January 2019 Bookshelf
"Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud." - NNedi Okorafor
Reading Reboot??
Happy New Year! The New Year is a great time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one. If this is something that your family practices, have you added a reading reboot to that list? While many families make reading a part of their daily life, many adults and children, are just too busy to add one more extra to their day. We know that in order to develop reading confidence and competence, children must read widely and in volume. Start your reading reboot by modeling ways to “steal reading time”, to fit reading into the “edges” of your day. Encourage your children to read while eating breakfast, in the car when you run errands, while waiting for a sibling at music lessons or sports practice, at the dentist or doctors office. Just 20 additional minutes with text each day will yield 1.8 million more words per year!
Take part in our Mock Caldecott Challenge!
After scouring many professional blogs and websites related to possible Caldecott contenders for 2019, as the real contenders are a closely guarded secret, Jen Mulcahy (Center School LMS) and I have compiled the following list for a Mock Caldecott Challenge. We have all of the titles in our collection at BHS, however students will not be checking them out until the contest is over so that everyone will have equal access to the books during library time. You can find these titles at the local libraries and some may be available on YouTube. Students have begun to read and be read some of these titles. I hope as families you will join this fun conversation by reading together and judging the 25 titles according to the four criteria. The “real” Caldecott winner will be announced live on Monday, January 28, 2019, during the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference. For our Mock Challenge, you and your children will choose one book as the winner and four books for the honor. Please submit your votes by Thursday, January 24, 2019, in order to be tallied and announced prior to the live announcement. Will the “real” winners be among our 25?
Please include your family name when submitting your votes.
World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) - February 1, 2019 #worldreadaloudday
In 2007 Pam Allyn, literacy educator and author, visited Kibera, an area of extreme poverty in Nairobi, Kenya. There, she experienced the urgent desire children had to read, write, and share their stories, and the barriers that stood in their way. Pam believed literacy is not a gift given just to some lucky ones, it is a foundational human right that brings joy, economic independence, gender equity and a pathway out of poverty. (Litworld.org)
Inspired after her first visit to Kibera, Pam returned to New York and energized a group of friends and leaders to join her in building a new movement founded on this belief. This new movement is LitWorld, an organization with three core models and programs. One of the models is World Read Aloud Day. World Read Aloud Day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud, sharing stories, and the idea of literacy as a human right by bringing communities together across the world to read aloud and change the world.
February 1, 2019 marks the tenth anniversary of World Read Aloud Day. We will be recognizing this important work of Pam Allyn by having a designated time during our school day for a read aloud in every classroom here at Blueberry Hill. Please continue our school to home partnership and join us in this worthy endeavor by having your own read aloud at home on Friday, February 1, 2019!
I have included a few book suggestions that support this month's Social Emotional Learning theme, Emotion Management, for your read aloud enjoyment.
"My Many Colored Days"
By Dr. Seuss
"What are you Glad About?, What Are You Mad About?"
Poems by Judith Viorst
"Sometimes I'm Bombaloo"
By Rachel Vail
"What Do You Do With a Problem"
By Kobi Yamada