Reading News & Children’s Literacy Roundup – Mid-May

Welcome to the Children’s Literacy and Reading News roundup brought to you by Carol Rasco at her lovely new blog Quietly, Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson’s Book Page, and yours truly at the Family Bookshelf blog.

This month, Jen Robinson’s Book Page hosts our mid-month collection of newsy items, including reading and literacy events; literacy research and studies, and suggestions for growing bookworms.

I have been largely MIA these past few weeks, so it was fun for me to see the great stuff that Jen and Carol collected. Like …

• Suzanne Loring‘s article about making reading time family time at Parent Express. I loved her description of the power / lure of bedtime stories: “… we are carrying on a family tradition and having a lot of fun together, with books, every night before bed.”
• A set of summer reading recommendations from The Horn Book. The Magazine staff has put together a great list of books to entice kids to read. It is a marvelous list, with audience ages organized much more refined than you would see on the back of a book, with nonfiction and fiction together. I agree with Jen: “this makes their lists particularly useful.” Keep reading for another shout out to the team at The Horn Book.
• Summary conclusions of a recent study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to this new analysis, “children whose parents regularly read aloud with them in the first year of primary school performed substantially better in reading at age 15 than children whose parents rarely, if ever, read to them.” The United States was not part of the study, but if I were a betting reader, I’d say that the data extrapolates well. Read Irene Sege’s report in the Eye on Early Education Blog.

Jen has TONS more of easy-to-use ideas for engaging early readers in the Literacy Programs and Research and Suggestions for Growing Bookworms sections of the Roundup. You can even learn about a link between Cheezits and literacy. No hints, just j-u-m-p over to Jen Robinson’s Book Page!

For those of us interested in expressing and expanding the diversity of children’s literature,  be sure to visit the CBC Diversity blog and participate in It’s Complicated! Yesterday was the first day of this week-long blog dialogue “addressing a topic that has frequently arisen at the Diversity table — the concept of responsibility and authenticity when writing about diverse characters and how authors, editors, and agents can choose/write stories that reflect the diverse nature of our society.” Here is the lineup …

Monday: Nancy Mercado, CBC Diversity Chair and Executive Editor, Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan Children’s
Tuesday : Author Cynthia Leitich Smith
Wednesday : Agent Stefanie Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary, LLC
Thursday: Senior Editor Cheryl Klein, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
Friday: Advocate/Reviewer Debbie Reese

The email I received said – in big bold letters – that everyone is invited to post comments all week long.

Last but not least, I’d like to give a shout-out to The Horn Book and their support of the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers Literary Awards (aka Cybils). In the back section (book awards), you’ll find a list of all of the 2011 Cybils winners. It’s one column, the equivalent of half a page. WOOT! I hadn’t read my new edition yet, but as soon as I saw the note from Gail Gauthier (by way of Sheila Ruth!), I ran up to the office to find my copy of The Horn Book Magazine! Thanks Horn Book!

Thanks for reading and for all your support in sharing our Roundups around the Twit-osphere and beyond! Carol will be back at the beginning of June with more children’s literacy and reading news. In the interim, we’ll keep sharing literacy links on Twitter. Follow us at @CHRasco, @readingtub, and @JensBookPage.