There are lots of countdowns and wrap-ups this time of year, and Jen Robinson has rounded up a collection of the kidlit bloggers best posts for the December Carnival of Children's Literature.
Grab some cocoa (maybe a cookie or two) and settle in for some wonderful reading. While you're there, wish Jen a happy third blogiversary!
On Thursday, MotherReader and Lee Wind launched a Community Comment challenge. The idea was sparked at the KidLit Bloggers Conference in Portland (Oregon), and in under two months, it has come to life. They can say it best, so I'll just recommend you read MotherReader's post, The Comment Challenge: 21 Days to Community.
So far I'm holding my own with a 5-comments-a-day challenge. I've set a personal challenge to comment on at least three new blogs each day. Some are blogs I read regularly, but have never commented on, some are completely new. Some days (like yesterday) it tipped me over five blogs. That's a good thing. Here's what I've learned in the first two days ...
1. There are so many incredible, thoughtful writers out there. I know that sounds like a truism, but when you leave the comfort of your Reader and click through to the blog itself, you learn so much more about the writer. Colors, tag lines, avatars ... all the "nonverbal" communication.
2. My TBR pile is going to grow exponentially. Now that I'm slowing down my reading habit and taking time to read, not just skim, I'm learning about so many more great books. Which leads back to #1. Wow!
3. Ditto the entries of new blogs and reading ideas for the Reading Round-ups.
4. I need a gadget. Wouldn't it be nice to have a widget that let you hover over a title and add it to your Goodreads or Library Thing TBR with just a mouse click? It would be like that "Create Tiny URL" command I use when I want to Twitter.
Last but not least, I never realized how much I needed this. Slowing down to read more and comment regularly may mean fewer posts from me, but as many a teacher has said: you can't talk and learn at the same time. And I'm here to learn. Thanks MotherReader and Lee!
I first started writing this for next week's Reading Round-up, but then I decided to have fun with it as a post all its own.
Over at the Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro has two terrific posts about having fun with all those falling (or about to be falling) leaves.
In Autumn Leaf Crafts & Activities you’ll find great ideas (and links) for fun things to do with leaves. You'll also find a link to her Nonfiction Monday post with a comprehensive review of Look What I Did with a Leaf!
So, as I was writing about Elaine's posts, my brain started branching out with ideas for stories you can share to go along with the theme. We'd love to hear about your unbeLEAFable fall favorites. We'd love to have your link and your comments.
Happy Autumn
For almost two weeks now, I've kept Gail Gauthier's post This Works for Me, Too as a starrred item in my blog reader. I didn't want to bury it in a Reading Round-up over at TubTalk, nor did I want it to get lost in the flurry of activity during Book Blogger Appreciation Week.
Gail's piece in her Original Content blog offers some of the best advice I've heard about helping kids pick out books for themselves. It's simple, they can remember it ... and so can you. Gail links to the Five Finger Test, a process kids can use to help them decide if a book they've picked out is too easy or too hard for them. There are actually two methods.
Goldilocks Rule For this process, readers answer a series of questions to determine if a book is too easy (e.g., have you read this book before, do you know every word); just right (is the book new, do you have some words you don't know); or too hard (are you confused about the content)?
Five Finger Test Open the book to a middle page and start reading. When you read a word you don't know (or can't say), hold up a finger. If, by the end of the page, you have five fingers up in the air, the book is too difficult, "so wave it goodbye." If you have no fingers up, go back to the Goldilocks Rule to determine if the book is too easy or just right.
Kids will remember the Five Finger Test and they carry the data collector with them everywhere. But the more valuable process comes from the questions in the Goldilocks Rule. These are good questions, as they focus not only on vocabulary and readability (i.e., processing words), but also comprehension and whether or not the child has someone who can help them with their reading.
The Queen of Halloween by Mary Einglebreit. My daughter snagged this one and has asked for it several times already. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2008)
as told to Angie Sage. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2008)
Marvel the Marvelous by Laura Chester, illustrated by Gary A. Lippincott. The pen-and-ink illustrations in this book take me back to reading those collector's quality fairy tales and fables. (Willow Creek Press, 2008)
A Very Special Snowflake by Don Hoffman, illustrated by Todd Dakins. This one is a seasonal story, so we'll try to turn it around pretty quick. (Cartwheel Books, an Imprint of Scholastic, 2008)
As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the things that intrigued me about Book Blogger Appreciation Week was the opportunity to learn more about the book blogosphere. I'm not much on entering contests, and I'm not as good about commenting as I should be, but I am a voracious reader. So for me, the success of this week has been finding some incredible blogs. Here's the complete list of participants ... probably worth a bookmark just for some casual viewing.
So here are some of my finds.
5 Minutes for Books True to it's name, you only need five minutes to catch the topic of the day. The blog sponsors a number of carnivals -- including Kid's Picks -- which I especially like.
Teen Book Reviews Having recently overheard a conversation about some YA books, I realized that despite having some YA reviewers in my Google Reader, I needed to expand the horizon. From our perspective, we like to know what the intended audience thinks, too, so this will be a nice complement to the collection in the reader.
Book Dads I love the idea of having a book blog for dads, I love the idea that they promote "books with positive representations of fatherhood," and I love the diversity of their review collection.
Semicolon Yes, I'm late to this party, too. I have seen Sherry's posts referenced in other blogs I read, and I've periodically clicked through. Now Semicolon is in my reader.
Unfortunately it means three previous finds will have to rotate out. I've instituted a new "virtual closet" rule for my Reader. When something new comes in, something old goes out. It's not ideal, but it's the only way to read blogs AND get work done, too.
We are thrilled to be participating in Book Bloggers Appreciation Week, the brainchild of Amy at My Friend Amy's blog. It's a great chance for readers and bloggers to celebrate what we share in common: a love of books.
The celebration begins next week, but some things are already underway. Start your pre-event tour at these stops:
* Go to My Friend Amy to see the finalists for the "Best of" blogs. The voting has closed, but within each category you'll find links to blogs. Explore, you're bound to find a new one. If you think there needs to be other categories, now is the time to speak up.
* See Jennifer's contest for blog readers at The Literate Housewife Review. Send in your 200-word response to "I read book blogs because ..." to be entered to win one of three prizes (first, second, third).
Prep your Blog Reader for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, 15 to 19 September. Read more about it here. It's the inspired genius of Amy at My Friend Amy's blog.
Our goal in the Reading Tub is to bring reading home to families. We have loaded the BookBag with reviews of the books we've read.
From the beginning, we wanted to make sure that people selecting books to share with (or give to) kids had all the information they needed. That's why we have always pointed you to "Other Reviews."
Now, with the increased availability of quality children's book reviews, we're going to offer you even more options. I am going to add a Mr. Linky widget to each book profile page so that other reviewers can link their reviews. Here's what the link will look like.
Link your blog review here
I will also start adding them to our Book Bags and Reading Ahead posts here, and the Random Review posts over at What Happens Next. Just give me a little bit of time. "ive got 1,306 books to go through! Those links will look like this:
Splash! Welcome to the March Carnival of children's literature! It is quite a big leap from February to March. It is a time of transition and opposites: we have blustery days and warm days, holidays and hooky days, longer days and shorter nights, and maybe just maybe, no more snow days!
It is the wind who speaks first (and loudest) in March, reminding us that he is not quite ready to give the stage to Spring. Winnie-the-Pooh loves a blustery day, and Tea Party Girl takes us to Pooh Corner as she asks us Do You Seek a Very Nearly Tea or a Proper Tea? It seems these early March afternoons are made for a cup of tea or cocoa, a warm fire, and a good book. Sarah, who is In Need of Chocolate, tells us about some great Recent Chapter Book Reading that she has shared with her 4.5-year-old daughter.
Regrettably, we cannot while away every afternoon with tea by the fire, and Caitlin Giles (Parenting Squad) offers us some great suggestions for an afternoon indoors with My Winter Bible: The Preschooler's Busy Book | Parenting Squad.
Ah, but the wind is changing. Flash Gordon offers us his perfect solution for a windy day: sailing. He presents The Sailing Adventure: New Book Gets Young People Interested posted at Great New Books that Are a Must Read.
Set your clocks ahead! Spring is coming. Paula Blais Gorgas brings us a bit o' green with her review of Leprechaun Time. Jeremy Zongker helps us hold onto a little more green with 90 Low Cost or No Cost Activities to Entertain Your Kids All Summer Long posted at Destroy Debt.
Daylight savings. More daylight ... warmer sun. Join us for a picnic in the park. We're spending the afternoon outside, enjoying the fresh air and beautiful flowers. Check out the Elizabeth O. Dulemba flowers. She's drawn a Coloring Page Tuesday: Spring Blooms.
Follow Margaret down to The Earthly Paradise pond as she introduces us to Beautiful Children's Books: The Wild Swans. Anne-Marie (My Readable Feast) is feeding some ducks by the water's edge, thinking What’s in a name? Books for children named Oliver. Did you see David Cassell (selectcoursesblog.com)? He has his rod and reel and is telling us a "fish tale" to Get Smart.
Over by the Cherry Blossom tree, Wayne Buckhanan, who is often thinking of Life, Love, & Learning, is leading a discussion about Upping the Downside with Self Knowledge. Two trees down (under the elm), Jonathan Calder, harkening back to Liberal England, is offering a light-hearted look at the news that Enid Blyton's Famous Five return to television. Walk quietly toward those trees, because Chris Rettstatt is doing his YAuthor to Yauthor: Interview with Adam Rex.
Look over there. Kelly Fineman is playing with a tree branch, imagining the possibilities, in Writing and Ruminating - Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis posted at Writing and Ruminating.
Don't feel like walking? Then relax right here. Abby Johnson (Abby (the) Librarian) has a bag full of books and is making quite a splash with some New Storytime Favorites. James Pottebaum, who decided to sneak away from the Junkyard Junction Forum for the afternoon, is telling us about Squirt's New Home in Reviews for Junkyard Junction.
But where's Terry? She sent us Random Review 1: Gone by Michael Grant, then ran off to What Happens Next to work on her yet-to-be-named-super-kewl-book-group for the April Carnival of Children's Literature. It is odd, though, she was mumbling in rhyming couplets! It sounded oddly like NaPoWriMo? Ah, National Poetry Month is right around the corner.
That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Children's Literature. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of children's literature using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
There is so much going on, that it was time to add a new venue for The Reading Tub®.
Scrub-a-Dub-Tub will remain our flagship blog, and we'll continue to fill it with literacy-related information and opportunities. We'll keep sending digests with collections of books we've read or are getting to read, and publish the newsletter from here.
Our new blog What Happens Next is going to offer general news about children's books, random reviews, and observations about reading and kids books. The posts will be shorter, more focused, and more frequent.
So stop by, drop in and be sure to bookmark us. There's always something to splash about in the Tub.
Every day, we get lots of new children's books here in the Tub. So many, in fact, my office is beginning to look like a library ... and, to borrow a turn of phrase that Laura Neumeroff uses ...
If you think about the library you think about great books ... and if you think about great books, you'll think about great memories ... and if you think about great memories, you want to share them with your kids!
So as I sit here staring at my own personal "stacks," I remember my childhood visits to the library. Going to the library was probably how I got hooked on books in the first place. I remember wandering in and out of the stacks every week searching for the next treasure. And our library made it easy ... all of the children's books were close together, in a separate place that was decorated just for us.
For a child, a library can be a truly daunting place. The shelves look like ladders that reach to the sky and they are covered with books ... walls of them. Having a "hideaway" place that invites them to explore books is an incredibly powerful way to get them excited about learning. Luckily, we have lived in cities with good spaces for kids. So when my daughter started walking, we'd head to the library to explore!
One of the grandest libraries of all is the New York Public Library. You'll find it listed in your tourists guide as a place to visit. The library is an icon ... in fact, the PBS Kids show Between the Lions is a slightly veiled reference to the entrance to the main library!
In the NYPL, that inviting place for kids is the Donnell Library and the Central Children's Room. It is a special place and, I would imagine, the inspiration to many a bookworm, children's author or illustrator. Have you visited the Central Children's Room? Then be sure to visit Elizabeth Bird's blog she is collecting those memories you treasure!
Have you visited the carnival lately? For children's book lovers, this is a year-round event.
Each month the carnival moves to a new town (blog), with a new theme. The theme for the January Carnival is Book Awards ... Stop by, pick your prize!
One of the toughest reading audiences is boys, ages 8 to 13 ... and the scores on reading tests back this up. This has always been a tough group, but technology has made it even tougher to catch their attention and get boys interested in reading. The bottom line: There is a tremendous need for books for boys.
Well, Max Elliot Andrson -- who admits he was a reluctant reader as a child -- is making it easy for you to find that perfect book. Each Monday in October and for two Mondays in November, Max will post one chapter from each of his seven published, action-adventures & mysteries on his blog Books for Boys.
The books are especially attractive to boys 8 to 13, but girls love them to. Each book is rated by Accelerated Reader. Stop by Max's blog, http://www.booksandboys.blogspot.com to read a chapter.
Be sure to leave a comment and let him know you stopped by after jumping in the Reading Tub®.
Welcome to Scrub-a-dub-Tub, the Reading Tub'sTM new blog! We take great pride in the fact that we don't clutter your inbox with "stuff" much beyond The Wash Rag, our quarterly newsletter. Still, from time-to-time we find tidbits of information and have some news and don't want to wait three months.
You must opt-in to receive our updates (we're not planning on more than two a month, and only when news warrants it!). Becoming a Registered Reader doesn't automatically sign you up for this service. So please let us know your preferences.
We look forward to having you jump in the Tub with us!
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