Welcome to the I Have a Dream edition of the Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, The Family Bookshelf, and Rasco from RIF. It will come of no surprise to any of you that Carol, Jen, and Terry share one dream: that every child have (at least) one book to call their own and to be successful, happy readers.

So that we can pay forward our dream, we browse the “interwebs” (as our friend Abby the Librarian calls them) to collect content about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs, studies, and research; and suggestions for growing bookworms.

On this day of celebration and reflection, we hope that you’ll find inspiration to keep you on track with your reading resolutions!

Literacy & Reading-Related Events

Today, our friends at MrsP.com are announcing the winners of her Third Annual National Writing Contest.

• Sarah Smale (8), from Washington State, won top honors in the 4-to-8 year-old category for The Treasure Decision, an adventure story featuring a mysterious treasure, pirates and an unusual bookstore.
• Emma Stowe (12) from Alabama, won in the 9-13 age group for Thinking Cap, a compelling and amusing detective story, set in a grade school, following the search for a lost gerbil.

The winners will have their stories turned into videos read by Mrs. P herself on the website. Stop by MrsP.com to learn more about the winners (like who won a PBS Kids writing contest).

Next week, Florida kicks off its Fourth Annual Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! It is an opportunity to “celebrate the successes of Florida’s schools and students,” and it begins on 23 January 2012 with the Million Minute Marathon. To help reach this year’s goal of 20 million minutes, everyone will be reading How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz, illustrated by Steven Kellogg. Terry learned about the program in an article about author and literacy coach Sabrina Carpenter, who is presenting her “Eager Readers, Brighter Writers” at Baldwin Middle Senior High School in Jacksonville, FL.

Do you know who Marilyn Nelson is? A poet … yes! But not just any poet! She just received the 2012 Frost Medal, an award presented by the Poetry Society of America to recognize a “distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.” In talking about how she discovered poetry, Ms. Nelson wrote “It was like soul-kissing, the way the words filled my mouth as Mrs. Purdy read from her desk.” Beautiful! Read more about the Frost Medal and Marilyn Nelson here.

It seems like it has been a few weeks since we mentioned John Schumacher (aka @MrSchuReads) or Watch. Connect. Read. Leave it to Mr. Schu to feed our reading wish list. He has created a Book Release Calendar for children’s books! We learned about it via his post for The Nerdy Book Club.

Literacy Programs and Research

Terry was saddened to learn that Read Aloud Virginia, a nonprofit that worked directly with Richmond City Schools has now dissolved. One of their wonderful projects was the Children’s Book Bank, a resource for schools and families with readers-at-risk to get much needed reading material. The good news is that the Children’s Museum of Richmond has now taken over the Children’s Book Bank to ensure that readers-in-need can still get books to call their own.

The title of this BBC News piece is intriguing: Why Didn’t Harry Potter just use Google? It is an extension of Adam Gopnik’s essay/OpEd piece for the New Yorker, entitled How the Internet Gets Inside Us. Both pieces use the juxtaposition of the first Harry Potter book (1997) and Google’s launch (1998) as a way to illustrate how both information processing and reading have changed in the last 15 years. They also illustrate man’s drive to collect, organize, and use information … no matter what the medium!

The mid-December edition of Education Week’s Digital Directions has a thought-provoking piece on the future of online learning. Virtual Schools Booming as States Mull Warnings has an “Associated Press” byline, so we can’t “publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute” the content. Still, we hope you’ll go over and read it, as so many parents (not to mention school districts) are looking at this option for meeting the educational needs of their students.

In a piece for the Huffington Post, Patricia G. Mathes shares her dream: “[that] every child possessed the ability to read, write, and speak in a manner that allowed him or her to succeed in school, pursue dreams, and contribute to society.” A Literate Nation for 2012 has some very stark statistics, some that are very familiar. This one was not: “Currently, there is a 30 year gap between what is known about teaching literacy to all children, and what typically happens in schools.” Learn more at www.literatenation.org/.

Nicholas Kristof had an interesting op-ed piece recently in the New York Times about the economic value of good teachers. Here’s a snippet: “a landmark new research paper underscores that the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime. Having a good fourth-grade teacher makes a student 1.25 percent more likely to go to college, the research suggests, and 1.25 percent less likely to get pregnant as a teenager.”

Yesterday’s Washington Post had a front-page story about the “long waits” for e-book lending in local DC-area libraries. It’s an interesting look at the publisher-reader-library dynamic, and a glimpse at the evolution of public library services. Terry wonders, though, with hold queues of 286, does it mean more people are reading or just playing with their new e-readers and tablets?

Suggestions for Growing Bookworms

Aaron Mead, the cool dad behind Children’s Books and Reviews, has just published a FREE eBook. Whether you’re a parent looking for ways to find that just-right book or a teacher who wants to give parents a ready-made guide, this is it. How to Choose Children’s Books: Practical Tips and Philosophical Reflections on Picking Books for Kids is packed with great ideas and plenty of links, including our own Jen Robinson’s Book Page and The Reading Tub website.

We really liked this post by Stacey Loscalzo about the secret to getting kids reading. Stacey explains: “the secret is surprisingly simple. Read yourself, read to them and let them read anything to themselves that they want.” And then she elaborates a bit. Jen especially liked the idea of having baskets of books everywhere, including the breakfast table.

Speaking of reading to kids, @ReadAloudDad came across a nice piece at Helen Saunders’ blog about the joys of reading aloud to kids even after they can read themselves (and despite the negative comments of people who say “Oh. Can’t he read himself yet?”.

Speaking of dads who like to read to their kids, our friend Chris Singer is making BookDads a more collaborative place. He invites readers to become part of the new Book Dads Community. Anyone can join, though certain rights are going to be reserved for dads (as seems reasonable enough, given the name of the site and all). The idea is to bring together people who have an interest in children’s literacy.

We haven’t had a video in a while, so I thought I’d share this one … can you imagine the fun (and the work) of creating such a neat video? Heck, I’d just be happy to live in a bookstore overnight! Our thanks to Zoe Toft (@PlaybytheBook) who shared the This is Colossal blog post. Want to find out about how many hours it took and how many books? Check out this behind-the-scenes look in Publisher’s Weekly.

Speaking of videos … we have just discovered the Raising Readers YouTube video series. There are 12 videos, each designed to guide parents through the process of reading with their children, and understanding their reading needs as they grow from elementary school into young adults. Our thanks to Michael Mandarino (@MMandarino) for sharing the Reading Today Online article by Laurie Elish-Piper.

Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2012 Terry DohertySome Rights Reserved

More on the Family Bookshelf: