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Welcome to the first issue of Reading Plus. We created the series to help clarify how learning to read and developing math skills can be partners in helping our kids become successful, confident people.

We often speak about how illiteracy can be debilitating and scary. We talk about how adults can’t read street signs or labels on medication; or how they can’t understand a bank records or their monthly utility bill. Yes, those things have words, but they also have numbers.

In a recent study, the Jump$tart Coalition found that on average, high school seniors failed a basic exam testing financial literacy concepts, scoring an average of just 48 percent. It may amaze you to learn that significant numbers of college-aged people don’t understand how to compare credit card APRs (annual percentage rates), know how to set a budget, or even use a savings account.

Many kids find concepts of personal finance and economics daunting, confusing or downright scary. Just as dormant readers tell us “I don’t like to read,” kids intimidated by numbers tell us how they have don’t like math. In the same way you get kids in the habit of reading at an early age to give them a head start in school, you can get them involved in reading about money, saving, investing, and retirement. Here are a few suggestions on ways to start early:

• Ask that your child’s school incorporate financial literacy topics into math and social studies classes.
• Involve your child in extracurricular activities such as scouts clubs, which cover money management topics from time to time.
• Take advantage of the array of free resources that are designed to help kids understand money management.

Last but not least, you can get more bang for your buck by selecting books with stories that introduce financial concepts. Whether you are reading with a toddler or a middle school student, there are books for all age groups that will not only improve your child’s reading habits but help them learn more about financial concepts as well.

Cady’s Two Cents

Here are some resources that offer basic information about money and finance …

Money Math: Lessons for Life – Free curriculum from the U.S. Treasury Department

Practical Money Skills: Free Lessons for Young Children – This site, sponsored by Visa, also has curriculum for teens and college-age students

Books to Share: 0 to 5
The Berenstain Bears’ Dollars and Sense by Jan and Stan Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money by Jan and Stan Berenstain

Books to Share: 6 to 9
Can I Have Some Money Please? by Twyla Prindle and Randy Jennings
Where Is My Money? by Twyla Prindle and Randy Jennings

Books to Share: 10 and up
Invest Kids Series by Gillian Houghton
includes: Goods and Services, How to Balance a Checkbook, How Credit Cards Work, How Banks Work, Cash and ATMs, and Creating a Budget

Next edition: Helping kids understand money doesn’t grow on trees.

Cady North, the project director and author for this series, is a business and finance professional sharing time between Washington, DC, and Charlottesville, VA. She has nine years in the public policy arena helping educate members of Congress and State Legislatures on various issues. Cady [cadynorth [at] gmail [dot] com] is passionate about improving financial literacy in both students and adults.

Notes:

* Children’s book titles link to amazon.com, with whom the Reading Tub has an affiliate relationship. Purchases made through the links can earn income for the Reading Tub. The link is for your convenience and does not require a purchase.

Man with bag of money – image credit Johnny Automatic at OpenClipArt.org

Copyright © 2010 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.
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Today, after a five month hiatus, I will be sending out the new issue of the Growing Bookworms email newsletter. (If you would like to subscribe, you can find a sign-up form here.) The Growing Bookworms newsletter contains content from my blog focused on children's books and raising readers. There are currently 1276 subscribers.

The newsletter was formerly sent out once every two weeks. However, following the unexpectedly early birth of my daughter (born 10 weeks premature) I had to put the newsletter on hiatus for a while. I'm now slowly getting back up to speed, but expect the newsletter schedule to remain a bit erratic for right now. I thank you all for your patience. It's great to be back!

Newsletter Update: In this issue I have one book review. I also have an announcement about the Cybils and a link to an interview that I did recently, two annoucements related to the fourth annual Kidlitosphere conference, and several "Baby Bookworm Updates" that include discussion of the books that my daughter and I have been reading together. I'll include some further discussion of what I've been reading on my own in this post.

Reading Update: Since my last newsletter, I've read lamentably few books (though I'm increasing my picture book repetoire every day - that will be the subject of a future post). Much of what I've read has been adult novels that I listened to on MP3, while my hands were otherwise occupied (like when I was driving back and forth to the hospital every day). I have been grateful for my Audible subscription.

• Frances Hodsgon Burnett (ill. Tasha Tudor): The Secret Garden. HarperTrophy. Completed May 27, 2010. (Read aloud to Baby Bookworm, her first chapter book)
• Astrid Lindgren: Pippi Longstocking. Puffin. Completed June 3, 2010 (read aloud to Baby Bookworm).
• Barrie Summy: I So Don't Do Mysteries. Yearling. Completed June 3, 2010.
• Rick Riordan: The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles, Book 1). Hyperion. Completed July 20, 2010, on MP3. This is the first of new series that brings Egyptian mythology to life. The main characters are a brother and sister, raised apart after their mother's death, brought together by their father's disappearance, and learning about a whole new world swirling around them. I liked that Carter and Sadie have a realistic sibling rivalry going, and I found the treatment of the siblings' biracial heritage refreshing.
• Meg Cabot: Runaway (Airhead #3). Point. Completed June 15, 2010. This is the conclusion to the Airhead trilogy. It was the only thing that I could stay awake to read after Baby Bookworm first came home from the hospital, but alas, that time is such a blur that I really don't have anything to say about the book.
• Carol Plum-Ucci: Fire Will Fall. Harcourt. Completed August 5, 2010. This is the sequel to Streams of Babel, which I reviewed here. It follows the Trinity Four, teen survivors recuperating from a bioterrorist attack, as well as two v-spies also damaged in the first book. The narration rotates between the various teens, as they adapt to their current circumstances, and recognize a new threat from the terrorists. I enjoyed the interpersonal dynamics between the teens, and especially liked the teen hackers. But I found the pace of the book a bit slow for my current sleep-deprived state.
• Lauren Henderson: Kisses and Lies (Scarlett Wakefield, #2). Delacorte. Completed August 18, 2010. Kiss in the Dark (Scarlett Wakefield, #3). Delacorte. Completed August 24, 2010. I like this UK-based teen mystery series, featuring a physically strong female protagonist with a complex family history. The books fall into pairs, with Kisses and Lies solving the mystery launched in the first book of the series (reviewed here), while Kiss in the Dark leaves a number of questions open for a presumed fourth book.
• Suzanne Collins: Mockingjay (Hunger Games series). Scholastic. Completed August 31, 2010. Reviewed here.
• Lisa Lutz: The Spellmans Strike Again. Simon & Schuster. Completed May 3, 2010, on MP3. An entertaining adult mystery series, set in San Francisco among a quirky family of private investigators.
• Louise Penny: A Rule Against Murder. Minotaur. Completed May 14, 2010. This is the library book that I was reading when BB was born. I had to renew it twice before I found time to finish it.
• Michael Connelly: The Brass Verdict. Little, Brown and Company. Completed June 11, on MP3. In this book, Connelly's two series protagonists meet for the first time.
• Harlan Coben: Caught. Dutton. Completed June 16 (on MP3). Fast-paced standalone thriller.
• Lee Child: 61 Hours. Delacorte. Completed June 20, 2010. This is the latest installment of Child's Reacher series, which I find utterly compelling, and has spread virally through friends and family and friends of friends. I'm baffled as to why Reacher isn't a movie hero (though I kind of like that he's not).
• Michael Connelly: Nine Dragons. Vision. Completed June 20, 2010, on MP3.
• Charlaine Harris: Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 10). Ace Books. Completed June 25, 2010, on MP3. While I've generally enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse books, and think that they make great audio, I found this one a bit too disjointed, plot-wise, for my taste.
• Laurie R. King: God of the Hive (A Russell/Holmes novel). Bantam. Completed July 5, 2010, on MP3. This book concludes the cliff-hanger at the end of the previous book, and is a must-read for fans of this intelligent historial mystery series.
• Linwood Barclay: Never Look Away. Delacorte. Completed July 10, 2010, on MP3. Barclay writes suburban thrillers in a similar vein to Harlan Coben's standalone novels. In this one, reporter Dan Harwood's life is turned upside down when his wife disappears during a family outing to an amusement park, and evidence starts to mount that Dan may have had something to do with it.
• Janet Evanovich: Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum series). St. Martin's Press. Completed August 1, 2010, on MP3. What can I say? These books are fun, decadent reads, full of over-the-top characters and ludicrous escapades.
• Jacqueline Winspear: The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs series). Completed August 10, 2010, on MP3. I think that this is one of the best historical mystery series being published today. Maisie has brains, class, and heart. The mysteries are complex and dark, without being gratuitously violent. This one is no exception.
• Craig Johnson: Junkyard Dogs (Walt Longiore series). Completed August 31, on MP3. I've recently become addicted to Johnson's series, about a crusty small-town Wyoming sheriff. I enjoyed this one, though I missed the active presence of Walt's best friend, Henry Standing Bear.

How about you? What have you been reading and enjoying? Thanks for reading the newsletter, and for growing bookworms.

© 2010 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. All Amazon links in this post are affiliate links, and may result in my receiving a small commission on purchases (with no additional cost to you).

Book: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Pages: 400
Age Range: 13 and up

Mockingjay is, of course, the long-awaited conclusion to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy (see my reviews of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire). This series has reached that point of media saturation where it becomes cool for reviewers to dismiss or criticize it (Twilight, anyone?). The movie rights have been acquired by Lionsgate. Mockingjay had something like a 1.2 million copy initial print run. The series has helped launch a tremendous wave of dystopian young adult literature. So ... it's hard to be objective about the book. But I'll share a few thoughts (and no spoilers).

Mockingjay is very dark. This is to be expected. The first Hunger Games book, after all, introduces a society that hosts an annual contest in which 24 teens fight to the death, until only one victor is standing. In Catching Fire, victor Katniss finds herself returned to the Hunger Games arena, even as she also becomes a pawn in a much larger game, a rebellion against the abusive capitol.

Mockingjay picks up shortly after the end of Catching Fire, with Katniss physically and emotionally damaged by the traumas that she's endured. While she's been reunited with her childhood friend Gale, her Hunger Games partner Peeta has been captured by the government. Katniss has become a symbol of the resistance (she is the Mockingjay of the title). However, she's too worn down to be much help, at first, and finds herself suspicious of the motives of some of the rebels, too. Katniss's personal struggle to understand her place, and her feelings for Gale and Peeta, plays out against the larger backdrop of the war between the Capitol and the rebels.

This is a book that portrays war in all of its ugliness. Collins touched on similar themes in her earlier Underland Chronicles series (last book reviewed here, with links to earlier reviews), but that book was aimed at a younger audience. Mockingjay depicts scenes of shocking violence, and acts of nearly unimaginable cruelty. This is not a book for those with weak stomachs. But it is compelling. And it casts a sharp, but utter non-preachy, light on the atrocities of war.

I found Katniss's physical and emotional weakness in parts of the book a bit trying at first, but I've concluded that it was brave of Collins to show all of Katniss's damage. She's far, far from a perfect heroine, and she knows it.

Personally, I was satisfied with the ending, and with the resolution of the Gale/Peeta/Katniss triangle (and that's all I'll say about that right now). I haven't read many other reviews, so I have no idea whether or not this is a general viewpoint. But I'll certainly continue to recommend this series to people. I think that Suzanne Collins has some very dark views on war and technology. But she's created a fascinating world in Panem, and a memorable, ultimately sympathetic character in warrior Katniss. Quite an achievement, I think.

Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: August 24, 2010
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

Back in the 1950s Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, created "The Cat in the Hat" in response to concerns that American children were lagging in literacy. More than half a century later his floppy-hatted hero is being recruited again to help promote childhood learning: this time, though, it's keeping kids excited about science. On Labor Day PBS introduces "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!," a daily half-hour program based on Random House's Learning Library series. Martin Short is the voice of the Cat, who leads his young playmates on fanciful adventures in the natural science world, exploring how bees make honey, why birds migrate and how being slow helps a sloth.

"Ethan was ready for school," Amy Charles said of her son, who began kindergarten at Grand Oaks Elementary on Aug. 9. However, when Ethan walked through those doors the first day, he was doing more than beginning his education, he was carrying on a family tradition of attending Anderson County Schools. Karen Bridgeman, director of communications for Anderson County Schools, said there is an important aspect that will make Ethan's experience different from that of his mother's and grandmother's. "The maturity of the children is dramatically different," she said. "Kids come to the classroom with so many more skills than they did before."

Explorations V Children's Museum will launch a new educational program this fall that aims to increase literacy skills for hundreds of local pre-K students. The new one-day program will allow students to attend a group story time, complete activities based on their book's storyline, and conclude with a two-hour complimentary tour through the museum.

Four weeks into the school year, 60 students are already becoming bilingual. At the Hall County Early Language Development Center, four classes of kindergartners are learning half of the day in English and half of the day in Spanish. "The basis here is that children learn English faster if they're literate in their first language," said Lois Myers, who heads up the new center and is principal at Lyman Hall Elementary School. The four teachers — two English and two Spanish — pair up with 30 students to teach reading and math objectives in English and Spanish each day. The science and social studies objectives are included in the reading portions of the day.

As y’all know, the Reading Tub® is a nonprofit for children’s literacy. Our goal is, quite simply, to bring reading home to families. Although we tend to equate literacy and reading books, it is much broader than that. For better or worse, Literacy (with a capital “L”) is parsed into lots of subsets: 21st Century Literacy, information literacy, life literacy, etc. Financial literacy is also one of those labels.

In mid-August 2010, I received an email from a young woman who wanted to volunteer with us. Cady North is passionate about helping kids become successful as adults. In her introduction to me, she wrote:

I am specifically interested in improving the financial literacy in America’s youth and underprivileged families. I would like to work on research or projects that help expand awareness of personal finance issues such as savings programs, how to make and keep a budget, how to properly complete tax forms, how credit works, etc.

Voila! A project is now off the ground! For more than a year now, I have been trying to find a way to create a project that overlays math and reading. Learning your numbers and understanding how they fit into “real life” is a process that parallels learning your letters and ultimately learning to read.

Cady has jumped in with both feet and I am excited by all of the great stuff she’s found already. With September nearly here – and school underway (or about to be) – it seemed to be the perfect time to launch our series. Over the next few weeks, we will be featuring Cady’s work in a series I am calling Reading Plus … as in Reading + Math. Our goal is to explain the symbiotic relationship between math and reading, link you to some great resources, and – most importantly – invite you share your ideas!

Image Credit:

Intersection of Two Cubes by Colt Mazeo at OpenClipArt.com

Copyright © 2010 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.
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I have two pieces of news to share today.

First up, Aaron Mead, who blogs at Children's Books and Reviews, recently featured me in his ongoing series of children's book blogger interviews. You can find the interview here. While Aaron asked a number of interesting questions, my favorite was: "If you were standing on a soapbox full of children’s books, what advice would you give your audience?" You'll have to click throuugh to read my answer (though regular readers won't find it a surprise, and Reach Out and Read was kind enough to tweet the soundbyte). Aaron also interviewed Marya Jansen-Gruber last month, and has more interviews to come.

Second, and much more important to the Kidlitosphere at large, the Cybils (children's and young adult bloggers' literary awards) just issued the 2010 call for judges. For all you children's and young adult book bloggers who have seen the amazing Cybils shortlists and winners, and envied the bloggers who select them, this is your chance to get involved. It's a lot of work, but participation is a tremendous opportunity to participate in the Kidlitosphere, and read and recommend excellent books. I'll be continuing my somewhat nebulous position as Literacy Evangelist for the Cybils (something along the lines of a cheerleader and promoter). I'll start that by saying: isn't the new logo, designed and updated by Sarah Stevenson, beautiful? You can download it here in various sizes. To participate as a judge, please follow the instructions here.

And that's two posts in one day, which makes me very happy. Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Corporation for National and Community Service CEO Patrick Corvington Hands Out the One Millionth Book in Reach Out and Read “Summer of a Million Books” Campaign

(New Orleans, LA) August 27, 2010 – The nationwide school readiness initiative Reach Out and Read kicked off the summer by announcing its goal of distributing one million books to children nationwide before Labor Day.  Today, more than one week before the deadline, the Corporation for National and Community Service CEO Patrick Corvington joined Reach Out and Read CEO Earl Martin Phalen to hand out the one millionth book, “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” to a child at the Tulane Pediatric Clinic at the Covenant House, a homeless shelter in New Orleans, LA. 

Reach Out and Read developed the Summer of a Million Books in conjunction with the United We Serve: Let’s Read. Let’s Move. initiative, which aims to promote community service and combat illiteracy and childhood obesity.  Reach Out and Read is a national partner of Let’s Read. Let’s Move., an Administration-wide effort led by First Lady Michelle Obama, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and five federal agencies. 

“United We Serve and Reach Out and Read provide a powerful example of using service as a solution to address childhood illiteracy,” said Corporation CEO Patrick Corvington.  “The Summer of a Million Books campaign is proof positive of the problems we can tackle when we come together and focus efforts toward real, measurable results.”

“This is an incredible achievement for Reach Out and Read’s 30,000 doctors, nurses, and volunteers nationwide,” said Earl Martin Phalen, Chief Executive Officer of Reach Out and Read.  “Together, they have helped to put one million more children on the path to school success by providing parents with the guidance and the tools they need.  We stand united in the dream that one day, every child in America will benefit from the Reach Out and Read program.”

Reach Out and Read targets children who are at greatest risk for school failure and illiteracy, and provides them with high quality children’s books and their parents with reading tips and guidance on the importance of reading aloud.  Fourteen research studies confirm that Reach Out and Read works – families served by the program read together more often, and their children enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed, with larger vocabularies, stronger language skills, and a six-month developmental age over their peers.

The key to Reach Out and Read’s success is the messenger: pediatricians and family physicians.  Participating doctors and nurse practitioners incorporate the Reach Out and Read model into every regular checkup for children between 6 months of age and the time they enter kindergarten.  Because 96% of U.S. children see their doctor at least once a year and because of the trust that parents have in their child’s doctor, the pediatric checkup is the ideal opportunity to promote early literacy and school readiness.  Last year, Reach Out and Read’s 26,500 participating medical providers served 3.9 million children and families at 4,500 hospitals, clinics, and pediatric practices nationwide.

At the event, Phalen also announced that Scholastic Book Clubs would donate an additional 500,000 children’s books to Reach Out and Read through the ClassroomsCare program, in honor of the Summer of a Million Books campaign.  ClassroomsCare is a philanthropy-based literacy program that teaches schoolchildren the joy of reading and giving.

“We are absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of Scholastic Inc. CEO Dick Robinson, Scholastic Books Clubs, and the hundreds of thousands of children nationwide who participate in ClassroomsCare,” said Phalen.  “These students are helping to ensure that every child in America grows up with books and parents who understand the transformational power of reading aloud.”

Phalen added that there’s still time for all Americans to join the “Summer of a Million Books” campaign and help ensure that every child arrives at kindergarten ready to read and prepared to excel.

The profile of the 4 million children starting kindergarten reveals the startling changes the USA has undergone the past decade and offers a glimpse of its future. In this year's class, for example, about one out of four 5-year-olds will be Hispanic.

Though some children can barely contain their excitement as they choose an outfit for the first day of school and gleefully shop for new supplies, many other students feel anxiety in the weeks before September, wondering what the new school year will bring.

"The Little Engine That Could" is pulling into the area with the local inception of singer Dolly Parton's Imagination Library — in part to instill an "I-think-I-can" attitude in Flagler County's youngest residents. The Flagler County Chamber of Commerce & Affiliates, in partnership with several other agencies, is unveiling the program in which a free new book is mailed every month to children from birth until they turn 5.

American music legend Judy Collins has turned her musical talents to a children's book entitled "Over the Rainbow," which also features a three-song CD. In this interview, Collins describes her personal connection to the beloved song and shares some of her favorite illustrations from the book.

“Let this groove set in your shoes … [background singers: just move yourself ] …” [lyrics from Earth, Wind and Fire's "Let's Groove Tonight" from the Raise! album]

Yep! It’s Monday, the first full week of school and I’m grooving.  I am starting to tackle the reader, got my Hootsuite dashboard up, I’m polishing up a post by one of our volunteers, and cleaning off the desk! So, here are a few groovy things (okay, I’ll quit now) I have found so far.

Let’s start with some Cybils bling.  Nominations will begin shortly, but in order for it all to work, we need panelists and judges! If you are interested in participating in the process, the Call for Judges for the 2010 cycle has gone out. You can also keep up-to-date with @CYBILS or search #cybils on Twitter.

Continuing with event announcements, Michelle wrote a Save the Date post at the Book Blogger Convention blog! BBC 2011 will once again be affiliated with BookExpo America, which is held the last full week of May. The innaugural event was terrific, so if you’re going to be in New York (or thinking about being in New York), be sure to keep Friday 27 May 2011 open!

Over at The O.W.L. (Outrageously Wonderful Literature from the Middle Grades), Jill has a survey about book reviews. She created the survey to figure out how best to tackle ten reviews, but naving now seen oh, maybe 50 review of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, I am happy to share a few thoughts on seeing the same book reviewed over and over.

In the last couple weeks, Mitali Perkins has been talking about selling multicultural books over at The Fire Escape. In her first post, she asked for ideas about selling multicultural titles.  It is worth reading Mitali’s post and the comments, but if you only have time for a digest version, then check out Tips on selling “multicultural” kid/YA books. Although Mitali’s described audience are publishers and booksellers, her tips are valuable for the library and even at home, too!

Last but not least, I have posted the second part of my series about reading together as a family over at Booklights. As you may have seen, Gina Montefusco (our cheerleader and PBS mentor) announced that we’ll be finishing up our run at Booklights in the next few weeks. I can’t say enough about what a great opportunity this has been, and I’m looking at this as shalom, not goodbye.  So for now, I’m just going to keep on dancin’!

Copyright © 2010 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.
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I was browsing the web this morning, innocently looking for ideas for a baby shower that I will be hosting...and I was surprised (and kinda' irritated) that one site which included a list of gift ideas recommended crib bumpers as a possible gift idea for the mom-to-be.

HUH? {scratching my head}

Crib bumpers? Really? Even after  the Academy of Pediatrics, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, First Candle/National SIDS Alliance, and the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development all recommend AGAINST using them? Now, perhaps the writer on this particular website didn't know about this. Or perhaps she was referring to the newer "breathable" bumpers (but based on the context, I doubt it). In either case, I am surprised that bumpers were recommended as a baby gift. I was even more surprised to see how many retailers are still selling those thick, fluffy bumpers.

I hope that hospitals, birthing instructors, social service agencies, child care centers, and other agencies working with parents are informed about crib safety and that they are more importantly, educating parents! Hopefully agencies that work with minority populations are also committed to educating others on crib safety because there is some racial disparity when it comes to infant mortality rates.

Also read: Crib Bumper Pads: Are They Safe?

Ok... I'm off of my soap box now. What's the point of having a blog if you can't rant once in a while ;-)?

Be safe people...and protect our little ones who are too young to protect themselves!

Playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist Quiara Alegria Hudes has gone back to the basics — the very basics of the ABCs. Her latest project, a children's book called Welcome To My Neighborhood! A Barrio ABC, follows a young girl who takes her best friend on an alphabetical tour through her North Philadelphia neighborhood.

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) recently visited the Arlington Pediatric Center to read to children as part of "Reach Out and Read," a national initiative designed to encourage young people to become lifelong readers. "There's one thing that is more effective than anything else you can do" to help children in their formative years, Moran said. "That's for their parents, or for another caring caregiver, to read to them on their lap."

As soon as Deana Vega felt strong enough, she was back in the hospital where she'd spent nearly a year of her life battling leukemia to cheer on other young patients. Now Deana, 11, has recruited the help of two committed teachers to write a children's book about her experience for others coping with cancer entitled How My Sun Got Its Smile.

Sandals and bare feet were the dress code at the Maple Shade Municipal Building recently. That's because there was a beach party going on. Children who participated in the Maple Shade Library's Summer Reading Club at the library were invited to the End-of-Summer Reading Beach Party complete with leis, live music, and reading certificates.