Children’s Literacy Round-Up

Welcome to the second installment of the children’s literacy and reading news round-up for 2009.  Last fall, Jen Robinson and I experimented with alternating the  job of publishing this post.  Jen sums up the results best: “This has helped to keep the round-ups manageable for us, even as the amount of children’s literacy and reading news seems to increase every week.” This week, Jen has pulled together another great Children’s Literacy Round-Up over at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Here are a few things you won’t want to miss.

• On the theme of teaching reading, there is a nice overlap between the recommendations in the new National Early Literacy Report and Walter Minkel’s post about helping parents understand how learning to read works at The Monkey Speaks.
• The discussions of paper v. screen reading continues, and Brian Scott has two articles on the subject.
• In “Let them Eat Pictures,”  Shannon Hale asks why parents are in a rush to move kids from picture-only books to text-only stories. She offers her own observations as a reminder that reading is a process, and it should be fun, not onerous for the child.

Here’s an item that was too late for the round-up. Check out “Unexpected Twist: Fiction Reading is Up,” Bob Thompson’s article in today’s Washington Post. The new NEA report on reading trends is out, and, according to Dana Gioia (outgoing NEA chair), ” the most significant growth has been among youjg adults.” In its previous report, just 5 years ago, this was the group shwoing the largets reading declines.  Not all of the news is good news, but let’s start Monday on a high note. You can order or read a PDF version of Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy.