TubTalk

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!

My head was still obviously in the apple trees this morning ...

I forgot to mention that the September Carnival of Children's Literature is up at Jenny's Wonderland of Books.  Do stop by to see the adorable fairy holding the music stanza!

Happy Monday. Hope it was a great holiday weekend. I though this might be a small collection of posts given the holiday, but there was lots of literacy and reading news. Yesterday, Jen Robinson posted a Children's Literacy Round-Up filled with lots of links to newsworthy items. She has a nice collection of good-news stories, including a School Library Journal article about a children's librarian who left more than $1 million to libraries (public and school) in her community and a newly built literacy school that opens today in Rochester; NY. There is a lot more. I dropped some of my articles because she has already covered them.

KidLit Blog Events and other Tours de Force

Buy a Friend a Book Week. Back in 2005, Debra Hamel created Buy a Friend a Book Week. There are actually four BAFAB events each year: the first week of January, April, July, and October. There is one catch: you can only buy a book for no good reason. Not for birthdays, new babies, graduation, etc. Dewey is taking the opportunity to give away five "future books" (must read the post at The Hidden Side of a Leaf to learn more) and has links to other BAFAB giveaways. We read about it at The Hidden Side of a Leaf.

Summer Fun: Family Reading Challenge Over at the Well-Read Child, Jill is hosting a reading challenge and a book giveaway. There is a book for every age group. Jill is giving away a copy of Sergio Makes a Splash by Edel Rodriguez (we reviewed it in the Reading Tub), A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (on our to-read pile), and The Birth House by Ami McKay. Visit Jill and you can link to her reviews of the books. Thanks to Jen Robinson for letting us know about it in her Sunday Afternoon Visit: Holiday Weekend Edition.

Vote Yes! Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted a Presidential Reading Challenge. You can read one book, three books, or five books … all in a set amount of time (Election Day, Inauguration Day, and Independence Day 2009, respectively). The one I think would be the most fun is reading original documents (speeches, testimony, legislation proposed by the candidates). [I don't remember president Poke, though – LOL). This is very cool and would make a great Social Studies/English competition.

Other News and Highlights

Book-a-neers! I joined my daughter this morning to watch Sesame Street. I admit, it isn't one of my favorite shows, but she was following our house rule (without parental reminder): choose a PBSKids program from either of the (two) PBS stations. Ahoy! There was a really cute skit with pirates (one human actress-- I think from NBC's The Office; and two Muppets). They were not buccaneers, they were book-a-neers because they love books. Shiver me timbers! I got an idea: a book-a-neer party. It's a subtle, easy twist on the pirate theme that could be fun "just because" or in lieu of a traditional birthday bash.

Books on Wheels Bo Kinney wrote a great post about Bookmobiles for the Seattle Public Library's ALA 2008 Blog. Bo is the CLA for the Seattle Public Library's Mobile Services, and he offers a great synopsis of all the mobile-library-related discussions at ALA this year. When you link over to the Seattle Public Library site, go to the bottom of the Mobile Library Services page. There is a short item about the Kindergarten Readiness Program "supporting early literacy for children from birth to five years." Mobile Services launched this program in 2006.

Summer Reading: Take 4 Over at The Reading Zone, Sarah wrote a Summer Reading Rant about how summer reading lists are often filled with outdated titles. These lists send shivers down more than a few parents' spines who probably remember the drudgery of summer reading. She also offers some suggestions that you can take to your child's teacher or your local librarian. If you would like to see Sarah's favorites, check out her Amazon store. You can also see my own, serendipitous wander through old book lists in this Summer Reading post earlier today.

Another Look at the Economy "Fewer Students Read Between the Lines," is an article in the Tampa Tribune about Florida's efforts to promote reading comprehension in high school. She opens with this quote from the newspaper article: "Despite a decade of education reform, tens of thousands of Florida's high school students don't read well enough to survive in the work force." We found this in Louise Ash's 1 July 2008 post for Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association (IRA) blog.

More Free Reading Kathleen Kennedy Manzo and Sean Cavanagh, both of Education Week have launched Curriculum Matters, a new blog that covers the waterfront on what else, curriculum matters. Access is free. We read about this in John Micklos' post "Education Week Staffers Launch New Blog," for Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

A History of Reading Over at the Learning is Fun blog, Mark Garry wrote a post about the History of Education, an interesting timeline of the evolution of education from the Garden of Eden to the late 1990s. What I found particularly fascinating is when and when reading became important and how that affected the levels of and access to being educated.

A+B-City School=SAD Matthew Yglesias presents some interesting data and charts in this post about urban school systems and whether 8^th graders are "failing" in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC. The comments to the post add to the conversation, some focused more toward parsing the data, others about how sometimes it is the people (read: teachers, principals) make the difference. We found this through a post at the Century of the Common Iowan blog.

I [heart] New York Yes, there are creative ideas in the city! The Harlem Children's Zone has several programs to help families prepare their kids for the rigors of school and learning. The Baby College and Harlem Gems. Both programs offer activities and workshops to fulfill the goal of "[helping] children and families address the issues of failing school and unsafe streets while undertaking the challenge of rebuilding this Central Harlem community." You can read more details about the programs here.

Lost Books Go to ABC.com to be part of the Lost Book Club. On the site you can get a list of all of the books that have appeared or been referenced on the show Lost, by season or use a master list. Hmmm … kids watch Lost. Kids love Lost. Can kids get lost with Dickens and Henry James? Thanks to Katherine for this lead in her Book News post at A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore.

Discover the World I would never have made it through elementary school if it weren't for the World Book Encyclopedia. (Back then it had shiny paper with gold trim – ooohh!) Now, World Book has launched World Book Discover, a dynamic reference tool "designed specifically to meet the needs of students who read below the level of their peers." We learned about this in Brian Scott's post New World Book Aids in Differential Learning, in Literacy and Reading News, the LiteracyNews.com blog.

Trading Pages I have been meaning to write an article about trading books, but I am a couple pages behind. Trevor Cairney has a great post about Book-Swapping websites and other forms of book recycling in his Literacy, Families and Learning blog. Trevor looks at the idea of book exchanges on several levels, from environmental to financial. Exchanges are a great way to stretch your book-buying dollar, but I would also add that they are a fun way to share great stories and let the kids decide what they want to read. There aren't as many choices as a bookstore or library, so it isn't as overwhelming; and they get a chance to read what their friends recommend.

Good News and Bad News The good news is we now have self-help medical books for parents written at a third-grade level. The bad news is there must be a big market for adult books at a third-grade reading level. Two registered nurses have sold more than 2 million copies of their book What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick. The purpose is to help reduce the number of unwarranted emergency room and doctor/clinic visits. What does reading have to do with health care. Read this: "It is estimated that low health literacy adds $73 billion annually to US health care costs in unnecessary medical expenses." You can read more details in Brian Scott's post (Literacy and Reading News) to get summary details or visit the Institute For Health Awareness website.

Reading into the Future The National Council on Adult Literacy has published Reach Higher, America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce, a report based on a two-year study of adult literacy and education programs. I will quietly point to my Round-ups from 11 June and 30 June and the post above this one vis-à-vis economic impact. Please remember: these adults were children who didn't get the skills they needed. We can change that. Read the full summary in Brian Scott's post Literacy Crisis in American Workforce Readiness in Literacy and Reading News, the LiteracyNews.com blog.

The Reading Game Louise Ash summarizes a new American Library Association (ALA) project to study the effect of gaming on literacy. The project, funded by a $1 million Verizon grant, will track and measure the impact of gaming on literacy. You can read Louise Ash's summary at Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association blog, or visit the School Library Journal site to read about the proposal in detail.

Statistics – Yuck! I always thought of statistics as "sadistics." Now I have even more reason … Despite our best effort to keep the kids busy with other stuff (camps, swim team, etc), their TV viewing spikes 150% during the summer. Ouch! Anne-Marie has some suggestions about how to Outsmart the summer TV viewing spike at My Readable Feast. She has a link to the Smart Television Alliance and their pledge to demand more educational and age-appropriate programming for kids.

Well, it seems that the round-up has slipped to Wednesday. Before the year's out, I'm betting that each day of the week will have had a chance to host a round-up. You just never know!

This week I'm opening the Round-Up with an idea. One way that you can add some fun to your child's summer reading and writing is to find the author's website or blog and then ask your child to write them a note. More than likely you'll find links to interviews on their site (or just Google their name). Thanks to the various blog tours, you'll find a slew of interviews with authors of every genre. Interviews are a great way for them to "connect" to an author, learn more about the book and maybe get answers to their lingering questions.

Summer Reading (the movie). Head over to Becky at Becky's Book Reviews to get a summary and see the WABC clip about summer reading. Authors in three age groups offer their tips to keep kids reading. Thanks to Kelly at Big A little a for the lead.

Summer Reading (the magazine). Anne-Marie at My Readable Feast has a great post about children's magazines as a way to interest kids in reading.

You Go Girl, OMG and WWUT? Angelina at New Literacies has pulled together her analysis of a couple of studies that look at the how popular culture affects reading. It's a little bit technical, but if you're a teacher or curriculum developer it's some food for thought.

Thanks, Dad! John Micklos wrote an article in Monday's Reading Today Daily that summarizes the results of a national PTA poll. According to the poll, more men are getting involved in their kids' education than ever before. Read the summary (with a link to the press release) and read about MORE, a new initiative to keep the momentum going.

And the Award goes to ... Trevor Cairney. This week I found Trevor's blog, Literacy, Families and Learning. He hopes to "help Children Choose Books offers links to practical advice for helping kids pick books." In this post, he talks out Children's Choice Awards. Although his emphasis is CCAs in Australia, the ideas are universal.

Speaking of Awards ReadWriteThink.org has been nominated as the Best Site From Which You Can Download Free Lessons and Materials in an Edutopia's Readers' Survey 2008 conducted earlier this year. We read about it in John Micklos' article for Reading Today Daily.

Where are You Huck Finn? On May 31, 2008, author Max Eliot Anderson released a bottle into the Rock River, near his home in Rockford, IL. Inside the bottle is a self-addressed stamped postcard offering the finder a set of his middle-grade adventure series for boys. We've interviewed Max in the Reading Tub ... he's a self-proclaimed reluctant reader who writes for the boy he used to be. Learn more about Max, his books and get updates about the adventurous bottle at Books for Boys.

Time in a Bottle. Sorry, couldn't resist. Charlotte has started Timeslip Tuesday over at Charlotte's Library. Here's Charlotte's definition: A timeslip story is simply one in which characters pass from one time to another, either forward or backward, generally without a mechanical device such as a time machine. I count ghost stories when the ghost characters are in fact characters traveling in time, and not just spooky special effects. If anyone reading this has a timeslip story they reviewed on their own blog, leave me a link, and I’ll make a list! Kids love time travel, so head over to Charlotte's Library and search her "Timeslip Tuesday" tag to get a list of books and read reviews.

Jumping Jack and the Beanstalk. In last week's Round-up, I had a short piece about the new Children's Room at the Toronto Public Library. This week, I found an article at the Education in the News blog about the Living School initiative in Ontario schools where kids get more exercise ... and have seen reading scores climb 18%. Our neighbors to the north are so smart, eh?

SPLNG RFRM In today's edition of Reading Today Daily, Louise Ashe offers a summary of a Guardian article about the 800 words that 11-year-olds have seen that cause reading problems. Why? Because they do not sound themselves out phonetically. Was is easy; it's on the word wall in every Kindergarten and First Grade classroom. I hadn't thought of stomach or spinach. But telescope? Wouldn't have thought of that.  Read her piece here. Then head over to read Brian Scott's left-handed compliment in a post about the apparent link between poor spelling, good phonetic skills and being right-handed.

It's not just US. Brian Scott posted a lengthy article in Literacy and Reading News about the results of an adult literacy survey in the United Kingdom. The title says it all "Two Thirds of UK Adults Fail Basic Literacy Test" No, it's not about us, but yes, it is about us. We don't have any room to be throwing stones across the pond. It's worth the read ... especially when he draws out the information about the personal and collective economic impact of illiterate populations. Louise Ash had a similar post about the how "poor literacy skills take their toll on health, and the economy" in the May 28 edition of Reading Today Daily. Read it here.

Here's to you, Jen Robinson! [Can you guess the Muzak tune in the background?] Last weekend, I had moved this this post from Jen Robinson's Book Page to my short list because there was something that I wanted to highlight here in the round-up. Now, five days later, I can't remember which wonderful tidbit it was. I'm including the whole post because it is full of great stuff!

Free writing software! I found this post at the Children's Writing Web Journal. This is a blog for children's writer, but this piece about software caught my eye ... actually it was the colorful diagram. Even if your child doesn't aspire to be an author, this is a tool that may help him organize his thoughts, even for simple school projects. And if he is a visual learner, then it might REALLY help him make sense of what he reads and writes. It also looks like it has value as an organization tool. Anything that makes that can help them see that a 15-page term paper is a collection of smaller projects is a good thing. Did I mention it's free?

Until next week ...

I was all set to take this week just to get resettled after BEA (it was fabulous, more later). But, there is so much to report for the Reading Round-up I decided I better jump in now. Some of these tidbits might be a little bit older (like a week), but I didn't see them at m/any of my usual blog-stops, so I'm including them here.

Kids Love Teachers! Check out this article by Linda Jacobson in Education Week about the impact of the teacher-student relationship on pre-K learners. Research suggests that the quality of the relationship may be more important to a child's learning than his teacher's credentials or class size. Here's the tidbit worth quoting: academic and language skills were stronger when children received greater instructional support, such as feedback on their ideas and encouragement to think in more complex ways. And children’s social skills were more advanced when teachers showed more positive emotions and were sensitive to children’s needs. Take a couple minutes to read the full article, "Teacher-Pupil Link Crucial to Pre-K Success, Study Says," Education Week, online edition 5/15/2008; in-print version is 5/21/08. [Note: Emphasis/italics mine to frame the quote.]

Kids Love to Play. In the Children's Room at the Toronto Public Library, you'll find a new literacy center. That remarkably resembles a playground. Cool, eh? Check out "It's a Playground, It's Interactive, It's a Literacy Center" by Louise Ash at Reading Today Daily. Maybe we need to pay more attention to books as physical playground. Check out this piece "Poor Literacy Skills Take Toll on Health, Economy" by Louise Ash in last week's Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association blog.

Reading as a Family. You already know we think reading as a family is important -- it's part of our mission! Asha Dornfest wrote a post at Parent Hacks about the same thing ... read the post AND the comments. It's for families with kids of all ages. Be sure to stop by I.N.K. (Interesting Non-Fiction for Kids). They've put together a great list of non-fiction picture books for kids from preschool through high school. We found INK on our own (we're very loyal readers!) Thanks to Jen Robinson's Book Page for the lead to Parent Hacks and In Need of Chocolate.

Watch Out Boys: It's a Live Wire. It's one of my passions ... getting boys to love reading. I have two brothers who hated (and still hate) reading. They are missing another whole dimension of their world ... but I digress. Thanks to Chasing Ray and Kelly at Big A Little a letting us know that Guys Lit Wire is up.

Celebrity Book Has it Right. Yes, it seems like every celebrity has a book. And Jamie Lee Curtis has more than a few. But it seems that she might be on to something. According to this post, Ms. Curtis' new book Big Words for Little People -- and its message that kids need a broader vocabulary -- may have some foundation in a child's reading success. Read Louise Ash's post in Reading Today Daily, the blog of the International Reading Association.

Need More Incentive? In today's edition of Literacy and Reading News, Wayne Gillie has a post about how to get your preschooler ready for reading. You've got all summer ... start today. "How to Get Your Pre-School Child off to Flying Start with Reading by Wayne Gillie," posted by Brian Scott for Literacy and Reading News.

Listen to this. Stop by to read Angelina's post on the New Literacies blog about Emergent Digital Literacy. It offers some ideas worth listening too. You might also go to Louise Ash's post ("Podcast, Tips on Summer Learning," Reading Today Daily) to link to a podcast from Johns Hopkins University about summer learning.

Even E.F. Hutton would listen to this! Yes, I realize you have to be of a certain age to know the old commercial "when E.F. Hutton talks ... people listen." But I couldn't resist. So ... go see what Jamie wrote about why public libraries still matter. In response to an inquiry from the managing editor of a newspaper, she put together some hard data about libraries and reading to counter his inclination to write an article with the theme "libraries are obsolete." I particularly love this little "stat" ... "Bottom line: whenever these studies happen, we can be sure that for every $1 invested in public libraries, the community gets AT LEAST $3-5 back. How does that compare with YOUR portfolio of investments?" We read about it at MyLibLog [My (mostly) Library-Related Blog]

Espanol, por favor (Spanish, please). An article in the 5/14/2008 edition of Education Week reports that schools that used structured English Immersion (v. bilingual education) for students learning English did not significantly improve their students' ELL achievements. The study evaluate data in three states where voters decided to replace bilingual education with Immersion as the default method for teaching English to non-native speakers. Read the preliminary findings in this article by Mary Ann Zehr.

Reading Incentives Work. For many of us, reading is its own reward. Some of us aren't there yet ... and odds are they're kids. Erik. W. Robelen wrote an article for Education Week (only an excerpt available for free) on a study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (Stanford University). Preliminary findings suggest that student incentives have helped improve reading scores. That's hard to swallow on one level. But if it ultimately makes kids lifelong readers ... maybe. I sure wish someone would interview these kids in 10 years to see if they're still reading! The link is for the free blurb, not the whole article. You can, however, link to the full study Paying for A's.

Bank on it! Commerce Bank has a summer reading program. If a child reads 10 books this summer, they will invest $10 in a savings account (new or existing clients). Read Brian Scott's article about this summer reading program in Literacy and Reading News.

Money Well Spent. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded grants totaling $4.9 million to 329 non-profits in the "fight against illiteracy." Since its creation, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $24.5 million. The Reading Tub is not a DGLF recipient, but we're happy to cheer! Read "$4.9 Million in Grants Helps Organizations Further the Cause of Literacy and Basic Education," by Brian Scott, LIteracy and Reading News.

Reading Incentives I Like! Head over to MotherReader and sign up for the 48-hour Book Challenge. See, we come full circle ... an incentives program to demonstrate that reading (and blogging about reading) is its own reward. Check out the comments ... you'll find some great ideas to make it fun. And what 12-year-old wouldn't want an excuse to stay up all night reading? Wahoo!

Summer Reading. I almost hate to put this post next to Reading Incentives programs, but it's the logical spot. Thanks to The Reading Zone for the lead to this post about the importance of summer writing at TwoWriting Teachers. I love the idea of a writing challenge.

Banding Together. This is a lead for information about an idea to add age guidance for children's books. It is sure to generate lots of discussion. It should. Read "Philip Pullman Leads Revolt against age banding for books" by John Micklos, Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association blog. Better yet, read the full, original article in the UK Telegraph.

I'll keep my 2c to myself! 

In the last few days, I've gotten two messages from kidlit bloggers are putting together best-of-the-best booklists on specific themes.

At Swimming in Literary Soup, Andrea is "looking for that 'clump' of books that hint at the possibility that parents are actually people. Her criteria: "really great illustrated story books (ie. not concept books) that do a great job to introduce, enlighten, inform us, inspire thought and conversation etc about two topics:

• ordinary run-of-the-mill family dysfunction (like bickering, grumpiness, visiting relatives, etc.)
• body image ... specifically the external pressures that affect our perceptions of ourselves as girls and women.

Stop by to leave a comment on her post ... or just stop by. The blog title should be enough to make you want to learn more.

At Mitali's Fire Escape, author Mitali Perkins wants to put together "about" a dozen books that celebrate the relationship between a father and daughter. They can be for any audience, picture books to novels. Leave your comment and suggestion on Mitali's blog.

The Reading Tub had the honor of hosting the March Carnival of Children's Literature this month. With spring officially here, we decided to make it a picnic! Jump in ... and please leave a comment. We'd love to know what you thought.

You can also check out the blogroll to learn about the April Carnival.