The Man Who Walked Between the Towers is now in the collection, and indeed Alison with the latest version of Kurzweil, and grayscale and 400 dpi it came out beautifully. Snow Flake Bently is another one that has a great story. it is the biography of Dr. Bently, a Connecticut scientist who photographed snowflakes and discovered the six sides rule and that no snowflakes are alike. His family was very poor but his family thought it important enough so they bought him a microscope with a camera. Truly awesome man, started taking pictures when he was thirteen. I honestly hadn't heard of him till I read Blizzards while editing it, and my librarian gave it to me, on a whim, as a You should read this. Which she has done for other books that have ended up in the collection. I have found the pages I can't get to come out now are those with dark colored backgrounds and the text inside the pictures. Smile. Shelley L. Rhodes and Judson, guiding golden juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc. Graduate Advisory Council www.guidedogs.com The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. -- Vance Havner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allison" <alwaysallie@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 11:08 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Caldecott Medal Winners Cindy, you make some good points in your message. I'll try and address them as best I know how. Second only to the Newbury, the Caldecott books are said to be the best kid books each year. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, these books are recognized for their illustration, and they are not always easily enjoyed by blind kids. What's worse, often these books aren't even attempted to be put into accessible format for blind kids. They are seen as not being important to kids who can't see the pictures. You know, why would the blind kid care what something looked like? The flaw in the above thinking is that often blind kids DO care how things look. The other flaw is that, in not having access to Caldecott books, kids are missing out on some really incredible stories. Some Caldecotts have good content as well as pictures. Not only that, but by missing out on these stories, our blind kids aren't familiar with the stories that their sighted classmates may be reading. This is an important thing for blind kids not just educationally, but socially as well. Not every Caldecott book need have picture descriptions. This may sound bizarre, but it's true. Some stories are just really really good, even without the added benefit of the pictures. Case and point, last year's Caldecott winner. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. A beautiful beautiful story! My Children's Literature professor read it to our class the week after the award was announced. She showed the pictures to the class, but did not verbally describe them. I loved that story anyway. It was just that good. Perhaps I missed out on something, but I sure didn't enjoy that book any less. I tried to scan that book for Bookshare, but didn't have any luck. It has just too many pictures per page which don't seem to scan well. However I wasn't using the newest version of K1000 back then, so maybe I'd have better luck now. So, that's my basic thinking behind Caldecott book access. Others may have different ideas. I've thought about this a lot because my goal is to work teaching blind children one day. Hope this made some sense. Best, Allison ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 8:24 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Caldecott Medal Winners > The Caldecott Medal is awarded " the artist who had > created the most distinguished picture book of the > year." In some cases, I discovered as I did some > research to be sure I was correct, a book is nominated > for both the Caldecott and the Newbery, and then the > committees decide inder whch category to place it. > > Since it is the illustrations and not the story for > which the book wins the award, and illustrations can > only be described and not, as far as I know, actually > included in books in the bookshare collection, is it > really worthwhile to make a special effort to have > them in the collection? > > Cindy > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. > http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 > -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.7 - Release Date: 2/10/2005 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.7 - Release Date: 2/10/2005