Kathleen Odean
As a young girl growing up in White Bear Lake, Kathleen Odean had two strong role models: her mother, a high school English teacher; and her godmother, a children's librarian at the St. Paul Public Library. So it's not surprising that Odean earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Carleton in 1975 or that she went on to earn a master's degree in library science from the University of California at Berkeley. Today, Odean is a children's librarian at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, and the author of two books geared toward getting children to read.
Odean's first book, Great Books for Girls: More Than 600 Books to Inspire Today's Girls and Tomorrow's Women, was published in January 1997 and has since sold 40,000 copies. (In fact, it's the best-selling, alumni-written book at the Carleton Bookstore.) The book earned her an interview with Katie Couric on the Today Show and a bevy of guest stints on radio talk shows. Odean's second book, Great Books For Boys: More Than 600 Books For Boys 2 to 14, was released in February 1998.
Odean attributes much of her success to the education she received at Carleton. She has particularly fond memories of participating in informal children's literature classes conducted by English professor Harriet Sheridan at her home.
After leaving Carleton and working at a variety of jobs in the Twin Cities, Odean moved to California. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she met and married Ross Cheit. When he accepted a position as a professor of public policy at Brown University, the couple moved to Rhode Island, and Odean began working at the Moses Brown School library.
A request from a student's father was the catalyst for writing Great Books for Girls. He asked Odean to help him find a book that focused on girls' sports and would provide good role models for his daughter. Odean ran into two problems: very few such books were available, and books are categorized by specific sport rather than by gender.
Odean realized that many parents were facing the same problem when selecting books for their children. So she wrote a book proposal, got an agent, and landed a contract with Ballantine Books. (In a twist of fate, when Odean's original editor at Ballantine left the company, her new editor was Andrea Schulz, a 1990 Carleton alumna.)
Both Great Books for Girls and Great Books for Boys include the titles and a brief synopsis of 600 books for children in age categories ranging from 2 to 14. Great Books for Girls includes fiction and biographies, while Great Books for Boys list nonfiction.
"I read every book," Odean says. "I had read about half of them before I started the project, but read them all again. I talked to librarians and teachers and children and started compiling lists of titles. I wanted them all to be in print, so they could be purchased today, which eliminated some books."
The success of Great Books for Girls led Odean to write a similar book for boys. "Parents were saying, (The girls' book) is great, but it's even harder to get boys to read," she says. "In our culture, boys are steered more toward sports. There is a point at which boys who read are in danger of getting teased. Reading is a more acceptable pastime for girls."
Boys' reading interests also differ from those of girls, Odean says. Many boys would rather read an informational book than a novel, and that interest should be respected.
Odean is a firm believer in the importance of reading, particularly for children. "It expands their view of the world and of what they can be," she says. "Also, we're living in an information age, and literacy is the key to using and analyzing that information."
Reprinted with permission The Carleton Voice, Summer 1998, Volume 63, Number 4
Added 10/01/98
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