Leicestershire librarians have joined the “what is a classic?” debate. The 72 titles reviewed in the library service’s new booklet, A Classic Selection: outstanding fiction for nine to 14-year-olds, places relatively recent titles (such as Michael Morpurgo’s Why the Whales Came, Gaye Hicyilmaz’s The Frozen Waterfall, William Mayne’s Hob and the Goblins and Janni Howker’s Isaac Campion) alongside E Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett and Rosemary Sutcliff.
A Classic Selection is available at Pounds 4.25 from Library Services for Education, Thames Tower, 99 Burleys Way, Leicester LE1 3TZ.
Planning a Project, a teachers’ pack for top juniors upwards, available at Pounds 10.95 from the same address, contains photocopiable guides to locating and selecting fiction and non-fiction.
