TubTalk

One of my resolutions for the new year is to "Build on what I Learned about blogging and book reviews in 2008." Well, I've taken the first step ... I am consolidating Scrub-a-Dub-Tub and Tubtalk into a more robust blog over at Wordpress. We'll keep our original name, but I can put in place some things that would have taken eons to do in the "old blogs." This is one of those cases where the cost of remodeling is more than starting new. It also allows me to streamline some functions ... always a good thing.

Head over to this post at the old stomping grounds if you want some additional background. Or, just jump in to the new Scrub-a-Dub-Tub and tell us what you think.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! It feels good (if not a little overwhelming) to be back in the office. Catherine was very excited to head back to school this morning. She thought that since it is a new year, then she must be in a new grade. Oh, to have a first grader's sense of time! Like the rest of us, she is charged by that internal clock that says "it's time for a fresh start."

As I mentioned in my New Year's resolutions post, bloggers within the Lit-blogosphere are energized and posting lots of fresh ideas for reading, reviewing, and blogging about books in 2009. In the kidlitosphere (since I follow that most closely), great things come from the conversations on our blogs. I created a Mr. Linky at the resolutions post as an informal way to pull some of that energy together. So please stop by and add your post.

While we were away enjoying some time with our families, Jen Robinson and I were still collecting news and ideas. The good news is that reading and literacy news was fairly minimal until late last week. Some of the items may be from December, but we kept them because they have a "timeless" quality. So here's the first Reading Round-up for 2009.

Book Your Resolutions - Over at Literacy Learning, Timothy Shanahan offers his recommended "resolutions" for the incoming Secretary of Education. If you're looking for something on a little bit smaller scale, and haven't quite decided on your reading or book goals for the year, you may find some inspiration here:

• Book Challenges - Visit Shelly Burns at Write for a Reader. She has a post with three book challenges. Over at A Wrung Sponge, Cloudscome invites us to the Diversity Rocks! challenge. She's got everything you need to know in this post.
• Book Groups - If you're not up for or into challenges, but want to talkA Year of Reading. Mary Lee posted an invitation about a NING group she and Franki have joined. The English Companion group/ring talks about elementary read alouds.
• Raising Readers - Over at 5 Minutes for Books, Jennifer's post about Read Kiddo Read, reminds us that we need to continue to promote reading at home, despite our kids' changing interests. Hopefully the next item (too long to include here) will help you with this resolution.

Our holidays have been filled with books. Our very thoughtful relatives showered us with mother/daughter tandem cookbooks, daddy/daughter books about exploring stars, a folio edition of The Tales of Despereaux, Fancy Nancy books and doll (very cute), Madeline and Madeleine's Christmas, a couple Nancy Drews to extend my collection, and The Glory Game by Frank Gifford. [We started life as Baltimore Colts fans.]

Interestingly enough, these were all family members who don't read blogs, don't watch morning television, and didn't know about the various give-books-for-the-holidays campaign. With the shelves bulging, I was tickled to get a pair of bookends to help keep them in order. Could these be any more perfect?

This has been quite a Monday.

We spent the weekend watching repeat performances of the elementary school's version of The Wizard of Oz. My daughter was a munchkin, poppy, and Oz-ian. This is NOT the Somewhere-Over-the-Rainbow version. In this version, the poppies tell Dorothy "Don't talk to strangers and don't do drugs."  It was fun, but it killed the weekend.

Just before lunch, I get a call from school. Dear daughter has caught what everyone else has (and probably shared backstage). Please come get her. End of workday, start of an afternoon reading on the sofa.

Then the mail comes. The Wheat Doll arrives. What a beautiful book. For the first time EVER, II won a book giveaway! THANKS 100 Scope Notes you made my day! How ironic that it arrived on the day you posted about the future of reviewing picture bookse ... and on an afternoon where I needed a new book. Man, you're go-o-oo-oo-d!

For about a month now (maybe a little more), Jen Robinson and I have been sharing the fun of putting together the previous week's news, literacy, and reading tidbits. When you read this week's Children's LIteracy Roundup at Jen's, it is very easy to see how it's become a two-woman job!  Be sure to scroll through for these items.

• Jen found some more items that relate to recent rants about gender-based reading patterns.
• There are a number of great initiatives to connect infants/toddlers with books. Be sure to read the Latrobe Valley Express article about the certificate for a Young Reader's Program bag to be redeemed ... at the LIBRARY!  Very cool!

Last but not least, be sure to read about the recent study in Ireland found that Irish children who are more physically active not only are happier, but have a higher levels of reading literacy. Jen's question is a good one: Do you think that they're happier because they have high levels of reading literacy? "Big muscle" activity is so important to helping kids focus and learn. Twenty minutes of playing hard can give you a non-fidgety, engaged learner for 45 minutes! Now, if f the NFL's Play 60 and the WNBA/NBA's Read to Achieve programs would combine forces, we'd probably get the kids REALLY pumped about reading.

Although we'll still have plenty of time for blogging, we'll be taking a break from the Roundups to enjoy some time with family and friends (and sneak in a couple books). We'll kick off the 2009 Roundups here on 5 January.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays. We have just about counted up the first twelve. Boy, they're going fast. As you probably noticed in Jen's December 1 Children's Literacy Roundup, we started to see a shift in how the book and literacy communities framed their discussions of reading and literacy. Little less just-the-facts-ma'am, a little more holiday cheer. It continued this week, as we have seen more emphasis on ways to share a love of reading.

Events In the Blogosphere & In Your Community

If you're thinking about giving books as gifts, you'll find great, very thoughtful ideas all around the lit blogosphere. Colleen Mondor is rounding up lots of our book recommendations for holiday shopping at Chasing Ray. Over at Chicken Spaghetti, Susan is keeping us in the know with all of the "Best of" lists. Get a running start with this post. If you're still short of ideas,  MotherReader has more than 100 ideas, broken into nice 21-item bits. So go here, here, here, here, and here. Sarah's posts at the Reading Zone about books for Twighlight-obsessed tweens and struggling readers aren't to be missed. Over at Interesting Nonfiction for Kids, Kathleen Krull is happy to offer nonfiction suggestions for readers on your list.

Okay, so that's lots of new books. What about those barely-been-used books we've been reading, reviewing, and collecting all year? Donate them! Gently used books are the perfect item to re-gift ... especially children's books, because they can help a child grow as a reader. Here are some book events that may be of interest. If you have an event or know of one, be sure to tell us about it in the comments.

• 10 December, Beverly Hilton - Trader Vic's Lounch. Everybody Wins! Los Angeles, a literacy non-profit, is sponsoring its Holiday of Hope Book Drive. Read this post on the Everybody Wins! USA blog to learn more.
• Until 22 December, Charleston, SC. The Steinberg Law Firm is accepting new and gently used books to donate to Trident Learning's literacy centers. You can read this article on the Charleston and Islands News website to learn more.
• Until December 12, Baltimore, MD Two local organizations that support youth are selling personalized books to promote reading and fellowship. Learn more in this announcement at www.blackauthors.ning.com.
• Whitney M. Young Jr., Health Services, Albany, NY. In addition to medical-based services for families, this organization also runs pediatric literacy program. The organization needs new or gently used books for children. Read Tom Keyser's article for the Time Union (online) for more details.
• Brandie Ahlgren let us know in this post (with sneak peeks) at the City Dog Magazine blog that $1.00 from every sale of the 2009 City Dog calendar goes to Reading with Rover, a nonprofit for literacy that combines, dogs, kids, and reading. 
• Ernie Garcia wrote an article about a program in Yonkers (NY) that gave 9,000 books to kids Kindergarten to third grade. The package also included materials for parents about the importance of reading. They are raising money to buy more books. You can read more details in his article on LuHud.com. We found this via  yourstreet.com

All Wrapped Up Wrapping an empty display case didn't start out as an event, but it has gotten everyone (read: kids) talking. Head over to Bookends to see Cindy Dobrez' post about the Holiday-wrapped display case and see how it's creating buzz. Very clever.

New Places to Visit

Easy Readers Blog - Anastasia Suen, author, educator, Cybils Easy Reader panel organizer, and blogger extraordinaire (6 blogs!), has created a blog just for Easy Readers. Visit Easy to Read to find books for developing readers. You'll LOVE her blogroll categories! She helps you with fiction v. nonfiction, as well as grouping them by reader type:  early, emergent, and transitional. Be sure to stop by Kid Tested, Librarian Approved for Maureen's interview with Anastasia.

News, Views, and Interesting Tidbits

A Gift from MrsP.com Both Jen and I have talked about MrsP.com, a website for children that celebrates reading and books, in previous Literacy Roundups. Here's something new: Stop by the site to hear Mrs. P. read a version of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi. From their publicist to Jen: "We hope that the story brings a message of hope during this recession-heavy holiday season. Children can access the book by simply going to the site and clicking on the small pile of books at Mrs. P’s feet. Understanding the importance of reading and children, I thought you might be interested in this information." Note: If you're starting from scratch, it takes a couple of steps to get from the homepage to Mrs. P. reading by the fire with her pile of books.

In her Friday Afternoon Visits: December 5 edition, Jen pulled together some wonderful discussions and ideas about how we select books, gender issues and books, and reading with kids over at Jen Robinson's Book Page. Several of the posts she mentioned are especially valuable when it comes to transforming emerging readers into highly successful ones. They're worth repeating...

• LiteraBuss has some advice about how to quickly determine the reading level of a book when you don't have explicit "I Can Read" levels on the cover. The post mentions the "5 Finger Rule" (and variants) which we talked about here. Here's the bottom line: "All the book levels in the world won't do you any good if that child can't pick up the book and read it." The LiteraBuss discussion of measuring fluency (speed) v. comprehension is interesting, particularly when you read it in conjunction with this OpEd piece in the Savannah Morning News.  Author Michael Moore (no, not the director, a professor at Georgia Southern) cites a Reading First study that says "kids know phonics, but not meanings."
• Everyone loves to have stories read aloud, and it is a great way to engage kids in reading. Head over to the Reading Zone, to see Sarah's ideas for books for Tweens
• Over at The Well-Read Child, author Maxwell Eaton presents 10 Tips for the Parents of Ricky the Reluctant Reader. He use comic strip form to set out each point. [That is so Alexander Pope ... which, I know, no reluctant reader would get, but it is always cool.]
• In a guest post on the First Book blog, Tina Chovanec, manager of Reading Rockets.org, recommends pairing the book with a promise (or two): a promise to read together, a promise to learn together, a promise to your child's teacher, and a promise to make the world a better place. You can read all the details (and shout-outs to great bloggers like Miss Rumphius and the PBS bookfinder) here.
• In her newest Book Whisperer post for Education Week, Donalynn Miller uses the Twilight book/movie relationship to remind us that we're selecting books the kids will like. Listen to their preferences, don't superimpose yours. Two great points (connected by elipses): "If we want to encourage students to read, we must validate some of their less-than highbrow reading choices when they do ... Teenagers arguing the merits of a book on a Friday night—how can we not celebrate that?"

Write On! Anabel Marsh reminds us that the National Year of Reading is coming to an end.  Read her National Year of Reading - December post at Anabel's Children's Literature blog to get ideas that match this month's theme: Write the Future.

• Look no further than Sarah's post at the Reading Zone to learn about how writing influences a student. She cites a National Survey of Student Engagement study about how writing leads to deeper learning. Here's a quote from the USA Today article: "The NSSE report found [that] students engage in a variety of positive activities. They are more likely to analyze, synthesize and integrate ideas from various sources. They grapple more with course ideas both in and out of the classroom. And they report greater personal, social, practical and academic development."
• Be sure to stop by A Year of Reading , to read Franki and Mary Lee's post about the future of reading. They introduce us to some of the tech-oriented literacy blogs they've been following, and give us their thoughts on 21st Century literacies. "We love books and children's literature. And it will always be the anchor of our work. But we can't be comfortable being literacy teachers today without expanding our notion of what it means to be literate in the 21st Century and to learn from experts who have a different set of expertise." Mary Lee posted an update yesterday.
• Looking for a reading-writing gift? Then read Tricia's post about Gifts for Readers and Writers at the Miss Rumphius Effect.

Open for Discussion Tim Shanahan had an interesting post on his Literacy Learning blog that looks at what he thinks are the gaps in President-elect Obama's education plan. The value of the post is in the facts that it brings out about the state of literacy and education. Here's one: "For the first time in U.S. educational history, increases in numbers of years of schooling have not led to gains in literacy attainment." To add to the discussion, you can read about John Corcoran's new book The Bridge to Literacy at this post on the International Reading Association blog. Maybe they should check out Susan Israel's upcoming book about Vocabulary Lists and activities for the Pre-K to 2 classroom. We found the library card at the University of Nevada (Reno) library.

Book Safety Over at Literacy and Reading News, Brian Scott has an article about how poor literacy levels are a safety hazard for Canadian workers. He cites analysis from a Canadian Board study which concludes that "four in 10 Canadians in the working-age population do not have the literacy skills needed to perform most jobs well."

Holiday Boredom We haven't even wrapped gifts yet, but someone out the International Reading Association blog is already anticipating holiday boredom. In this post last week, Louise Ash suggests we keep ReadWriteThink.org in mind when the kids start searching for something to do.

Recent Grant Awards

• The National Center for Family Literacy has received a $300,000 grant from the MetLife Foundation. The grant will give the NCFL a chance to "explore, enrich and create partnerships between family literacy efforts and community colleges. The goal of this new project, made possible by MetLife Foundation, is to help provide a smooth transition for students from literacy programs to higher education." There are plenty of statistics on how graduating high school students are not ready for college and need to take remedial reading classes. We read the announcement on the NCFL blog.
• Spread the Word - Nevada received a $10,000 grant from the Mattel Children's Foundation. From the press release: "[This grant will allow us]to continue the mission of adopting elementary schools in the Clark County School District deemed at-risk, in order to serve the disadvantaged children and their families in southern Nevada. After the adoption, new and gently used books donated by individuals, community organizations, local businesses, and corporations are distributed to the at-risk youth. At this time, sixteen elementary schools benefit from monthly book distributions." Read the full press release here.

Yum! Yum! The last word this week goes to Natacha Poech. The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance blog had a post about finding just-the-right book for kids. Natacha, a librarian and bookbuyer offers advice on selecting books. This says it all: "Think of books in terms of chocolate mousse and a Hershey Kiss. There are moments for both!”

Have a great reading week ... and if you've got reading or book ideas, we'd love to hear them. Just leave a comment.

Regular readers know that Jen Robinson and I are blog-pooling to produce the weekly literacy news and reading round-ups. Yesterday, Jen posted an incredibly comprehensive Children's Literacy Round-Up, with blurbs that link you to litearcy studies, reading ideas, new resources, and award-wining programs. Here are two of the things I learned this week. In the spirit of the holiday, be sure to read ...

• Jen's summary of a post about audiobooks that she found at Let the Wild Rumpus Start. If you know a reluctant  or struggling reader and are afraid to select books, pairing a book with an audio recording might make a perfect gift.
• The quote from a UK-commissioned study that concludes that 30 minutes of one-on-one lteracy time can help "students with serious reading difficulties" make two years' worth of gains in five months. Wow! Thirty minutes is a gift for a lifetime!

My thanks to Jen ... We'd love to know what you think, so be sure to leave a comment at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

It is nice to see that even with Thanksgiving just around the corner and the mad-dash to the holidays upon us, the world of reading, books, and literacy is still very busy. It has been another "bountiful" week for Jen and me as we gathered newsworthy, interesting, and fun items. The  news Round-up is here this week, but be sure to stop by Jen Robinson's Book Page, too. Jen will have her Growing Bookworms newsletter, afternoon visits, and reviews. Check out the review of Tennyson, which Jen describes as "one of the best reads of the year."

Events & New Places - Virtual and Otherwise

Webinar: Libraries and the Bilingual Child, Monday, 8 December 2008 Webjunction is sponsoring this forum to answer the questions "how can librarians honor and respect parents’ efforts to keep the home language alive while their child acquires a second language, and why does this matter?" We saw this at the L2 [Libary Learning] blog. You can go to the event post to link to the Web conference room.

Read More Blogs Thanks to MotherReader and Lee Wind's 21 Days to Community Comment Challenge, I am becoming a more engaged blogger. I still stop by some favorite places, but I'm also stretching myself and exploring new ones. The Comment Challenge Participants post makes it easy to find new places to visit. Many bloggers link to other posts, so you can expand that way, too. This week I found ...

• Book Chook. Susan Stephenson, who created the Book Chook blog, is a Kindergarten teacher. Her blog "shares snippets from the wonderful world and words of kids’ literacy and literature." I could tell you what a chook is, but why spoil the surprise? Head on over.
• Nancy Arruda and Kim Baise, the queens of Bees Knees Reads, introduced me to Books Together, "a blog for kids and their grownups." I'm not sure why I hadn't seen it before, but it is in the reader now.
• Thanks to Shelly Burns' Wednesday Wanterings at Write for a Reader, Deborah Sloan's The Picnic Basket is on the list. The tagline says it all: "a delicious blog for librarians, teachers, and other gluttons for good books--all you can read (and write) about forthcoming children’s literature!"

Family Literacy Survey At the NCFL Literacy Now blog, Meg Ivey posted a survey about Verizon's ThinkFinity Literacy Network. Take the survey by 1 December 2008 and you are entered to win a $100 gift certificate from Better World Books. The ThinkFinity Literacy Network site offers teachers, librarians, parents, and students access to free online tools: lesson plans, homework help, interactive activities.

New Children's Choice Award for YA Literature Michael Sweet, teacher and founder of Learning for a Cause, has created the Pearson Prize for Young Adult Literature. It is a chance for authors and publishers to get their books to students -- and schools to build their YA libraries with quality material. The deadline for entry is 1 May 2009. This is no entry fee, you just have to send two copies of your book. Visit the Pearson Prize website to learn more about the award and application process. Learning for a Cause is currently accepting entries for a 2009 Poetry Anthology. Deadline: 31 December 2008.

Studies, Ideas, and Other News

Barbie has educational value? Victoria Carrington's blog has a fascinating "5 minute interview" with Professor Jackie Marsh. Together, Mdes. Carrington and Marsh are involved in research that is looking at "young children's use of popular culture, media and new technologies and their literacy practices both in- and out-of-school." It is clear from the interview and posts on Professor Marsh's Digital Beginnings blog that the research looks at the ideas in very new ways. For those already addicted to technology, the Second Life website is your next thing. It's beyond me, but you can probably get those avatars to tweet.

Weapons of Knowledge Baltimore County schools are about to benefit from a joint effort by US military contractors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to develop high-tech simulations to boost or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. You can read a blurb of Andrew Trotter's article for free. Subscribers to Education Week can see the full article Schools Enlisting Defense Industry to boost STEM

• Brian Scott (Literacy and Reading News blog) also has an interesting article about technology in a Georgia classroom in his post Creativity and Technology Transform Georgia Students' Writing Skills. Scott talks about a grant used to bring a specific learning platform into the classroom, and the teacher offers some specific details on what it's done for her students.

Lost - Not Anymore Technology connects us in ways that some of us thought could only happen on The Jetsons . Today's kids are living Elroy Jetson's life. Here's proof ...

• PBS Kids Island is a new tool that is part of PBS' Raising Readers effort. There are parent/teacher/caregiver sections that let you preview games, view reading tips, and get curriculum ideas for your classroom. Check out Raising Readers: Preparing Preschoolers for Success, an online professional development course.  I like that you can track your child's progress, but admit that I was a little disappointed to read "preschool" on the promo page. You can read John Micklos' post "PBS launches new online learning tool" for Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association blog for a quick summary.
  
• Like the PBS site, The Literacy Project, has something for everyone. It is a collaborative effort of the Literacy Campaign (LitCam ), Google, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning. From the homepage, you can find books and literacy blogs, link to literacy videos, read "scholarly articles," create or join book groups, and learn about innovative projects from around the world.
• Finding something creative is as simple as Brain Burps, author Katie Davis' blog. On Freebie Fridays you can download a free "coloring or activity page, sometimes stickers, sometimes t-shirt iron-ons, and sometimes bookmarks."
• For the next 30 days, you can read The Princess Diaries online. Thanks to Sarah at the Reading Zone for telling us about this in her Busy as a Bee post. It's all about reading, right? Not holiday sales?!
• Franki at A Year of Reading has just returned from the NCTE and (already) has a post with links to some of the folks who have posted about the event. Also check out Mary Lee's post Poetry Saturday: Disconnected, that embodies the irony of a conference about technology (Shift Happens: Teaching in the 21st Century) with no WiFi access.

More Reading Research There has been a flurry of reports analyzing the impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on various aspects of learning. Education Week has devoted a complete issue to analysis and commentary in its NCLB Alert. Here are some items of interest that go beyond the NCLB discussions.

• The Center for Public Education released its new report, From beginner to stellar: Five tips on developing skilled readers. The report itself focuses on the core elements: stages of reading development, components of skillful reading, teacher preparation, how well students are reading, early diagnosis, and what the research means for schools. What makes the report valuable are all the online tools that go with it. There are lots of very practical reading ideas, and handouts for phonic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension with "recommendations for effective instruction." We found this through John Micklos's post for Reading Today Daily.
• Unfortunately, there is a trade-off between academic development and unstructured playtime. Read Linda Jacobson's article Playtime Valuable - and Under Seige, Experts Warn in this week's edition of Education Week. The article quotes authors Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Michael Thompson, a psychology professor and pyschologist, respectively, as saying kids need free play not only to learn collaboration but also to develop their critical thinking skills.
• Brian Scott interviews Jan Hasbrouk, PhD, a nationally-recognized education consultant and trainer, about the importance and keys to reading fluency for students. Read Tackling Reading Fluency Issues at the Literacy and Reading News blog. Some things aren't new (if you suspect a problem, find out the source), but she has done some work to help evaluators differentiate and assess types of fluency.
• Donalyn Miller has a very interesting piece in her Book Whisperer column this week. "Lowering the Bar" offers her observations about the forgotten readers. They aren't the struggling readers, these are the kids who devour books. She points to recent studies that suggest strong readers are not a priority for schools trying to raise test scores. Her conclusion: "While strong national support exists for fostering the talents of gifted math and science students, it seems we need an educational movement that develops the talents of verbally-gifted people." 
• Maria Gold wrote a Washington Post article about the results of a Congressionally-mandated study of the Reading First Program. The study found that overall, students who use the Reading First program "scored no better on comprehension tests than students in similar schools that do not get the funding." There is some good news: "First-graders in Reading First classrooms were better able to decode, or recognize, printed words than students in schools without the program. Decoding is a key step in learning to read." Kathleen Kennedy Manzos also has an in-depth article in this week's edition of Education Week. Go to No Effect on Comprehension Seen from 'Reading First' and you'll also get links to additional coverage.
• A study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) concludes that academic achievement and developing social skills are not mutually exclusive priorities in preschool classrooms. For the study, researchers compared students in two types of Head Start classrooms. One classroom followed the traditional curriculum; the other used an enhanced curriculum that included "social and emotional learning and pre-reading skills." We read Brian Scott's article New Program Teaches Preschoolers Reading Skills, Getting Along with Others at the Literacy and Reading News blog. If you want the full scoop, you can read the NIH press release. The study itself is available in the current issue of Child Development.

Sing, Sing a Song At Literacy and Reading News, Brian Scott wrote The Connection Between Preschool Literacy and Music Introduction. Although there is a product promotion at the end, most of the article focuses on the research/literature review described by Assistant Professor Jonathan Bolduc of the University of Ottowa. According to Professor Bolduc, "children who participate in musical and first-language interdisciplinary programs develop phonological awareness, word recognition, and invented spelling abilities more efficiently than their classmates who do not participate in such programs."

• If you're looking to integrate music into your storytime, check out the Musicians Shows by State blog. According to the blog's mid-November post: "most children's musicians offer shows according to themes such as animals, multi-cultural, holidays, transportation, self-esteem, drug awareness, environment, bugs, marine life, literacy, music history, history, seasons, special needs, character building, etc."

Let's Get Happy In this  post, Louise Ash (Reading Today Daily) links us to a Reuters article about a University of Maryland study about TV watching, reading, and long-term happiness. After studying 34 years of data collected from 45,000 participants, researchers conclude that people who read more (and watch less TV) are happier. TV brings you short-term enjoyment, but "it is more likely to lead to overall unhappiness." Wow. We can be happy AND save electricity at the same time.

Yeah, Dad In her most recent Literacy Voices Round-up, Meg Ivey not only highlights Jen's Reviews That Made Me Want the Book Column, she links us to Lindsey Gemme's article for Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, Inc. (online). Gemme introduces us to three of 130 imprisoned dads who read to their kids via digitally-recorded CDs. "Fathers Bridging the Miles" is a program sponsored by  Read-to-Me, an international literacy nonprofit based in Hawaii. It was hard to pick just one quote that captured the spirit of the article. So I have two.

• Randy Konohia , serving his sixth year of a 10-year sentence, admits that before entering the Read-to-Me program, he wasn't a big fan of books. But since his own children, between 6 and 9 years, have been getting the books and his recordings, he himself has gotten more enthusiastic about reading..."For a guy that don't read, and now I'm reading, it's making me broader, too.'
• Borges has been participating in Fathers Bridging the Miles for just over a year. And with three kids, he's taken full advantage of the program, having read almost 80 books so far. "My wife had to buy a new bookshelf, just for all the books I send them," he laughs.

Booking through School MotherReader let us know that Book is the New Cool, with an excerpt from a Times Online article.

• If you're a regular listener at Just One More Books, then you probably listened to the episode with Andrea and Mark's conversation, about read-a-thons. The podcast is great, and so are the comments. Andrea commented that her daughter LOVES to read with younger kids and that this seems so much more worthwhile than a contest. Comments continue to come in. Heidi Estrin's comment earlier this week captured it: "Selling kids on reading can be so easy, really - all it takes is a good amount of reading time spent with one or more enthusiastic adults -- so it's strange that we dream up all these complicated schemes to achieve those ends when it's really not necessary."
• Also, Jeanne Jackson Devoe has some interesting observations in her article "Taking a Reading on Literacy" for the Times of Trenton (NJ) (online). Louise Ash's post Think of boys as readers, says Journalist is what called our attention to the article.

Football Hero The National Federation for the Blind announced that Hall-of-Fame Quarterback (and Fox NFL Sunday Co-host) Terry Bradshaw is going to be the National Ambassador for Braille Readers.  In a press release, the NFB says that Bradshaw will promote the "Braille Readers are Leaders campaign, a national initiative to promote the importance of reading and writing Braille for blind children and adults." We saw this in Louise Ash's post for Reading Today Daily.

The Last Word Over at the Well-read Child, Tanya has a wonderful post about reading wordless picture books out loud. In her words: "I have found that, with a little thinking ahead and attention to detail, you can draw listeners in to the book and make the story last longer than the time it takes to flip through the pages." You can find wordless picture book ideas in Tanya's post, and also in Reading Wordless Books at Eva's Book Addiction.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

clipart courtesy of KarenWhimsy.com

As promised and hot off the (virtual) presses, is this week's edition of Children's Literacy Round-up at Jen Robinson's Book Page. There are lots of great items, and one of the themes of the past week seems to be reading aloud for kids. There is also plenty of chatting about selecting books as gifts. You'll want to head over to Jen's to read "How to Choose a Children's Book (For Grandparents, the Childless, and the Clueless)," an article by Teri Schlichenmeyer for the Midwest Book Examiner. [It's the fifth item down.]

In other news, The November Carnival of Children's Literature is now available at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books. Karen's theme is "The Gift of Reading," and she has pulled together a great carnival. Whether you're looking for ways to share a love of reading or a new book, you'll find some wonderful ideas.

The 2008 Winter Blog Blast Tour launched today. Colleen Mondor hosts the event at Chasing Ray. Here is this week's list of author and the blogger hosting the interview. You can always go to Chasing Ray to get the links of the day all in one place.

Monday
Lewis Buzbee at Chasing Ray
Louis Sachar at Fuse Number 8
Laurel Snyder at Miss Erin
Courtney Summers at Bildungsroman
Elizabeth Wein at Finding Wonderland
Susan Kulkin at The YA YA YAs

Tuesday
Ellen Dalow at Chasing Ray
Tony DiTerlizzi at Miss Erin
Melissa Walker at Hip Writer Mama
Luisa Plaja at Bildungsroman
DM Cornish at Finding Wonderland
LJ Smith at The YA YA YAs
Kathleen Duey at Bookshelves of Doom

Wednesday
Ellen Klages at Fuse Number 8
Emily Jenkins at Writing and Ruminating
Ally Carter at Miss Erin
Mark Peter Hughes at Hip Writer Mama
Sarah Littma at Bildungsroman
MT Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Mitali Perkins at Mother Reader

Thursday
Martin Millar at Chasing Ray
John Green at Writing and Ruminating
Beth Kephart at Hip Writer Mama
Emily Ecton at Bildungsroman
John David Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Brandon Mull at The YA YA YAs
Lisa Papademetriou at Mother Reader

Friday
Mayra Lazara Dole at Chasing Ray
Francis Rourke Dowell at Fuse Number 8
J Patrick Lewis at Writing and Ruminating
Wendy Mass at Hip Writer Mama
Lisa Ann Sandell at Bildungsroman
Caroline Hickey/Sara Lewis Holmes at Mother Reader
A.S. King at Bookshelves of Doom

Happy Monday. It is already shaping up to be another busy, informative week for reading and children's books.

As Jen Robinson announced in this post last week, we are experimenting with sharing hosting duties for the weekly Literacy and Reading News round-ups. "Collaboration is the future" is one of the key themes that I took from reading the posts about the Kidlitosphere conference. The round-ups seemed like a logical place to start. As soon as Jen posts the new, I'll post a link.  So what did I do with all that "extra time" this weekend? I wrote my first Nonfiction Monday review.  

Fantastic Female Filmmakers
(Women's Hall of Fame Series)
written by Suzanne Simoni
Second Story Press, 2008


First let me say that movies are not my thing. The last movie I saw in the theater was National Treasure. The one before that was Good Morning, Vietnam. Even at home, it is rare that I will sit down to watch movies on TV. I want to watch movies in the same way I read books: in a quiet space, with few distractions, no commercials, and no one to spoil the ending. This book has given me a reason to find some great films ... and spend more time reading the credits.

Over the years I've seen interviews about famous women actors trying to "break into" the field of directing; a 60 Minutes interview with Barbra Streisand about Yentl and Prince of Tides comes to mind. But I don't remember Ms. Streisand (or any of the high-profile actors-turned-director) talking about the women who paved the way. These are the stories you'll find in Fantastic Female Filmmakers.

In her introduction, Suzanne Simoni gives us a quick recap of the history of movies. The first movie camera was invented in 1896, and by the time "talkies" came on the scene, the business of filmmaking was already transitioning itself to an industry. It didn't take long for men to dominate the industry and use access to money to hold onto their power. Still, as in every other profession, women persevered and consistently made significant contributions to the field. Did you know that it was a woman who invented the boom mike? Yep, Dorothy Arzner, circa 1920.

Fantastic Female Filmmakers offers biographies of ten women of great accomplishment in the movie industry.  Because the stories are presented chronologically, you can  piece together the history of movies and get a sense of broader themes: how Hollywood works, the acting/directing culture, and different approaches to directing. That said, it is the individual stories that make this book such a compelling read. Although these are women of different eras and different cultures, they share one thing: their work takes an incredible toll on their personal lives. Fractured relationships and serious health problems are not uncommon. Nell Shipman, who wrote the screenplay for and directed the first full-length wildlife film in Hollywood, divorced her husband in 1920. Today, we wouldn't find it extraordinary that a woman divorces her husband. But 1920?

There are some elements to their stories that are timeless: watching a movie as a child lit a spark of interest that ultimately grew into a passion for film. In the early 20th century, the filmmaking ladder for women started with acting. Ida Lupino starred with Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra in 1941. In 1949, Ida wrote a screenplay for the film Not Wanted. She hired a director, but just before filming, the director had a heart attack. She stepped in as the director, asking for advice from recovering director who sat on the set. She didn't take credit as the director, but she went on to direct other films. Not Wanted grossed $1 million ... in 1949.

Before making Not Wanted, Ida spoke with Roberto Rossellini, the famous Italian director. He told her that Hollywood had not yet made stories about ordinary people; their movies focused on "stars and murder." That conversation inspired Ida to turn a screenplay about an unwed mother into a movie: Not Wanted. Although this may have been one of the first times a movie covered a "taboo" topic (remember this was the 1940s), women are routinely creating films that bring real stories to life.

• Mira Nair, born in Bhubaneswar, India in 1957, began her career by making documentaries. Although she won awards for her work, she didn't feel they challenged her enough. In the late 1980s, she began seeking funding for Mississippi Masala, a story about the lives of Indians forced to leave Uganda in 1972 and who resettled in Mississippi. She wanted to "bring the cultures of the East to the West." The "experts" told her that interracial loves stories didn't make money, and it took a long time to get funding. She got an unknown actor, Denzel Washington, to star in the film. The rest is history.

• In the mid-1970s, Euzhan Palcy, who was born and grew up on the French-speaking island of Martinique, wrote a screenplay for the novel Sugar Cane Alley, which is set on a slave plantation in Martinique.  Where she saw a "universal story of passion, struggle, love, and dreams," industry insiders saw it as a story about color. It took until 1983 to create the film. As a result of the film's success, Hollywood Studios called to offer her films to direct. At the time, black women directors did not receive these invitations. She declined, "because they were about white characters."

• After studio executives re-edited her film Camilla (1994), Deepa Mehta learned a valuable lesson: she would keep full control of the final cut in future films.  She wrote the screenplay for and directed Fire, a film about two sisters-in-law in India who, trapped in arranged marriages, turn to each other for comfort. The film caused such controversy in India that there were threats against Mehta's life and  Indian authorities ordered the film withdrawn from theaters for public safety reasons.

Each of the other directors -- Margarethe Von Trotta, Anne Wheeler, Martha Coolidge, Sally Potter, and Patricia Rozema -- are still making huge contributions to filmmaking. Reading their stories has changed my thoughts about movies. No, I'm not more likely to go to the theater, but I had never heard of some of these movies, and now I'll be seeking them out. I'll also spend more time studying, not just reading, the credits.

Fantastic Female Filmmakers is an exceptional book. Whether you are a novice movie-goer like me or someone who is fascinated by film, you'll learn something new. If you are interested in reading about lthe lives of  women of achievement, you wil close the book inspired.

You can read everyone's contributions for Nonfiction Monday here.

While things have been quiet here, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub has been rocking all week.  The new edition of the Wash Rag is up, we posted a list of the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Winners for the categories where we reviewed books, I wrote my post for Blog the Vote (very important!), and last but not least, I wrote my first poem for Poetry Friday (yeah me!). How did Friday get here so fast? 

Both blogs will be a little quieter next week, as today marks the beginning of a series of "national holidays" in our house! Halloween speaks for itself: I have very specific instructions on exactly how  Vampiress makeup should be applied, there are 20 scarecrows and 20 masks to create at school, then there's decorating the park for the Pizza Party and costume parade of 150 kids!

At the stroke of midnight, we begin the transformation from Halloween-crazed child to birthday-crazed child. We are taking advantage of school being closed on Monday and Tuesday to invite friends over to celebrate her birthday ... which is next Friday.

At the moment, I am not planning to run a Reading Round-up. I've been collecting material, but don't know that I'll get to it. Thankfully, Jen will likely have all the news and more in her Literacy and Reading Roundups over at Jen Robinson's Book Page.

Happy Halloween all ...

Go figure ... I have the Reading Round-up ready to go first thing this morning and LiveJournal kept timing out. Happy  Monday!

Given the amount of stressful, down-right awful noise filling the airwaves,  you might think the only news is bad news. Well, I am a glass-is-half-full kinda girl, so today we are sending some good news your way. Updated to fix typos ... they were getting to me.
In the spirit of Halloween ...

I'm including my daughter's painting of The Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  Out of the blue, this weekend, she wanted to paint. And she surprised us with this one.

Okay, now we're back to a "normal" week ... at least until tomorrow. We had a teacher workday yesterday, so it was a long weekend. Catherine was very disappointed to learn that the kids got to stay home and the teachers were in school. "Don't they get days off, too?"

Over the coming weeks, I am probably going to transition this to a bi-weekly post. It's getting to be that busy time of the year. "Maintaining balance" is one of my goals for the year, so with only two months to go, I better get started.

UPCOMING EVENTS & CONTESTS

 

Now ‘Til 10 November 2008 Class of 2K8 is sponsoring a contest that gives school librarians a chance to win books, gift certificates, or a 2K8 author visit. We read about it at Elizabeth Bird’s Press Release Fun post at A Fuse #8 Production. You can also go to the Class of 2K8 website.

1 November 2008 The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) is hosting 13th Annual Multicultural Children's Book Festival. From the website: “bring the entire family to meet your favorite authors, listen to celebrity book readings, and enjoy performances, participatory workshops, illustration demonstrations, and more.” This is a FREE event that starts at Noon and ends at 6 PM.

19 November 2008 City National Bank is now accepting applications from educators for grants to support its Reading is the Way Up program that funds literacy-based projects at elementary, middle and high schools in California, New York, and Nevada. The Literacy Grant Application is available online, and must be submitted by 19 November 2008. You can read more about Reading is the Way Up in Brian Scott’s post for Literacy and Reading News

“Nevermore” after 21 November 2008. On 19 January 2009, Edgar Allen Poe will be 200 years old. To commemorate the event, READ magazine (a Weekly Reader literary publication for middle and high school students) is sponsoring an Edgar Allan Poe Video contest! The deadline for entry is 21 November 2008. You can get all the details in this article on TeacherTube.

BOOK DRIVES

Filling the Shelves Jim Davidson of the Log Cabin Democrat (Conway, AR) wrote a neat article about a local book drive. They are collecting gently used children’s book for their annual Bookcase for Every Child project. At the first drive in 2005, they collected more than 6,000 books. As the article reminds us “statistics tell us that 61 PERCENT of low-income families in our nation do not have any books at all for their children to read.” You can read the article to get details about creating your own project, or to contact the organizers.

The Buzz from New Orleans The Hornets (NBA pro team) has partnered with Read to Achieve, a nonprofit for literacy. Here’s the skinny, as published on the Hornets 247.com website. “In conjunction with Read to Achieve, the Hornets created a life-size Bookmobile bus that travels year-round with over 2,000 children's books to encourage reading and literacy. During the 2007-08 season, the Bookmobile made 73 total appearances, passing out more than 35,000 books to local children.” Click here to read the article.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

A Late Halloween Volunteers are needed to help out with Family Literacy Fun Day, Cambridge City Hall (Cambridge, MA) on 1 November 2008. There are lots of ways to help, and adults are needed to take turns wearing costumes of different children’s book characters. Get more details at the EventBrite.com website.

“Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen …” Reach Out and Read Kansas City is seeking volunteers who “love books and have the gift of gab” to represent the organization at Reach Out and Read KC events in the Kansas City metro area. You can creadthe complete announcement at the VolunteerSolutions.org website.

OTHER NEWS

I will keep the News Section light this week, as Jen Robinson has a lot of great stuff in her Children’s Literacy Round-Up: October 19, so there’s no need to repeat.

Need Glasses? The 2008 Cybils Nominations are in, and now the panelists begin their work of winnowing the collection down to the finalists over the next two months. We have LOTS of reading to do. You can read a category-by-category list in this post over at the Cybils blog. I’m very excited to be part of the Easy Readers Panel. In the next few days I’ll be posting links to books we’ve reviewed (across all categories) over at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub.

Kid Picks Tuesday Today's carnival at 5 Minutes for Books is a round-up of blog posts about the books we’re reading with kids. Kid Picks is an easy, centralized way to find new books to share with your favorite audience.

Achoo! (Salud) Linda Jacobson had an article in last week’s Education Week about a new study that looked at school absence and student progress. Her article, Absences in Early Grades Tied to Learning Lags presents findings of a new study by the National Center for Children in Poverty (Columbia University). Here’s a stat: “Among poor children, chronic absence in kindergarten predicted the lowest levels of educational achievement at the end of 5th grade.” For more detailed analysis, read Present, Engaged and Accounted For. You can also participate in Chronic Absenteeism in Our Nation’s Schools, a live chat, on 27 October 2008 3 to 4 PM (EDT).

Priceless! Through a Google Alert, I found a new blog. Literacy is Priceless is a blog for Reading Teachers. It offers “reading tips and links to free K-6 literacy resources on the Web.”

New Twist on Old News Yesterday, John Micklos posted Libraries Thrive as Economy Falters at Reading Today Daily (IRA blog). The post summarizes a Boston Globe article about increased library use. Earlier this spring, we covered the same subject in several June 2008 Reading Round-ups.

Have a good week everybody. My condolences to the Red Sox fans...

It has been one of those weeks. I feel like I am just about caught up after being gone last week doing other volunteer stuff. While I was away, the collection of items for the Round-up has spiraled out of control.  In the interest of being somewhat timely with news, I'm going to take what I have already earmarked and move forward ... 

EVENTS AND CONTESTS

The 2008 Keene State College Children's Book Festival will be held 1 November 2008 in Keene, NH. You can visit the college website or go to the Wild Rose Reader for Elaine Magliaro's post about the event. She has all the details and everything is nicely organized to get you what you want to know.

There will be a 2009 Storytubes National Contest, probably next spring. The contest rules have not been finalized, but organizers add "there will be similarities." Here are the details of last year's contest. Students first through sixth grade compete for a prize of $500 in books for themselves and $1000 in books for their school library. Students create an online Video book review in up t to two four categories: Hair-raising Tales; From or For the Heart; Heroes and Heroines; and Facts, Fads, and Phenoms. We read about the contest at the Best Books I Have Not Read blog.

The 2008-2009 Weekly Reader Student Publishing Contest has been announced. Students grades 3 to 6 can submit an original nonfiction work, between 500 and 2,500 words. The work can be a memoir, essay, or story about a news event. Student publications are also eligible. There are six $500 prizes (three for student nonfiction writing; three for student publications). Go to the Weekly Reader website to learn more. Contest ends 6 March 2009. You can also get a summary in John Micklos' post in Reading Today Daily (International Reading Association blog).

Fortune Magazine and Technorati are sponsoring the 2008 Blogger Challenge to raise funds for public schools. Teachers post project requests at DonorsChoose.org, and bloggers select the most compelling project and urge their readers to donate to the projects. Brian Scott has all the details in Top Bloggers Compete in Support of Public Schools (Literacy and Reading News blog).

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

The Reading Connection (Arlington, VA) will hold Fall Volunteer Orientations on Tuesday 21 October 2008 and 20 November 2008. TRC is a nonprofit "committed to improving the lives of at-risk children through creating and sustaining a literacy-rich environment." Volunteers are needed to help with Reading Aloud to the children.

READING & KIDS

To find books kids are talking about, stop by  the Reading Zone. In a post earlier this week, Sarah told us about five Hot Books in her classroom. These are middle-grade readers her students are reading and recommending to each other.

If you're reading with young kids, you will want to read Jill's post Tips for Reading with Babies at The Well-Read Child. You might also want to visit 5 Minutes for Books. In a post about Book Recommendations, Jennifer is asks readers about how they select books for themselves or their kids.

In an Original Content post, Gail Gauthier asks "You Know Any Fake Readers?" That's how we learned about the Book Whisperer's column in Teacher Magazine. Donalyn Miller's article, Fake It 'Til You Make It vividly describes how kids mask their lack of reading skills, and, in doing that, offers teachers clues on patterns to avoid.

Timing is everything, and these posts complement the sad news of fake readers. They offer some solid, practical ideas for not only encouraging but assisting readers.

• Literate Lives has a wonderful post about ways to guide transitional readers. Katie D talks about her classroom routine and how she uses the first 30 minutes of each day for "beginning the day with books." What particularly struck me were the four questions she asks herself as she thinks about her transitional readers:  "What kind of stamina do these readers have? What do they like to read? What do they know about choosing a book? What easy texts do they have available for fluent practice?"
• Thanks also to Karen at Literate Lives for the lead to Lisa Koch's article "My Son Clark Kent" on the Choice Literacy website.
•  
• Head over to ReadKiddoRead.com, a website with book recommendations that are sorted not only by age, but by type: illustrated books, transitional books, pageturners, and advanced reads. This is a website complement to James Patterson's Pageturner awards. We found the link in Have You Seen This? a post in Traci's Book Bag.
• In the Reading Zone, Sarah tackles the question of how to help struggling readers who tend to gravitate to books that are too challenging for them. Helping Struggling Readers Find the Perfect Book is now on my must read list for parents!

I laughed out loud when I saw  Louise Ash's post Multitasking Teens May Lose Focus in today's Reading Today Daily (International Reading Association blog). You can read or listen (7 min; 35 sec) to Jon Hamilton's original article at the NPR website.

Ironically, Ms. Ash also links to an article about a University of California study of middle-aged and older adults that concludes "searching the world wide web exercised the mind far more than reading and was similar to completing crosswords and puzzles." You can read about the study in The Telegraph (UK) online.

This past week I discovered the Jean Little Library blog. I think this is one I'm going to come back to a lot. Jennifer (a children's librarian) has created a craftwiki to organize her collection of road-tested crafts that have storytimes to match.

In Literacy and Reading News, Brian Scott has a post about a new tool that will help teachers Write Better Literacy Lesson Plans faster. An ESL teacher created LessonWriter, a new FREE website "to assist teachers by analyzing readings and creating lesson plans for teachers." It sounds like a really remarkable tool: flexible, adaptable, scalable.  Visit the LessonWriter website for more details.

Happy Monday! It has been yet another busy week in the realm of children's books and literacy. If you are not already a regular reader of Jen Robinson’s Book Page, you’ll want to go over to read her latest Children’s Literacy Round-up. She front-loads her 5 October post with a wonderful collection of stories with items about and links to a couple new websites. I tried to keep our overlap to a minimum, so you’ll definitely want to stop by and see Jen.

Literacy, Blog and Community Service Events

What are You Waiting For? The nominations window is now open for the 2008 Cybils. There are just 9 days left to tell us your favorite book for children and young adults this past year. We published a post with a description of the Cybils and the list of categories, with summaries, last week. Remember: you can vote for one title in each of nine categories. That's still up to nine votes.

You Have My Vote! Colleen Mondor and Lee Wind are coordinating One Shot, a chance for bloggers to post about why voting is important. Here’s how it works: on November 3, 2008, you write a post about why you think voting is important this year. You’ll need to let Colleen or Lee know you’re participating so they can collect all the posts. This is NOT a debate, partisan event, or your chance to root for or bash candidates. This is an opportunity to share your story, views, ideas, on why voting matters.

[cue music] Chicago, Chicago! The Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) has posted its program for the 2009 ALSC at the ALA Annual Conference. On July 10, 2009, there is a one day, pre-conference event – appropriately announced amid Banned Book Week –for “Meeting the Challenge: Practical Tips and Inspiring Tales on Intellectual Freedom.” I found the first lead in Carin B’s post on CCBC-Net listserv.

Have Book, Will Share There are a number of ongoing efforts to get books to kids who need them. If you’re doing some fall shelf cleaning, here are some ways you can help those stories live on.

• Go Hokies! We may be ‘Hoos fans, but we’re non-partisan readers. Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech football coach) created Herma’s Readers in honor of his mother, a teacher for more than 30 years. Herma’s Readers is a “non-profit designed to introduce the power of reading to youngsters Kindergarten to grade 3.” According to a sidebar in Sunday’s Daily Progress (Charlottesville), Walmart stores in Southwestern Virginia are the collection sites for Herma’s Readers. Customers can donate children’s books by placing them in a specially marked collection bin. Walmart has partnered with Coca-Cola to donate 100 books for every Hokie touchdown this season. According to the Herma’s Readers website the Hokies have 13 touchdowns so far this year … that’s 1,300 books. If you are a Tech coach, athlete or dignitary, you can sign up to be a reader.

• Ad(d) a Book The American Advertising Federation is sponsoring a national book drive. From 27 October to 18 November the AAF is encouraging college and corporate members to donate a new children’s book for Kindergarten to third grade. Books in Spanish are also encouraged. “The new public service project demonstrates the advertising industry's comprehensive understanding of corporate responsibility and the value and vital importance of education.” We read about it courtesy of the AAF’s Houston Chapter.

General News and Other Fun Facts

Standing O More than 300,000 readers have registered at the Read for the Record website and participated in last week’s big event. These are preliminary numbers, because people can continue to add their event to the total count. What a great start! We read the summary in Brian Scott’s post America's Children Break Reading World Record, at the Literacy and Reading News blog.

What about the Other 10%? Research over the past 15 years suggests that 90% of a child’s brain develops by the age of five. Therefore, we need to take every opportunity to emphasize how important it is for parents to read with their infants and toddlers. Mackenzie Ryan’s article in the Statesman Journal (29 September 2008) describes the literacy-related efforts in Marion County (Oregon). You can also read Tim Toomey’s personal experience visiting a Reach Out and Read Center in Cambridge (MA), in a post at Tim Toomey’s Community Blog.

Boo! If you are reading with kids and haven’t bookmarked Wild Rose Reader, what are you waiting for? Elaine Magliaro has already published her Halloween: Book Reviews and Book Lists post. Ghosts, goblins, and general-all-round spookiness can be just the thing to jump-start a child’s interest in story-telling and reading. Its okay, you can still read Halloween stories in January (we won’t tell).

Is It Really Genetic? According to tests conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford (UK), a common genetic variant may affect a person’s ability to read. The variant, carried by more than one in seven people, is already linked to dyslexia. One of the researchers quoted in the original BBC article emphasized that the gene is related to reading ability, not IQ, and that “some people were able to compensate and go on to successful careers even though they carried the gene variation.” The findings are published in the current edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry. We read Louise Ash’s summary in Reading Today Daily (International Reading Association blog). You can also read the BBC (online) article.

Exercise Your Mind: give me 20 pages Wow, there IS a value to reading on the treadmill! We heard about Dr. Robin Reesal’s article in the Calgary Herald about the mental health benefits of reading on Jen Robinson’s Literacy Round-up. Print it and take it to the gym with you! Then go over to Katie’s Literacy Blog, where you will find links to websites with online research in bibliotherapy and critical literacy.

Multi-Dimensional Reading In Freedom to Read, Lucie deLaBruere’s post at the Infinite Thinking Machine, she says “We need literacy specialists offering professional development in schools to also include strategies that integrate reading digital media.” Read her post to find lots of links on ways to connect reading and technology to enhance literacy time. She’s also got a link to teacher workshops by reading specialist, Julie Coiro. Stop by the Webster Parish Library Blog, to see there newly created Early Literacy Station, which incorporates computer software into the reading experience for pre- and emerging readers. Here's the library post.

Fun with Books Thanks to Lisa Von Drasek’s Resource Roundup on theTeaching Pre-K to 8  site, I found Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature website. I’ll let Carol tell you what she’s got: “This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.”

[untitled] Kathleen Bernice Lawrence wrote an article you need to read. Her piece, Deaf Adults Have Lifetime Literacy Needs in the Times & Transcript (online, New Brunswick, CA), reminds us about how important communication skills are for ALL of us; that the process begins when we are young; and that we particularly need to keep in mind ways to connect with visual learners.

Free Audio Books Audible Kids is offering audio books you can download for free. This is Audible Kids’ way of promoting literacy through a partnership with Reading is Fundamental. There are nine titles that you will recognize immediately, including Rapunzel, Rikki-Tikki Tavi, The Gift of the Magi, and the Emperors New Clothes. You do need to create a free account in order to download the free audio books, but you are not asked for your credit card number or mailing address. We found this at the Brawlers blog.

Joey’s Books Thanks to Sally Murphy and Sally  Murphy's Writing for Children’s Blog for introducing us to newkidsbooksinoz, a new blog by Australian author Christopher Cheng, who also serves as a literacy ambassador for National Literacy and Numeracy Week. Each post is filled with “Australian kids books” for readers young and old, complete with a book cover image and story summary. Her post, Three Wonderful Book Blog, also includes the Cybils and Notes from the Slush Pile.

Oh, Bananas! We are always on the lookout for book reviews by kids, and somehow I missed Charlotte’s post about her son’s book blog. Go to Pickled Bananas to read his book reviews. We subscribe to Charlotte’s Library, and somehow I missed this nugget, tucked in her post about Miscellaneous Stuff. We are always excited to see peer-to-peer blogs, especially when it comes to boys and books.  This is top bananas!

I was so tickled when I opened the mail yesterday and I had a package for me. Yes, I get lots of packages with books, but this one had CHOCOLATE!

In August, Sarah over at the Reading Zone organized a Teacher/Kidlitosphere swap. Nineteen of us took the challenge to create a package filled with goodies ($20, sans postage) using the letters for S-C-H-O-O-L . Well, my partner was Jenny, who blogs at Elementary My Dear, Or Far From It.

We have lots in common: she teaches first grade, I have a first grader; I used to live in Northern Virginia, her in-laws live here in Charlottesville. We have one more thing in common, but I can't tell you because she hasn't opened her package!

Sorry, you want to know about my goodies. Well here they are:


Something Sweet and Yummy -- Reese's cups (chocolate comes first)
Coffee Mug (it's an anti-stress mug, see close-up below)
Have some Yummy Cookies -- heart-shaped cookie cutters
Organizational Goodies -- Door-hanger organizers (in UVA colors, no less!) and some really cool markers
On a Break -- Relax and Read! One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
Lovely Scent -- a Crystal potpourri



Thanks, Sarah! This was a lot of fun!

We're going to try something new this morning: a simulpost on both of our blogs. So here goes ...


Nominations for the Third Annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literacy Awards (Cybils) have now opened. This is an awards program where YOU get the chance to tell us about your favorite book in up to nine categories. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I have pulled all the important information you need to know about the Awards.

• Anne Boles Levy and Kelly Herold founded the award to highlight books that are high in both literary quality and kid appeal.
• The Nomination process lasts only two week: October 1 to October 15, 2008.
• Anyone can nominate books in these categories
• You can nominate only one book per category.
• Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English).
• Between October 16th and January 1st, the Cybils panelists (children’s and young adult bloggers) will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009. [There are about 100 bloggers on the Cybils team.]

To help you, we are providing a brief synopsis for each category. The Category organizers, who wrote the descriptions, have made it easy for you to understand where a book fits. Click on the link so you can add your favorite to the ballot.

• Young Adult Fiction You'll find no dragons or magic, robots or vampires here. Just real people, in the real world, in real situations. Historical, humorous, or contemporary, they must have literary merit AND a lasting effect on their readers; something teens will press into their friends' hands with fervor in their eyes and say, "You HAVE to read this book."
• Poetry Poetry collections for younger kids, older kids, and teens belong here. Poetry collections can be fiction or nonfiction; they can have a single author or be an anthology that includes the work of many poets. The poems can be in rhyme or not, and can be in any form, including no real form at all (which is to say, free verse is very welcome, as are shape poems).
• Nonfiction Picture Books Science, art, history, sports, current events--and more--are all fair game, from slice-of-life biographies and other true stories kids will read beginning-to-end, to list books and other compendiums of information that will delight the browsers in the crowd. Non-fiction picture books will be 48 pages or less and aimed at younger readers.
• Nonfiction Middle Grade/Young Adult (MG/YA) Books Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction covers a wide swath of territory: from history, biography and science to sports, astronomy and dinosaurs. Kids of all ages are seeking out books that unwrap the mysteries of the world around them If the book's more than 48 pages, has more text and seems geared for somewhat older kids ... put it here.
  
• Graphic Novels We're looking for those compelling stories that won't let you go; stories in which word and image are inseparable; stories that will endure in readers' minds long after they're put away. From ordinary kids to superheroes, from the everyday to the fantastical we want to read your nominations for the best graphic novels published this year for children and young adults.
• Fiction Picture Books A good picture book is a pleasing merger of text and artwork. A great picture book is a celebration of story and illustration, with lasting appeal for kids and/or adults. The best picture books completely excel in art, story, kid-friendliness, and adult appeal. In message, in world-view, in connection, in humor, in reach, a book with "It Factor" rises to a higher level.
• Fantasy and Science Fiction Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, said "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible." That sentiment is at the heart of this category's best novel for children and teens. The winning novel will be a book that speaks for its genre but also exceeds it, blasting beyond into greatness.
• Easy Readers Easy readers are books with simple words and short sentences for children who are learning how to read. These are the books they are meant to be read by the child himself. Easy readers range from 8 page books with a single word or a simple phrase on each page to 64 page books divided into chapters. ou'll know you've found an easy reader when you see the words "read," "reader," or "reading" on the cover.

If you have questions, please go to the Got Questions? post on the Cybils blog. The Cybils team is happy to answer your question, because we want you to participate. Jen Robinson Literacy Evangelist for the 2008 Cybils said it best: "The Cybils nominations will be of interest to parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and teens." Be sure to vote ... and invite your friends to partipate, too.

Happy Monday! First it has been great catching up with all the happenings in the Second Annual Kidlitosphere Conference last weekend in Portland, Oregon.  Given the number of posts rolling in this morning, it looks like everyone had a terrific time and safe journeys home. If you want to have one-stop reading, head over to the  Portland Kidlit blog, where everyone is adding posts and pictures from the weekend.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program ...

Literacy Events, Activities, and Book Drives

Banned Book Week Every year, we observe (and remind ourselves about) the opportunities reading gives us in an event called Banned Book Week. It is always the last week of September, and it starts this week.  I've seen lots of posts already, but my favorite is this one by Little Willow I Read Banned Books:  Celebrating Intellectual Freedom and Literacy. You need to head over to the post and ask yourself Have I ever said that?

Grab Your Corduroys! This Thursday, October 2, is Read for the Record. It is an annual event (this is the third one) to promote literacy by having the greatest number of people read the same book on the same day. More than 400,000 underserved youth will read/listen to Don Freeman's Corduroy.  You can get lots of links to events around the country in this post at Christine Louise Hohlbaum’s Mama’s Musings blog.  You can also register to participate on the Read for the Record website.

 

More for your TBR Pile Over at the Hidden Side of a Leaf, you can find the official clock counting down the days/minutes/seconds until Buy a Friend a Book Week, which kicks of 1 October 2008. Dewey has already announced her giveaway in this BAFAB Week post. You’ll also find all the details about how to participate, too.

Ready? Action! On Wednesday, 8 October 2008 2:PM to 3:PM (EDT), School Library Journal is hosting a FREE webcast, sponsored by Capstone Press. The event features a panel to talk about “best practices to engage struggling and reluctant readers, discover multi-level reading resources for classroom and school library integration, and pick up techniques and programming ideas that will encourage the use of fiction and nonfiction.” The panelists are the people who know the most about reading, media center services, and children’s literacy: school librarians, educators, and publisher reps from Captsone and Arch Books. Go to the SLJ Event webpage to learn more or register. Our thanks to Denise Johnson and the Joy of Literature blog for the lead.

Read Aloud Event Here in the Commonwealth, Read Aloud to a Child Week is  19 to 23 October 2008. If, in this age of shortened attention spans, you don’t have the time or energy to read Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook, then

• Jump over to Small Town Insights blog and read K. Moore’s post The Benefits of Reading Aloud to Children; and
• Head to Becky’s Young Readers blog to see her post Sara Dobie Shares Tips on Reading, which covers audiences from infants and toddlers to independent readers.

In Need of Books YA Author Devyn Burton is sponsoring a book drive to get YA books to local hospitals in lower east Michigan (Lenawee County). Her goal is to give these hospitals a book transfusion of much-needed YA material. I’ll let her explain. “I created Book Transfusion because I am the teen who is stuck in the hospital, awaiting a blood transfusion, dreading surgery, trying to avoid the painful shots … [T]eens in the hospital had two options A) color and do crafts meant for a six year old or B) 'suck it up' like an adult watch TV all day.” Devyon needs all books – or donations – by 10 October 2008. Click here to learn more about Book Transfusion. Our thanks to Cynthia Leitich Smith and her Cynsational News & Giveaway post for the info on this event.

A Little Jazz, A Little Blues Blue Cypress Books will host the One Book One New Orleans event where residents ages 16 and up are encouraged to all read the same book at the same time. Everyone will be reading Tom Piazza’s City of Refuge for the 18 October 2008 event at Blue Cypress Books. The event begins at 2:00 PM. We read about it in this untitled post on the Blue Cypress Books blog.

Read-a-Thon in Quebec The Quebec Division of the Multiple Schlerosis Society has sent its invitations to elementary and secondary schools for the 31^st Read-a-Thon. Last year, more than 5,000 at 86 schools read 34,000 books and raised more than $131,000. This year, the winning school can win $300 in books from Scholastic. Schools can participate anytime from November 2008 to April 2009. You can read more details in Brian Scott’s post for the Literacy and Reading News blog or go to the Read-a-thon website.

Literacy Grant – December Deadline Go to grantsandfunding.net to read the announcement about the Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year Award. US teachers can apply for the award, and the winner receives a $7,500 grant for their program.

Ah-Ha! It’s an award! The official name is the Frances Mottey Beck Middle School “Ah-Ha” Reading Award. It is a new award this year, and its purpose is to recognize “a middle-school educator or team of educators who has designed an effective, replicable program for advancing reading/literacy.” Recipients receive a $2000 cash award. Go here for the application (the deadline is 10 February 2009).

News, Updates & Other Tidbits

An Apple a Day Last week, Donna contacted me about her new Website, Meet Me at the Corner, a non-profit that hosts the Big Apple Book Club. What I loved about the site is that it offers video reviews and interviews by kids … and also has a video on how to write a review.

The Cat in the Hat Over at the Printable Coloring Pages blog, you’ll find this post that lists seven free, printable coloring pages with the Cat in the Hat as the theme. There are links to just-plain-fun pages, as well as printable coloring pages for literacy and phonics skills.

TTYL In the current edition of The View from Here (online) magazine, Mike French posts the first of a two-part interview with Nikki Heath, the 2008 School Librarian of the Year (UK). She offers some great insights on YA books, their audience, and how to keep them reading. Here’s the link to Part 1: Young Adult Reading (and Writing) Guidance: An Interview with Nikki Heath.

When Good Things Happen to Great Teachers You may remember we posted a plug for I.N.K.’s Book Blast Giveaway in our 8 August Reading Round-Up. Well, the winner is … Lelac Almagor, English 7 Teacher at KIPP DC: AIM Academy. Linda Salzman included about the winning entry in her Winner’s post on I.N.K. Inspirational reading and a video link of her class, too.

Flexible Reading In the current edition of the Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook (online), Donalyn Miller has an article that talks about how one-size-fits-all reading lists. Her article, One Size Does Not Fit All, offers some ideas for engaging readers when you’re “stuck” using a curriculum-mandated list.

Very cool, eh? There are 153 nominees for the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, described as “the most lucrative award in children’s literature.” Bryan Doyle (YA novelist in Ottawa, Canada), Marie-Louise Gay (writer-illustrator in Montreal), and Read to Me! Read to Me! a literacy program in Nova Scotia, Canada are among the nominees. I couldn’t find a website for Read to Me! Read to Me!, but you can read the summary article in the Canadian Press (online) Two Canadian writers and a Nova Scotia literacy program up for rich children’s ....

She Gets My Vote – No, not her. I am voting for Anne-Marie at My Readable Feast. We don’t need to infuse a political agenda in the process of getting kids to understand our history and the political process. In her post Election 2008: More Books for Kids on Politics and American History, Anne-Marie makes it easy for you to find books and activities that will engage kids in exploring the republic, with liberty and justice for all.

Something to Give I’ve been holding on to Sherry’s post about the 10 Day Give. I read about it at Semicolon last week. It has a simple purpose: “The 10 Day Give is a challenge that is designed to help us get our minds off of ourselves and start thinking about how we can help others…There really are hundreds of opportunities that we overlook each day. My goal is to just grab hold of one of them each day.” The Challenge doesn’t start until 10 October, so you even have some time to look around and think about things you might be able to do. Why not stop in the library and volunteer to read a book with a child?

You’ll Want to Underline This In the midst of trying to find Read to Me! the literacy program, I found a software program, also called Read to Me. This is a software download for IE that can read your webpage for you. What I LOVE about the idea is that it underlines the words as you go, which has great read-along value. You can choose male or female voices, and modify the highlighting pattern, too. You can download a free, 30-day trial from Steve Foxover Software. What I DON’T LOVE is that I can’t find pricing information.

Too Cool for School On the 21^st Century Connections website, there is an article by Allyson Parks about how Technology Affects New Forms of Writing. Here’s the pitch: “A recent article from Cleveland-based wkyc.com reports that the Westlake City School District in Westlake, Ohio, is having success at improving children's literacy skills through the use of blogging and podcasting.” Students are TAUGHT to create blogs and podcasts of their curriculum-based reading. How cool is that? We found the lead in this post the MHRIC WDUG blog.

• You might also want to read 21^st Century Skills, Education and Competitiveness, a new report by the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. We found the lead for this in Dakarai I Aaron’s article for Education Week.

Inspired Writing Late Friday afternoon, Brian Scott wrote a post on the Literacy and Reading News blog saying a New Kidspiration Lesson Plan Book Helps Teachers Use Visual Learning. The post has a press release feel to it, so it is full of little grabbers, like this one: “Elementary teachers can help students start as early as kindergarten to learn the importance and process of writing well.” Although billed as a tool to help elementary school teachers in the classroom, it is available as a single-copy purchase, too. Go to the e Kidspiration website to see Chapter 4, “Forms of Writing.”

The More Things Change … It isn’t often that a report remains accurate for 25 years. A Nation at Risk, is one of those rare reports. Education Week has two articles that both contrast/compare current issues with that landmark study.

• Catherine Gewertz writes that the key finding of the study is as relevant now as it was “back then.” Read Interest in Expanding Hours for Students to Master Academic, Social, and Workplace Skills is Mounting.

• Debra Viadero has a fascinating article about how school interruptions (like snow days) affect learing. One researcher showed “in a year with five lost school days, which is the average number for Maryland, the number of 3rd graders who met state proficiency targets was 3 percent lower than in years with no school closings.” Read Research Yields Clues on the Effect of Extra Time for Learning.

I Can’t Hear You! The Center for the Book (Library of Congress) and the Read it Loud! Foundation have announced a new literacy program, called (what else) Read it Loud! The goal is to inspire 5 million parents and caregivers to read daily to their children by 2014. You can read the blurb in John Micklos’ post for Reading Today Daily (IRA blog) or visit the Read it Loud! website. Sidebar: Many moons ago I created a group over at Goodreads call Read it LOUD. The goal is to chat about books that are fun, exciting, and engaging read-alouds. We’d love to hear your favorite!

When my daughter came in after school today, she had a new friend.