Reading and Literacy Tools – January 2012 Roundup

Welcome to the first 2012 edition of the Tools for Reading and Literacy! This is a periodic annex to the Literacy and Reading News Roundup, a collaborative effort with Jen Robinson (Jen Robinson’s Book Page), Carol Rasco (Rasco from RIF), and me.

It has been quite a while since we published some additions for the literacy toolkit, but I’ve been collecting them all the same. Just as we have always done, we have compiled links to articles, websites, and online tools that facilitate the processes of reading and learning.

Whether the information is recently published or a couple years’ old, it’s new to me and may be new to you. Enjoy!

Resources for Kids

My go-to source of cool literay tools for kids is always my favorite Chook, Susan Stephenson of the Book Chook. How can you not love the idea of LEGO, history, adventure, and comics all rolled into one?!

Would you like to know a little @ trivia? any history of @ all? Well, then Grammar Girl has just what you’re looking for. Of course, after I read the article Where Did the @ Symbol Come From? I ended up spending lots of time exploring other topics … and I bet you will too! Thanks, Carol!

In the midst of doing some Root Word research for a certain 10-year-old in my house, I discovered education.com. Now I get regular emails, and recently found this idea to have kids (they recommend middle school … I bet upper elementary would love it too. What is it? Chart 100 Books You’ve Read – in poster form.

Resources for Parents and Educators

Amy of Delightful Children’s Books has been working on several new resources for families. What I love about her Babies and Toddlers Page is that rather than just throw a list of ideas at you, she talks about her own experiences as a parent trying to read with an infant and toddler.

She’s also careful to parse the list based on the kinds of things babies like (and can comprehend) at certain stages.  Her article Introducing Children to Books (Ages 0 to 13 months) is a nice complement to her directory.

Leave it to my friends in the Nerdy Book Club [this time in the person of @MrSchuReads] to find a virtual Book Release Calendar! Want to know when the new Fly Guy comes out? Then you HAVE to have this calendar (March 1, by the way).

My thanks to Carol Rasco for sending along a link to Sherry York’s book Ethnic Book Awards: A Directory of Multicultural Literacy for Young Readers. The book is designed for librarians, but I would bet if you are interested in diversifying your personal library and adding high-quality literature, you’ll find plenty of recommendations. Use WorldCat.org to see if your library has a copy. It’ll be great for Share a Story this year, don’t you think?

There are several annual resources I look forward to – and count on – every year. One of them is Susan Thomsen’s Super-fantastic List of Lists. She has just posted the 2011 Best Children’s Book: A List of Lists and Awards. There is no shortage of year-end resources, but I always go to Susan’s list at Chicken Spaghetti first!

Another favorite bookworm’s resource is Zoe Toft’s Worldwide List of Reading  and Literacy Charities. The 2012 edition went up earlier this month.

I have recently started curating the Family Literacy Topic on www.Scoop.it. My goal there is to offer “tips and ideas to make literacy easy for busy parents.” Hope to see you there!