Literacy & Reading News Roundup – mid-December

The mid-December edition of the Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup is now available on  Jen Robinson’s Book Page.

These twice-monthly collections of news, ideas, and information about literacy and raising bookworms are brought to you by Carol Rasco her blog Quietly; Jen at Jen Robinson’s Book Page, and yours truly here at Family Bookshelf.

Jen packed her literacy news sack with lots of wonderful news and announcement on Thursday, then followed it up with a post of all the literacy links she shared on Twitter last week. I hope you stop by to read them both.

The Children’s Literacy & Reading News Roundup has a nice collection of ideas and links for book-related gift giving; and the Twitter roundup follows that up with a set of eight book lists recommending children’s and young adult books.

Somehow I missed the Education Week article, talking about the National Assessment of Educational Progress report. This is a new approach to the evaluating education and the analysis took a closer look at the links between a student’s performance on vocabulary questions and their comprehension ability. Members can see the whole article … or you can sign up for a two-week trial.

Most of my thoughts and prayers this past weekend have been focused on the aftermath of the events in Newtown, Connecticut. In the Great Books for Kids Community on Google+ kidlit blogger Momand Kiddo [What Do We Do All Day? blog] posted this question:

In light of the recent CT tragedy I’m wondering if anyone has recommendations for good picture books that deal with grief and tragedy.

The result is a growing collection of book lists with children’s books for helping children in just these situations. I’m reprinting the book lists here in case you aren’t on Google+.

• No Time for Flashcards – Books about Death (September 2010)
• Play Dr. Mom – Books that Can Help Children Grieve (September 2012)
• Children’s Books that Heal blog focuses on children’s books in this genre.
• Susanna Leonard Hill – Perfect Picture Books List (you need to scroll to “grief / loss”)

For this week’s Children’s Bookshelf meme, Momand Kiddo is collecting children’s books about empathy and grief. Her post is more than just compiling book lists. She has links to valuable resources for helping children in very difficult times. If you have suggestions to add to these book lists, please share them here, at What Do We Do All Day? or on your blog.

Ironically, when I first heard about the news in Newtown last week, I was on the bus, returning to school from a class trip. The kids were singing “This Little Light of Mine” at the top of their lungs. They were oblivious to what was happening, they were just repeating the closing song which had been part of the performance they’d just seen of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. There is a simple beauty in that …

So here is to a holiday ahead with simple beauty and love.

Thanks for your interest in our ongoing efforts to share literacy and reading news and for so generously sharing it on social media. Be sure to stop by Jen’s Book Page and Quietly in the next few days, as I’m sure both Jen and Carol will have some additional items to share.