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Welcome to the Archway Scottsdale Library!
“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
—
Dr. Seuss
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Reading is the foundation of all learning. We aspire to foster a love of reading, grounded in the joy of discovering new ideas, exploring faraway places and imaginary worlds, and experiencing history through the eyes of those who lived it. Cultivating a child’s imagination sows seeds of virtue in their hearts and minds.
“Mere instruction in morality is not sufficient to nurture the virtues. It might even backfire, especially when the presentation is heavily exhortative and the pupil’s will is coerced. Instead a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in a way that is attractive and stirs the imagination.”
―
Vigen Guroian
Tending the Heart of Virtue:
How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination
We invite you to explore our library collection to see what books are available to your students. Soon, we will begin recommending books for you that we find to be of particular quality, interest, or value and hope that you will encourage your students to find those books in the library for themselves. If you have any questions about a book that your student has checked out, please contact our school librarian, Ms. Leeuwner.
Many books in our school library have been added through our Birthday Book donation program. Students donate a book—either from the Amazon wish list our school administration curates or a family favorite (classics preferred!)—and it is labeled with their name and birthday, read to them in class, and then added to our library collection. It is so wonderful to see the names of students from previous years in books our newest scholars are discovering and enjoying! If you donate a book for a birthday, please make sure to fill out a gift receipt or email your teacher to the details, so we may correctly identify your gift!
Guidelines for Books
on the Archway Scottsdale Campus
Four zones with four different standards:
Zone 1: Curriculum
The purest of the pure of classic children’s literature with high literary-aesthetic, moral, and dramatic merit and having stood some test of time. In the case of children’s literature, fifty years may be an absolute minimum. These are the books in our curriculum which are filtered, high-minded, and 100% Great Hearts guaranteed classical. (Subject specific texts for history, science, and math will not meet all these criteria but must be weighed against the above standard.)
Zone 2: Read-aloud or Supplemental
Non-curricular literature, fables, poems, and stories read aloud in class or kept in classroom library must be very high-minded and classic and could be admitted to curriculum if space allowed or need required. Examples are D’Aulaire’s Book of Norse Myths, Tolkien’s Middle Earth texts, more George MacDonald books, the Swallowdale series, most 30 years or older Newberry Award winners. (Class library can also contain good CK subject-specific books or levelled readers aligned with Spalding.)
Zone 3: Classroom and School Libraries
Classic works (zone 2) and works of less classic status (very good children’s books–zone 3) may and should be in the school library. More recent publications or less high literary quality works (Hardy Boys, Tree House Mysteries, other popular series), very good picture books (fairy tale or fable but not only), are also in zone 3, but no crass, cynical, degrading, ugly books such as Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants.
Zone 4: Student Books
Nearly any book is allowed for reading at pick-up or on the playground provided it is not obscene, vulgar, raunchy, or graphically violent. Nearly all comic books and magazines are not allowed; a few exceptions are the Usborne graphic legends series and Tin-Tin.
Adapted from Andrew Ellison, Great Hearts Vice President