This weekend, we were lucky to spend the day at Katherine’s camp, Deerkill Day Camp. On our way, Katherine began talking about many of her favorite times at camp. Of course, there was swimming and arts and crafts, woodworking and gaga ball. But there was also the bus.

Yes. The bus. Katherine had the most wonderful bus counselor who turned every ride into something fun and exciting. The campers did Mad Libs, they told jokes, they sang songs. And on Fridays, they had a ‘party on the bus’ complete with Fun Dip.

I’m not sure who mentioned it, but somehow we got talking about what would happen if Rob had a party on his bus. His commuter bus. Into New York City. Where no one talks to each other or even makes eye contact. Where phone calls are frowned upon and people barely say God Bless You if someone has the nerve to sneeze.

You can probably see where this is going but I still really do wonder. When do bus rides stop being fun? When do they become a part of your day to be tolerated at best and often despised? What would happen if Rob walked on his bus, with a pack of Fun Dip and a bunch of Mad Libs and said, “All right, commuters! It’s a party on the bus!” I’m pretty sure I would be getting a phone call to come and pick up my husband at the nearest stop.

Maybe for just a day, we should all turn our ‘have tos’ and ‘shoulds’ into something a little  bit different and see how it goes. Maybe a ‘party at the dishwasher’ or a ‘laundry party’ would make it all a bit more fun.

I say it’s worth a try…

 

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I’m so glad that my wonderful friend Jules posted this article on Facebook over the weekend.

Sometimes, it’s good to talk and write about all your beliefs surrounding the power of children’s literature and the standardized testing crisis in our schools today and sometimes it’s good to sit back and let someone else write eloquently about the same things.

Jonathan Kozol  is an author and activist who has talked about the power and peril of public education for nearly 40 years. I first learned of Kozol when I was working as a speech therapist in an urban school straight out of grad school. At the time, a colleague recommended I read Savage Inequalities and many of it’s messages have stayed with me. Later this month, Kozol’s latest book, Fire in the Ashes: Twenty Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America, will be published as a follow up of the school children he has written about over the years.

For now, though, I am taken by Kozol’s words in the Boston Globe Books section.

He writes first of children’s literature,

“One of my favorites is “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes and Luara Hamilton. Actually a fourth-grade student put me on to that book. It’s a delectable story of an irreverent girl. I was reading it on a plane to California, and the man next to me kept giving me strange looks. He was reading the Wall Street Journal. I said, “I’ll trade with you. This book might change your soul.”

So I already knew that Kozol was every bit as smart as when I first read his writing. Who can argue that Lily is just the best there is?

But then he wrote,

“I still reread “The House at Pooh Corner” by A.A. Milne. I love that. Eeyore is one of the great tragic figures of literature, a donkey without a tail. With all the teaching to the test mania now, kids can’t read “Winnie the Pooh”for the joy of it anymore. They have to excavate the 10 points that the book illustrates. They are killing A.A.Milne. I tell children the best reason to read a book is not the numbers it will give you on an exam but for the joy of it. That’s why grownups read books.”

I will come back to this again and again. As I talk about the power of book choice. As I talk about reading both on and off your reading level. As I talk about the potential damage of reading logs. I will talk about reading for the joy of it. Because as Kozol says, “That’s why grown up read books.” So there…

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A long time ago, the amazingly wonderful Jim Trelease wrote about rain gutter book shelves. The concept was simple. Forward facing book shelves are more appealing to children. They are able to truly see the books they are choosing and are, in fact, more apt to chose a book at all if they can see it’s cover.

Trelease draws on research from, of all places, the grocery store industry. Stick with me. It all makes an incredible amount of sense.

Trelease writes,

You can start by taking a hard look at your local grocery store. In 1996, The New York Times ran an article on supermarkets and the keys to their success.¹⁷ The author noted there originally was only one rule for supermarkets: Put the milk at one end of the store and bread at the other—to get people to walk through the entire store. That rule still applies: The more they see, the more they buy. But the Universal Price Code scanner at the checkout offers other observations, including some we might apply to libraries:

• Only 31 percent of grocery patrons bring a shopping list (more than half of adult library patrons arrive without a book in mind; even more so for children).
• Two-thirds of purchases are unplanned (very similar to book choices).
• Products placed at the optimum level (15 degrees below eye level) sell 8 percent better (clear or weed spaces at eye level for displaying books).

It turns out, nearly the same statistics apply for book browsers and buyers as they do for grocery shoppers. While we don’t like to judge a book by it’s cover, we do. So we should be taking advantage of this fact when ‘selling’ books to our children.

And especially when we are ‘selling’ books to our younger readers, the ones who we want to catch the ‘reading’ bug so it becomes a life long love and habit.

I was reminded of the importance of forward facing books, particularly for our younger readers, the last time I took the girls to the library.

Caroline marched off into the stacks, eager to find any remaining Babysitter Club books that she hadn’t yet read. Even though there are literally hundreds of them, finding an unread one is becoming a challenging task. But this is post for another day about the power of series books…

Back to my point… Caroline walked into the stacks, knowing what she wanted and found her books simply by looking for the authors name on the spine. Katherine, however, was another story (pardon the pun) entirely. She wandered about enjoying the sights and sounds of one of her favorite places, choosing nothing, until she arrived at our new book section where all the books are forward facing. She then began really looking, choosing from among the covers for the titles that held the most appeal. After we read a few of these books, she began to wander again. She is now tall enough to reach the forward facing books on the top of picture book stacks and again, these were the books she chose. She did not chose a single book that was traditionally shelved.

While I’m not exactly looks for chores to do around the house, it seems I may have stumbled upon one. I will be curious to see what happens when I find space a few of Katherine’s books to face forward. I will be curious to see but something makes me thinks I won’t be surprised…

 

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Every day, Rob brings the newspapers with him to work and reads them on the bus as he rides in to the city. If he finds an article that he thinks I would appreciate, he’ll bring it home. Today, Rob brought me the sports section of the Wall Street Journal. I thought he was kidding given that neither sports nor business are really my thing until I started reading.

One of Rob’s favorite sports writers, Jason Gay, wrote an article about a meeting held between the Red Sox players and owners. The players are having lots of problems with their manager and the purpose of this meeting was to air their grievances. Apparently, people believe that the players are acting a bit babyish and Gay’s writing played off this fact.

The article included a 63 point fictitious  agenda for the meeting. It began with the serious “Why Bobby Valentine must go.” and moved on to items such as “Why we need a team puppy.”,  “Perfect places inside Fenway Park for a tree house.” and “Bedtime: why 9 p.m. is the new 8 p.m.”

While the tone of the entire article was incredibly clever and funny , the reason it held my attention was the multiple references to children’s literature. These fictitious, child-like players were ready by point # 8 on their agenda for “Story book: “‘Make Way for Ducklings’.” And then again, #23- “Story book: ‘The Story of Ferdinand’.”.  And #37- “Story book: ‘Goodnight Moon’.”

Something makes me think that Jason Gay is either a dad or a man who still remembers all his favorite children’s books. Then again, he is also a man that wrote #57- “Story book: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’.” so perhaps he is a man with varied interests…

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I just love it when people send amazing literacy finds my way. A few weeks ago, I opened my e-mail to find a message from a friend. She was writing to make sure that I had seen the sign outside of a school in a neighboring town. This friend also happens to the grandmother of the little ones who receive a book from me each month. This is a part of what I love about being a reader. That amazing connection between people who read. We know who we are and we know what others like us will appreciate. I was pretty excited to drive by this sign today and after I snapped a picture, I honked. Twice.

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As a mother, many sentences begin with “Stop!”

Stop whining.

Stop crying.

Stop being mean to your sister.

But this weekend, I actually found myself thinking the impossible.

Stop reading. Gulp.

I did not actually utter this terrible phrase out loud but I must admit to thinking it. More than once.

We returned from a busy week at the beach on Saturday. Both girls were exhausted. Unfortunately, they chose to express their exhaustion in very different ways. Katherine wanted to get back in the swing of things by playing all her favorite games with Caroline. And Caroline wanted to read and read and read.

As I listened to Katherine desperately whining, “Please Caroline! Please play with me! Please stop reading and play!”, I have to admit I almost asked her to stop. Gulp. I really did.

Alright. I feel like my confession is now complete. You can all return to what you were doing. Reading, maybe? And I promise, I won’t ask you to stop.

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It’s been a long time since I stumbled upon a new Read Together book so I was super excited to discover Eli, no!

Katherine and I were browsing the library shelves when the simple cover of Eli, no! caught my attention. Turns out, it is no coincidence that I was drawn first to the art work in this book. As I surfed the web to learn about it’s author, Katie Kirk, I learned that Kirk is a designer along with being an author and an illustrator.

Her About Page reads as follows:

Eight Hour Day is a design boutique, and we love what we do. It’s who we are. As a husband and wife team working side by side, we aspire for the designed life(style): a place where work, life and inspiration are all equal and integrated organically.

Our goal is to create work that is honest. Solutions that are exploratory, educational and inspirational. Creative that is conceptually interesting and visually stunning. We design with the belief that process and collaboration should be as exciting and fun as the end result.

Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

And along the way, Kirk has managed to write a wonderful story of a mischievous dog that is perfect for reading along with a new reader. How excited children will be to read “Eli, no!” with more and more enthusiasm until the end when they are finally able to tell Eli, yes?

And as I’m writing this, I am remembering another wonderful Read Together about an equally naughty dog. How fun it would be to read No, George and Eli, no! together and then to talk about these books are similar and how they are different.

Looks like I know what Katherine and I will be doing tomorrow…

 

 

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“Oh Mommy. I really want to hear a chapter book. No picture books tonight.”

What happened to the baby I snuggled as we read Time for Bed again and again? Where is the toddler who nibbled on the board book version of Brown Bear Brown Bear as I pointed out the words and pictures? When did the pre-schooler who begged for Seven Silly Eaters night after night go away?

I know that the baby, toddler and pre-schooler are all wrapped up in the big girl who only loves chapter books right now. I know that but I am still reminded of how fast these days fly.

I will hold my big girl a bit tighter tonight as I read her favorite chapter book wondering what kind of reader she will be by tomorrow…

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It is rare that my book of the moment is replaced so quickly.

I read Wild at the beginning of the summer. After I finished the book, I made sure to tell anyone who cared (and probably many who didn’t) that they must, must, must read Wild before reading anything else.

Usually I will stay on this kind of soap box for quite a while before another book appears to take the place of the first.

This summer though, a new favorite has already emerged.

The Age of Miracles is a book that we all must read. Because it is important for us as keepers of this wonderful planet to imagine the terrible what if told in this story. Because the story telling in the book is magnificent and the way this debut authors writes is even better than that.

The book trailer is the perfect introduction to this compelling read. Click through below to see what I mean…

 

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I have always loved the New York Times Book Review for obvious reasons.

My new favorite part of it though is By the Book, a weekly section in which authors reveal their lives as readers.

I read this section each week but this week, I found myself taking notes.

J. Courtney Sullivan sounds like someone I would like to have in my book club. Or to have over for coffee. Or lunch. Or really anything.

It all began with the first sentence…

A glimpse at my night stand gives the mostly true impression that I am a book hoarder. At present, there are three stacks taking up every inch of space: one for research, one for pleasure and one that I’ll call The Permanent Collection, made up of some of my favorites.

This nightstand sounds a lot like mine only a whole lot neater.

But then there was the list of books that had meant the most to Sullivan during her childhood…

When I was 8, I fell madly in love with Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” An only child at the time, I romanticized life among the March sisters and wished I could be one of them. I wrote stories and plays like Jo. I drew on the walls like Amy. I even memorized Beth’s death speech and performed it when my parents had dinner parties.

I also adored “The Secret Garden.”  “Anne of Green Gables.”  “Tuck Everlasting.”  “Stuart Little.” And anything by Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Roald Dahl. My relationship with the “Baby-Sitters Club” series bordered on addiction, and my mom got me heavily into the Trixie Belden mysteries as well. Trixie Belden was like Nancy Drew, but without the boyfriends and cute outfits, which I think is the reason my mother preferred her.

With the exception of the Baby-Sitters Club which for some reason I never read, Sullivan’s list could well be my own.

Anyone else? Startling similarities? Any books Sullivan missed?

I don’t know about you but I’m off to start reading Sullivan’s latest, Maine. If her childhood reading list is any indication, I’m going to love my next read…

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