This past weekend, we, along with a few thousand teachers, attended the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, http://www.ncte.org)/ at the Javits Center in New York City. If you've never been to the Javits Center before, it is truly overwhelming. The NCTE show was just one of several mammoth events occurring simultaneously within its halls. (In fact, the NCTE show itself was so large that many of its sessions took place at the Marriott, on Times Square.)
Several hundred education providers were on hand, in booths ranging from a few feet across to mega-booth pavilions that looked somewhat akin to Oz, the Emerald City. No matter their size, however, they all had something interesting to show or talk about -- and for the most part, that meant books. In fact, the number of vendors displaying video or audio materials was surprisingly small...can it be that the printed word will indeed triumph?
No question that author signings are a surefire attraction. Put an author down at a table (or better yet, an author and his/her illustrator) and the line forms almost immediately. And of course there is nothing like free books, either. For the most part, those consisted of advance copies of 2008 fiction releases, primarily for the young adult market.
But perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the show was the continuing appela of an author named...William Shakespeare. In booth after booth, there were reprints of his plays (often annotated in a variety of styles), videos of Shakespeare films, audio CDs of Shakespeare readings, even a "manga" version of Shakespeare (and if you don't know what manga is, ask your adolescent or teenage son or daughter). At least among English teachers, the Bard is alive and well and flowering in a myriad of ways. (John Spritz)
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