State Reading List Stretches Far Beyond English-Language Titles

Your story from July 15, “Weighing the Classics,” has brought significant and positive feedback to the California Department of Education (CDE) from the public on the issue of the state’s new recommended literature list. The purpose of the list, as The Times writer states, is to encourage more reading by students inside and outside of class.

Just a few minor omissions in the article need to be corrected: Contrary to what the headline said, Walt Whitman is included in the list. Moreover, authors Borges, Paz, Carpenter and Cervantes are on the list of titles written in Spanish. Furthermore, the writer made the statement that Asian writers are “all but invisible.” The reality is that the list includes more than 70 Chinese titles, 15 Hmong and 31 Vietnamese.

We all agree that the debate should be about how to encourage our kids to read. To that end we are grateful that The Times chose to focus on the CDE’s new literature list.

DOUG STONE

Director of Communications

California Department of Education

*

The story noted the absence from the state reading list of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” Diane Levin, a language arts consultant to the California Department of Education, confirmed the omission to The Times. This week, Debby Lott, another of the department’s language arts consultants, said the electronic list, which has some technical problems, is posted on the Internet site https://www.cde.ca.gov. The Times’ story evaluated only the English-language list. Teachers and parents interested in foreign-language titles now can go to the CDE Web site, click on the search engine’s language field and replace English with the desired language to obtain a list of recommended books in five foreign languages--Spanish, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong and Vietnamese.