TubTalk

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.

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!

Yesterday I decided to extend my birthday celebration and enjoy my transformed kitchen, thanks to all the pink crepe paper my daughter strung on the kitchen cabinets and light! So here's the round-up. You might want to get your calendar, this edition is front-loaded with lots of events. They should be in (roughly) date order.

Book Giveaway Over at the Power of Books ~ Literacy for Everyone blog, leave a comment for your chance to win a collection of children's books published by Barefoot books. Hurry! The contest closes July 18, 2008 at midnight (PDT). Win the books for yourselves or your local library.

Book it On July 19, 2008, there is a Write for Charity event at the Salt Lake City main library. Bring 15 pages of your novel or picture book manuscript for this hands-on workshop. The entrance fee is $45 and 100% goes to The Wheelchair Project. Go to Squeetus to learn more.

Save the date: July 21, 2008 Drop by the Huckleberry Bar (Brooklyn, NY) to enjoy a panel discussion with female graphic novelists and cartoonists. The event supports Behind the Book, "a home-grown nonprofit that promotes literacy and strives to cultivate a love of reading for low-income students in New York City public schools." You can read about the event and Behind the Book in Eleanor's post at the Creative Times blog

Gimme a slice If you are 16 or under and live in the Puget Sound/Seattle area, you can participate in a reading challenge that will earn you free pizza. Four companies have come together promote children's literacy with the Book Your Summer reading program. The partners include Papa Murphy's Seattle franchisees, Borders® bookstores, 103.7 The Mountain FM, and ParentMap Magazine in Seattle. We read the Franchise News Wire press release.

Math and Science – Awesome Sylvan Dell Publishing produces picture books with lessons in math, science, and nature. All of their books come with educational ideas in the back and a teacher's guide on the website. The company has just announced a resource grant for a one-year site license for schools and school districts (2008-2009 School Year). We read Brian Scott's summary of the press release at Literacy and Reading News. You can go to Sylvan Dell site for the application.

DC is Bookish September is a busy month in the Nation's Capital when it comes to children's literacy and reading. 

+ On September 8, 2008, the International Reading Association is hosting an event to celebrate International Literacy Day. The "Reading Across Continents" event will link students in Washington, DC, with students in Nigeria and Ghana through shared reading of two novels. See IRA Plans literacy celebration in Reading Today Daily. Get all the details on the IRA website.

+ The US National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held Saturday September 27, 2008. Rain or shine. First Lady Laura Bush is hosting the event, which will include 70 authors and illustrators. You can get an abbreviated list of featured authors, illustrators, and poets (poets aren't authors?) in John Micklos' post at Reading Today Daily or visit the official National Book Festival website.

Sweet Home Alabama Cathy P. Miller, the Literacy Ambassador (and a member of our Board of Directors) is participating in JumpStart's Read for the Record campaign. You can donate to her Book Drive … OR … if you are in (or near) Huntsville, AL, on October 2, 2008, you can participate in Read for the Record event by reading to preschool children. Contact Cathy directly at cathypmiller [at] Comcast (dot) net. We wrote about Read for the Record in this Round-up.

Reading is Fundamental SOS. Reading is Fundamental needs $26 million to get books to the more than 4.5 million underserved kids and their families in Fiscal 2009. Click here to get to the RIF site and their campaign page. If you work in government, you know that *Fiscal 2009* begins October 1, 2008! You also know that Congress will be heading home for vacation soon; they will also have a short fall session because of the upcoming elections. We read this post in the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance (NCBLA) blog for this lead.

Picture This In the old school, what we now call graphic novels were comic books. In the new school, they are viewed as a tool that just might keep kids reading. Over at Web Comic List, you can read about the Create a Comic Project. Thanks to a Small Neighborhood Grant they will sponsor Make a Comic Tournament III, a contest where children apply their imagination to creating "sequential art masterpieces." The contest is a means of promoting creative writing and literacy for underserved children in New Haven, CT.

Let me in! The May 2008 edition of Canadian Psychology has an article "Unlocking the Door: Is parents' reading to children the key to early literacy development?" by Linda M. Phillips, Stephen P. Norris and Jim Anderson. You can pay $11.95 to read the complete article, or you can read the abstract on PsycNET, the American Psychological Association website.

BOOKMARKS Reading is a universal commodity. No one should have to pay extra to find a great book. So when we find a great site or blog, we are happy to share, Here are some new places we visited this week.

In Need of Books Have you visited Kids Need to Read? PJ Haarsma and Nathan Fillion created the Kids Need to Read Foundation as a way not only to promote reading, but also to draw attention to and garner funds for school and public libraries. What I found particularly cool was the open call for teachers and librarians to state their book needs.

Knock Knock Through the Magic Door  is an online resource and bookseller. Like us, they want to help parents create a pathway toward a lifelong love of reading. "Our primary objective is to make it easy and fast for parents (grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, etc. as well as teachers and librarians) to locate books that their children are most likely to enjoy." Search tools on the site give visitors the chance to search by author, title, subject, or keyword. There are a number of discussion forums and links to other resources. Thanks to Charles for introducing us to this great site via a Kidlit reading list thread.

Down on the Corner Go to the Step-by-Step Reading Corner to find children's books in more than 30 languages. They are single-language titles, not bilingual books. Here is the scoop (from the Reading Corner homepage): "[This site] creates an international community of authors, illustrators and readers through its publishing network. We are excited to be partners in the process of developing and supporting new children's literature which originates from the 26 countries where the Step by Step Program is active, thereby making it possible to offer children, teachers and their parents a great variety of stories across many cultures and languages." Bravissimo! Thanks to Anil at Big Universe for sending this lead!

More Books for Free We found Page by Page Books, a self-described resource for reading classics online for free. You will also find original source material, like the inaugural addresses of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and others. My Daily Domestic Diigolet.

Bienvenido, GutenTag, as-salaam-o-aleykum Check out the International Children's Digital Library. Click on the globe and you'll get a collection of books on that part of the world. When you click on a book, you can select the language you want to read it in (some have just one, others many). You can also hook the site up to a standard computer projector and share the book in a classroom. What a great way to promote reading and help kids become members of the international community. We found this at My Daily Domestic Diigolet.

It is in the Mail To make it simple: Paperspine is to books what Netflix is to movies. You create a list of the books you want to read. They send you the books, you read them (take as long as you want), then return them. If you sign up as a frequent, avid, or family reader, shipping is free. Thanks to Dewey at the Hidden Side of a Leaf for this lead.

TOMGIRLZ R KEWL Macky Mack (of the Tomgirlz book series) has launched a new community service program. Bringing Books to Life for Literacy is an author/character visiting program. The first stop is the Holtz Children's Hospital (south Florida). We read about this at the Tomgirlz blog.

Write On! Dallas Woodburn is a senior at USC. She also founded Write On, a non-profit for writing and literacy. Through the Write On! website and her blog, Dallas encourages kids to explore and discover literature not only through reading, but writing. Each year, Write On! sponsors a book drive to get books to kids who need them. Given her schedule, the best way to keep up with Write On! is the newsletter. You can sign up on the Write On! website.

Murder: TV lifeline Unplugged In a post called Kill Your TV, the Babysitter lays out the effects of TV on our kids' intellect and health (not to mention the exposure to violence). Some of the facts we're all familiar with, but she puts some benchmarks in place by adding the dates various laws went into effect. We found this at the Babysitter Writes blog.

Tell Me a Story Over at the Adventure Author blog Cathrin Howells has a post Learning about 21^st Century Storytelling. Even though this is for an academic audience, you can substitute the word "parent" for "teacher" in this quote. "As teachers, we are going to have to bone up on changing views of literacy if we are to keep pace with our children; we are going to have to find out as much as we can about the interplay between word and image as children increasingly create narratives using both, with both modes carrying valid and often sophisticated meaning."

More Stories to Tell Also check out MLocke's post about her search to find information about storytelling and its impact on readers on the Storytelling in School Libraries blog. Over on the right side you will also find links to podcasts about the art of storytelling. For a different search, click over to the TWU Library Science Blog for the results of a search on "reluctant reader" in Books in Print.

A Minute of your time Your child's future is worth that, right? Over at YubaNet, you'll find this article by the National Center for Family Literacy. The article offers lots of ideas about the things you can do in just 60 seconds to help your child expand their vocabulary and expand reading skills. It probably won't take you more than two minutes to read the article, either! If you have 15 minutes, then read 15 minutes keeps the brain drain away in the Forest Park Review (IL). We saw this lead in Louise Ash's post, Reading Today Daily.

Reading: the Play Be sure to take another five minutes to read Trevor Cairney's two-part series Stimulating Language, Literacy and Learning in Holidays (vacation for those of us in the States). They are both on his Literacy, Families and Learning blog. Here is the link to Part One; here is the link to Part Two. If you want to read more about the importance of playing, check out Don't teach boys to be like girls by Nicola Pearson in the Guardian online. We found this through Reading Today Daily and Louise Ash's post Boys will be boys if we let them.

Keep Reading Over at A Year of Reading, Franki has put together a post with links to a list of books for kids who like the Captain Underpants series. You will find her article and the list at the Choice Literacy site. She makes a point that is always worth mentioning: to get a kid to love reading, find out what the kid loves to read.

Game On! A 10-week project at Charles Darwin University (Australia) is designed to test Abracadabra software and its effectiveness in teaching basic literacy skills to 4- to 8-year-olds. Abracadabra, developed in Canada, looks like a game, but it is built around very specific educational goals. We first read about it in Reading Today Daily. You can also go directly to the Australian online. In last week's Round-up we had a blurb (The Reading Game) about a $1 million Verizon grant to the American Library Association for a similar study.

New Report The National Center for Learning Disabilities has just released this new report, Challenging Change: How Schools and Districts are Improving Performance of Special Education Students. The study looks at two schools and three school districts in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Texas. We found the article in John Micklos' article for Reading Today Daily.

Let's hope I did better with the typos this week!

 

First, Happy Fourth of July. We've been very busy in the Tub these past few days. If you haven't stopped by, head over to Scrub-a-Dub-Tub to read our Book Bags and Reading Ahead columns for May/June. We've got the Books for Ages 0 to 4, Books for Ages 5 to 8, and Bilingual Books posts up. Tomorrow the Books for Ages 9 to 12 go up. I am really tickled with that column ... almost all of the reviews include quotes by our student readers.

BIG Round of Applause To those who participated in Dewey's Read-a-Thon: congrats. I hope you still have enough good vision left to read the Round-up. If you missed the Read-a-thon, mark your calendar for October.

Sidebar: Unless otherwise noted, these we found these tidbits through GoogleAlerts.

Limited Time Offer Little Willow is blogging over at GuysLitWire today. Check out the sidebar for some great reads. We read Bildungsroman every day.

Tell me a Story Over at the Information Literacy blog, there is a great post about Storytelling as a tool for encouraging literacy. We learn our vocabulary through speaking, and reciting a story is something we can do without a book. Kids tell stories all the time – it is called pretend play! Take advantage of the opportunity and play with your kids.

Print & Preschoolers The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy (vol 8, no 2) has an article that sets out the results of a study with 38 parents of children involved in Head Start programs. You must be a SAGE Journals Online subscriber to read the whole article, but this excerpt of Jacqueline Lynch's précis is available free: "This research may suggest the important role of pre-school and particular parent—child activities in developing children's early print concepts."

Contrast and Compare: Pre-K There is an interesting commentary by Liz Willen for the Early Stories blog. She offers some interesting observations and links to studies, news articles, etc. on the impact and importance of strong pre-K programs.

Pomp, Circumstance, and Apple Juice The Newark Advocate published an article about the literacy gains of the first all-day Kindergarten classes in Newark City Schools. Worth quoting: "Based on the assessments, 67.7 percent of kindergarten students in Newark are reading at a mid-first- to second-grade reading level. That is up from 44.3 percent in 2007." We found this lead in Louise Ash's post at Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

Dogs love books, too Maya Spector reminds us that one way to help reluctant or struggling readers is to create a dog-child partnership. In this post on the PACL blog, Maya tells us that the Palo Alto City Library is bringing back the Paws to Read program because the pilot was such a hit. This is something you can encourage at home or make the centerpiece of a neighborhood book club.

More Summer Reading Ideas Last Thursday, Good Morning America (GMA) took its turn at offering kids reading suggestions for the summer. The Reading Zone wrote about it in this post, and offered that unlike many lists for middle school and YA readers, this one has newer titles, AND the hosts offered that adults would like some of the YA titles, too. In the post, you can link to the GMA-recommended list, or the Reading Zone's own list, courtesy of MotherReader's 48-hour Book Challenge. She also posted her 2007-2008Class Book Lists drawn from the titles she shared with her 6^th grade class.

Taking Bids GreenStyleMom and Shannon tell us about their effort to raise funds for the Children's Literacy Center (Colorado). They are soliciting items for a silent auction. The proceeds of the event go to providing one-on-one tutoring to more than 1,000 children each year. Read Shannon's post to learn more and/or donate.

Time to Face(book) Reality We read several posts about this article in the (UK) Telegraph that suggests teachers need to embrace, not ban, social networking sites. Their analysis: Teachers should take advantage of their students' interests in Facebook and Bebo as a tool to help them develop communication skills. The Reading Rockets website picked up the link and added an article in its News section; and we saw it in Louise Ash's post for Reading Today Daily. Note: Louise Ash referenced "Childnet" as a source, but we don't know whether it was Childnet.com or Childnet.org.

Lucky Find Last week, in the midst of trying to check the weather, I found libraryspot.com featured as the Site of the Day on Refdesk.com. The home page is like the Reference Desk we all know and love, and you'll find directories of K-12 libraries, national libraries, and reference sources for anything from acronyms to zip codes. I bookmarked it!

Our Good Neighbors Do it Again In this post at the ParentClub blog you can read about the One Million Reading Hours, a LeapFrog Canada Literacy Campaign. You can also read Brian Scott's article on the subject at Literacy and Reading News.

More Bad Economic News There is an interesting piece in Literacy and Reading News about how low literacy is threatening Canada's economic future. Here is the article by Brian Scott that lays out the ABC Canada Literacy Foundation analysis. I had a similar blurb with a UK perspective in the 11 June Reading Round-Up. Literacy is more than pleasure reading, it's basic economics!

Don't Point fingers Here's the headline: "1 in 5 Parents Do Not See the Point of Reading to Their Children." In this article, Brian Scott lays out an analysis of parenting behaviors vis-à-vis reading. All Top Books conducted a survey of more than 640 UK parents ... but I'm betting the results would be the same on this side of the pond. Here are two that really struck me.

• 1 in 5 parents do not see the benefit of reading to a child before they can sit up, walk, or talk.
• 1 in 4 parents either do not enjoy reading, or struggle with reading and so put no time aside for reading with their child.
• More than 50% of parents spend a maximum of 8.5 minutes reading with their child each day.
• More than 34% spend no time reading to their children at all.

Can someone analyze how much of much of their annuity will be spent on their unemployable-because-illiterate children when the kids are STILL living at home at age 35 (see article above)? [deep breath, 1-2-3] You can read Brian's full article in Literacy and Reading News, the literacynews.com blog. In that same article, you'll find a link to the UK Literacy Trust and a very simply presented Every Home a Reading Home campaign.

Data Overload The non-partisan Center on Education Policy has released a report that analyzes the testing data for the 2006-2007 school year from all 50 US states. The questions: Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002? And Has the achievement gap narrowed? The point is to evaluate the effectiveness of the NLCB, which went into effect in 2002. Go to the Center's website to read the full report or the press release. You can also read a quick summary in this article by Louise Ash for Reading Today Daily (the IRA blog). They don't make it easy to find the conclusions, but essentially, there are positive gains in both reading and math, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels (except 8^th grade).

Our Elected Representatives John Micklos has posts for both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees votes to eliminate funding for Reading First. You can read more information at the Education Week website. You can go there directly, or link to it through Reading Today Daily (click links above). Needless to say, the Reading First Advisory Panel has some words of their own for Congress. We read John's summaries in the 6/24/2008 and 6/26/2008 editions of Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association (IRA) blog, then went to Education Week to see the full scoop. You can also read the Reading First response in this article by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo for Education Week.

Size Matters If the title doesn't get you – "Brain Size, not Gender, May Be Key to Reading Ability" – then this might: brain size accounts for why women excel in reading. Before you go wagging your finger at your brother/husband/significant other and scream "SEE?!", remember: there are women who DON'T like to read, too. Once you get past the fact the intentional lure (read: sound bite), you find a rather interesting analysis about reading and learning … and an opportunity to stop stereotyping boys just because they're boys. Still, I think we need more women in Congress. We read about this in Louise Ash's post for Reading Today Daily (the IRA blog), but you'll find more detail in the Press-Enterprise article by Laurie Lucas.

Sally May Get a New Jersey If you live in New Jersey and you're a 501(c)(3) non-profit you could be. Verizon customers who participated in the company's Check Into Literacy program have made it possible for nonprofit literacy organizations in New Jersey are now eligible to receive a total of $325,000 in grants. You can read more details in Brian Scott's article in Literacy and Reading News, the literacynews.com blog or you can go to Verizon for application forms.

School Bells Yes, I know if feels like summer just started, but … school will start again soon. Why not order school supplies before you go on vacation? Then you don't have to think about it! Anne-Marie at My Readable Feast has a nicely detailed (and very Mom-logical) post about using EZschoolsupplies.com to save money on school supplies AND raise funds for your kids' school.

It's going to be a busy week, as we gear up for our Book Bag reviews over at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, so I thought I'd get this done today. Even though it's only been a few days, there is lots of noteworthy news.

Online Journals, eMags and other Literary Tours de Force

Edge of the Forest The June edition of The Edge of the Forest is now up. There is too much good stuff to mention, so I'll follow Jill's and Jen Robinson's leads and post Kelly Herold's index.

• An interview with singer-songwriter—and author of Middle Grade fiction—Dar Williams, by YA author Carrie Jones.
• Poet J. Patrick Lewis graces The Edge of the Forest with a bittersweet original poem.
• Sarah Stevenson (a.fortis) and TadMack (Tanita S. Davis) talk vampires in Fiction with Fangs.
• Not one, but two Summer Reading features: Julie M. Prince takes reading to the pool and Sarah Mulhern suggests summertime reading for kids of all ages.
• Gail Gauthier is this month's Blogging Writer.
• We have three great columns this month: Candice Ransom considers The Long Summer for A Backward Glance, teacher Stacy Dillon gives us her students' picks for Kid Picks, and Little Willow tells us What's in Teens' Backpacks this summer.
• Reviews in all categories—from Picture book to Young Adult.

Book a Tour If you live in the Washington-DC area (or more specifically in the Fairfax County area), check out the Public Art Sculpture series. The Fairfax Library Foundation commissioned life-sized books and artists decorated them. Plan your trip so you can browse the "indoor galleries" and pick up a book or two. Go to the Foundation's photo gallery to see the finished works and find out where they're located. If you truly want some fun, then join Sara's Challenge at Read, Write Believe to see how many references to children's and Young Adult books you can spot!

Conferences and other Save the Date Events

24-Hours of Fun Thanks to Rebecca Adler at the Inside Cover blog for the nudge to post a reminder about Dewey's upcoming The 24-hour Read-a-thon! We mentioned it in a previous Round-up, but we need all the (virtual) reminders we can get. The Read-a-thon begins June 28 at 9 AM (Pacific time), and you can sign on as a reader or cheerleader. Here are the answers to your questions. The charity for this year's Read-a-Thon is Reading is Fundamental (RIF).

Library Conference The Children's Literacy Foundation has announced its third-annual conference for small libraries. The conference, titled "Turning Your Library into a Community Center," will take place September 19, 2008 in White River Junction, VT. We read about it in Amy T's post on the New Hampshire Library Association (NHLA) blog.

Early Literacy Conference On September 26, 2008, Beginning with Books is sponsoring an Early Literacy Conference. The Community College of Allegheny County North Campus is hosting this event. The featured speaker is Mary Renck Jalongo, Ph.D., and the featured author/illustrator is award-winning children's author Candace Fleming (Gabriella's Song, Ben Franklin's Almanac, Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School, et al). We read about it at in this post at Story Pockets, the blog for the Children's Department at the Carnegie Library, University of Pittsburgh. You'll need to go to Story Pockets to get contact information; there is nothing posted on the Beginning with Books site yet.

Read for the Record October 2, 2008 is the day to help set a new world's record for the most people reading the same book on the same day. This year's book is Corduroy, a Penguin Young Readers classic. A special edition has been created for the event, with celebrity input and reading tips. This is the third time JumpStart (the non-profit, not the software company) has sponsored the Read for the Record event; and this year's goal is to highlight early literacy. According to Brian Scott's post, the Pearson Foundation (co-sponsor) has launched a Spanish-language version of this event. We read about the event in this post at Literacy and Reading News, the literacynews.com blog.

Other News and Highlights

Monday Monday Finally, there is something good about Monday! On Monday evenings, Metro riders can get a handout worth having: Bit O'Lit, a booklet-sized magazine that has excerpts of both fiction and non-fiction books. The timing could not be better for a group that wants to "addict new people to reading." Because of gas prices, metro rider-ship is WAY up. All this bookishness in DC. Almost makes me want to move back ~ not! The rest of us can read the current issue online. Thanks to Sara at Read Write Believe for her post Sounds Like Candy but it's Not: Bit O'Lit … that's how we learned about it.

Balancing the Books Over at Erin's Musings, Erin wrote an interesting post about Boys and Literacy. Her brother noticed that most of the books in her collection of children's and young adult books were written by women. As a teacher, she wants to better balance the collection. She started by reading and following the leads in Jane McFann's article, Boys and Books, at Reading Rockets. How do your bookshelves weigh in?

Ready to Read Charity Navigator, a non-profit that works to promote a "more efficient philanthropic market place" has a nice narrative about the Children's Literacy Initiative, a Philadelphia-based program whose goal is to improve learning readiness for children in low-income families. CLI has worked in several public school systems in a number of major cities, including Philadelphia, Camden and Newark, New Jersey; Baltimore, MD, and Boston, MA. We found the Charity Navigator profile through a Google Alert.

Two Claws Up! Thanks to some networking and a little bit of fate, I have recently connected with Lobster Press, another think-beyond-tradition independent publisher. Check out these these two articles on the Lobster Press blog. Thanks to Stephanie for pointing them out.

• In Mitigating the Reading Crisis One Book at a Time, Mahak Jain (Marketing Assistant) overlays three widely talked-about surveys/reports about kids and reading for a great summary of the state of reading. Even though there are four years (and several Harry Potter books) separating the surveys, the data seems to remain consistent. Jain looks at Scholastic's 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report.; the 2004 National Endowment for the Arts survey Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading; and Deborah Lau Whelan's article "Librarians Respond to Decline in Reading," in School Library Journal (September 2004).

• In Get the Pages Turning, Claire Fripp (Rights & International Sales Manager) takes an if-at-first-you-don't-succeed approach to helping parents keep reading this summer. In addition to working for Lobster Press, she teaches English at the elementary and middle school levels.

Better than a Frat Party?! This is a nice counterpoint to Scholastic's analysis about reading declines. Alex Finlayson offers some great man-on-the-street vignettes to test this analysis: according to a new report by Pew Internet and American Life Project, Generation Y (18- to -30-year-olds) is the group most likely to use the library. "No Shushing in This Library" is the cover article for the June 18, 2008 edition of San Diego Weekly Reader (online). We found it by reading Louise Ash's post in Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association (IRA) blog.

… Speaking of Libraries Jamie LaRue has some interesting tidbits about library relevance, public policy, and library patrons in his post Private sales, public elections, at his MyLibLog blog. The post responds to a patron question about the need to continue (public) funding for libraries because the Internet has made them (cough) irrelevant. LaRue frames the Douglass County library's activities as thought it were a for-profit business to offer an insightful comparative analysis. He closes with this quip: "[O]ne argument on behalf of library funding is this: until all children have independent incomes sufficient to enable their learning to the extent their natural curiosity and ability permit them, we need public support. Unless, of course, ignorance is more important to us." Love it!

Celebrity Quote worth Reading Last week, Feel Free to Read had a post called Danny Glover Says. It is filled with nothing but Danny Glover quotes. Here's one that shows at least one celebrity understands that literacy means more than just writing a picture book or being the centerpiece of a PhotoOp titled "Star turning page." We found this through a Google Alert. Here's the quote:

If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children's mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives. ~ Danny Glover

Good Question Michael Arnzen, Ph.D. posed the question Is Reading to Students Bad? in a recent post about whether/not teachers should read aloud to their students. Arnzen, Associate professor of English at Seton Hall University, opens the post by letting readers know about the discussion at Teacher Magazine based on an incident where a school administrator had taken issue with an English teacher reading to a high school class. I liked this passage: "Students can learn what we might call "audience literacy": how to be a good, attentive, ethical listener. I would toss in, however, that the method can create a teacher-centered environment in the classroom, and that one shouldn't dominate the class or treat it as their own private rehearsal hall."

Star Light, Star Bright … The summer 2008 edition of USAA Magazine has an article about Mark Bent. Bent is a USAA member who, having retired from government service, worked with the Department of Energy, American universities and NASA to produce SunNights, a solar flashlight that "allows refugee children in Africa to learn to read at night without exposure to kerosene fumes." His company, SunNight Solar, has a Buy-One-Give-One program. For every flashlight ($25) purchased, he donates a second light to nonprofits that distribute them where they are needed.

Thanks Mom! Book Mom in Texas wrote to Dear Abby with a letter for parents looking for ways to entertain their kids. She has an idea that she says is "no cost" (she forgot about the gas!) … take them to the library and let everyone in the family participate in the summer reading club. Many libraries have adult programs. Why not take the approach they recommend for exercise: get a buddy (your kid) and do it together! Bet she wishes she lived in Fairfax, VA! We read about it Friday's edition of the Daily Progress (right under the crossword puzzle)!

It was a dark and stormy night … If you're still looking for a reading incentive program this summer, you might check out Reading Adventure, a Huntington Learning Center program that builds on themes of discovery and exploration. We read about it in Brian Scott's article "Reading Adventure, a New Summer Reading Program" for the Literacy and Reading News blog (readingnews.com). Note: I couldn't find a direct link to the Reading Adventure program.

Adventure #2: A Family Tree Head over to Wonder Years Radio to read this booklet about researching your family tree. You'll find great information about getting started (written for kids to understand); get a list of books for reading and activities; and link to a virtual tour of Ellis Island.

Small Steps on Top Louise Ash has a short summary of an article about what the No Child Left Behind Act has done for readers who aren't struggling. Essentially, the lowest-performing students have made great strides. Evaluators aren't seeing the same level of increase for students already at the top of the curve. You can read more in the Baltimore Sun article by reporter Liz Bowie, or catch the summary in the June 18, 2008 edition of Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

Listen up! Take a minute (Okay, 3 minutes and 23 seconds) to listen to this podcast of Amber Gibson's report "Three Books for Teens Who Hate to Read" which was selected for the Three Books feature on NPR's All Things Considered (June 17, 2007). Amber writes for teensreadtoo.com. There's a nice list of resources with library partners, award-winning book lists, contests, and more. It's worth exploring … but it will take more than 3 minutes and 23 seconds! We read bout this in Louise Ash's post at Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

My Word! Rebecca recently went to the library to pick out books with her 8-month-old son. As she describes the trip, a woman approached her and offered her opinion that her son might be too young for books. Giving this patron the benefit of the doubt, maybe she doesn't read with or have children in her life. But she was in a library, so she must read, right? Even if she doesn't there is TV! So how can she miss article-after-article about study-after-study saying that we need to share books with children every day, long before they even recognize letters? Thanks to Jill's post at the Well-Read Child for getting my adrenalin going on a Saturday afternoon!

The Last Word This week it goes to Jill. I love her opening line in this Well-Read Child post: "Literacy is much more than being able to read a good book...it's a survival skill." For the post, Jill is reviewing Everyday Literacy: Environmental Print Activities for Children 3 to 8 by Stephanie Mueller. Like the book, she reinforces the idea that literacy is more than reciting letters or sitting with a book … it's a natural part of our day, like breathing with our eyes. We read the review at the Well-Read Child blog.

Here's to Dad ... my dad, the lover of books who thankfully shared a "book" gene with me. Thanks, Dad ... you couldn't have given me a greater gift. Well, there was that Barbie van I really wanted when I was six ...

Other people talk about their life as a journey. I look at mine as chapters. I'm one of the lucky ones whose life story includes Dad ... and he's played all kinds of roles, from hero to villain (think teenager), to friend, cheerleader, and sage.

Ironically, there is no chapter where Dad read bedtime stories every night as a little girl. Still, we both have vivid memories of reading as children. He remembers those "little orange biographies" he read when, stricken with polio as a child, he was living in a hospital ward. Amazingly (at least to me) he talks more about the books than he does about the polio and iron lung! As for me, I remember more than a few nights solving mysteries with Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown. Even now, there are characters and stories that keep me reading well past lights-out. I still think there must be some "bedtime story" time in there somewhere, because the only classes I EVER fell asleep in were my father's AP European History classes. I'd sit in the back, ready to absorb the lessons, and within 20 minutes I'd fall asleep. It had to be the soothing nature of his voice.

My memories of connecting with Dad about books goes back to the summer of my third-grade year, when we spent the summer in Monmouth, Oregon. He was attending the then Oregon College of Education. Dad worked on his masters. I worked through the life of Helen Keller, lots of mysteries, and the summer reading club at the Monmouth Public Library.

As I got older, our conversations about books grew, and I learned the art of margin notes! As I began to identify my reading preferences, he'd recommend books or authors. Like Dad, I love history ... he prefers fascinating studies (Will Durant, David McCullough ... the folks who go back to the source material). I love historical biography and "stories" like Undaunted Courage. We don't trade books as often as we used to, but there is always at least one book on the gift list ... something he's found in his wanderings that he thinks the recipient will love.

This year Dad will be 68, and he still has big reading plans. He is working through a lot of the original documents and narrative histories of the US colonial era, and keeps a set of YA and non-fiction titles in his repertoire, too. Dad plans to volunteer with the local Lighthouse for the Blind chapter to read books onto tape. Mom says he just reorganized the "library." The only rooms in their house without permanent book collections are the bathrooms and kitchen. This year's Christmas present to himself was a new set of wall-to-wall bookshelves in the spare bedroom/music room (Dad also plays classical guitar).

Some fathers thank the world for Title IX and the chance for their daughters to play competitive sports at a high level. My Dad thanks the world for Barbara Tuchman, Ariel Durant, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and others. Dad loves all history, and one of his passions is women historians. He's got plans (and note cards) for a book about their unique contributions to the study of history at a time when women were not considered "credible" in the field. Yeah, Dad!

What the next chapter brings, I don't know. There's no story I've ever read that gives me a character that touches my heart and soul like Dad. So for now, I'll just keep reading, looking forward to the conversation on the next page.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad.

It is a glorious Monday here in Charlottesville (or Cville as we call it!). It's one of those May-feels-like-September mornings with cool, crisp air and warm sun ... a day for taking spending time in the garden! Before I go, here is this week's round-up.

Online Journals and eMags

The May edition of The Edge of the Forest is up. This is an online children's literature monthly. You'll find book reviews (separated by audience category) , an interview, articles, and even letters to the editor. The archive is available, too.

Just in time for Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, the May/June 2008 edition of Paper Tigers is posted. On the Paper Tigers Website you'll find books with a focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia (there's even a map so you know all the countries in the region)! Be sure to check out the book-related resources. Excellent stuff.

This Week's Round-up of Posts

Kids Can Love to Read ... even if you Don't. There is a great post at the Literacy and Reading News blog. The title says it all: How You Can Help Your Child to Read Even if You Hate Reading Yourself. The original article is by Andy McKenna. It is posted by Brian Scott. We read it here: Literacy and Reading News, the staff of www.literacynews.com.

Literacy Starts at Home. In the 15 May 2008 edition of Reading Today Daily, Louise Ash summarizes an OpEd piece by Esther Jantzen in the Los Angeles Times about the Reading First program. In her post, Ms. Ash highlights the observation that literacy development is affected by the conversations we have with children: how much they are spoken with AND the tone of voice we use. Here's we read about it: "Literacy Begins at Home, Advocate Says," Reading Today Daily, the International Reading Association (IRA) blog.

Why reading matters. Jill at The Well-Read Child wrote a very thoughtful post that talks about why we need to help kids learn to read. She offers her own observations based on working with kids (and adults) who can't read, and offers two great links. The first one is to the raise.smart.kid website about the benefits of reading with your child ... and how they extend well beyond letter recognition and words. She also has a link to the Partnership for Learning website and a list of the Warning Signs of Struggling Readers. We read Jill's post, Fighting Illiteracy is a Community Effort, at The Well-Read Child.

More Summer Reading. The Horn Book has published its list of summer reading suggestions. The lists are broken down by age group and book type. We read about it at The Wild Rose Reader. You can also see the list that the Indiana Department of Education released as its suggested summer reading. We read The Wild Rose Reader and Louise Ash's article "Indiana Releases Summer Reading List for Kids, Adults" at Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

Reading is Fundamental. I don't know whether you've followed the broo-ha-ha (polite term) about RIF and whether (or not) it will continue to be funded. Well, that didn't dampen Reading is Fun Week, RIF's ramp-up event to prepare for summer. You'll get some ideas about making reading part of your summer from Anne-Marie at My Readable Feast. We read "Celebrate Reading is Fun Week with RIF and Get Ready for Summer" at My Readable Feast.

Reading Could Save Your Life. Louise Ash posted a vignette about how reading could affect your health at Reading Today Daily. It is an event-driven story about how a woman's inability to read a medicine bottle affected her ability to care for her children. Here's the source: Reading Today Daily, the IRA blog.

Dr. Literacy, Ph.D. Middle Tennessee State University has developed a new Literacy Studies doctoral degree. It is a "new approach to understanding why a child doesn't learn how to read includes looking underneath the scores to the humanity of the individual." according to the article by Brian Scott in Literacy and Reading News. This is an interdisciplinary doctorate that includes education and special education, English (linguistics), communication disorders, psychology, sociology, dyslexic studies in the curriculum. Here's the article "New Literacy Ph.D. Will Change the Teaching of Reading," Literacy and Reading News, www.literacynews.com.

As many times as I have had to answer that question, you think I would have the answer memorized. Yet every time I am asked, I react as though this is a trick question ... or part of some Myers-Briggs-type analysis of what my books say about me.

What makes a favorite book, anyway? The characters?the pictures? For me, it's all and none of those answers. It's what I'm reading and how an author grabs me at a particular moment in time. I have always loved to read and I read lots of books, but (horror of horrors) I can't remember every book I read as a child, even favorites. I remember lots of trips to the library even as a young girl, but I don't remember many of those "early books."

Trisha Yearwood has a song called "The Song Remembers When." It's about how hearing a song can trigger a memory about where you were, what you were doing, even if you think you've forgotten it. That's how I remember my favorite books. They were part of a place or a time, each unique and treasured when remembered, but just one stop on a continuum that is still (thankfully) moving forward.

So yes, it is the pictures -- of curling up in bed with every Nancy Drew book I could get my hand on. Or perusing the shelves to find another Encyclopedia Brown book to read.

... And the characters - Like Sir Percy and Lady Marguerite Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel. They came before Heathcliff and Cathy (and many others I met thanks to the Bronte Sisters).

... And the memories. I loved From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg. But if it hadn't been for playing in Goodreads today, I likely wouldn't have thought of it.

... And the journey. I just finished reading The Juliet Club by Suzanne Harper. It's the story-within-a-story of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Book geek that I am, I was not overly fond of William Shakespeare in Ninth Grade. Sister Eileen did her best, but we all had a fairly typical response on meeting the Bard for the firs time. But I remember the giggles, and everyone "reading" a part. I read Romeo and Juliet again in college a time or two for English lit classes. It was a lot more fun sitting in the pub eating French fries and figuring out what Dr. Wilson wanted from us.

That's the most wonderful thing about books. They let you explore places you've never been before and carry you back to some of the most familiar, comfortable spots you know.
 
My thanks to Samantha for suggesting this as Weekly Geek Challenge #3: fond memories of childhood books.

Last week I started organizing my virtual life ... and finally "launched" my Google Reader. It was a wonderful journey, with lots of hours spent reading through all the posts I felt like I "should have been" reading all along.

The result is a new column here at What Happens Next. Every Monday I'll put together a collection of reading- and literacy-related posts from the previous week. When it comes to reading, there is no single place or no single person with "the" answer, so I'm happy to share other people's thoughts ... and give them all the credit.


Turn Off TV Week. You can Read about Turn Off TV Week at the official site, or, better yet, go over to A Wrung Sponge and see some of Cloudscome's great ideas.

Reading with Kids: A Gender Gap? On Saturday, the Well-Read Child talked about a recent poll in the UK that focused on whether/not dads read with their kids. Jill offers her perspective on parents sharing a book with a kid. Read it here.

Audio Books: An Argument worth listening to. Back in March, Jen Robinson wrote about a new Audio Booksite for kids books called Audible Kids. Here is her post. I missed it. [Remember, I didn't have my blog reader set up!] Thankfully, I learned about it when I read Jill's post about her experiences. I am an admitted audio book skeptic. Now I'm not so sure. If I wear my read-aloud-to-your-kids hat, is it all that different? Audible Kids also has a page of free downloads to promote Reading is Fundamental and literacy.