Children's Literacy Round-Up: April 17

I missed my literacy round-up last week due to travel, so I have lots of tidbits for you this week.

• There's a new literacy center in Edinboro, PA, according to an article by Jamie Musick in the Meadville Tribune. There were plans mentioned for a specific portion of the center to be focused on parents, but that hasn't been accomplished yet.
• The University of Texas at El Paso also has a new literacy program. Students attend "a reading program that UTEP education officials hope will foster better literacy practices in the region", according to an article by Gustavo Reveles Acosta in the El Paso Times.
• Meanwhile, in Morning Sun, Iowa, a new ""Family Storyteller" program at the Morning Sun Library will teach children and their parents how to read together." According to the Burlington Hawk Eye, the idea is to help semi-literate parents to be more comfortable reading in front of their children.
• According to the Naples Daily News, the local literacy council in Bonita Springs, Florida, "was awarded $15,000 this afternoon to expand its Moms and Tots Family Literacy program, which helps mothers and their children to learn English."
• This one is about adult literacy, but heart-warming nevertheless. The St. George Sutherland Shire Leader of Australia published a piece about how literacy helped a 67-year-old woman reconnect with her long-lost sister. She wrote letters trying to track her sister down as part of her literacy learning efforts, and these efforts were rewarded. It's pretty neat.
• And if you would like something even more heart-warming, check out this story by Cindy Krantz from the Cincinnati Enquirer about a schoolwide project to create children's books for kids in northern Uganda.
• For another international story, check out this article in the New Zealand Herald. After a visit to libraries in Fiji, Tauranga libraries manager Jill Best decided to try to do something about the sorry state of library collections there. She sent out an appeal to her librarian friends for used books, and has received thousands to send to the libraries in Fiji.
• The Epoch (New York) Times asks readers, in honor of Library Week, to read children's books. It starts: "Why read children's literature? It's surprisingly nuanced and often addresses philosophical or ethical questions. It is often funny. If you'd like a vacation from gore, murder and "language," children's books are your mental vacation spot." The article (by Mary Silver) then moves on to concrete suggestions. It's well worth checking out, if for no other reason than to support this excellent idea. (Though for me it's not so much a vacation spot as a place I want to live, but I'll give them a pass on that.)