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Children's Literacy Round-Up: April 13

Here are some community literacy activities that I noticed for this week:

  • Teresa Mallam of the Prince George Free Press wrote on April 7th about the Prince George Public Library's  Babies and Books calendar initiative. "The calendar is a parent’s guide to the first 18 months of a child’s life and provides information and suggestions to introduce language and books to babies and toddlers. Babies and Books calendars will be presented to parents of babies born at Prince George Regional Hospital". I love this idea! Wouldn't it be amazing if all hospitals could do something like this?
  • I learned from an April 7th press release that April 30th is national El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day). "Sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, Día celebrates the importance of advocating literacy for every child, regardless of linguistic and cultural background. It is a celebration of children, families, culture, and reading and is held annually on April 30." For multicultural book lists, Día brochures and tips on how to encourage children to read, visit the Día Web site at http://www.ala.org/dia.
  • I found a great article in the Tallahassee Democrat, by Dr. Lee Sanders and Dr. Barry Zuckerman, about the Reach Out and Read program. This is a program by which doctors give books to children to take home during their well-baby visits, and talk with parents about the importance of books and reading. While I was already familiar with the program, I loved the real-world example given in the article, written by two doctors who are active in the Reach Out and Read program.
  • There's another article about the Read Out and Read program in the April 10th Boston Globe, written by Adrian Walker. This one is about Dr. Perri Klass at the Dorchester House Multi-Service Health Center.
  • Leslie Wright had an excellent article in the April 9th Burlington, VT Free Press about a prison program that inspires parents to read with their kids. The program is an offshoot of the Children's Literacy Foundation, a non-profit based in Waterbury that works to foster a love of reading.

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