The Christian Science Monitor also has a well-rounded article on Matching boys with books. It includes a list of recommended books for high school boys as well as an in-depth look at why boys enjoy reading less than girls. Very interesting.
Month: May 2005
Blogging Teens
The Christian Science Monitor has an article on teens and blogging: Teens: It’s a diary. Adults: It’s unsafe.
It contains some interesting perspectives on the dangers of blogging for teens as well as some impressive statistics:
“Of the world’s approximately 38 million “blogs,” or self-published Web pages, 52.8 percent belong to those age 19 or younger, according to survey data from the Perseus Co., a maker of Web-surveying software. By year’s end, the firm expects the total number of blogs on the Web to reach 53.4 million.
Meanwhile, Perseus says the typical blogger continues to be a teenage girl who uses the medium primarily to communicate with five to 10 friends.”
Early Reading
The North Shore News has a great article about a new emphasis on early literacy by Vancouver Public Libraries. It focuses on the role of public librarians going beyond that of doing storytimes and more into teaching parents how to expose thier babies to books and language. Sounds wonderful to me!
Here is my favorite paragraph from the article:
“The interest and enthusiasm expressed both by the librarians I interviewed, and others that I have spoken to while visiting libraries, is a testament to the excellent resource we have in our community libraries. In an age where so much information comes at us electronically, it is remarkable that the connection our new babies and preschool aged children are hungry for – talking, rhyming, reading – is being offered to us by highly skilled professionals who are more than eager to help our children succeed in life.”
Gobble Gobble Slip Slop
I shared Gobble Gobble Slip Slop: A Tale of a Very Greedy Cat by Meilo So with preschoolers and kindergarteners this week. They adored this picture book based on a folktale from India. The greedy cat eats his friend the parrot, five hundred cakes, and then goes on to eat and eat and eat more and more people and animals. The kids gasped with amazement at each new eating feat, and then the ending had them completely spellbound and moaning.
Best of all, this is one of those folktale versions that actually works as a read-aloud for this age group. Often folktales can be too wordy to share easily, but this one really works. The pictures pay homage to India and the cat with red feathers flying in the air really grabbed them. I used it in a storytime about eating, but it could be used with all sorts of animal themes, folktales, or silly stories to make you groan!
The Dragons Sang at School
I completed the school visits for our Summer Reading Program. This year our theme in Wisconsin is shared by many other states: Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds. I had huge success in 1st through 3rd grade reading poems aloud from The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky. The kids paid attention amazingly well, and the poems served as the perfect cap to my speech about all of our activities. I read four poems: I Wish I Had a Dragon, I Am Boom, The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, and Once They All Believed in Dragons. (I am pretty sure those are the titles, but I am doing this without the book in hand, so they may just be pretty close.) They were all hits. I love to see kids respond to poetry so positively. In fact, it was so cool that I am considering offering to do poetry with the students up at school on a regular basis. Just reading and sharing poetry together is very powerful. Plus, all four poems are a joy to read! What could be more fun!
Woodson Is Laureate
The BBC announced yesterday that the Children’s laureateship goes to Jacqueline Wilson. Wilson is the most borrowed author in libraries in the United Kingdom and has sold over 20 million copies of her books. She follows Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Michael Morpurgo as children’s laureate.
Llewellyn
Llewellyn Publishing offers books for teens and tweens on their site. Many of their other books on wicca, tarot, the paranormal, and astrology would be of interest to teen readers as well.
Gossip Girl
A profile of Cecily von Ziegesar, author of the Gossip Girl series: Gossip Girl: The New Young Adult Novel – Adolescence Plus Wealth Equals Big Sales. The article offers a look at how Gossip Girl began and as well as the fact that von Ziegesar is looking towards writing books about young mothers and turning away from young adult writing.
Stuck on Youth
Lauren Mechling has written a wonderful article for all of us adults who are still reading books for children and teens: Stuck on Youth.
Waking Brain Cells 