Scrub a Dub Dub: The Reading Tub
Saturday Blurb: An Open Letter to Support Family Literacy (updated)
Nonfiction Monday Book Talk: Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes by Steve Spangler
Books We Read – March
We have lots of picture books this month! We are currently beta testing the new site, so some of our most recent reviews – like How the Weather Works by Christiane Dorior and Nuts by Kacy Cook – will be available shortly.
Received: 20 ….. New Reads: 27 ….. New Reviews: 16
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Please use these category headings to “jump” to your favorite children’s and young adult book categories. We hope this makes the monthly list (and our annual list pages) more enjoyable for you … not to mention a little more manageable to browse.
- Favorite Re-Reads (Kid Picks)
- Audio Books & Nontraditional Reading
- Bilingual Books
- Picture Books (all ages)
- Easy Readers (for new and developing readers)
- Early and Illustrated Chapter Books
- Middle Grade Chapter Books (Fiction and Nonfiction)
- Young Adult Chapter Books (Fiction and Nonfiction)
- New & Updated Reviews of Books on Earlier Lists
If you’ve read any of these books, we’d love to link to them so readers can learn more about them! Just click “Our Book Talk” to add your link to our website review (via InLinkz) or just paste the URL into a comment and I’ll do the rest.
(more…)
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Friday Blurb: an Impromptu Poetry Friday Post
With no fanfare this morning at breakfast, Catherine recited a passagethat she’d memorized …
Rodrick’s “The Amazing Moose” report from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney. For those who haven’t read the book (that includes me), Rodrick creates a rhyme / song to complete one of his school assignments. I had this great plan to add the little ditty here, but of course the book went to school today!
Which is its OWN kind of poetry, I guess! When the book and its reader return home this afternoon, I’ll add it here!
In the meantime, be sure to visit Mary Lee and Franki at A Year of Reading. They are hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup. (more…)
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Monday Blurb: Getting Back in the Groove
Welcome to all of our new followers … As Jen mentioned week before last, I am going to substitute Share a Story 2011 as my “mid-month” roundup of literacy news. There is so much to savor among all of the wonderful posts. I will eventually have a page that has all of the posts in one place, but in the meantime …
- If you want a quick hit, check out Book Dads’ post that offers a review of the week.
- All of the books that people mentioned in posts, comments, podcasts, and videos, are compiled in a list called The Bookshelf at Share a Story.
- Another great source is Eric Von Raepenbusch, who had a summary of every day’s hosts AND answered one of the Writing @ Reading prompts at Happy Birthday Author. All. five. days. Wow!
- Speaking of Writing @ Reading, voting is now open to pick the winners of our book giveaways. Our finalists need your vote!
I cannot say THANK YOU enough to everyone who participated in making this an incredibly special, energizing week. Whether you tweeted or retweeted, wrote a post, added a comment, offered your opinion, shared a video … you made Share a Story awesome. so THANK YOU.
Here are a couple of other items I’ve found in the process of getting back to “normal.” Several go into my resources roundup later this month. Here is one I want to get out today.
Children’s Book Week is around the corner (check the website for the countdown clock). Author / Illustrator Peter Brown has created this adorable poster, and Jeff Kinney (author, illustrator, game designer) has created a Wimpy-kid related Bookmark to commemorate the event.
The Children’s Book Council has also opened voting for the 2011 Children’s Choice Book Awards. The awards are broken by age category: K-2, 3rd-4th, 5th-6th, and teens. This awards program is a joint project of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the CBC, now in its 36th year. The finalists for Book of the Year in the Kindergarten to Second Grade, Third Grade to Fourth Grade, and Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade categories are the books that received the highest number of votes in the IRA-CBC Children’s Choices program in June. Here is the slate of finalists …
The Children’s Choice Book Award categories and finalists are as follows:
Kindergarten to Second Grade Book of the Year:
- Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott (Walker)
- Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord, illustrated by Derek Anderson (Scholastic Press)
- How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills (Schwartz & Wade/ Random House)
- Little Pink Pup by Johanna Kerby (Putnam/Penguin)
- Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (Little, Brown)
Third Grade to Fourth Grade Book of the Year:
- Babymouse # 12: Burns Rubber by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm (Random House)
- Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray: The Uproar at the Front Door by Nick Bruel (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
- Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods & Heroes by Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda (Candlewick)
- Finally by Wendy Mass (Scholastic Press)
- Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Knopf/Random House)
Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year:
- Big Nate: In a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce (HarperCollins)
- It’s a Book by Lane Smith (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
- The Red Pyramid (The Kane ChroncilesChronicles, Book 1) by Rick Riordan (Disney-Hyperion)
- Smile by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix/Scholastic)
- Zebrafish by Peter H. Reynolds and FableVision (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)
Teen Choice Book of the Year:
- Burned (House of Night, Book 7) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s Griffin/Macmillan)
- Fang (A Maximum Ride Novel) by James Patterson (Little, Brown)
- Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press)
- Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead (Razorbill/Penguin)
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (Dutton/Penguin)
Author of the Year:
- Cassandra Clare for Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, Book 1) (McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
- Suzanne Collins for Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (Scholastic Press)
- Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Amulet/Abrams)
- Stephenie Meyer for The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Megan Tingley/Little, Brown)
- Rick Riordan for The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 1) (Disney-Hyperion)
Illustrator of the Year:
- Robin Preiss Glasser for Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique (HarperCollins)
- Loren Long for Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters (Knopf/Random House)
- Nancy Tillman for Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan)
- David Wiesner for Art & Max (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Mo Willems for Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
As I neaten things up in my March Madness bracket - over at Share a Story things will be quiet around here this week.
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Share a Story Day 4: Homework … and I Fail
It is now 3:40 pm (Eastern) as I write this … I’d like to say the dog ate my homework, but, well, dogs don’t eat computers (at least not ours).
That’s not to say I haven’t been learning … I have spent the day reading, doing JUST what the curators over at A Year of Reading suggested. The list of contributors has grown throughout the day, and while I was off checking in on a certain ACC basketball game, a NEW one came in.
I also stopped by the The Reading Zone. As someone who loves words and who marvels at how authors put them together, I found Sarah’s post fascinating. So many different ways that stories come to mind, yet they start in a very old-fashioned place: a notebook.
The idea of dedicating a day to keeping a love of reading alive when learning kicks in and homework starts to pile up came last year. I don’t know if you remember back to October and the New York Times article that had everyone in an uproar. The subject that everyone took away from it was the declining number of picture books being sold as we push kids to read more, faster. I didn’t speak to it then, so I won’t now. But …
Carol Rasco wrote a very thoughtful post with her observations from traveling around the country to various RIF centers and events. One of the things she hones in on (but from a different angle than the article) is parental expectation. She asked for input on how to deal with situations where the push was coming more from home than the classroom.
She is probably crazy-busy in the aftermath of last week’s decision to cut RIF’s federal funding, but I hope she finds time to read all the posts at A Year of Reading, particularly the reviews by the students in Monica Edinger’s class. What I came away with was a sense of hope … and gratitude.
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Share a Story Day 3: Literacy 2.0
First, I have to confess that I never even made it over to Twitter / Hootsuite yesterday … and I haven’t opened my reader this week. I’m afraid this is going to be one of those Go to Zero periods. My goal has been to visit each of our hosts and guests and be part of the conversation.
Which leads to the next confession: I know I am way behind in thanking everyone who has been tweeting and retweeting the Tour. So next week, if you see these little wayward tweets and #followfriday notes that come on Wednesday. That’s me saying thanks!
To you it may gratitude may be old fashioned … to me it is timeless. Just like literacy. We can’t think just in terms of paper and ink anymore, there are so many ways that we have to share ideas and communicate. Over at There’s a Book, Danielle Smith and her guests are covering the waterfront. They’ll answer questions like “when is it a toy and when is it an educational app?” or “how can I digitize my classroom on a phone-cord budget?”
Here, in the Tub we have a little bit of wizardry all our own! Katie Davis and her fans were chatting about this yesterday when it went live, but … well, you know where I was. Besides, it fits so nicely as a real example of Literacy 2.0, I saved it for today. Drumroll, please …
I present to you my podcast interview with award-winning author and artist (can I say recording artist?) Katie Davis.
My thanks to Katie for giving me the opportunity to chat about books and reading, and for helping us spread the word about Share a Story – Shape a Future. Yep, you can never say thank you enough!
PS – Today is World Read Aloud Day. Don’t forget to grab a book and share it out loud. Make the most of it and get one that requires lots of voices or sounds!
Share a Story logo created by Elizabeth O. Dulemba.
Copyright © 2011 Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@childrens-literacy.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana
Share a Story: Opening our Worlds to the Gift
Long-time followers of Scrub-a-Dub-Tub know that Mitali Perkins had me with “mirrors and windows.” For those of you who weren’t around then, first, let me welcome you! We’re glad you’re here and hope you jump into the discussion.
OK. In her presentation at the Children’s Authors Breakfast at last year’s BookExpo America, Mitali talked about literature being windows and mirrors and drew on her own experiences as a reader of color to show how it has influenced her as an author of color. “Windows and mirrors” was a new-to-me expression. It suggests books are a way introduce worlds and characters beyond ourselves, and yet reflections of our own experiences. Here’s a snippet of what I wrote:
Mitali added another dimension to the way I view stories and books. This is how her gift worked just last week.
Her gift … see how nicely it ties in? Last June as Mitali was talking, I was thinking about books like Burn My Heart and Web of Lies (both by South African author Beverley Naidoo) and how much I learned from them. The former is about the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya; the latter about Nigerian refugees forced to flee to London.
Put bluntly, I want to have a better understanding literacy across cultures and find ways to engage new readers by celebrating their cultural heritage and also to continue enlightening mine. It is a conscious effort on my part, and as I recently found out, it’s not going to be easy. I went to a big-box bookstore to buy some books my daughter could give a classmate at his birthday party. The Children’s Books rep asked if she could help, and I said I was looking for books for an African American boy. He likes sports, and I wanted to find characters of color in books appropriate for a nine-year-old. Her response?
We repeatedly have asked publishers to give us books that are more reflective of society … there are more girls of color than boys, particularly when you want to go beyond Civil War / slavery / urban references. The 8 to 10 group is particularly difficult.
So I found out. I am hopeful, though … and so are my guests: Tanita Davis, of Fiction Instead of Lies and Finding Wonderland; Hannah Ehrlich of Lee & Low Books; and Mitali Perkins, who writes at Mitali’s Fire Escape. So without further ado …
Terry: First, THANK YOU all for joining us for Share a Story! I am so excited about having the chance to hear your ideas about … well lets just see where the journey takes us. My first question is a fill in the blank. Those are easy, right?;-) Okay …
Reading widely is important for kids because ________.
Tanita, can you start us off?
Tanita: Sure. I would say “because reading widely shows the reader the commonality of the human experience.”
Mitali: Mine would be “the pen is mightier than the sword. The gift of literacy is power.”
Hannah: Wow, so many reasons! Reading widely is important for kids because it’s the greatest way to get people to understand from a young age that we are all more alike than we are different. Reading is such an amazing exercise in empathy, and reading widely helps children step outside the confines of their own experiences, sometimes for the first time, to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.
Books about different places, times, or people help children appreciate different perspectives and train them to find common ground with even those whose lives, from the outside, may look very different. Of course reading widely also gives children a wider base of knowledge about the world and helps them to expand the range of what they can imagine, and that’s always valuable. But I’ve always thought that the biggest benefit of reading widely, for kids and adults, is that it teaches us to identify with others and understand them, and that makes us kinder people.
Tanita: Oh! Can I add another one? Recent reading has prompted another spate of thought! I would add this quote from Ursula K. LeGuin:
We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark, and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night.
Somewhere away on the other side of the sleeping globe are people whose language and culture and stories we haven’t yet discovered, and yet books can transcend that gap, and speak a language creates a bridge.
Terry: Wow. There is so much to savor in that quote. Thanks for creating such a great segue to my next question … Over the past few years, the term “multicultural books” has been growing as a point of interest for children’s, YA authors, and readers. I guess this is a two-part question.
- What makes a book “multicultural” for you … or is there a better term?
- Do you see this as an authentic shift or is it morphing into a buzzword?
Mitali, could you start this strand?
Mitali: I don’t like that label. I don’t like any labels. On the other hand, how do we signal to gatekeepers that when it comes to race, a particular story will be a window book for the majority and a mirror for a few along the margins? On the third hand — you need three hands to write books for kids — given cover art, jacket flap copy, and all the information booksellers and libraries provide, is it even necessary to send that signal with such a label?
Tanita: That third point is a good one; I’m not convinced that we need the word either – but on the other hand, I’ve always thought such labels were a convenience for the booksellers, and for those who work for them to be able to simply shelve things without too much thought… thus you get “sections” for books in bookstores.
Which, now that I think of it, isn’t that hot an idea… except, on the third nonexistent hand, there are people who are earnestly trying to expand their reading horizons, and having a go-to section makes it easier for them. I’m not sure convenience is always a gift, but that’s the excuse, I believe, behind all of this, even if it’s not a great reason.
Hannah: Oh, this is a good question. For me a true “multicultural book” is one with a diverse cast of characters, all of whom are fully developed and go beyond stereotypes. I don’t know that we have quite figured out the perfect vocabulary for talking about race in books (and beyond). At LEE & LOW, we’ve been moving over to the term “diverse” as opposed to “multicultural,” actually.
To me the word diverse is just a little more inclusive: it encompasses race, culture, religion, class, etc. And I think it has a less academic tinge to it. Sometimes I see the word multicultural turning people off because the word implies that a book is an issues book, or that it should be used during Black History Month or something instead of when you’re just curled up on the couch reading for fun. I don’t want people to pick up “multicultural” books just out of a sense of obligation, and I definitely don’t want them reading LEE & LOW titles one month out of the year. But, just as Mitali and Tanita have pointed out, with those issues, it’s about more than terminology,
The term “multicultural” can be problematic because most of the time when it’s used, instead of meaning “multiple cultures” it essentially means “not white.” I remember hearing Mitali say in a presentation that white can be included in the word multicultural too, because everybody has a culture. So there’s the question of why a book with white characters is just a book, but a book about anyone else is “multicultural.” The labeling can be a little problematic because any book with characters of color is set aside as different right from the getgo, and then “multicultural” becomes something that the book is in some sense about (or expected to be about), whether it’s really about high school crushes, fluffy bunnies, or the zombie apocalypse.
I’d like to get to a point one day when ALL books are multicultural and the term becomes obsolete, because I think that’s where America is already at in terms of the makeup of our country — at this point, the term multicultural applies to just about everyone. But since the majority of published books don’t yet reflect that, I don’t think we can throw the term out just yet.
Tanita: I really LIKE the word “diverse,” because it has nothing hanging onto it that sounds like a school assignment. I agree it can also be interpreted to address class and gender, as well as color and ethnicity. The idea of “culture” in multicultural is just such a jam-packed concept; diverse takes all of that intention and information and spreads it out so it’s accessible. Excellent.
Terry: Thanks y’all for so eloquently pointing out all that goes into creating awareness and building audience. Clearly, it is far more complex than “just” adding a label. Each of you are accomplished women … Were you always readers as a child? Is there someone (real or imagined) who inspired you to take this path?
Tanita: I started telling myself stories — I’d always done it — and I read everything I could get my hands on. I read Readers’ Digest while babysitting, skimmed the pulp fiction shelved in the line at the supermarket, and later picked through the novel collections of all the girls in the dorm at my boarding school. I read to my heart’s desire, and I realized that a lot of what I was reading was pretty craptastic. I hated realizing my parents were right about a lot of books!
Wanting to write fiction which my parents might have, with a fair amount of cajoling, let me read, I started scribbling stories in earnest. So, all of this is just to prove my parents wrong. :)
Mitali: I started reading fluently when I was three, I think, because my older sisters were reading so voraciously. My Dad has a passion for words, poetry, and stories, and he always encouraged me to connect with books. He made me memorize poems and drove me hither and yon to find books when we lived in Cameroon, Ghana, and Mexico.
Terry: Can you tell us what reading was like in your house when you were a child – did anyone / everyone read? Was it something that your family saw as important? Would you change anything about that “environment” for your own family/kids?
Hannah: If my dad hadn’t insisted on reading to/with me every night before bed for my entire childhood, I probably wouldn’t have ended up working in publishing. Reading with your kids is important — it could be their future career!
Tanita: I learned to read before I started school, and having two older sisters made Kindergarten unnecessary for learning new skills. I wanted to read constantly, but my parents set limits on my reading time and made rules — no fiction, no fairy tales, no wild flights of fantasy. They wanted me grounded in the truth — in facts.
They had good reason – they wanted me to be able to believe what I read, and what they told me. They never introduced me to Santa or the Easter Bunny, only to say, “Just kidding, he’s made up,” so that I’d believe in God, implicitly, and understand that was a truth which would never be retracted. I now understand their intentions … but am glad to find that there are truths in fiction as well, and to be able to share that with the readers and writers in my sphere of influence.
Mitali: In my family, everyone loved words and stories. My parents both loved the poetry and songs of Rabindranath Tagore, a poet from Bengal who won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913) and had memorized reams of verses. Also, they both told stories well. However, like most immigrants, we didn’t have extra cash to buy books so we found and used libraries wherever we lived.
Terry: Given your experiences living overseas, Mitali, can you share with us what you’ve seen about how how teaching kids to read is viewed in other cultures?
Mitali: Literacy is esteemed in West Bengal, India. It’s prestigious to be good at “Lekha-Po-rah,” which literally means “writing-reading.” But it’s an economic issue—when I was doing literacy research in Kolkata’s urban neighborhoods, I interviewed mothers whose kids spent all day scavenging for bent nails, straightening them, and selling them to provide food for their family. They looked up to me because of my “lekha-po-rah,” but couldn’t see any payoff for their own kids to spend precious time learning to read.
Terry: I guess all of that leads to this question: Is it important for kids to have books where they see themselves? If so, why?
Mitali: As a kid who is “non-white” or a “person of color,” you spend a lot of energy becoming fluent in the majority culture of North America. A book featuring someone who is of your culture feels like a haven. It’s downright empowering to be represented in literature — and now we’re back where we started: to power, which is what words, books, and stories can either take away or endow.
Tanita: When I was a child, the number of books depicting persons of color as someone other than a) goodhearted and earnest slaves/slave escapees; b) poverty-stricken but goodhearted unfortunates; or c) thugs of some stripe, in trouble, were vanishingly few. I saw only one way to be from those books – either good and downtrodden or bad and in jail. The whole of the human experience, which is so freely described for persons of other ancestry, should be – has to be – MUST – be shown widely and well for everyone, for readers of every culture.
Recently I read Neesha Meminger’s guest post An Equal Place at the Table at the Young Adult (YA) librarian blog The YA YA YAs, where she discusses the fact that play and romance and the trivialities that form everyone’s life have to be written about by YA authors, otherwise we fall prey to that “single story” trap, as if minorities and immigrants have only one facet, and only one experience to offer.
Hannah: It’s important for kids to have books where they see themselves so they don’t feel invisible. This is especially true for the kids who don’t see themselves anywhere else: on TV, in movies, etc. If no one like them appears in any of these places, they will begin to wonder why society doesn’t notice them, and that’s really damaging. In addition to hurting a child’s self-esteem, it can also make kids feel like the media that’s produced is not made for them. In terms of books, children who consistently cannot find books that reflect their reality may become lifelong nonreaders, and that’s bad for them and for the rest of society, too.
Books that are “mirrors” give young readers characters to identify with and look up to, and let them know that they are not invisible and are not alone, even when they’re going through something difficult and feel like no one understands. I think we’ve all felt the joy of finding a book that seems to completely understand us…that’s something that EVERY child should be able to find if they look for it.
Terry: What a wonderful way to round out our discussion, Hannah!
Thank you all so much for sharing your personal stories. Your experiences not only give us something to think about, but also open the door to more discussions about reading, broadening our expectations, and maybe inspiring others to share their stories for young audiences, too.
Now it’s your turn to join the conversation. Do you have any suggestions? any good resources?
Image Credits:
Laptop with books – iStock Photos
Share a Story Logo by Elizabeth O. Dulemba.
Copyright © 2011 Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@childrens-literacy.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana
Share a Story Day 2: The Gift of Reading
Did you make it through yesterday with dry eyes? Not me. Had goosebumps, too. Lots of them. Yesterday was all about the power of a book, and bloggers offered some mighty powerful stories.
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- Donalyn Miller, Teri Lesesne, and Paul W. Hankins shared incredible, personal stories about how books have affected, defined, and transformed them and/or their students.
- Carol Rasco, Kyle Zimmer, and Riley Carney shared stories from the front lines. In independently describing a child’s reaction to receiving a book of their own, they shared a universal truth: kids treasure books that they get to keep.
Today’s theme is the Gift of Literacy. There will be more personal stories and sharing ideas … which is really what this week is all about. We had a couple folks ask us online and off about writing a post. We would LOVE to have your ideas and suggestions. Our goal with Share a Story is to celebrate and inspire across blogging “genres,” across generations, across … well, you get the picture.
For my part of Share a Story today, I am hosting a discussion about reading across cultures. In just a little bit, I’ll have a roundtable with Hannah Ehrlich of Lee and Low Books, and award-winning authors Tanita S. Davis and Mitali Perkins. I hope you’ll join the conversation.
I also invite you to stop by the Literacy Toolbox, where Dawn Little has a wonderful lineup of guests talking about the literal gift of reading (i.e., books to give) and the intangibles of sharing a book. Over at Book Dads, Chris Singer and his guests – 30 of them!! – are sharing their stories as reading dads.
To get the individual lineups and titles, you’ll need to go to the daily roundup post over at Share a Story – Shape a Future, where you’ll also get todays’ Writing @ Reading prompts.
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Share a Story: Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy
Welcome to Share a Story ~ Shape a Future 2011
Each year, during the first full week of March, we gather together to celebrate literacy in all its forms, to encourage each other in our efforts to create the next generation of readers, and most importantly to share ideas that we can take “out into the real world.”
This is our third blog tour for literacy, and it is our biggest yet. If the tours remain true to form, I’ll begin the week excited to read all of the ideas and stories that bloggers of all walks of life offer. At week’s end, I will be both exhausted and rejuvenated … and happy for it. I’ll have made new friends, gotten some suggestions on new ways to approach reading, and (of course) added to the TBR pile.
This year’s theme – Unwrapping the Gift of Literacy – is something we’ve talked about for almost two years. The idea sounds like a no-brainer, but it actually has so many facets that it took time to make it cohesive.
None of us are born literate. Reading, writing and communicating are skills we learn … because someone took the time to guide us. Whether it was a parent who let us sing silly songs endlessly; a teacher who let us write whatever we wanted (and however we wanted) in a journal; or a librarian who took the time to ask us what kinds of things we like. We remember those things and we recognize them for what they are: a gift. How many times have we heard that time is a precious gift? Well, for as far back as we can remember, someone was sharing their time, passion, skill, and patience (can’t forget that). They share their gifts.
Just because we don’t read 10 books a year or write poetry doesn’t make it any less a gift! We can follow directions and put our son’s bike together; we can text, email, and tweet; we know when we’ve passed the exit we should have taken; and we can read the dosage information on a medicine bottle.
As we have in previous tours, each day will talk about one aspect of our overall theme. Today, Donalyn Miller and Carol Rasco and their guests are talking about The Power of a Book. Collectively, they will cover everything from the literal power of owning a book and enjoying a good story to the intangible power that comes with knowing how to read.
I would like to add a personal note. Carol Rasco signed on as a host for this year’s Share a Story ~ Shape a Future blog tour last year. For the last six months national literacy programs like Reading is Fundamental have spent untold hours trying to convince Congress and others that they have to fund the programs that make it possible to achieve the literacy rates they want for our country. For the last few weeks in particular, RIF (and others) have been fighting for their very existence.
After last Friday’s blow, with President Obama signing the bill that eliminates RIF’s federal funding, I would have completely understood if Carol cried “Uncle.” Despite all that has been happening to keep her organization alive, she has still made time to be an integral part of Share a Story. There is no greater demonstration of her commitment to children and literacy.
If you leave no other comments today, do please go over to thank Carol for all she’s doing. I’m sure she is MORE than exhausted … so give her some rejuvenation!
Image Credit: Share a Story ~ Shape a Story Logo created by Elizabeth O. Dulemba.
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Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup – Early March Edition
The Read Across America Day edition of the children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, and Rasco from RIF is now available at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Over the past couple of weeks Jen Robinson, Carol Rasco, and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.
Yes, we just posted Carol’s writeup, but there is so much really cool stuff going on … and the timing with World Book Day, Read Across America Day, and World Read Aloud Day made today the perfect day to post!
Sunshine, spring breezes and the garden have been calling to me lately, so Jen gets all the credit for finding such wonderful stories.
I particularly loved the piece about using social media in the classroom to help introverted kids. Teacher Royan Lee’s observations about how social media can level the playing field, so to speak. This passage grabbed me:
Social media allows shy/quiet kids to express themselves more clearly without having to transform into a bombastic or extroverted individual. Everyone becomes more diverse in the way they communicate and connect with one another. Labels then start disappearing in your class. It allows students to communicate with classmates they do not normally communicate with.
As you’ll see from Jen’s incredible list of events, there are plenty of opportunities to get in the spirit of reading not only with your kids, but as part of a community effort. From Jen:
you might as well just plan to read aloud with a child every day in March. Then you’ll be sure not to miss any of these celebrations! And once you get in the habit of reading with a child every day, you’ll be all set for D.E.A.R. Day in April, and all the months ahead.
Speaking of events … next Monday is the first day of Share a Story-Shape a Future 2011. We’ll be unwrapping the gift of literacy all week long. At last count, there were 35 bloggers on board to share their personal stories, book recommendations, and enthusiasm. We hope you’ll not just follow along, but join in, too. Additional posts on the topic of the day are always welcome and our Writing @ Reading prompt might just inspire you … there are giveaways involved.
As always, thanks for joining us for the roundups and all the support you give us with retweets!
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Tools for Reading and Literacy – March 2011
Welcome to the February edition of the Tools for Reading and Literacy. This is a monthly annex to the Literacy and Reading News Roundup, a collaborative effort with Jen Robinson (Jen Robinson’s Book Page), Carol Rasco (Rasco from RIF), and me. I couldn’t do this Tools Roundup without the significant contributions – and incredible research skills – of Susan Stephenson of The Book Chook blog!
In each issue you will find links to articles, websites, and online tools that facilitate the processes of reading and learning. Whether the information is recently published or a couple years old, it’s new to her and may be new to you. Enjoy!
Starting OffOver the last month I’ve found some new-to-me blogs that speak to multiple audiences. Several of them are as a result of the Reading Tub hosting February’s I Can Read Carnival for New Readers.
- Beginning Reading Help is for any adult who is working to help a child learn to read. Michelle Breum publishes plenty of original post and has filled the blog with links to online reading games and favorite reading resources.
- Together Time for Families would seem to be for families, but it is for anyone who wants to engage children in the process of learning. I had never seen the Ben Franklin quote Susan uses in her header. Gotta go see it to read it.
- Multiculturalism Rocks! focuses on multiculturalism in children’s literature. I love Nathalie’s description “I find heritage months wonderful, however I also believe that one needs not to wait for a particular month to celebrate cultural diversity. Like any other mainstream successes, multicultural books are a wonderful source of information, provide a great escapism and, dare I say, promote world peace. What is there not to like? *smile*”
The Book Chook and her friends have just published Literacy Lava 8, a FREE online journal filled with ideas for engaging kids with reading, writing, and all-round creative fun. You can also download it in pdf format (which means you can put it on your eReader and enjoy it anywhere! There are a bunch of articles that naturally “pair off” this time: Dee White continues her series about kids writing storiesand Dawn Little talks about ways to use activities or props in creating and telling stories. Joyce Grant has a WONDERFUL 1-page cheat sheet with ideas to get kids reading and Stascy Loscalzo shares tips (and book recommendations) on reading aloud with a mixed-age audience. There’s more, but we’re not going to give it ALL away.
Resources for KidsIXL Math – This is a site that our elementary school is using to help students build math confidence. Yes, it is a little bit beyond our usual scope, but as the tag line suggests this is “math for your left and right brain.” I love the mix of word and number problems, as well as the variety of presentation (vertical and horizontal number problems) within a particular skill area. The material is captivating and it gets you-know-who spending more time on math than we could have achieved on our own.
In response to a query within the Kidlitosphere Yahoo! Group, Wendy Old created a list with places kids can go to post their stories and poetry. For Teens Who Write is filled with links to author and teacher sites that have space for teens to post, as well as resources what let you upload your work. Wendie is going to be updating the list, so if you have a suggestion, be sure to leave it in the comments at Wendies’ Wanderings.
Resources for ParentsPicture Books and Pirouettes is the blog of children’s poet and dancer Kerry Aradhya. Kerry and guests not only review children’s books that have a dance connection, but also talk about them in the context of teaching dance. Very fun.
Kiboomu.com – There is a lot to love about this site created by two Montreal Moms. There pages with songs (and download links), crafts, and recipes. The front page is a blog, where you’ll find lots of ideas and book reviews, too.
Resources for EducatorsBrenda Power and the folks at Choice Literacy have created a new Podcast Center where you can scroll through all of the podcasts and vodcasts by literacy experts like Donalyn Miller talking about engaging readers; Franki Sibberson‘s conversation with Patrick Allen; Gail Boushey and Joan Moser talking about writing journals; and lots, lots more [I kid you not!]
Unwrapping LiteracyReading is in the midst of a revolution … or is it? It’s interesting to contrast this 2009 video by Shift Happens with all of the discussions we’re having in 2011. In some ways so much has changed in two years, but in other ways, it’s still the same continuum. The “hottest” gadgets on the planet are / continue to be the ones that encourage (and some might say require) us to use our literacy skills — reading AND writing. 2011 could well be the year of the book App and thankfully, before we get too much further down the road, some of the most trusted sources for children’s and young adult literature are stepping in to help guide us. In an article for the Huffington Post, Monica Edinger (Educating Alice) offers a nice set of links to organizations who are reviewing Children’s Book Apps.
We have added a few new videos to the Videos about Reading page on the Wiki. Our goal is to expand the library with short, hands-on “tutorials” that demonstrate different ways to engage kids with literacy, particularly reading. This three-minute video shows you how to introduce a book before reading.
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