Children's Literacy and Reading News Roundup: New Year's Edition
January 09, 2012
The December Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Family Bookshelf and Rasco from RIF is now available at Rasco from RIF. Carol Rasco managed to find plenty of news, despite the slowdown over the holiday period.
First up, of course, was the news of the Cybils shortlists being announced. I was remiss in not posting about this last week myself. Though, in my defense, everyone else in the entire Kidlitosphere seemed to have posted by the time I came back online after the holidays, so it didn't feel much like urgent news. Still, the Cybils shortlists are, I think, one of the best things to come out of the Kidlitosphere all year. Lists of books (and now apps) in eleven categories, all guaranteed to be well-written and kid-friendly. What more could anyone possible want, as a way to start the new year? I'm especially proud of the Fiction Picture Books list, of course, as I was a judge in that category.
Immediately following the Cybils announcements was the news that Walter Dean Myers is the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Like Carol, I love his stated theme for his two-year term: "Reading is not optional." Here's the PW story, in case you missed it.
In other news, the full roundup has links to the December Carnival of Children's Literature, updates on the Little Free Library Project (which I adore), and ideas for making Family Literacy Bags. Click through to read the full roundup for all these things, and more.
And here are a few additional tidbits that I came across too late to share in the regular roundup:
- Zoe Toft from Playing by the Book has updated her marvelous worldwide list of reading/literacy charities for 2012.
- This week is National Letter-Writing Week. Reading Rockets shares letter-writing tips and samples for kids.
- MotherReader and Lee Wind have launched their annual Kidlitosphere community-building event, the Comment Challenge.
- Read Aloud Dad sings the praises of one of my favorite books for helping to grow bookworms, Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook.
Terry Doherty will be back soon with the mid-January roundup at The Family Bookshelf, so that's all I'll share for now. Happy New Year! Thanks for reading, and for caring about children's literacy.