March is National Reading Month: What would you miss...

Litworld.org asked this question : What would you miss most if you could not read or write?

Videos are posted of diverse voices responding to this question. I posed this question to my RDG practicum students. There was a moment of pause before anyone answered. Their response was as diverse as those on the LitWorld site. What stands out for me is the word "most" which indicates that there is a comparison to something else. Most. I am reminded of the stories about the enslaved who understood the power of reading and writing to the point of risking their lives to master the skill. Hmmm, perhaps "power" is what I would miss most. Sure, there are some people who are functionally illiterate and many students have shared stories about parents and others who could not read nor write. The significance in these shared stories is the tellers were college students who had been charged to "do better" than that. A father who made his children read and discuss newspaper articles with him understood that power. This nonreader was an auditory learner and listened to the news. He expected them to do more than listen. Are expectations lower now? Do we need the power that literacy brings? Has technology minimized the need for that power?

Ask yourself...

"What would I miss most if I could not read or write?"

This month (and each month) read to a child or adult. Give someone a book and a reason to read it, you read too. Discuss the book beginning with the cover and make textual connections: Text to text, text to self and text to world. Talk about the images, ask open-ended questions that might lead to those Aha moments. Think power.

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Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Memories...

Wordle from When Kambia Elaine Flew in From Neptune

American Library Association 2011 Book Awards

Thought I would share this information.

American Library Association 2011 Children’s Book Awards

2011 Newbery Medal Winner

The 2011 Newbery Medal winner is Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

2011 Honor Books

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, published by Random House Children's Books, a div. of Random House, IncHeart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, published by Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams.

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Caldecott 2011 Medal Winner

The 2011 Caldecott Medal winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead. A Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing.

2011 Honor Books

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Laban Carrick Hill, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Interrupting Chicken, written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein, published by Candlewick Press.

Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal

2011 Medal Winner

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Strangest Bird, written by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Nic Bishop, published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

2011 Honor Books

Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca. A Neal Porter Book, published by Flash Point, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing

Lafayette and the American Revolution, written by Russell Freedman, published by Holiday House

(Mildred L.) Batchelder Award

2011 Award winner

A Time of Miracles, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., written by Anne-Bondoux, translated by Y. Maudet.

2011 Honor Books

Departure Time, published by Namelos, written by Truus Matti, translated by Nancy Forest-Flier.

Nothing, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, written by Janne Teller, translated by Martin Aitken.

Pura Belpré Award

2011 Author Award Winner

The Dreamer, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Perter Sís, published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

2011 Illustrator Award Winner

Grandma's Gift, illustrated and written by Eric Velasquez, published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Inc.

2011 Author Honor Books

¡Ole! Flamenco, written by George Ancona, illustrated by George Ancona, published by Lee and Low Books Inc.

The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba, written by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing

2011 Illustrator Honor Books

Fiesta Babies, illustrated Amy Cordova, written by Carmen Tafolla, published by Tricycle Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.

Me, Frida, illustrated by David Diaz, written by Amy Novesky, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin, illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams

(Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award

2011 Medal winner

Bink and Gollie, written by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGee, illustrated by Tony Fucile, published by Candlewick Press

2011 Honor Books

Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, written and illustrated by Grace Lin, published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

We Are in a Book!, written and illustrated by Mo Willems, published by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group

2011 Reading Request

2011. My request...please spend time reading aloud and talking to your child about what is being read. This is SO important. No longer a request...I am begging parents, siblings, caregivers, relatives, friends... Those who care about children, PLEASE, consider their academic and literacy needs. Read aloud, talk about the pictures, discuss the story or whatever text is being read. Keep writing material available for drawing pictures. Reading to and with children does not end when they learn to read, it is a life-long event that enhances literacy development and comprehension skills.

Related articles

• Tips to Help Youngsters Learn to Read and Succeed (eon.businesswire.com)
• Simple Ways to Increase Literacy (socyberty.com)
• Why it is important for Dads to read stories (dadventure.ca)
• Read Them The Way (momblognetwork.com)

African American Children's Literature Set in Harlem

Image via Wikipedia

Harlem, Then and Now

Harlem is the symbolic birthplace of words that have transcended time. The space that nurtured the creative voices of great authors still serves as a well from which contemporary writers draw to create visual and literary images with Harlem as a backdrop. I fell in love with Harlem in the late 1960s, when librarians introduced me to books written by noted authors of the Harlem Renaissance. The first was Richard Wright’s 1938, Uncle Tom’s Children, a compilation of short stories describing southern racist atrocities that ultimately grieved my spirit. Reading Big Boy Leaves Home fostered an aesthetic response that shaped my seventh grade conceptualization of what I now know as the epitome of “othering”. Years later, Walter Dean Myers’novels transported me into exciting young lives often intersecting at Lennox Ave and 145^th ST. Contemporary authors and illustrators continue to celebrate Harlem. Whether it is Bryan Collier’s realistic chocolate visual representation of a Harlem brownstone in Uptown, the poetic voice and vivid illustrations in Myers and Myers Harlem, or Eleanor Tate’s adolescence exploration in Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, the geographical setting for great literature is still a special place. The literature presented in this column (Between the Covers, published in National Black Child Development Institute Child Health Talk) was chosen to convey that to readers, and whet their literary appetites with a cornucopia of contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction set in Harlem, NYC. Grab a book, take a seat and let’s go Uptown!

To obtain a copy of this column go to:

http://nbcdi.org/blog/2010/09/24/new-child-health-talk-fall-issue/

Image via WikipediaThis is the bittersweet time of the year. The semester is ending and there are papers/portfolio to read and grade. I've finished writing the final exams and will begin reading online postings... Is that bitter or sweet? When I think of all the learning that has taken place this semester, it is sweet. When I think of all the work I have to do that is bitter. Chocolate can make it sweeter!

Well, a short break and Winter Semester starts the cycle again.