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Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup – Early December edition

2010 December 8

The early December children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book PageScrub-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.

As always, Jen has packed in all of the best stuff about literacy and reading with kids you can find.  She starts us off with links to two big events:

  • 2010 Winter Blog Blast Tour, hosted by Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray. I admit I haven’t checked out anything yet  … WBBT is something I savor with a warm cup of coffee and lots of time.
  • Zoe Toft @PlayByTheBook also opened the December I Can Read Carnival | Celebrating New Readers. Links are already coming in, and you’ll find lists of seasonal books for new readers, a nominee for the 2010 Maryland Blue Crab Young Readers Awards. Do take the time to read Zoe’s story about finding appropriate easy readers for M (her child). Those of us in the States tend to think Ameri-centric, and Zoe’s points about finding books in British English are well founded! The carnival is open until 12 December 2010, and reviews or posts up to 1 year old are welcome!

With regard to raising readers, Jen has previously spoken passionately about how important it is to let kids enjoy reading and not ‘push’ them. So it was no surprise to me that she enjoyed reading specialist Joanne Rossi’s point about reading with kids. “Pushing kids to read before they’re ready can lead to self-esteem problems and stalling out early, according to reading specialist Joanne Rossi. You can read more of Rossi’s thoughts … as well as those of other reserachers in Julie Williams’ Education.com article.

I am behind in my blog reading, so my thanks to Sarah Stevenson (Cybils, Finding Wonderland and Aquafortis) for pointing me to  this School Library Journal piece about the just-launched School Library Exchange.  Simon Gornick is a dad who believes that “quiet spaces” are a critical part of the learning process … like the library. “As our children become more and more enmeshed in the hyper-stimulated digital world that we live in, going ‘offline’ gives them time to focus and reflect in a great distraction-free zone.” He also saw how desperately school libraries need outside help. Gornick and fellow parent Sarah Jacobson created School Library Exchange as a place where school libraries can state their needs and parents/educators can purchase books (through wish lists) or donate books to help fill the shelves.

As the year draws to a close, the “best of” lists will pop up everywhere. If you want to go ONLY to one place to find them all, I suggest you bookmark Susan Thomsen’s The Best Books of 2010: A List of Lists and Awards at Chicken Spaghetti. If you don’t mind blog-hopping, you might start with the 2010 Horn Book Fanfare List (link to Out of the Box, Horn Book’s newest blog).

Last but not least, a quick Congrats to Everybody Wins! DC on your new space.

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