The end of October Children's Literacy and Reading News Roundup is now available at Quietly, Carol Rasco's blog. The roundups are brought to you twice monthly by Carol Rasco from RIF, Terry Doherty from The Family Bookshelf, and me. This time around, Carol notes a slew of literacy and reading-related events, plus some literacy and reading research news, and a couple of suggestions for growing bookworms. I hope that you'll head over to check out the whole thing, but in the meantime, here are a few highlights:
"A first assignment for each of us on “What can I do to help in the aftermath of Sandy?” is to check outKidLit Cares organized by Kate Messner. And what is Kid Lit Cares? Check the webpage, all the details for this auction are there for you to study."
"First Book to give 100 millionth book in November! Check out their TEN BOOKS EVERY CHILD SHOULD OWN and vote for YOUR favorite. This voting will help First Book choose just what that 100 millionth book will be!" (Jenny Schwartzberg also sent me this one.)
"”Books about Books” was a recent post by Amy at Literacy Launchpad where she gives us all a good “reminder” of the great books available to help us learn more about books for children whether we are studying as a parent and/or a teacher!"
And here are a few additional tidbits from me:
A neat cross-blog event is taking place today, organized by Greg Pincus, Lee Wind, and Colleen Mondor. It's called Why I Vote, and it's a non-partisan event centered around encouraging people to vote (whatever their politics are). Participants are sharing their own personal reasons for voting, ranging from "It's a bit like putting your money where your mouth is" from Greg to "because I'd feel ashamed if I didn't" from Charlotte. As for me, I vote because otherwise I would feel like a hypocrite if it ever came to lamenting outcomes that I didn't like. You can find the roundup of Why I Vote posts at Chasing Ray, or search for #WhyIVote on Twitter. (Logo design by Colleen Mondor and Sarah Stevenson.) And while this might seem not directly related to literacy, well, if you can't read, you can't be an informed voter, can you?
Yesterday (November 1st) marked the start of Picture Book Month. Founder Dianne de Las Casas reported via email that yesterday the website had "nearly 3,000 visitors and 250+ registrations (people pledging to celebrate Picture Book Month). One school in Budapest, Hungary is making a goal to read more than 5,000 picture books this month! WOW! One U.S. school district is featuring a picture book a day in all of their school's staff lounges. Another school is creating a Picture Book Month wall and public libraries across the U.S. are creating Picture Book Month displays." Pretty cool! As for me, I'm using Picture Book Month as an incentive to get through my entire stack of To Be Reviewed picture books. Because of course I'm reading picture books with Baby Bookworm every day, no matter what month it is.
Yesterday the National Center for Family Literacy celebrated Family Literacy Day (and November as Family Literacy Month) by announcing developments in four programs: Toyota Teacher of the Year, Litera-Seeds, Cultivating Readers (Cultivando el hábito de la lectura), and Wonderopolis. Click through for details.
It's also National Year of Reading in Australia. Terry found a piece in the Herald Sun by Jane Howard about Mem Fox's efforts to spread the word about the importance of reading aloud to children. I appreciate this part: ""There are educators in positions of influence today who believe that reading aloud to children is a waste of time," she says. "Such a belief is not only foolish, it's frightening and dangerous."" Indeed! Do check out the whole article.
According to a report in GreenvilleOnline.com, "Greenville County’s United Way is providing a one-time $150,000 grant so that 22,000 low income kids will have books in their homes, a spokesman said. Mike Posey, a United Way vice president, said that grant will sponsor the “Reach Out and Read” program, which focuses on early literacy and school readiness." Via Jenny Schwartzberg.
If you happen to be in Ithaca, the Family Reading Partnership is holding their 15th annual Kids' Book Fest on Saturday, November 10th. This year's theme is "Count on Books". The Family Reading Partnership's ultimate goal as an organization (per their recent newsletter) is "that 100% of babies in our community are read to -- early, often, and with pleasure." One very easy way to support this important goal is to buy their 2013 Read to Me Calendar. We have the 2012 version up, and the 2013 version waiting in the wings. Baby Bookworm and I both love them.
Speaking of Baby Bookworm (age 2 1/2), I had a "Mommy Bookworm" success last night. After dinner, she announced her intention to go upstairs by herself and read in her "little corner" (a reading nook that I put together for her a couple of months back). Admittedly, she only lasted about 3 minutes. But I still count it as a success. I also count it as a success every time she laughs over a picture book, every time she references a book in general conversation, and every time she requests a particular book. All steps along the pathway towards becoming a reader.
We’ll be back soon with a mid-November Roundup. And in the meantime, we’ll be sharing reading-related news on Twitter @CHRasco, @TheReadingTub, and @JensBookPage. Thanks for reading, and for caring about children's literacy.
This post © 2012 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.