Children’s Literacy Roundup – 16 March

Welcome to this week’s  edition of  children’s literacy and reading news, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog.  We focused our energies on the Share a Story – Shape a Future literacy blog tour last week, so Jen has a super-sized installment over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

Jen has some great links that complement some of the themes we covered in the blog tour last week.

• Bookninja talks about two recent studies on how daily life can interfere with reading to kids. Both Bookninja and Natasha Worsick offer their own personal perpsectives about dads reading with children.
• An Hawaii Reporter about Wally”Famous”  Amos, who created Read it LOUD! includes a list of parental reading tips.  You can find more tips in Anna Belchelder’s Handout for Parents at Literacy is Priceless: A Blog for Reading Teachers.
• Jen found an OpEd piece in the Courier Connection. The author, Deanna Gouzie, is a children’s librarian. She makes four points on ways to reach reluctant readers: give them freedom of choice, play to their passion, try audio books, and make a connection. I liked this part of her message: “Unfortunately there is no one magic book which is going to hook every kid; however, we can help them find the right one. Respect your child’s likes and dislikes and be supportive of their choices. “

Here in Charlottesville, the big event this week is the 15th Virginia Festival of the Book.  This is a five-day (mostly free) event that “honors the book culture and promotes reading and literacy.”  The entire community gets involved, and there are events all over town. School and Youth events actually begin today, with authors heading to schools all around town.  One local middle school is devoting an entire day to “independent reading and book group discussions of favorite novels.”  How cool is that?

The feedback survey is still open for last week’s Share a Story-Shape a Future event. We would love to have your thoughts as we decide whether or not to try something like this again.

There is a lot of really great reading at Jen’s children’s literacy and reading news roundup today, so please be sure to stop by.