In the LA Times, there is a fantastic article about the importance of reading to children at home.  It is important that we realize that it is not economic status that impacts children’s literacy but the number of books they are read to at home. 

The best part of the article is its call to action.  How do we as caring adults, involved citizens and librarians get our communities investing in literacy, educating parents and really addressing this monumental issue?  Well, it can’t be to sit in our comfortable offices and work cubicles and moan about it.  We have to be out working with Headstart children, WIC families, and visiting those areas of our community where we worry about safety.  If children live there, then we can venture there. 

This doesn’t speak to the larger issue of parents modeling reading to their children.  It’s not enough to read books to children at bedtime and spend the rest of the evening in front of the TV.  What are you telling children is important then?  What are you saying about reading as an adult?  As parents, we need to model the joy of reading, especially fathers.

Perhaps literacy starts at home, but action starts with us.  We need to broadcast our message, model what needs to be done, and embrace those in need in our community.  What else are we here for as libraries?

I always love seeing what VOYA has dubbed the best science fiction, fantasy and horror books.  Will my favorites make it?  How about yours?

Take a look at the list.  It is a pdf file and may require patience to load.

 

Here are ones I am glad to see on the list:

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke (I wish this had been a Cybil nominee!)

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Yes!  The best of the year!)

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (Hurrah!  Love this one!)

The Chaos King by Laura Ruby

 

But there are so many I didn’t read and so many that were never on our list to consider for the Cybils!  Any other must-reads on the list?  Some of my favorites are missing.  Where is Epic?  Where is Wildwood Dancing?  Any others that should be on such a lengthy list?

Spatulatta is a cooking site for children that has recipes for foods that are real.  So the recipes are child-friendly and so is the food, but adults will want to eat it as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a great cookbook out right now too:

 

 

Check out the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recipe to get your kids loving turkey meatballs with their spaghetti.  Even better, they get to smush the mixture together with their hands, something my 6-year-old considers the essence of culinary skills.

I think that any of us who are interested in books for children are also interested in children having childhoods rich in imagination.  NPR has an interesting piece on creative play for children and its importance in forming “executive function” such as self-regulation, cognitive flexibility and working memory.

The advice is common sense: children should be encouraged to play games where they dream, wish, pretend and invite.  Free play should be an integral part of their lives.  My youngest son has a way of pretending that he has done since he was tiny.  He whooshes around running, talking to himself and making loud explosive noises every so often.  He won’t tell any of us what he is doing, and we have learned to just enjoy his orbiting.  I wouldn’t rob him of that time where he is obviously in another world all his own for anything.  In fact, when teachers tell us that our sons are both daydreamers, I take it as a great compliment.  Means that I did something right.

How about you?  Any daydreaming children?  Any who have such rich imaginations that they don’t need anyone else around to have fun?  Tell us!

Oo la la!  I adore the beta Lookybook site!  The site offers all sorts of children’s books that you can page through online!  And these are not books you have never heard of, they are top-of-the-line and recent children’s books.  The paging works seamlessly and smoothly with an intuitive interface, plus you can embed the Lookybooks onto your blog or website, even without registering for the site.

Registration gets you your own bookshelf, the ability to comment on books, and other bells and whistles. 

You can browse the books by highest rated and most looked at.  Here is an embedded book so you can see how it works:

 

http://www.lookybook.com/embed/1309-embed.swf

What do you think?

A Milwaukee Journal article offers hope that finally people are realizing that there is an art to creating books for children!  Amazing!

Here are some of my favorite quotes, but it is worth reading it in full:

“Most people have a warm and fuzzy and kind of inaccurate idea of what children’s literature is,” says John Warren Stewig, director of the Center for Children’s Literature at Carthage College.

….

In fact, the best writers for children are masters of illusion. They labor for years over their manuscripts, cutting out unnecessary words, boiling down descriptions to the finest, clearest images and immersing themselves in the worlds of childhood to make their stories authentic.

My only quibble with the article is their final section where they say that Hugo Cabret is “stronger on the graphics than the prose, which is rather plain.”  Guess it goes to make their point that all children’s books are being held to standards by readers.

The Associated Press has a wonderful article on the new trend of taking the art of children’s books seriously.  Children’s book illustrations are now being shown in museums, studied in art courses, and of course being purchased as investments.  I especially like the second page of the article where they tie children’s book illustrations to cultural and artistic movements of their times. 

The Daily Mail has an the intriguing results of a poll for the best children’s books in the UK.  Amazingly, Harry Potter came in SIXTH!  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis was voted into the top position and if you take a look at the top 50, you will see many other beloved children’s classics.  Here are the top 50.  I  started to bold my favorites, but it turned out that almost every one I have read, I have loved, so the ones in bold are the ones I have read:

1. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
3. Famous Five, Enid Blyton

4. Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
5. The BFG, Roald Dahl

6. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
7. The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

8. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

9. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
10. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson

11. The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter

12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
13. Matilda, Roald Dahl
14. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss

16. The Twits, Roald Dahl
17. Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves

18. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
19. The Malory Towers series, Enid Blyton

20. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

21. The Railway Children, E. Nesbit

22. Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H.C. Andersen

23, The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

24. The Witches, Roald Dahl
25. Stig of the Dump, Clive King
26. The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
27. Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
28. The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr

29. Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett
30. James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

31. A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond

32. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

33. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak

34. Aesop’s Fables, Jerry Pinkney
35. The Borrowers, Mary Norton
36. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
37. Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski

38. Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proysen

39. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
40. The Gruffalo’s Child, Julia Donaldson
41. Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson

42. The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy

43. Miffy, Dick Bruna

44. The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

45. Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
46. The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
47. Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
48. Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
49. The St. Clare’s series, Enid Blyton

50. Captain Underpants, Dav Pilkey

Looks like I need to brush up on my Blyton!  Anyone have a favorite one to recommend that I haven’t read yet?