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Thing 1:
 I sent my booklist to KU last night to see if the folks there have time to copy and collate it before Saturday.  (KU Children's Literature Conference, remember?  Register now.) And, of course, as soon as it was sent off, I thought of no less than five books I should add to the list.  Sigh.  This is the way of the world.  I know that on the road on Saturday morning, I will think of at least 2 or 3 more. 

Guest Blogger Rachael Walker is the Outreach Consultant for Reading Rockets, a national multimedia initiative which aims to inform and inspire parents, teachers, childcare providers, and others who touch the life of a child by providing comprehensive, accessible information on how to teach kids to read and help those who struggle. Rachael began her career in children’s literacy at Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), has also served as a consultant to the NEA’s Read Across America campaign, and was most recently the Executive Director of Reach Out and Read of Metro DC.

Asian Pacific Heritage Month

At Reading Rockets and its sister site Colorin Colorado, celebrate the family traditions and the rich diversity of Asian and Pacific Americans through books and authors.  Find great books written about a wide range of Asian and Pacific American cultural experiences. Meet authors Janet Wong, who grew up in Los Angeles where she observed the rich community life that comes from many cultures blending together, and Laurence Yep, who writes books that draw from his Chinese American background yet speaks to common feelings and experiences. Reading Rockets’ one-page Parent Tips offer ways for parents to help kids become successful readers and are available in 11 languages, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Hmong.

The Exquisite Prompt Writing Challenge Continues!

The Three Bears retold, inventions, obituaries, tall tale lunacy, dead words, cliff-hangers, and more! Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) and Steven Kellogg (Pecos Bill) provide the inspiration for this month’s writing prompts. Give your K-12 students the chance to flex their writing muscles — and win fabulous prizes in the Exquisite Prompt Writing Challenge!

Summer Reading

Watch and learn about some of the best ways to keep kids engaged with learning during the summer break — and avoid the “summer slump” —  in Adventures in Summer Learning, the newest episode of Launching Young Readers, WETA’s award-winning series. Then dig into a virtual beach bag of resources to help families get ready for fun, enriching summertime experiences.  Make sure kids have a summer companion by browsing the 2010 Big Summer Booklist from Reading Rockets.

Guest Blogger Lydia Breiseth is the manager of the bilingual English-Spanish website Colorín Colorado, whose mission is to provide educators and parents with information about teaching English language learners to read and succeed. Ms. Breiseth began her career teaching English to adults in Ecuador with the educational exchange program WorldTeach, and has subsequently taught English and Spanish in a variety of educational and family literacy programs to students of all ages. Prior to working at Colorín Colorado, Ms. Breiseth served as the Community Affairs Liaison at Telemundo Washington DC, managing outreach initiatives to the region’s Hispanic community.

As I read through the deluge of news reports and heartbreaking stories during the early aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, one particular report from Florida stood out:

Phones rang off the hook at Evans High, the Pine Hills school with a significant Haitian population that immediately set up a donations site after the earthquake.  More than 650 Evans students — about one-third of its student body — are Haitian.

“Central Florida pitches in to help Haiti”, Orlando Sentinel, 1/15/10

To think of such a huge percentage of a school’s population being affected by the earthquake is staggering; what really struck me, however, was that image of community members being so moved and concerned for the students in their school that they picked up the phone, called the school, and found out what they could do to help the students affected by the earthquake.

By offering support and donations to their local school, these community members made a powerful statement: we will care for all of the students in our schools – no matter who they are, and no matter where they are from.  It is an especially important message in these days of heated immigration debates and discussions about our obligations (or lack thereof) to children of immigrants in this country.

In subsequent days, I have seen other such stories from around the nation – not just Florida and New York, but Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, and Maryland.  Communities have mobilized to support their Haitian families, and their commitment to their neighbors is a welcome glimmer during a period of tragedy and loss.

As the communities rally, educators now have a daunting task to build a support network for students affected by the earthquake, and continue discussion with other students who want to better understand what has happened in Haiti.  For ideas and resources that will help those efforts, take a look at the following articles from Colorín Colorado and Reading Rockets:

Helping Haitian Students Cope with the Earthquake
www.colorincolorado.org/article/35420

It Happened Over There: Understanding and Empathy Through Children’s Books
www.readingrockets.org/article/35419

By starting these important conversations with students and each other, we can address the challenges facing our neighbors and our own children – one discussion and phone call at a time.

As our world gets smaller and people from different cultures find themselves sharing one same country, traditions once thought to belong to a particular group are bound to mix with others and acquire new flavors. Sometimes quite literally, as it happens in Duck for Turkey Day.

Written by Jacqueline Jules and illustrated by Kathryn Mitter, Duck for Turkey Day is about Tuyet, a young girl who wants to celebrate Thanksgiving the “right way.” Her excitement about making turkey crafts and singing turkey songs at school is damped when grandma reminds her that they will be having duck, not turkey, for Thanksgiving because “Our family likes duck better.”

When mealtime comes, the wonderful smells of grandma’s special duck recipe fill the house. At the table they take turns expressing their gratitude: for their home, their food, the country where they live… The main menu? Not duck, but family love.

A good time was had by all, but the idea of “sharing time” at school the following Monday has Tuyet worried. “What will Mrs. Cook say about eating duck on Turkey Day?”. When the day comes and she finally tells her classmates about her Thanksgiving meal, they join in with menus of their own: from enchiladas to lamb to tofu turkey to chicken with noddles. Their non-turkey meals remind Tuyet that, even though Turkey Day revolves around food, it’s having a thankful heart and sharing a meal together with those you love that matter the most.

You can watch the book trailer of Duck for Turkey Day here, and for more books on the various aspects of Thanksgiving, check out Colorin Colorado’s reading list.

PaperTigers wishes a Happy Thanksgiving to all who may be celebrating the day!

Guest Blogger Lydia Breiseth is the manager of the bilingual English-Spanish website Colorín Colorado, whose mission is to provide educators and parents with information about teaching English language learners to read and succeed. Ms. Breiseth began her career teaching English to adults in Ecuador with the educational exchange program WorldTeach, and has subsequently taught English and Spanish in a variety of educational and family literacy programs to students of all ages. Prior to working at Colorín Colorado, Ms. Breiseth served as the Community Affairs Liaison at Telemundo Washington DC, managing outreach initiatives to the region’s Hispanic community.

From Durham to Salt Lake City, from Albuquerque to Ypsilanti, from Birmingham to Boulder, libraries around the country are getting ready for a celebration that is gaining popularity each year—El día de los niños/El día de los libros (The Day of the Book/The Day of the Child).

This year marks the 13th anniversary of a celebration founded by children’s author Pat Mora.  The holiday is the American version of the traditional Mexican holiday El día de los niños.  After Pat Mora took up the cause in 1997 to combine the focus on children with a strong focus on reading, the U.S. Congress officially designated April 30 as “Day of the Child” a year later.

Why has “Día” grown so much each year?  It may have something to do with the increasing Latino population around the country. Communities that didn’t traditionally have a large Latino population now are making adjustments to respond to their new neighbors in all sectors of society, including schools and libraries.  Día offers a wonderful opportunity to invite Spanish-speaking families to get to know the local public library and all of the programs and resources it has to offer – including growing collections of Spanish and bilingual books.  It also exposes the rest of the community to the rich selection of bilingual children’s literature available, such as multicultural books written by Latino or Latina authors in addition to Spanish translations of children’s classics.

If you are looking for a Día celebration in your neighborhood or would like some ideas for Día activities, here are some great resources from Colorín Colorado, Pat Mora, and the Association for Library Service for Children:

• Colorín Colorado: Día Resources in English and Spanish (including a video interview with Pat Mora about Día)
• Pat Mora’s homepage, with ideas and information about Día
• Pat Mora’s blog, Bookjoy
• The Association for Library Service for Children (the official home of Día, offering an interactive map of national celebrations)
• The Official Día 2009 Brochure (PDF)
  

You may also be interested in Colorín Colorado’s bilingual book recommendations for children, as well as our parent articles about visiting the library (available in English and Spanish).

Have a wonderful time preparing for and enjoying Día – and when it’s over, remember that every day is a great day to celebrate children and reading in any language!

Guest Blogger Lydia Breiseth is the manager of the bilingual English-Spanish website Colorín Colorado, whose mission is to provide educators and parents with information about teaching English language learners to read and succeed.   Ms. Breiseth began her career teaching English to adults in Ecuador with the educational exchange program WorldTeach, and has subsequently taught English and Spanish in a variety of educational and family literacy programs to students of all ages. Prior to working at Colorín Colorado, Ms. Breiseth served as the Community Affairs Liaison at Telemundo Washington DC, managing outreach initiatives to the region’s Hispanic community.

Each fall, we have the opportunity to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of Hispanic and Latin Americans during Hispanic Heritage Month.  For some fresh ideas on how to mark this month, take a look at Colorín Colorado’s Hispanic Heritage pages in English and Spanish for booklists, ready-to-use tools for the ELL classroom, and many multimedia resources.  From bilingual stories and author interviews to lesson plans, there are lots of great resources online to get the celebration started at home or at school!

Here are five ideas for ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month:

1. Look for children’s books by authors such as Alma Flor Ada, George Ancona, Francisco X. Alarcón, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Pat Mora, Monica Brown, Lulu Delacre, Gary Soto, or Jorge Argueta.  While these authors write about a number of themes, many of them focus on culturally relevant stories, traditions, and events that students of all backgrounds will find engaging.
2. Talk about the biographies of important Hispanic and Latin American figures from history and look for children’s books about those figures. For example, César: Yes, We Can!/César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand offers poems about César Chávez, while Harvesting Hope: The Story of César Chávez by Kathleen Krull and Yuyi Morales focuses on Chávez’s famous march on behalf of California’s migrant farmworkers.
3. With older students, talk about what it means to be Hispanic American in the U.S. today.  What are the opportunities and challenges for young Hispanic Americans and immigrants of different backgrounds?  What has their family experience been?  How might Hispanic Americans’ vote play a part in the upcoming presidential election?
4. Look for cultural events in your area that you can attend with students or your family.  During Hispanic Heritage Month, many schools, museums, libraries, cultural associations, and performance groups offer presentations with art, music, poetry, puppet shows, cinema, drama, or other activities for audiences of all ages.  You may even be able to do some taste-testing of yummy cuisine while you’re at it!
5. Local PBS stations are offering Hispanic Heritage programming, including documentaries, performances, and bilingual children’s shows.  Check out some of the special programs PBS will be showcasing.

Also check out local PBS listings for Reading Rockets’ newest television program, Toddling Toward Reading.  Hosted by country music legend (and First Book Board member) Reba McEntire, the show offers a look at how pediatricians are getting involved in bringing books to babies; the crucial need for family-support services to engage and involve parents of young children; and the benefits of inclusion for the special needs preschooler. The show also features master teacher Dr. Rebecca Palacios who runs a dual-language immersion preschool in Corpus Christi, Texas. While teaching her kids, she also mentors teachers-in-training on how to provide top-notch teaching in a preschool environment.

Find ways to connect babies, toddlers and preschoolers with books with these parent tip sheets on reading in both English and Spanish.  Hispanic Heritage Month is a great opportunity to introduce even soon-to-be readers to poems, stories, and traditional songs found in books.

Guest Blogger Lydia Breiseth is the manager of the bilingual English-Spanish website Colorín Colorado, whose mission is to provide educators and parents with information about teaching English language learners to read and succeed. Ms. Breiseth began her career teaching English to adults in Ecuador with the educational exchange program WorldTeach, and has subsequently taught English and Spanish in a variety of educational and family literacy programs to students of all ages. Prior to working at Colorín Colorado, Ms. Breiseth served as the Community Affairs Liaison at Telemundo Washington DC, managing outreach initiatives to the region’s Hispanic community.

A few weeks ago, I was in a cab in downtown Washington, DC, and my Ethiopian cab driver was listening to The Diane Rehm show on National Public Radio. He said he’d been listening to NPR for more than 10 years, and that it was the best way to learn new things while he was driving around town in his cab.

We started talking about books, and he said, “Books? They are too expensive. I can’t buy books!” I asked whether he ever went to the library, and he said, “What do you mean?” When I explained that he could borrow books for free at his local library, he said, “Do you mean like bestsellers? Are you KIDDING me?” As I got out of the cab, I made him promise he would go to the library the next day, but he was so excited about it that he was already thinking about all the kinds of books he would look for.

It seems improbable that someone could live here for 10 years and not know what the library is, but in fact many immigrants in the U.S. don’t know that there are libraries in their neighborhood for public use. This may be because their home country doesn’t have a library system like ours and so they aren’t familiar with what the U.S. public library system has to offer, and it also may be because their local library doesn’t have any outreach materials in their native language.

What are some of the resources immigrant families can find at the library? Some of those resources might include bilingual books for their children, free ESL and literacy classes, computer/internet access, informational books about important decisions such as buying a home or looking for a job, and movies on DVD for their family to watch together.

Many library systems do have wonderful multilingual resources (such as this library in Flushing, NY), so if you work with English language learners and their families, check your local library to see what’s available and if they have any multilingual information about their services. Take your students and their families on a field trip to the library so that they can see all of the riches their public library has to offer. At Colorín Colorado, we have just updated our library articles for families in English and Spanish as part of our new summer reading resources (also available in Spanish!). These articles provide an overview of different kinds of library services available to different groups, including young children, adolescents, and individual with special needs.

You may also be interested in our parent reading tips in 11 different languages, as well as some of the other multilingual parent guides we feature on our website in order to promote literacy for families of English language learners. In addition, we have a great selection of multicultural and bilingual children’s book titles, as well as bilingual video interviews with notable Latino children’s book authors, in our Books and Authors section.

By taking simple steps, you may be able to open a door for someone who didn’t even know that door existed. Make sure your friends, neighbors, and yes – even your cab drivers know what’s waiting for them at the library!

Guest Blogger Rachael Walker is the Outreach Consultant for Reading Rockets, a national multimedia initiative which aims to inform and inspire parents, teachers, childcare providers, and others who touch the life of a child by providing comprehensive, accessible information on how to teach kids to read and help those who struggle. Rachael began her career in literacy outreach at Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), has also served as a consultant to the NEA’s Read Across America campaign, and was most recently the Executive Director of Reach Out and Read of Metro DC.

Teaching reading is a hugely complicated task Kind of like rocket science! So what better way to support the efforts of parents and educators to launch young readers than to have a multimedia initiative called Reading Rockets which looks at how young children (preschool through grade 3) learn to read, why so many kids struggle, and what can be done to help.

The Reading Rockets project is comprised of PBS television programs (available on the web, videotape, and DVD), the websites ReadingRockets.org and ColorinColorado.org, and professional development opportunities. Reading Rockets reaches out to local communities through more than 40 national partners, including First Book.

There’s also the folks at WETA (the flagship public television station in our nation’s capital), who along with a group of expert advisors, make the Reading Rockets project fly. Our mission is to provide the best resources on how to prepare and teach children to read – and inspire a joy for reading. We are excited to share some of those resources and the latest and greatest in children’s literacy with you on this blog!

Every month, you’ll hear from me or my colleague, Reading Rockets manager Tina Chovanec. You’ll also get to regularly hear from one of the Reading Rockets sister projects: LDOnline.org, the world’s leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD; AdLit.org, which focuses on helping students from fourth through 12th grades to read and write better; and ColorinColorado.org, a comprehensive bilingual website for Spanish-speaking families and teachers of English language learners.

Right now we’ve all got summer reading on our minds. If you’re looking to help families get ready for summer and to launch kids to fun, enriching summertime experiences, Reading Rockets, AdLit.org and LDOnline have put together “virtual beach bags” of activity ideas and materials to download and distribute.

This summer I’m looking forward to catching up on some of the recently published books for children and teens, like Rick Riordan’s latest Percy Jackson adventure, The Battle of the Labyrinth. And I can’t wait to find out what happens with Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks when they are back on Gardam Street.

What’s on your summer reading list?