Entries Tagged 'Books and Reading' ↓

THIS week, May 13-19, is Children’s Book Week. It’s the perfect time to revisit old favorites, and perhaps to add a few new titles to your family library. Of course, with new books pouring off the press every year, it can be hard to sort through all the rubbish. How’s a parent to find the rare jewels of children’s literature?

C. S. Lewis, creator of Chronicles of Narnia, left this wise advice:

“I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. The good ones last…. It certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.” (Of Other Worlds)

Let’s Celebrate Children’s Book Week

Young, developing minds and blossoming hearts need nourishment through stories of enduring quality. Reading material should be more than just “age-appropriate.” Are your children’s books filled with noble characters, strong vocabulary, and beautiful artwork? As a homeschool graduate, I’m grateful my parents filled their home with books their children and grandchildren will return to again and again.

If you want to introduce your children to some classic titles, these book lists are an excellent place for inspiration. Happy reading!

Newbery Winners

Since 1922, the annual John Newbery Medal has honored American authors for their distinguished contributions to children’s literature. The winner’s circle includes Lois Lowry (The Giver, Number the Stars), Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time), Scott O’Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins), and Hugh Lofting (The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle).

Take a moment to read the complete list of Newbery Medal winners.

Caldecott Winners

Beginning in 1938, the Randolph Caldecott Medal has been awarded to an illustrator for the preceding year’s “most distinguished American picture book for children.” It’s been said that teachers love the Newbery Medal books, but children love the Caldecott winners! I still remember my childish delight at Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. At Christmastime, nothing could parallel the magic of my mother’s voice and Chris Van Allsburg’s paintings as we read aloud from The Polar Express.

See if you recognize some of your family favorites in this list of Caldecott Medal winners.

Classics for the Christian Homeschool Family

The twenty-five moms who compiled this list are the first to admit some of your favorite books may be missing, and not all of their recommendations will suit your family. This is an extensive list, but don’t be overwhelmed. The books are broken up by grade level and divided into sections such as “Anthologies and Poetry,” “Holiday Books,” “Picture Books,” and “Literature.”

Enjoy making your next library wish list from the 1000 Good Books List and celebrate Children’s Book Week all year long!

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD a dozen times that reading and writing often go hand-in-hand. So to raise kids who can write, it only makes sense that reading should be a big part of their lives!

Children develop at very different rates, so the speed at which they learn to read can vary widely. Whether you’re concerned that your child is falling behind, or you simply want to give her a head start in reading so she has the best possible chance in life, there are a number of easy things you can do to improve reading skills.

1. Read together every day

The best thing you can do is read daily with your child. If she is a reluctant reader, you could take turns reading pages or sentences, depending on her age. Remember that practice makes perfect, so set aside some reading time every day.

2. Make reading fun

Your child’s reading is not likely to improve rapidly if she sees it as a chore. Try to make it as fun as possible by being creative. For example, if your child loves to read mysteries, why not settle down together with a favorite spy book and read by flashlight?

3. Surround your child with reading material

Many children will read everything they see around them, so the more they see, the better. Keep books and magazines readily available, of course, but also think outside the box. For example, rather than putting the breakfast cereal away as soon as you’ve poured it, why not set it in front of them on the table and let them read the back panel? To help very early readers, put name labels on doors, windows, pieces of furniture to help them learn everyday words.

4. Use a wide variety of formats

If your child really enjoys using an e-reader or computer, allow him to do this for some of his daily reading time. New technologies can be quite educational as long as they don’t completely replace more traditional methods and formats.

5. Provide plenty of cross-curricular reading activities

Offer historical fiction and interesting nonfiction books on a history or geography topic your kids are currently studying. The reading materials will enhance and reinforce the subject matter, and the children won’t even be aware that the task is designed to help improve reading skills.

6. Try audiobooks

Let the kids listen to an audiobook in the car (or at night before they go to sleep). Audiobooks can motivate a reluctant reader, appeal to auditory learners, and foster a real love of books in any child. If they have some daily reading time alone, why not put on an audiobook and encourage them to follow the text with their eyes as they listen? This way, they will learn many new words.

7. Use learning games

Flashcards and other games are invaluable for learning individual words or word families, and you can play a variety of games with them, such as the Card Match Game or Flyswatter Game, both found at Ten Ways to Turn Lessons into Games. With younger children, use colorful picture flashcards to capture their imagination and keep them engaged.

8. Go to the library

The library can open up a whole new world for your children! Not only can they choose books from a wide range of topics and genres, but the skills they develop in searching for books by subject area or alphabetically by author’s name will be helpful to them in the future. Librarians can guide you toward books that are both fun and suitable for each child’s reading level.

9. Find a genre that they really enjoy

As your children get older, help them discover new genres. If they fall in love with fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, mysteries, or historical fiction, let them read from this genre to their heart’s content. This is not to restrict them to a genre, but to help them develop a real passion for reading.

10. Participate in reading contests

During school holidays, many libraries and community centers offer reading groups or reading and story-writing contests. Nothing will motivate your child to read as many books as possible over the summer like the possibility of winning prizes!

Thanks to Meghan Iverson for being our guest blogger today! Meghan is a writer for Scholaradvisor.com, an educational portal for students with useful study tips, essay samples and writing guides.

Photo by Kirsten, courtesy of Creative Commons.

“Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.” ~Author Unknown

A Friendship with Books

I can’t remember my life without books, but this much I do know: my love for reading started young. My parents often told me they could hear me turning pages in the dark as I sat in my crib as a baby.

As for actually learning to read, I don’t remember a process. One day, it seemed, it just … happened. I was reading.

I must have been five or six, shortly before we moved back to the States from our four years in Mexico City.

Back when Hawaii was still a U.S. territory and Thailand was called Siam, I would curl up on my bed to learn about Wilhelmina of Holland, Kala of Hawaii, Ching Ling and Ting Ling of China, and other Children of Foreign Lands.

Mother Goose was a dear companion, and I read my book of nursery rhymes till it fell apart. But my earliest reading memory finds me sitting on my bedroom floor in the company of Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats, with its red and yellow cover, hand-lettered text, folk-art illustrations, and familiar refrain:

Cats here, cats there,
Cats and kittens everywhere,
Hundreds of cats,
Thousands of cats,
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.

To this day, it remains my very favorite picture book.

That was merely the beginning. From there, I solved mysteries with The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, enjoyed the innocent charms of small-town childhood with Carolyn Haywood’s Betsy, and ventured into the world of trolls and princesses in The Blue Fairy Book.

I traveled with the Ingalls family in covered wagons, floated on pink feather-clouds with Betsy and Tacy, and learned about regional America through Lois Lenski’s charming stories.

Always eager to re-read old favorites, I fairly wore out my copies of Heidi, Caddie Woodlawn, Charlotte’s Web, and Black Beauty. My open-minded (but non-religious) parents even bought me a Children’s Bible, my first introduction to Jesus, with his kind eyes and flowing blue robe.

Passing the Torch

The librarian and I were fast friends, and nothing gave me more pleasure than strolling my young babysitting charges to that wonderful place for their first library card.

As a young mom, I enrolled my toddler in a monthly book club, which exposed us to new favorites such as The Story About Ping and The Year At Maple Hill Farm.

Reading was a huge part of our homeschooling, too. My girls followed immediately in my footsteps, becoming voracious readers early on. Spurred on by our unit studies, we would check out dozens of library books at a time. I loved introducing them to many of my old friends, even as together we discovered a wealth of books I’d never read before.

Books have never been far from my children’s reach! Our son, a late bloomer, began to enjoy reading upon discovering Nate the Great. Eventually, he came to count The Great Brain and Chronicles of Narnia series among his own favorites.

One of my fondest memories is of my middle daughter perched high in the branches of our white alder, engrossed in Little Women.

And when our eldest suffered a serious leg fracture at age 11—and middle-of-the-night pain woke her in tears—her daddy would read The Call of the Wild to her on her makeshift bed downstairs till she would once again drift off to sleep.

I’m so glad their early reading roots pushed deep into the fertile soil of excellent children’s literature. Today, their adult reading tastes vary widely from classical to contemporary, but readers they remain. It’s fun to watch my grandchildren enjoying that fruit, too.

As Charles W. Eliot once wrote:

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”

This week marks Children’s Book Week. I hope you’ll take time in your homes to celebrate by reading favorite children’s books—together and individually, and this list of the Top 100 Children’s Picture Books of All Time a great place to start!

Your Turn

Share a childhood memory about books and reading. Or, list a few of your own favorite children’s books!

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.

Mariana Ashley joins me today as a guest blogger here at In Our Write Minds. 

Having homeschooled from age seven until about fifteen, I can say without reservation that the most important thing I gained during my homeschooling years was a love of reading. And I’m convinced that had I not been homeschooled, I would not possess the enthusiasm for reading that I have now.

Here are some tips based on my personal experiences reading at home:

1. Create a book culture at home.

You’ve heard the age-old saying “charity begins at home”? Actually, any life-long habit is always first established among your closest kin—the people you live and learn with every single day. As such, if you want your children to learn to love reading, they will have to see you reading often, too.

If you have a book collection in storage, take everything out and display your books properly. This sends a message that books are valuable and worthwhile! And when children are surrounded by books, you increase the chances that they’ll want to eventually read them.

2. Start by suggesting books based on movies.

I know, I know. The book is always better. But if your child is already familiar with a character or plot after having seen the movie, her interest will be more greatly piqued. This is especially helpful for children who find reading boring or whose attention span is so short they have trouble getting through a book.

3. Make oral reading a tradition in your household.

For many families, story time ends when children reach age five or six; when they don’t have trouble falling asleep anymore; or when other forms of technology begin to entertain them. First, don’t stop reading aloud! That rich bonding time continues to send the message that reading—in all its forms—is held in high esteem in your home. Keeping that oral tradition alive is also important for further developing reading, writing, and comprehension skills.

And don’t forget to include other oral activities. When I was homeschooled, my parents had us memorize poems and short prose pieces, which we’d recite out loud. This is a great tool for helping young children acquire an ear for good writing, and it gives students of all ages a chance to “marinate” in passages of great literature and poetry.

4. Turn it into a game.

Many schools offer reading incentive programs or competitions in which children earn “points” for reading books. You can set up a similar game yourself. For example, my parents assigned points based on book length. Books that were longer or of greater difficulty earned us more points. Whoever had the most points at the end of the month got to spend a day out with mom and dad for pizza and ice cream. Even better, why not set a “points goal” based on age and reading ability? This way, every child who reaches her personal goal can earn the special treat.

Picking up good reading habits can help your child in other ways too. For example, the verbal section on the SAT was so much easier for me because I’d been an avid reader since I was seven. Reading also helps lengthen attention span and generally improves cognitive skills. Reading and writing often go hand-in-hand, and while reading alone won’t turn your kid into the perfect writer, it will surely go far.

Lesson learned: Never underestimate the power of a good book.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

. . . . .

You might also enjoy

• Build a strong reading foundation
• Picture books as a pre-writing activity
• 7 ways to introduce genre

gen · re (ZHON-ruh), n. a classification of literature or writing by subject or theme in which members of a genre share common characteristics.

It’s never too soon to introduce your children to the concept of genre. Even as their writing skills are just beginning to bloom during their early school years, you can help them identify different types of literature through the books they’re reading.

I’ve always been a reader. Even as a child, I remember enjoying books from many different genres. I adored nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and poems. Among my earliest memories are books about nature and science and stories of children from around the world. In third grade, I must have checked out every children’s biography in our school library. And in fourth grade, you could be sure to find my friend Adele and me—at one house or the other—propped up on pillows with our noses buried deep in a Nancy Drew mystery.

Your Child Knows Genres

There are two main types of genre: Literary genre is meant to entertain and nonliterary genre is meant to inform. Your child might not yet recognize the word itself, but she’s more than likely already familiar with many genres, including:

• Nursery Rhymes
• Poetry
• Personal narrative
• Historical fiction
• Adventure
• Mystery
• Classics
• Humor
• Fairy tale
• Folktale
• Biography
• Nonfiction
• Informational
• Science Fiction
• Fantasy

There is often overlap between genres. A biography, for example, is also nonfiction and informational. And depending on the subject, it can even blur into adventure or humor. 

Help your children recognize and explore various genres and practice related writing skills. As they discover each genre’s unique qualities, students can better appreciate and understand what they read—and apply that knowledge to their writing.

7 Ways to Introduce Genre

1. Brainstorm books or stories that fit a genre.
2. Visit the library and discover how books are categorized.
3. Study a particular genre each month. Read books, discuss their common characteristics, and assign one or two related writing projects.
4. Send your child on a scavenger hunt through your home or library bookshelves and have her make lists. She can record the different genres she finds, or she can write down book titles within a certain genre, such as historical fiction or mysteries.
5. Play “genre bingo.” Give your child a blank bingo grid and have her fill in the squares with different genres. As she reads different books that fit each genre, she can put a sticker on that square. When she gets five in a row, give her a small prize. And when she gets blackout, buy her a new book in her favorite genre!
6. Challenge your child to read different genres from your library. You might put a limit of 3 books per genre to encourage her to read outside of her comfort zone.
7. Include some math fun! Make a bar graph to mark and measure the number of books your family reads in each genre.

Copyright 2011 © Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved. 

By Nancy I. Sanders 

During the important elementary years, your children are developing the ability to read well and learning to form a positive attitude toward reading. You have the amazing privilege of shaping their hearts to embrace reading as a natural and desirable part of their world. Building a strong foundation of reading gives them the wings they need to fly successfully into the world of writing. 

Read Together

Some parents mistakenly think that when children become old enough to acquire basic reading skills, it’s time to pack them off and send them away into the land of independent reading. Yes, it’s time for them to build strong reading skills by reading on their own, but these pre-teen years are also the perfect time for them to build reading fluency and grow as readers (and writers) by hearing stories read aloud to them. 

Read aloud daily to your children.

We read aloud to our two sons from their earliest years on up through junior high. Even though they were avid independent readers at a young age, they still cherished these daily reading sessions as they grew older. Our selection of books grew as they matured, and we exposed them to books they probably wouldn’t have tackled alone at this age. 

Choose full-length books and read them aloud to your preteens from beginning to end, day after glorious day. Pick humorous books, adventure stories, and popular titles your kids want to hear. Devour classics together such as Farmer Boy, The Hobbit, Treasure Island, and To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Make reading books a good place to be.

Create an engaging and enchanting environment for reading aloud to your children.

• Snuggle together on the couch if your children like to snuggle.
• Go to unexpected or exotic places and let your children experience the sounds and smells around them as you read.
• Visit a farm, climb a hayloft, settle down in a comfy pile of hay, and read Charlotte’s Web aloud to them.
• Go on a picnic to an outdoor spot with a beautiful view and read from Anne of Green Gables.
• Carry a backpack with portable painting supplies. While your kids paint the scenery, read aloud from a collection of poems such as Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost.

Read Alone

Of course, elementary-age kids also benefit from independent reading. You can help make this experience a highlight of their childhood memories! 

Decorate your home to be a nest for books.

• Start by giving beautiful hardback children’s classics and boxed sets as birthday and Christmas gifts.
• Install bookshelves for rows of family favorites.
• Scatter square baskets or crates around different rooms to hold short stacks of books handy for small hands to reach in and grab.
• Provide reading spots with good lighting and comfortable chairs, beanbags, or couches.

Turn off the TV.

Unplug the video games. Turn off the radios and CDs. Invite everyone to grab books and settle in for some down time with a good read. If reading isn’t an everyday part of your normal routine, schedule it in. Show your kids reading is a priority in a world jam-packed with the stresses of organized sports, loud TV shows, and time-consuming responsibilities. Stop what you’re doing and read when they read, too. 

Take frequent trips to your library.

Get children their own library cards. Give them their own book bags to lug their selections home and to provide a place to gather books together again when the due date looms near. 

While they’re exploring and selecting their own titles from the library shelves, look for books geared for their level of independent reading. Most libraries offer countless titles of beginning readers and first chapter books for both struggling and advanced readers. Some titles are known as hi-lo books, which present themes and topics of interest for kids in upper elementary but use vocabulary words and sentence structure for lower reading levels. 

Select a wide variety of books geared specifically for your child’s independent reading level that will help her gain confidence and strengthen her reading skills. If you’re not sure where to look, try these ideas:

• Ask your librarian for help.
• Using the library’s (or your home) computer, visit a webpage such as Leveled Book Lists to find lists of books for different reading levels.
• To find out the reading or interest level of a particular book, try Scholastic’s Teacher Book Wizard.

Of course, always use discretion to ensure each book meets with your family’s standards and values.

While at the library, be sure to choose titles for your own enjoyment as well. Show your children that reading is important by modeling reading yourself. While you’re at it, visit the library’s used bookstore and purchase titles to build your own family’s personal library at home.

Look for reading enrichment activities.

These don’t take the place of reading, but work to enhance the environment you’re creating in your home. 

• Give your children magazine subscriptions for their birthday.
• Listen to audio books in the car while on a family road trip. There are a variety of options such as The Word of Promise: Complete Audio Bible
  and Tyndale’s Radio Theater’s audio version of The Chronicles of Narnia
• Many popular children’s classics are also available on CD. Dive into the world of books so your child’s reading and writing skills can blossom during these crucial formative years.

Copyright 2010 © Nancy I. Sanders. All rights reserved.

Library bookshelf photo by Brandi Jordan. Used by permission.

Nancy I. Sanders, author of the WriteShop Primary and WriteShop Junior series, is a frequent contributor to Focus on the Family newsletters and magazines. She is the author of over 75 books. Her picture book, D Is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet, won the 2007 NAPPA Honors Award and the 2008 IRA Teachers’ Choice Award. www.nancyisanders.com

I’ve always been a reader. As a child, nothing made me happier than checking out a new book from the library.

OK, that’s not exactly true, for I also loved to read—over and over—the old friends that lined my bookshelf at home. Among those treasured favorites was a well-worn hardback of Betsy-Tacy, the very dearest member of my small collection and a book I’ve read at least a dozen times since I was seven.

Reviews . . . and a Giveaway!

Eventually I read (and loved) all the Betsy-Tacy books, so imagine my joy when the current publisher—Harper Trophy/Harper Perennial Modern Classics—sent me the whole set to review and give away on my blog! I’ve decided to do the review—and the giveaway—in several parts, mainly because I haven’t finished reading the later books in the series, but also because it’s more fun to spread the love!

Today I’ll review the first two books in the early series: Betsy-Tacy and Betsy-Tacy and Tib. In a day or two, I’ll post my review of the third and fourth books: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. And on Friday, I’ll tell you how you can win the set for your own daughter, niece, granddaughter, or young friend.

About the Early Betsy-Tacy Books

Written autobiographically by Maud Hart Lovelace, and whimsically illustrated by Lois Lensky, the first four Betsy-Tacy books are a recollection of the friendship and simple little escapades of three best pals—Betsy, Tacy, and Tib—during their carefree childhood at the turn of the twentieth century. Though their life 100 years ago doesn’t much resemble ours today, their joys, worries, and adventures remind us that children will always be children. Even with a century between us, I still think these girls are among the most relatable children in literature!

Betsy-Tacy

Want a book that completely captivates your inner child? Never mind your daughter—you’ll want your very own copy of Betsy-Tacy!

How I love this book about the spirited, imaginative Betsy Ray and her best friend Tacy Kelly! When they first meet at Betsy’s fifth birthday party, the two become inseparable. They share all sorts of adventures on their safe little street at the very edge of town: supper picnics on the hill, playing paper dolls, dyeing Easter eggs, and dressing up to “go calling” at the chocolate-colored house with the stained glass window.

Betsy loves to tell stories, and even her make-believe experiences—such as floating on feathers or riding in a buggy pulled by a talking horse—will delight every young girl’s fancy. Experienced through Betsy’s and Tacy’s eyes, the ordinary days of childhood are somehow transformed into a magical place of wonder!

Just as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books deal with difficult issues in an age-appropriate way, the Betsy books are similarly sprinkled with reminders that a little trouble comes to all of us. For example, the subject of death is gently broached when Betsy, in her childish innocence, finds a touching way to comfort Tacy after the death of her baby sister. And Tacy, one of nine children, finds just the right words to encourage a befuddled Betsy at the “surprise” arrival of a new little Ray bundle.

This sweet book is filled with stories both humorous and tender, making Betsy-Tacy a treat for the heart.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib

When my own daughters began reading the Betsy-Tacy books as young girls, I loved that they could escape into such an untroubled, innocent time and place to join hands with Betsy, Tacy, and their new friend Tib.

As the title suggests, the inseparable duo becomes a trio when good-natured Tib Mueller moves into the chocolate-colored house on Pleasant Street—and the escapades continue!

It was strange that Betsy and Tacy and Tib ever did things which grown-ups thought were naughty, for they tried so hard to be good.

Betsy is usually the ringleader, but Tacy and Tib participate eagerly. Whether cooking up a mess in the kitchen or thinking of ways to remember one another after they’re gone (think “hair” and “scissors”), their antics often manage to land them in a hot water. But when the girls are naughty—and it seems (in this particular book) that they often are—it’s always with the best intentions to do right; they even form a “Christian Kindness Club.” Even so, when Betsy, Tacy, and Tib do act impulsively, they experience conviction, remorse, and contrition, and their parents impose appropriate consequences. I appreciate that!

This book explores friendship, loyalty, and the joy and curiosity that come with being carefree eight-year-olds. Although they do get into occasional mischief, the girls set a positive example of how to behave in a friendship: through thick and thin, they’re faithful to the core; there’s no finger-pointing, quarreling, or envy among them; and they rejoice in each other’s successes. Betsy-Tacy and Tib is a wonderful sequel to Betsy-Tacy.

Note: Betsy-Tacy begins when the girls are five. By the fourth book, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, they are pre-teens. As Betsy, Tacy, and Tib grow up, the situations, vocabulary, and reading level become slightly more complex with each book. While a five-year-old would enjoy hearing Betsy-Tacy as a read-aloud, she may not show interest in the other three books until she herself is a bit older. But a 10- or 12-year-old is sure to enjoy all four in the early series.

More to come . . .

Stay tuned! I’ll post my review of Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown in a day or two. And then I’ll tell you about the giveaway!

Did you know that you can help prepare your child to write by reading a picture book together? A good picture book exposes children of all ages to quality literature, enhancing learning and teaching them a great deal about writing.

• How words hook the reader at the beginning of the story.
• How words form sentences and paragraphs and, finally, an organized story with a beginning, middle, and end.
• How precise word choices show actions, descriptions, and feelings.

A Springboard to Writing

Before beginning to work on a new writing project or lesson, read a related picture book aloud to your child. Be sure you read during this time, not your child. She can practice reading skills another time.

Talk about the book with your child. Here are some ideas.

• What words or sentences grabbed you at the beginning and made you want to hear or read more?
• What happened at the beginning of the book? The middle?
• How did the story end?
• What are some of your favorite words?
• How did the story make you feel?

Choosing Picture Books

We know you will want to take care in choosing just the right picture book for each lesson. There are so many wonderful read-alouds with delightful story lines and engaging illustrations. Start with your own bookshelf!

You can also scour used book stores, yard sales, online stores like Amazon, and the library in your search for the “perfect” book. For guidance, ask your local children’s librarian, read book reviews online, or seek out the recommendation of friends. Keep in mind that others’ recommendations may not always match your family’s criteria for acceptable reading. So the final decision, of course, is yours.

Though your child may love superheroes, Disney princesses, or other cartoon characters, you’ll want to avoid these mass market-type picture books for pre-writing times. Instead, look for high-quality, timeless books that play with language and use unique artwork. You know which ones I mean—the books you don’t mind reading again and again because you love them too!

A few lists of top picks:

• Five in a Row’s Book Lists 
• Classical Christian Education’s 1000 Good Books List (K-3) 
• New York Public Library 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know
• Kids Online 100 Best Picture Books

If your child is older, and especially if she’s already reading, you may believe she is beyond picture books, but that’s not true! You’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that many picture books are actually geared toward older children.

Begin your search here:

• Using Picture Books to Teach Writing to Middle Schoolers
• Picture books for older readers
• Cerritos Library picture books for older readers

Nancy I. Sanders is a prolific writer who, we’re thrilled to announce, has developed a fabulous primary-level writing curriculum for us. Hurrah! We’re on pins and needles as we enter the final stretch of last-minute editing, page layout, and cover design in preparation for an April release of the first in the series: WriteShop Primary Book A. It’s just so exciting! And the timing couldn’t be better, as it coincides with Nancy’s Virtual Book Tour. When we discovered she was hosting her blog tour, we just knew we had to invite her for a visit. So without further ado, let’s meet Nancy! Continue reading →