Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Tuesday Storytime: Celebrate Reading

I had a collection of spring books all selected, but apparently this is "last surprise winter" week, so instead I'll save those for next time and use this cute trio of books about reading and libraries.

Bear's House of Books
Poppy Bishop, illustrated by Alison Edgson
ISBN: 9781680100389
This is such a cute book. Four childhood friends share their one picture book every night, even though it's worn out and sticky from use, until they go on a search for a new book, and discover an entire library owned by a slightly grumpy Bear. Bear is upset at first about others using his books (especially with sticky paws and when they use a sandwich as a bookmark) but when he realizes that they only have ONE book, he quickly develops a solution. Really sweet and heartwarming.

Llama Llama Loves to Read
Anna Dewney and Reed Duncan (or should that be the other way around...) illustrated by JT Morrow
ISBN: 9780670013975
The standard llama llama rhyming scheme works its magic with the process of reading - from letters to sounds to words, sentences, songs, books, stories, and reading informational signs. Not much depth, but accurate and uplifting, acknowledging that sometimes words need to be memorized, and sometimes words are difficult to read or learn. Not as inspiring as some of the other more emotional llama llama challenge-facing books, but a solid introduction to the concept of learning to read as a process.

Our Library
Eve Bunting, illustrated by Maggie Smith
ISBN: 9780618494583
(minus the last three or four pages because I had a young and very wiggly crowd - I ended on the "library on the grassy meadow" spread.)
I will say, the grownups in the group really enjoyed the VERY SPECIFIC book titles that were checked out of the library in order to help the children solve their problems and overcome their difficulties. Mrs Goose made everyone sad when she revealed that the library was old and dingy, with a bad roof, and no money, and that the landlord (a weasel of course) wanted the land back, but with some judicious checking out of VERY SPECIFIC BOOKS, and a lot of hard work and effort, and a dramatic confrontation with an elderly and grumpy Beaver, the library was saved - all with the help and instruction provided by the library books.




Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Tuesday Storytime: Book Safety

Saving the ducks for next week when we have a daycare group descending upon us.

How to Read a Story
Kate Messner, illustrated by Mark Siegel
ISBN: 9781452112336
A boy and his blue dog journey through the process of storytelling/group reading.

This one came in new recently, and I set it aside because I knew it would work beautifully for a storytime with these other two that I've used several times before.  We have "Steps" (One through Ten, obviously) starting with "Step 1: Find a Story.  A good one.  It can have princesses and castles, if you like that sort of thing, or witches and trolls. (As long as they're not too scary.)" and ending with "Step 10: When the book is over, say, "The End."" Cute and a very simple guide to the process of reading, and how to make it entertaining to the audience.

Read It, Don't Eat It!
Ian Schoenherr
ISBN: 9780061724558
Various anthropomorphized animals illustrate what NOT to do to books.

Previously reviewed here.  Some of the advice goes over toddler heads, but the parents understand, and at this age, the parents are the ones who are really the target audience for this particular lecture anyway.

Book! Book! Book!
Deborah Bruss, Tiphanie Beeke
ISBN: 0439135257
The barnyard animals are bored and lonely when the kids go off to school, and head to the library for something to do.

Also previously reviewed here.  I like the slow build-up to the punchline with the various animal sounds, and that the librarian is a woman of color, and that there is a "stinger" at the end that always gets the adults to laugh.


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th Edition), Jim Trelease

The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th Edition, publication date 2013)
Jim Trelease
ISBN: 9780143121602
Read February 4, 2014

Nonfiction; education, parenting.

Background info: This nifty volume is in two parts: the first is an educational/parenting treatise giving the then-current state of research into why reading is paramount, and especially why reading TO kids is so important.  The second half is a listing of various titles that the author believes are suitable for being read aloud to kids, divided into categories like wordless books (yeah, I know) poetry, nonfiction, and various age-groups.

Each subsequent edition has recognized that there's no reason to purchase or read a new edition if nothing much has changed, so the author and publisher have done a decent job in the first half at updating the research, changing out the vignettes, and including the current state of affairs each time around.  For the second half, the titles recommended are cycled through, with special attention paid to titles currently out of print or difficult to find (those being either removed from the listing entirely, or noted as such if they are thought too good to miss).

So, with all that in mind, let me say here that last spring I discovered this resource existed, and I went on a binge-read right before the Summer Reading Program, placing requests on each edition (yes, all 6 of them), and checking out the different recommended reads, and thoroughly enjoying the first half of each book (which were, although slightly different each round, almost literally a repeated paean to librarians and readers).  The only one I couldn't get was this last edition, which our system couldn't borrow until it was a bit older.  Well, it got a bit older, and it arrived today!  Yay!

I haven't gone through the book recs yet, but I did take a while to read through the first half (and it has grown now into almost half) of this very-well-researched presentation of the current research into reading, the sorry state of our educational system (I want to move to Finland) and how parents and educators can individually contradict these bad influences by READING MORE!!!

My kind of book!

On a slightly more serious note, if you're interested in learning about what the deal is with received language, how kids learn vocabulary, and how to put your kid on the top of the scrap heap called life, read this edition of this book.  The other editions are of course out of date, so I'd only recommend them if you are interested in seeing how the history and the research developed (which I was, and I thought was fascinating, but then I'm a nerd).

I'm sure that this record will be seeing the evidence of the other half of the book as soon as I get a chance to dig into the lists and learn of interesting titles I've missed.