It was such a great surprise to see a note from Kate Coombs, the Book Aunt saying that she’d given me a Prolific Blogger Award.

To say I’m awed by my companion winners is an understatement! Not only did Kate include some of my favorite blogs …

• Charlotte of Charlotte’s Library
• Becky Becky’s Book Review
• Doret of The Happy Nappy Bookseller
• Tarie of Into the Wardrobe

but I met two new friends, too …

• YA author Lindar Gerber, and
• The Green Bean Teen Queen, a Tween and Teen Services Librarian.

As long-time readers know, there are too many great blogs for me to whittle it down to a spontaneous few. Ironically enough, I had to cry uncle this weekend and for the first time ever cleared the reader with “Marked as Read.”

So I will graciously thank Kate for the award … and two new blogs for our blogroll page and my reader! If you’ve recently found a new spot that YOU love, feel free to add it in the comments.

Welcome to the post-Snowmaggedon edition of the children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog.  This week Jen Robinson and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations.

For those of us looking for something to do on a snowy Monday, look no further than Who’s the Baker? an activity Valerie created when she was a student teacher. As Valerie says, “While this activity isn’t exclusively related to children’s literacy, it lends itself well and can be teamed up with some great cookie or baking themed stories.” Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You Eat? anyone?

Events

In a campaign that is near and dear to our hearts, Change.org has submitted the idea for a national Read to Kids campaign that could engage national and local literacy organizations, schools, teachers, parents, authors, publishers and nearly every sector of business and society that understands that our nation’s future depends on our children’s literacy skills. The 10 most popular ideas will be presented at an event in Washington, DC to relevant members of the Obama Administration! Take a minute, vote, and then come back to keep reading. (via Liddle Bee Books blog)

As you know from our Booklights posts last week, we have writing on the mind. In Jen’s Literacy Lights around the Kidlitosphere and my Prompt Idea column, we both offered ways to bring literacy to life with writing. So, it only seems logical that we would highlight the PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest. ”Kids in kindergarten, first, second or third grade can submit their original illustrated stories to their local public television station (check to find nearest partipating stations).

Speaking of contests … Hooray for Books Bookstore (Alexandria, VA) is sponsoring a contest in celebration of Theodor Geisel’s birthdayon March 2, 2010. ” From their Facebook fan page:  ”Calling all Dr. Seuss fans! To celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday, which is March 2, we invite you to submit your Seussian poems to Hooray For Books! by Saturday, February 27 for consideration in our first-ever Dr. Seuss Contest! If you can’t yet write, draw us a picture of a Seussian-type character. We’ll post the winning poem on our website for the month of March and display all entries in our storytime area during that month.”

Now this is cool! The Center for the Book and theChildren’s Book Council have announced a contest where schools and libraries can win a visit by National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Katherine Paterson. The entry is a 250-words-or-less description that “explains what type of event you would develop if Katherine Paterson were to visit.” Learn more at the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance website.

The PaperTigers team, staunch advocates of global literacy, have launched the Spirit of Paper Tigers Project. According to the project announcement, “The idea is to donate 100 book sets of 7 carefully selected multicultural books to libraries and schools in areas of need across the globe.” You can view the list of selected titles here.

Speaking of global literacy, literacy nonprofit LitWorld says: “March 3, 2010 has been established as LitWorld’s first World Read Aloud Day to celebrate and encourage the invaluable practice of reading aloud and to bring attention to the importance of literacy across all countries and for all of humanity.” Link via @PamAllyn.

This one is part event, part literacy program … and a little football, too. Thanks to Barbara Hendel’s  article in the Toledo Blade, we discovered the Second and Seven Foundation in Columbus, OH.  The Foundation, created by three former Ohio State University players, promotes literacy throughout Central Ohio. “The modern definition of literacy is the ability to read, write, use computers, and evaluate information found on the internet. With that in mind, we created the ‘Tackle Illiteracy’ program. Each week during the school year, we travel with various student-athletes from The Ohio State University to different elementary schools in Columbus and read to the entire 2nd grade class. After we discuss the importance of reading, we give each child a book that they can take home and read for fun.” We love that it includes current and former players!!

Literacy Programs & Research

In her post about Katherine Paterson’s response to the iPad being called a “book-killer,”  Tasha Saeker offered these thoughts at Kids Lit: ”I’m storing this one away for those cloudy, bleak days when I tire of arguing that libraries and books will live on.  I consider it a battery charger for advocates.” We definitely needed a recharge when we saw this …

Sigh! Debra Lau Whelan reports in School Library Journal that “President Obama has delivered a slap in the face to school librarians. In his FY2011 budget proposal to Congress on Monday, he completely eliminated the Improving Literacy for School Libraries grant program, designed to boost academic achievement by providing students with access to up-to-date school library materials.” (Via SLJ Extra Helping)

President Obama’s proposed budget also eliminates funding for Reading is Fundamental. Without RIF, more than 4.4 million children and families will not receive books. Without getting political … Jen and I believe strongly in the power of early literacy, and this would be a very serious blow to at-risk readers. Read what Executive Director Carol Rasco has to say in her Alert at Rasco from RIF, as well as her statement on the RIF website.

In her 10 Tips for Reading with Preschooler post, Dawn Little (Literacy Toolbox) offers some practical ideas for creating a memorable reading experience.  Terry liked the suggestion of letting your child act out the story. As a bonus, Dawn has a nice list of books to actively engage kids in the reading process.

At the LiteraBuss, the Buss updates us on his doctoral research: assessing the effects of prepackaged programs and curriculum design on student achievement.  One of the consistent themes across all of the articles is that “the single biggest factor on student learning is quality teaching.” [emphasis ours] There is no single point of reference for what constitutes quality teaching, but the Buss is not giving up. “If we can define it, if we can prove that it serves the best interests of children and scores them proficient on those ridiculous standardized tests, there might be a compromise out there that actually hands the reins of education to teachers while keeping the politicians at bay.” Yes!

In an interview with CBC-Parents, literacy experts Dr. Linda M. Phillips (Professor and Director of the Canadian Centre for Research on Literacy, University of Alberta) and Carol McDougall (writer, librarian, and the Founding Director of Read to Me) talk about how infants, babies, and preschoolers acquire the skills that ultimately lead to learning to read and, potentially a lifelong love of reading.  From Carol: “Babies’ brains are wired through experience and they need partners to bring this experience – sight, sound, touch – into their lives. Reading is the perfect way to bring that experience to a baby: cuddling up close, hearing a richness of language, and seeing bright pictures in a book. When a baby is read to from birth they grow up associating the positive experience of being cuddled and read to with the joy of reading later on.”

This is a staggering statistic: 45 percent of students being admitted to Kentucky’s public universities show up in need of at least one remedial course and about 33 percent need remediation in two or more courses. That is AT LEAST 1 of every 3 students! In response to this, the 2009 state General Assembly passed legislation that has resulted in a new program created by Dean Mary John O’Hair (Dean, UK College of Education) to “transform classrooms to engage learners at an early age and create a pipeline of students well-prepared to go to college and obtain careers matching their skills and interests.” There are plenty of details in this Business Lexington article by Tom Martin. (via @NAEYC)

And, in our continuing quest to tell you about interesting literacy programs, we have this Indian Express article by Maroosha Muzaffar about a Mongolian children’s book author who run a bookmobile off of a camel. “Travelling vast expanses of his country, with books in tow, Dashdondog wants to enable students in the countryside — the nomadic groups of Mongolia — to “spend their holidays reading books”.” Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

21st Century Literacies

According to an article by Lauren Barack in School Library Journal’s Extra Helping, “Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service has launched a new initiative that empowers middle and high school students to help teachers and staff better integrate tech into schools. “The concept of students as tech support and even teacher support has been around for several years,” says Karen Cator (pictured in article), Director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. DOE. “I think what this initiative does is take the best practices and take them to scale.””

Grants and Donations

Have you heard about the Pepsi Refresh project? Pepsi is giving away $1.3M to fund a variety of projects, at different funding levels. If you sign up for the site (or sign in using your Facebook ID), you can vote for up to 10 ideas (out of 729 submitted ideas) each day in February. You can browse the ideas here. We would never tell anyone else what to vote for – there are many, many great causes. But we will point out that three organizations that we regularly mention in the literacy roundups are in the running for a $250,000 education award: Everybody Wins (to provide lunchtime reading mentors), Reach Out and Read (to promote school readiness) and Better World Books with the NCFL (to distribute 1 million children’s books).

Twenty-seven nonprofit organizations working in the six counties that comprise the San Luis Valley received more than $100,000 in grants on Wednesday from Colorado Springs-based El Pomar Foundation. Council Member Valerie Finnegan says ““Education is the foundation for change, and it is wonderful that we have been able to address all spectrums of education from children’s literacy to adult learning with these grants.”” Learn More in the Valley Courier.

Wrapping Up …

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Great Kids Books. Stop by to see all the great books Mary Ann Scheur and friends are posting.

This week’s Poetry Friday will likely be romantic or presidential given the long weekend ahead. Lee Wind is hosting at I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the hell do I read?

Thanks for your interest in children’s literacy!

If you are a new reader and would like to see the previous editions, we have an archive with all of the 2010 Roundups at Book(re)Marks, where we also have widgets that post news between the roundups.

to share some of Mother Nature’s bounty beauty. It has been (mostly) lovely. If I knew how to add music, I’d add “There’s Got To Be a Morning After …”

Happy Sunday, all!

UPDATED TO FIX Link problems – Thanks Susan and Christopher.
Before I jump into the collection of literacy tools and resources, I’d like to highlight two, more general resources that offer keys to “process.”

Both of these leads came from The Big Fresh, the Choice Literacy eNewsletter. Although the newsletter is written for educators, both of these pieces can help parents, too.

• SCRIBD’s Social Media Checklist for Youth Projects (PDF). It is written for school use, but the tips are good for parents, too.  Some of the questions posed offer a good starting place for at-home discussions with older kids.  (source: 16 January 2010 edition)
• Kim Cofino’s post Making the Implicit Explicit on the Always Learning blog. In the article, Kim reminds us that what now seems second nature to us as computer users didn’t start out that way. “What’s especially interesting about these little, seemingly meaningless, skills is that they truly are transferrable and haven’t changed much over time – they’re certainly not dependent on a specific version of software. Unfortunately, despite their consistency, they often cause a lot of confusion for people who aren’t really comfortable with technology.” (source: 23 January 2010 edition)

Creative Literacy for Kids

In the Jan 8-10, 2010 edition of USA Weekend magazine, Paul Wisenthalhad a list of 5 great websites that let kids get creative.

• Crank It Up! which is among the Arthur Games on PBSKids. Be forewarned: maestros will be making (and can record) music using pots, pans, spoons,  and more … sometimes all at the same time! (all ages)
• Fidgit, part of the PBS Design Squad site, lets kids design and build their own games. They can also challenge their friends! (ages 8 to 13)

Shidonni – This program, a 2009 Parents’ Choice Gold Award winner, was also on Wisenthal’s list. This was really cool. The kids not only draw animals, but they can make them pets (as in give them names) AND design backgrounds for them. (ages 5 to 12)

Leave it to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create a site where kids can create movies, music and video games. MIT Media Lab members created Scratch, which is for ages 8 and up. Talk about multi-media class projects … Whoa. [Image credit: William Lee, MIT Class of 03]

KnightTime by the Hazardous Players is a website offering a serialized audiobook of a fantasy/adventure. You can listen to the chapters online (streaming) or download them to take them anywhere. The creators have artwork on the site to help young listeners see what the characters look like and get little bios about their personalities.

The Artist’s Toolkit ArtsConnectEd has created this interactive website that is just filled with great things to do.  There are videos of artists at work (albeit just 2 right now), an encyclopedia of terms, and  ways to learn the components of art (shapes, lines, color, movement, etc). In addition to explaining these elements, kids have the chance to take a piece of art and find them, too. The site offers a very professional way of helping learners SEE what words mean (thick line v. thin line) and learn vocabulary, too. I discovered it via the Raven Tree Press hELLo e-Newsletter that offers ideas for adults working with English Language Learners.

Literacy and Reading Tools for Parents

Thanks to Bobbi Newman @ Librarian by Day for her post about learning 2.0 class for parents, a 12-week program sponsored by the Darien (Connecticut) Library. The program kicks off 2 February 2010.

My thanks to Michelle Skamene for her email about ReadingRewards.com.  I found the concept intriguing. First, both parents and kids can set up reading goals … I LIKE that! As kids reach goals/benchmarks, the site “unlocks” games and other fun things. I guess I’d describe it as a Webkins-type site (there are probably others, I just know Webkins) with a CRITICAL  non-computer component. There are teacher tools, AND because it is a Canadian creation, you can use the site in French, too!

Literacy and Reading Tools for Educators

For the ultimate book talk, look no further than Meet the Author UK, where authors introduce their own books in their own words. “Some of the authors you will know, some are bestsellers, some are newcomers, but they are all speaking in their own words about the books that they are passionate about.” When I last stopped by, there were 1,607 authors video clips in the collection. My thanks to Susan Stephenson of the Book Chook for the link.

This one came to me via eMail from Nick Glass, the founder of TeachingBooks.net, and I saw it mentioned several times in conjunction with ALA awards, but I wanted to include it here. TeachingBooks.net hosts a FREE  Curriculum Resource Center for each of the 231 Coretta Scott King Book Award-winning authors, illustrators, and books. You can search by name, book title, award year, or curriculum by audience or subject area.  It is really a neat tool, but I particularly liked the book trailer filled with quotes spoken by the award-winning authors. I wish it was longer than 1:41.

Our thanks to @ReadWriteType for the retweet (RT) of an @readtoday announcement. Both www.literacycenter.net and www.readtoday.net have free Pre-K lesson plans for new followers.

Okay, I am S-O-O-O over the snow days. Here in Albemarle County, the kids went to school 1 Monday in January and 0 Mondays and in February. If we get the new 1 to 3″ of snow tonight they’ll be on a 3-day school-free streak, and if the next storm hits this weekend … oh, I don’t want to think about it.

These are the days when I wish that school systems used technology more effectively. Our school has “learning games” on the website that kids can play, but it would be nice to have some more substantive things for them to do. I know there are school systems that post their weekly plans online (complete with sample work) to keep kids engaged when weather comes to call.

As soon as I return to my other day job, I’ll have a post shortly about Katherine Paterson’s op-ed piece for the New York Daily News. In the meantime, here are some other items of note …

One of my favorite things about February is 28 Days Later, a monthlong celebration of African American writers and illustrators, at The Brown Bookshelf. Have you seen the lineup? Awesome! I’m sure I’ll be adding books to my list of potential titles to read for the People of Color Reading Challenge.

Speaking of which … Mitali Perkins started and is updating her list of children’s and young adult books that “feature a protagonist of a different race than yours.” Head over to Mitali’s Fire Escape to check out the list.

We’ve seen the stories about how social networking is “ruining” our language (and spelling) abilities.  Even though there are lots of adults engaged in using these tools – including TXT-ng – the experts focus on the kids. Well, Ian MacCrae has a wonderful post at ModEnglish reminding us that we have been ruining English for eons.

Welcome to the weekly roundup of news, analysis, and ideas for raising readers. Can you believe February is here already? My thanks to Jen for taking the helm of the children’s literacy and reading news round-up two weeks in a row.

These roundups are brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog. Jen and I collected plenty of content for you about literacy and reading-related events; literacy/reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships and donations.

This is National Storytelling Week in the United Kingdom, and there are two great posts that offer ideas (of course!) about ways to celebrate.

• Susan Stephenson (aka, the Book Chook), who is an IRREPRESSIBLE story teller, explains how telling stories is a valuable form of literacy, and adds a few suggestions, too!
• At Paper Tigers, Corinne told us about The Donkey Sanctuary opening its doors so that kids and donkeys can listen to stories, together.

As Jen says, “[we] are suckers for inventive programs to promote literacy.” Don’t have a donkey? Then grab the closest Democrat, stuffed animal, or your pet.

On the school front, there are two stand-out articles. They are particularly *personal* for me …

• As reported by Tricia from The Miss Rumphius Effect, a recent study found that “First- and second-graders whose teachers were anxious about mathematics were more likely to believe that boys are hard-wired for math and that girls are better at reading… What’s more, the girls who bought into that notion scored significantly lower on math tests than their peers who didn’t.”  (Emphasis mine). This is so frustrating. Despite everything we do at home to encourage math confidence in our second grader, it is undermined in her classroom.
• Teacherninja (aka Jim) offers a detailed list of 18 reasons why schools need to think long and hard about using/relying on Accelerated Reader (AR) programs.  Jim refers to Mark Pennington’s article (which is also worth a read). On the personal side … kids need to learn to read, but  they do it at different rates. Having worked in multiple classrooms with young readers, this one is particularly damning reason to me: “Using AR tends to limit differentiated instruction.”

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Wild About Nature. Even if you don’t have a contribution, be sure to stop by and leave a comment to congratulate Heidi, Kim, and Laura a Happy 1st Blogoversary. This week’s Poetry Friday roundup will at Great Kid Books.

Last and certainly not least, Jen has some additional links for parents about children’s literacy and raising readers in her newest Literacy ‘Lights from the Kidlitosphere at Booklights.

Have a great week, everyone! We’ll see you here next Monday.

Welcome to the first edition of our 2010 lists of books we’ve been reading. Many of the books are reviewed, some are not.  Please don’t take the lack of a review link as a statement on the book’s quality … it’s related solely to a lack of time. We can’t review everything we read. If you’ve done a review, we’d love to point readers to it. Please leave your link in the comments. Here are the changes for 2010:

• New Annual Page. This is a cumulative list for the year because sometimes a review/book talk comes a month or two after we finished reading the book. In fact, we just updated our Books Read in 2009 to add links to website profiles for Dragon Wishes, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and First Pooch. Each month we’ll update Books Read in 2010.
• Simpler presentation. We will still have Kid Picks because we like to point out the books kids pick for themselves. However, we won’t maintain separate headings for fiction and Nonfiction. For books with strong nonfiction content I’ll add Nonfiction to the entry.
• Better reader differentiation. We will make better distinctions between easy readers, short chapter books, middle grade readers, and young adult books.
• Recognize more reading formats. I am tweaking the audio books category to incorporate other reading formats, like magazines.  I’m struggling with a name, though. Got any ideas?

Let’s jump in with the three Rs.
Received: 48
Read: 22
Reviewed: 4

Reading Beyond the Book

ASK Magazine (Arts & Sciences for Kids), January 2010, February 2010 – Kid Pick

It is worth noting that the cover story on the January 2010 issue inspired our young reader to ask for other books about “cavemen in ice” at the library.

kid pick

Picture Books (all audiences)

Alyssa and the Spider
written by Alan St. Jean
illustrated by Libby Carruth Krock
(Oren Village, LLC, 2009) our book talk
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nonfiction

__________
nonfiction kid pick – See note above about ASK Magazine
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nonfiction kid pick
__________
nonfiction – our book talk

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nonfiction

kid pick
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nonfiction kid pick – Picking this book was inspired by seeing a Jaws movie poster at a restaurant.

Easy Readers (for Developing & Emerging Readers)

nonfiction

kid pick
__________

kid pick

__________

kid pick
__________
nonfiction
__________
nonfiction kid pick

Illustrated Short Chapter Books

__________

__________

kid pick
__________
A Little Bit of Faith: Book 1 (Precious Girls Club)
written by Cindy Kenney; illustrated by Precious Moments
(Precious Moments, 2009)
__________
kid pick
__________

Middle Grade Chapter Books (Fiction and Nonfiction)

__________

our book talk
__________

kid pick

Young Adult Chapter Books (Fiction and Nonfiction)

[OpenBook requires at least at book number, e.g., ISBN or Open Library key] our book talk

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Book cover images link to Amazon.com. When you buy a product via one of our links, we earn a small commission from the sale. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.

For the last several months my middle-grade reading has been all about dragons. I didn’t set out to read Dragon Wishes by Stacy Nyikos and The Last Dragon (Dragon Speaker, book 1) by Cheryl Rainfield as companion books, but I am glad I did.

The Last Dragon is a fantasy adventure and Dragon Wishes is more realistic. Still, the title characters are both fantastic and real in both books.  Rainfield and Nyikos have artfully woven in legends about a dragon’s magic powers into the stories but also made them very real to their protagonists.

In both books, the pivotal characters are pre-teens, though they live in different times. Jacob’s story is set in the early 12th Century (The Last Dragon); Alexandra (aka Alex) lives in modern-day San Francisco (Dragon Wishes). Both have lost their parents, and neither is comfortable with their place in the world. These stories are propelled by the characters – how they feel, what they think, the challenges they face, and their efforts to understand and succeed in the “real world.”

In The Last Dragon, the adults in the story are part of the background. Jacob’s mother (and many others) are victims of a Lord Manning, a heartless ruler, and his evil wizard Kain. In fact, Jacob limps because he was injured when Lord Manning burned down his house. As a result, he is viewed as a weakling.

Not long into the story, Jacob and his friend Orson leave their fathers to begin the quest for to find the last dragon and save their community from tyranny. Despite his best efforts to deny it, Jacob can speak to dragons. From Jacob’s perspective, it is improbable that a crippled boy could do any good, and he struggles with the possibility. Ultimately, Orson helps him accept that he (Jacob) must find and protect the last dragon from Lord Manning. If Lord Manning gets there first, evil prevails. As this is book one, it looks to be a lonely quest.

In contrast, Alex is surrounded by people. After her parents’ death, she and her 5-year-old sister Isa have moved from Oklahoma to California to live with their Uncle Norbert, Aunt Ling, and cousin Lori.  Neither girl is ready to deal with the grief, and these major changes have magnified the loss.  One of Alex’ few links to her former life is a worn red dragon that she sleeps with.

Auntie Ling, in an effort to comfort and connect with the girls, sits with them at bedtime. Over a series of nights, she shares a story that her grandmother shared with her. It is the legend of a young girl who, having traveled to find the dragons in a far-off land, asked them to use their magic to help save mankind from destroying itself. Each night, Alex waits anxiously for the next part of the story, because she is adopting the pieces for herself in hopes that she, too, can call upon the dragons to make her wishes come true.

Alex and Jacob have have personal dragons – some might say demons – that are part of the story.  These are children dumped into a world that goes beyond their worst nightmare.  Rainfield and Nyikos reveal their substance and depth in the same way an acquaintance becomes a friend – with time and through shared experiences. Jacob and Alex quickly move the reader from seeing them as sympathetic characters to being a companion.

• Preteen boys will instantly see themselves (and their friends) in Jacob and Orson.
• Alex’s emotions, frustrations, relationships, and hopes are palpable. Setting aside the grief of losing her parents, girls will find kinship with Alex.

Although I haven’t addressed it here, the customs of preparing for and celebrating Chinese New Year  are part of the story. This is a nice dimension that I found very interesting, and which would be attractive to multicultural families.

The Last Dragon and Dragon Wishes are great selections for classrooms, book clubs with mixed reading levels, or as a read-aloud for families with children of various ages.  They are wholesome, well-written, and engaging stories. To read more detailed reviews of each book, please visit the Reading Tub website.

The Last Dragon
written by C. A. Rainfield
Illustrated by Charlie Hnatiuk
published by H-I-P Books, High Interest Publishing, 2009
Audience (Reading level): 8 to 12 (2.6 Flesch-Kincaid)
Reading Tub book talk

Dragon Wishes
written by Stacy Nyikos
illustrated by Regan Johnson
published by Blooming Tree Press, 2008
Audience (Reading Level): 9 to 14 (6.4 Flesch-Kincaid)
Reading Tub book talk

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image source: Dragon – Chinese Dragon Cliparts

You probably saw this one coming … by participating in Lee Wind’s and MotherReader’s Comment Challenge, I had already hedged on the resolution “I will not participate in challenges in 2010.” Well, now the other shoe has dropped. I have signed on for the People of Color Reading Challenge.

Do I need to join a challenge to broaden my reading and be more thoughtful in the selections I make? No, and you probably don’t either. But like you,  I AM part of a community … an online community that draws attention to books by talking about them, and as a walking, talking resident of Charlottesville, VA.

Although I have not commented on the recent series of cover controversies, I have followed the discussions (link to Colleen Mondor/Chasing Ray). If you have not read the various posts, you need to. Whether you agree with the method or strategy, they are passionate, eloquent, thoughtful, and share views  with respect for each other’s positions. You will walk away thinking not only about your own approach to books, but with the eyes of readers of color.

If we want kids to be lifelong readers, then we need to connect them with books that resonate with them … where they are, who they are, and how they see themselves. For me, it is not just about changing book covers, adding more display space, and/or buying/boycotting publishers. It is about modeling a reading life. If we want them to read broadly, then WE need to read broadly. If we want them to be citizens of the global community, then WE need to read books that represent that community AND guide them there. If don’t read things that look/sound/feel interesting to them, then how can we ever hope to create that magic spark we feel every time we pick up a book? [stepping off soapbox]

I  have joined the People of Color Reading Challenge. I have officially signed up for 7 to 9 books, but I am going to shoot for 15. If you’re looking for ideas on books to select, then…

• head over to the POC Reading Challenge blog. In the upper left corner is a box that has the link-up pages for each month. You can see what people are reading.  Right above that is also an extensive list of authors and books by People of Color.
• visit Diversity Your Reading. On the right side, there are Category lists of authors by region of origin.
• check out the books folks read in 2009 as part of Ali’s Diversity Rocks Book Challenge.
• ask your librarian!

If you aren’t able to participate in the challenge, that’s Okay. I would encourage you to add these two blogs to your reader so you can regularly visit some of the bloggers who are writing about diverse books, add books of interest to your TBR pile, then write a post about these new books you want to read!

Welcome to the weekly roundup of news, analysis, and ideas for raising readers. This week Jen Robinson is hosting our children’s literacy and reading news round-up. The roundups are brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog. Jen and I collected plenty of content for you about literacy and reading-related events; literacy/reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships and donations.

I will second Jen’s response to the In The Huffington Post article that lays out Stephen Krashen’s concerns about new literacy-related legislation pending in Congress. I especially liked this bit: “If Congress really wanted to help schools develop strong readers, they’d provide funds to strengthen the libraries instead of money for buying skill drill worksheets and standardized tests.” I guess we need to spell these things out for Members of Congress! (pun intended!)

I was also intrigued by the Chicago Tribune article by Deanna Martin about Governor Mitch Daniels’ (Rep-Indiana) plan to end social promotion for third graders. While I understand that the plan may cost up to $49 million, have they not calculated what the long-term economic costs are when kids don’t learn to read? Maybe this can help them:

According to the US Department of Education, a functionally illiterate adult earns 42 percent less than a high school graduate. It is estimated that $5 billion a year in taxes goes to support people receiving public assistance who are unemployable due to illiteracy.

Lest you think I am completely cantankerous this morning … I have this piece of heartening news.

Jason Parsons, a Boone County native and former student body president at West Virginia University, has launched an initiative to improve literacy for children in five counties in Southern West Virginia (Kanawha, Boone, Logan, Lincoln and Mingo). Parsons is asking students and families to gather up their favorite old books from childhood and bring them to school. The school that collects the most books will receive a $5,000 stipend to further literacy education in their school.

I spent my teenage years in Charleston, WV (Kanawha County) as the daughter of a high school principal. If you don’t know this part of the state, think Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Glass Castle (Amazon Link) and When the Whistle Blows (our review).  Bravo Jason!  You can read more in Davin White’s article in the Charleston Gazette.

Today’s Nonfiction Monday round-up is at Playing by the Book. Nonfiction Monday creator Anastasia Suen will be hosting this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Picture Book of the Day.