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.

August 2009 [Books received: 28 ; books read: 43]

Beginning with the July list, I have added a note to all of our book reviews on the website. The note explains the source of the book and/or review so that we are completely transparent about our processes. Look for the source in the “Notes” section of each profile. I have a record of the source for every book we receive, and eventually I will add them to all of our reviews.

If you’ve written a review (website or blog) for any of the books with links, please click through and add your name/URL on the review page via Mr. Linky. We like letting our visitors know what other readers think! If you have reviewed a book that doesn’t have a link, be sure to leave your link in the comments!

I’ve added a new category: Treasured Stories. These are the books that we’ve read before, but which our young readers pull off the shelf time and again.  If we’ve reviewed it, I’ll include the link. These books don’t count toward our monthly totals … just our love of reading.

Audio Books (All Ages)

Tell Me a Story 2: Animal Magic by Amy Friedman (Ill. Jillian Gilliland)

Bilingual Books (All Ages)

There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward (Ill. Steve Gray)

Treasured Stories (All Ages)

The Best Place to Read by Debbie Bertram and Susan Blume (Ill. Michael Garland) – review
How Weird is It? A Freaky Book All About Strangeness by Ben Hillman
The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell (Ill. Guy Porfirio)
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss
Punk Farm by Jarrett J. Krosoczka – review
Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison (Ill. Kevin Hawkes) – review
Why is Blue Dog Blue? A Tale of Colors by George Rodgrigue (text with Bruce Goldstone) – review

Picture Books Nonfiction (All Ages)

Follow the Money! by Loreen Leedy (Ill. Loreen Leedy) - review
Dolphins (Smithsonian) by Seymour Simon – review
Teedy: The Story of Young Teddy Roosevelt by Don Brown – review
Through Time: London by Richard Platt (Ill. Manuela Cappon) – review

Picture Books Fiction (All Ages)

Amelia Bedelia’s First Day of School by Herman Parish (Ill. Lynne Avril) – review
April Fool! Watch Out at School! by Diane deGroat – review
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judy Barrett (Ill. Ron Barrett)
The Cods of Cape Cod by Ed Shankman (Ill. xx ) – review
Down by the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter (Ill. Frank Remkiewicz) – review
Is There Really a Human Race by Jamie Lee Curtis (Ill. Laura Cornell) – review
Last to Finish: A Story about the Smartest Boy in Math Class by Barbara Esham (Ill. Mike Gordon and Carol Gordon) – review
Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
The Old Blue Pickup Truck by Candace F. Ransom (Ill. Jenny Mattheson) – review
Science Fair Day by Lynne Plourde (Ill. Thor Wickstrom)
Sikulu and Harambe by the Zambezi River by Kunle Oguneye (Ill. Bruce McCorkindale) – review (website) review (blog)
Silly Tilly by Eileen Spinelli (Ill. David Slonim) – review
Stacey Coolidge’s Fancy-Smancy Cursive Writing by Barbara Esham (Ill. Mike Gordon and Carol Gordon) – review
Superhero ABC by Bob McLeod
Swift by Robert J. Blake
Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs by Alan Katz (Ill. David Catrow) – review
Welcome to Monster Isle by Oliver Clyde Chin (Ill. Jeff Miracola) – review
What’s the Weather Inside? by Karma Wilson (Ill. Barry Blitt) - review

Easy Readers (Early, Emergent, Transitional) Nonfiction

None this month.

Easy Readers (Early, Emergent, Transitional) Fiction

Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery by David A. Adler (Ill. Susanna Natti) (still reading from last month – did not count)
Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows (Ill. Sophie Blackall)
Jokelopedia: The Biggest, Best, Silliest, Dumbest Joke Book Ever by Lana Weitzman, et al (Ill. Mike Wright)
Periwinkle and the Cave of Courage (The Fairy Chronicles Series) by J.H. Sweet (Ill. Holly Sierra)
Piglets Don’t Watch Television (Abby and Tess Pet-Sitters Series) by Trina Wiebe (just started)
Pony Scouts: Really Riding (I Can Read) by Catherine Hapka (Ill. Anne Kennedy) – review
This Side of Magic (Keyholders series, #1) by Debbie Dadey & Marcia Thornton Jones – review

Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction

Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel by C.M. Butzer – review
Looking at Paintings: An Introduction to Fine Art for Young People by Erika Langmuir – review
Native Athletes in Action (Native Trailblazers) by Vincent Schilling (Ill. Gwynelle Dismukes) – review

Middle Grade/Young Adult Fiction

Football Double Threat (Matt Christopher Series) by Stephanie Peters – review
The Ghost Diamond: Becca’s Third Journey by S Brook – review
Hana’s Suitcase – On Stage by Karen Levine - review
If You Live Like Me by Lori Weber – review
The Prince of Fenway Park by Julianna Baggott – review
The Prometheus Project: Captured by Douglas E. Richards – review
Uncharted Waters by Leslie Bulion – review
The Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech – review
When the Whistle Blows by Fran Cannon Slayton – review

Crash Into Me

written by: Albert Borris
published by: Simon Pulse, 2009
Audience (Reading Level): 14 and up (5.3)

…

UPDATED with links to other reviews.

When the Class of 2k9 sent me the ARC, they also sent along a Press Release. I was going to publish it, but Lee Wind talked so eloquently about the meaning of community yesterday, that I think you should read it on his site.  I’ll give you a gist here. Albert Borris – who is co-President of the 2K9 class – suffered a severe stroke last December.  Although  he has recovered physically, he is still struggling to regain his speech.  The Class of 2K9 is taking on the task of helping spread the word about Albert and his just-released debut YA novel Crash Into Me.

Thanks to Fran Cannon Slayton (a fellow Charlottesvillian and highly acclaimed 2K9 debut author of When the Whistle Blows ), I had the opportunity to read this incredible work in ARC form.  I am honored to help give it a voice. Here is my review.

Four months ago, four teens connected online and started chatting online. They talked about their lives, their previous attempts to commit suicide, and the desire to escape from it all now. They have planned a suicide road trip: two weeks, traveling across country, with stops at the graves of famous people who killed themselves. The first stop is Boston, Massachussetts (Anne Sexton), then they drive to Woody Creek, Colorado (Hunter S. Thompson); Sun Valley, Idaho (Ernest Hemingway); Seattle (Kurt Cobain); and end their trip in Death Valley, California. Meet the Suicide Dogs.

• Owen, our narrator, is the resident suicide expert. He has studied death more than anyone else in the group. He uses a laptop to create the formal record of their trip and share  Top Five and Top Ten lists of macabre information. Owen’s “cover” is that he is scouting out potential colleges.

• Jin-Ae is a Korean-American teen who is struggling with coming out as a lesbian. She is “school-hunting” with Owen. They go to the same high school and landed in the same hospital after they attempted suicide.

• Frank loves sports and alcohol. He took his parents’ car for the trip. They are in Europe, so they won’t know he’s missing … or using their credit card. He has a fake ID to buy alcohol and a gun stowed under the front seat.

• Audrey is technically a runaway, though she insists her mom and step-dad-number-three won’t miss her. She’s angry, she calls things as she sees them, and she is the lone smoker.

There is no easing into Crash Into Me. With Owen’s opening line – “The third time I tried to kill myself I used a rope” – there is no mistaking the subject. It also tells you where you’re going … as much as you can in the first 12 words.

Crash Into Me is compelling reading. It has an edge without being edgy. Each of our teens is dealing with personal secrets. They hate their lives, they hate themselves, and they don’t worry about who will miss them. This two-week jaunt is their plan of escape; a chance to make their own decisions about their lives. They may not know each other, but they share a common desire and they support each other unconditionally in their goals. Along the way, raw support for a cause morphs into mutually inclusive friendship. They will take care of each other until the end.

To put my own mind at ease, I jumped to the end of the book fairly early on. I needed to know what direction this road trip was going. I’m going to keep that to myself. Suffice it to say, this book is about the journey.  We follow Owen’s thought processes most closely, because he is telling the story; but he carefully documents the exchanges among/between Audrey, Jin-Ae, and Frank, too. We get the chance to learn about the characters individually and as a pack.

There are no chapters to this book. Periodically, the story stops and Borris inserts the instant messages (IMs) that chronicle the events that led to the trip. The story is also broken up with lists of various sorts. For example, Owen shares lots of facts about suicide and death, such as the Top Ten Bizarre Ways to Kill Yourself. Frank lists the Top Ten Athletes Who Should Kill Themselves, and explains why.

When I step away from the story, I thought these made excellent, original literary devices. They create pauses in the action and natural transitions to the next topic. As a reader (thinking like a parent), they made me uncomfortable. One of the most disturbing scenes in the book is when the kids go to the Colts’ stadium in Indianapolis and write “RIP James Dungy — from the Suicide Dogs” on the stadium gate. Although relatively current and topical, it didn’t seem to fit. Maybe it’s because James Dungy was a kid and all of the other dead “celebrities” mentioned were adults. But I really think it is because Indianapolis is the only place the kids visited where they destroyed public property in such a visible way.

I am not drawn to things that make me squeamish. I am not comfortable thinking about teen death, much less talking about suicide. I wanted to put it down, but I couldn’t.  I might have told myself I kept reading because of the quality of the writing, but in the end it was the story that kept me going. I couldn’t stop thinking about Owen, Frank, Jin-Ae, and Audrey. I wanted to understand them. I was along for the ride.

Crash Into Me is for mature audiences. Although it has a middle-grade reading level, it is most definitely for readers in high school and beyond. There is no doubt that Borris’ experiences as a student-assistance counselor gave him insight into his character’s thinking that many of us could never have.

There will be readers — most likely adults — who don’t think suicide is a topic for teens. To them, I would say this is a well-written, believable story with characters kids can learn from. It is not a how-to book. It is a book where teens struggling with who they are can see the world through someone just like them.

I highly recommend this book. This is an outstanding selection for the classroom, book clubs, or youth groups where you engage in small-group discussions. It is also well-suited for mixed audiences that include dormant, remedial, and advanced readers.

Congratulations, Albert!

As I find more reviews I will come back to update this post so you can link to read them.

Lee Wind – Lee Wind

A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy – Liz Burns

Welcome to this week’s edition of 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.

I don’t stray off message, but every once in a while, there’s something that’s too important to ignore. Tomorrow is American Diabetes Alert Day. Diabetes is a “silent killer” that robs children and adults of the chance to fulfill their dreams. More than 23.6 million children and adults have diabetes – and 56 million Americans have pre-diabetes symptoms. One in five Americans is at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes, so odds are, you are touched – or will be touched by diabetes. For many, the diagnosis comes seven to nine years after the onset of the disease. Early diagnosis is critical to successful treatment and delaying or preventing some of its complications such as heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, stroke, amputation and death. Diabetes is so treatable. I watched diabetes chop away (literally) at my grandfather’s life. If another family doesn’t have to go through what ours did, then that is a very good thing.

Events
The National Book Foundation wants to know about your reading habits. In its March 2009 eNewsletter the foundation put up “Wanted for Questioning: Adults Reading Young Adults Books. The Foundation would like to know the title or titles of the young adult books you have read or are reading and what drew you to the book. This edition of the newsletter is not yet up on the Foundation website, but you can send a short email to nationalbook@nationalbook.org. (via Child_Lit Listserv post)

Over at Bildungsroman, Little Willow has the full press release for Operation T.B.D. (Teen Book Drop). This is the third year for this event, which supports Teen Lit Day on April 16. Thanks to the tireless work of readergirlz , Guys Lit Wire , and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) , teen patients in pediatric hospitals across the United Stateswill receive 8,000 young-adult novels, audiobooks, and graphic novels.

Christmas in March – You may know Toys for Tots, but did you know they have a literacy program? To celebrate its first anniversary, the Toys for Tots Literacy Program has partnered with the UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. to promote literacy. For the entire month of March, UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. locations are selling $1 donation cards. For every dollar donated, a book will be placed into the hands of a less fortunate child in the local community. Donation centers will continue additional fundraising activities throughout the year. National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) President Sharon Darling is the official spokesperson for the 2009 campaign. In an email to Jen, we learned that the Toys for Tots Literacy Program just celebrated its first anniversary, and there is plenty to celebrate: since its launch, the program has raised more than $630,000 to purchase new books for less fortunate children around the country. There is also a wonderful story on Businesswire.com about a 71-year-old “first grader” who got involved in his community to help readers in need.  [Via Meg Ivey's post on Literacy Now!, the NCFL blog and the Businesswire.com note to Jen about TFTLP's anniverary. ]

I’m not much of a WWE gal, myself, but I do want to let WWE fans know that the Wrestlemania Reading Challenge Finals will take place at the Houston Public Library on April 4, 2009. From the WWE Press Release: “We’re always looking for ways to spread the word that reading is fun and the best habit you can have, and this challenge is one more way to do that,” said Sarah Cornish Debraski, YALSA president. “The incentive – to participate in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge and possibly attend WrestleMania – is a highly motivating one and one which allows librarians to reach out to teens who may not already have a love of reading.”

Like Jenny Schwartzberg, I wish I was heading to London. I would love to see Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat: 400 years of children’s poetry . Michael Rosen and Morag Styles are the curators for this Folio Society Gallery Exhibition at the British Library (1st April – 28th June 2009)

Here is an announcement from Reading is Fundamental (RIF) about its Kids Challenge contest with US Airways. “Read and win! RIF and US Airways invite you to share the joy of reading with children in your family and community. Join the 2009 Read with Kids Challenge and qualify for a chance to win a family vacation to the Walt Disney World Resort® and more great prizes! Visit www.RIF.org/readwithkids for more information.” In exchange for a donation to support RIF’s mission, you can receive a special edition of the Off You Go, Maisy children’s book by best-selling author Lucy Cousins and up to 5,000 Dividend Miles from US Airways.

Voting has opened for StoryTubes, a community-based video project where people send in their “2-minute or shorter” video of their favorite book. Last week you could vote for individual entries made by kids in two categories: Kindergarten to Grade 4, and Grades 5 to 8. This week its individual entries grades 9 and up. Group entry votes follow that. You can get the complete schedule in Teresa Walls’ post, StoryTubes 2009: The Voting has Begun, over at the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) blog.

National Poetry Month

This just in from Anastasia Suen: She’s created Pencil Talk – School, a new blog just for kid’s poems. “I invite K-12 students to write a poem about school and send it to me.” Anastasia will post one student poem a day during Poetry Month.

Tricia Stohr-Hunt will be unveiling her Super Secret Poetry Project this week at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Over at GottaBook, Gregory K will be making an announcement today (23 March) about his annual project. We got sneak peaks on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo! group … but mums the word. I’ve got one word: super-splendiferous. Thank goodness March Madness will be mostly over.

Speaking of poetry … Elaine Magliaro has created Political Verses, a new blog for her political poems. Whatever your politics, you have to love this title: Winnie-the-Poohba and the Hundred Acre Woods.

Jen found this very interesting post about reading patterns on the Everybody Wins! USA blog. According to a LeapFrog and Harris Interactive survey, parents know that reading with their kids is important (98%) but not all of them actually reading to their kids (83%). Those numbers are in sharp contrast to other surveys that show the actual reading rate to be much lower. Even though 75% of the parents wish they had more time to read with their child, they are eight times more likely to spend what could be reading time surfing the Internet or watching TV. The good news is that Leapfrog has launched a million hours reading initiative where visitors can access resources to help foster more family reading.

Speaking of interesting data, this week’s edition of the School Library Journal (SLJ) Teen newsletter had a link to Bookworms at Heart: Teens Would Rather Read, which publishes the results of several Sky News (UK) surveys. Two points of interest: Almost half of those surveyed (under 16) would “rather read books than speak to their friends on social networks or other online sites.” There has been a “meteoric rise” in book club membership, with 47% of the teens responding that they had joined a book club in the last year.

In this week’s Book Whisperer column, Donalyn Miller reminds us that kids are never too old for read-aloud. There is so much in the article that struck a chord with me (no surprise there), but this point ties it together: “Reading aloud reminds children why they love reading. Sitting
on your lap, encircled by love and warmth, these are our children’s first reading memories. Reading aloud reminds children that reading is
pleasurable, an activity they enjoyed before reading turned into a school chore.” (emphasis the Donalyn’s).

At the Feiwel & Friends blog, author John Coy shares his observations about boys and reading, listing several factors that he thinks turn (many) boys into non-readers. See also this additional post by John on the same topic.

Jill Javet, VP for Corporate Relations at TVO (Ontario’s public education media organization), posted this announcement : “TVO, Ontario’s public educational media organization, and Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) Canada are pleased to announce a new partnership to equip parents of immigrant and disadvantaged families in Ontario to be their children’s first and best teacher as they get ready for kindergarten.” Together, they will integrate resources for the 3- to 5-year-old audience with HIPPY’s program for parents, reaching the family at all levels.

Jen mentioned in her Thursday Afternoon Visit; NCAA Tournament edition, but it’s worth repeating. If you’re a fan of reading and not necessarily a fan of Accelerated Reader (AR), then you’ll want to read Sarah Mulhern’s posts over at The Reading Zone. Once again, Sarah shows us that there is always a way to make lemonade out of administrative lemons. In this post (15 March 2009), she shares her frustration of a once-reluctant-now-voracious reader who wants help selecting books, but needs to get her “AR points” before she can consider some of Sarah’s suggestions. Not content to just vent, Sarah tells us what she did in this post on St. Patrick’s Day. She pulled the AR tests her school owns, identified 10 books that her former student would like (each worth 10 points), and guided her to those books. The best part? The student was excited to have the recommendations and STILL wants to read the book Sarah originally recommended.

This one is more about raising writers than readers … Aerin suggested it to us, and we thought that some of you would find it useful for the aspiring writers in your life. If the post title doesn’t grab you Chloroform + Aresnic + Hydroxide = Love , then this opening should:  “Lord knows I’ve tried everything to put a stop to it — hiding pens and paper, snatching books out of her hands, forcing her to watch television — but she won’t quit, not even when I tell her the really scary publishing stories.” Yes, you’ll want to read on. [My thanks to Fran Cannon Slayton and her panel about tips and suggestions for writing hooks that work at the VA Festival of the Book! It's making me a more discerning reader.]

Literacy & Reading Programs & Research

When President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Title I schools that are struggling most to reach No Child Left Behind (NCLB) goals will share an unexpected $3.4 billion to spend on improving the schools. In this week’s edition of Education Week (online), David J. Hoff’s article “Title I Turnaround Programs Due for Big Cash Boost” offers details and a year-by-year accounting of how the money will be spent. Also in Education Week, Alyson Klein has a nice companion article that explains why some educators remain skeptical of NCLB despite the cash infusion. And, for a more hands-on approach, see this Washington Times article by Mark Chenoweth about Education Secretary Arne Duncan reading aloud with kids. (“The Wednesday reading program – called “power lunch” – is a lunchtime literacy-and-mentoring program that brings adult volunteers into low-income elementary schools for one-on-one, read-aloud sessions with students, according to the sponsor, Everybody Wins! DC.”)

At Rasco from RIF, CEO Carol Rasco posted good news about maximizing the value of your tax dollars: “Announcing great news for Reading Is Fundamental: President Obama signed HR 1105, the Omnibus Appropriations Act 2009, and it not only includes RIF’s funding but actually includes an increase of almost $200,000 over our current year level of $24.6 million! What exciting news considering this time last year RIF was OUT of the proposed budget!”

Twelve leading Scottish Premier League footballers are supporting a new project which uses the motivational power of football to encourage families (read: parents and children) to improve their reading skills. The project is sponsored by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Premier League and the National Literacy Trust. One player from each SPL club  chosen their favorite adult and children’s book to create an inspirational reading list. My favorite part: “[They] selected children’s books ranging from Harry Potter through to Roald Dahl classics. A diverse range of adult books have been chosen, including The Count of Monte Cristo and the graphic novel Maus: My father Bleeds History.” These books form the basis for reading sessions with groups of parents and their children who will meet at libraries across Scotland. The article, Footballers Champion Reading is well worth the read.

In a recent post at the Schools Matter blog, Jim Horn offers analysis of why/how free play is vanishing in kindergarten classrooms. He draws his post from Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School a study posted at the Alliance for Childhood website. Of particular interest to me is the idea that that time of day called “free choice” is more adult-directed than truly free.

21st Century Literacies

Leave it to Literacy is Priceless to take us out of this world! In this post, Readinggal points us to Google Lit Trips as “an incredible tool for helping students visualize and learn about the places they encounter in stories!” The first title in the K-5 directory? Possum Magic by Mem Fox!

Franki Sibberson loaded the March edition of her 21st Century Visits with lots of great links. You’ll find resources and “great examples” in elementary learning, as well as a collection of topics to get you thinking about “modern literacy.” One (of many) that caught my eye: IDEO’s 10 TIPS FOR CREATING A 21st CENTURY CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE, which Frank describes as “a list I start carrying around with me.” See also the first article in a new year-long feature that Franki will be doing for Choice Literacy: Beyond Gadgets , on integrating technology into literacy instruction. We found this article via this weekend’s issue of The Big Fresh.

There’s a nice, succint article about digital reading this morning at the Book Publishing News blog. The piece focuses on MobiStories.com, but Bob Budlow, president of Still Motion Studios (which produces MobiStories) says don’t give up on (traditional) books: “”MobiStories aren’t meant to replace the crucial early story-time experience with mom or dad reading to a child…They offer children the opportunity to learn and enjoy a story-time experience on familiar digital devices, throughout the day, anytime, anywhere and on virtually any device. Now, screen time is reading time.”

New Resources

Scholastic.com-What Can I Do? Scholastic and author/child development expert Denise Daniels have created a resource for families who are struggling with job loss and challenging economic times. What Can I Do? My Journal for Caring and Sharing in Tough Times, is a free, downloadable journal for kids 6-11 whose families are suffering through a difficult transition. A parent guide is also available on the site. Thanks to Ruth Spiro for the lead via a Kidlitosphere post.

Little Read Wagon is the San Antonio Public Library System‘s early literacy program. This is a community-based program designed to increase awareness and support the development of early literacy skills. From the blog: “Little Read Wagon staff provide foundational literacy information and materials to parents, extended family, and caregivers of children ages birth-five years. Services are provided free of charge at public libraries, childcare facilities, schools and community-based organizations.” They just started the blog in November 2008, and at the bottom of the page you’ll find a list of links related to early childhood and literacy.

Through a Google Alert, I found a link to NICHCY: A Guide to Children’s Literature and Disability. It is a handy list of links and resources to children’s books on various disability-related topicss, from ADD to physical disabilities. It identifies the book, describes its audience and format, and also has a list of publishers.

A Day’s Outing is a new website designed to help you “find the most exciting events, activities, and attractions around you, whether you are home or on the road.” You’ll find lots of great things to do, I like that you can find out about libraries, and library  and literacy events, including With spring break here, it may be a handy resource to find something to do with the kids! You can also sign up for a newsletter to get updates on events.

Grants and Donations

According to an article in the Bonner County Daily Bee (Idaho), “The East Bonner County Library District received a grant (part of a larger grant from WalMart) for $10,000 that will fund new library resources for the Bonner County Juvenile Detention Center… The grant-funded resources will provide popular teen and young adult fiction to motivate reluctant readers and will also provide books on tape and books on CD for non-readers.”