the frequency with which you would like to review, and I’ll get back to you immediately.
A brief bio of Dave, in his own words:
Dave began his “formal” connection with books and libraries in junior high when he was a library page in one of the branches of the St. Boniface (MB) Public Library. He taught high school English and was a teacher-librarian before joining the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Education in 1973. There, for more than three decades, he taught courses in teacher-librarianship and children’s and adolescent literature. Now “retired”, Dave is a Past President of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
