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Norbert P. Winklebottom begins his wondrous journey on the front end pages of Michael Scott Parkinson’s new picture book resplendent in suit, tie, and a dazzling sense of self-confidence for he is, The Great and Wondrous Storyteller. He has read books of all description, in every location from the top of cloud-clad mountains to the […]

Happy Monday, or, as I like to call it, "Keep Reading Fun Day"! Today I want to talk about the power of reading games.

So often learning to read can feel like very serious business, and this "serious business" can lead to loads of stress for both parent and child. Of course, feeling stressed does not help good learning... or good teaching. In fact, it pretty much makes both impossible. :(

So, how can we get past this sometimes miserable situation?
Take away the stress, of course. Stop making it so serious. :)

But when you are a stressed out parent whose child is not liking reading, this can feel hard to do.

That is where reading games can come in. My son needed to work on recognizing more sight words. He also needed to become more strategic about his decoding by using word chunks instead of going letter by letter.

I could easily see that those were his two weaknesses. But, who wants to focus on their weaknesses?

I wanted to make this fun! For him and for me. So I went looking for some games to address these two needs.

And, yay! I found a great popcorn sight words game (pictured above) and Chunks: The Incredible Word Building Game. (Homemade games are awesome too! I was just too stressed to make some right then. :) )

Hard work didn't feel so hard when it was done in the context of a game. Quickly, he started to get these skills that had felt so frustrating. Soon (very soon), we didn't need the games anymore.

He was just reading. Everything in sight. :)

Could it have happened without the games? Maybe. But the games sure took a lot of stress off of both of us, and made reading a whole lot of fun.

Have you used reading games with your kids? What games did you try? How did they go?

Woozy the Wizard: A Spell to Get Well written by Elli Woollard and Al Murphy is the first in a new and very funny series of readers for children just gaining confidence in reading alone.

Woozy is a terribly well-meaning wizard who’s keen to help his friends, but more often than not he gets somewhat mixed up and his spells don’t quite do what they’re meant to. With the help of his pet pig Woozy flies around trying to sort things out, and in the process it becomes clear that whilst it may not be magic, it is certainly something quite magical that helps put the world to rights.

Lots of humour, great rhythm and rhyme (enormous aids when practising reading because they help with scanning a line, and predicting how words should be pronounced), and clear, bright and colourful illustrations all add up to a lovely book perfect to give to your emerging reader.

To celebrate the publication of I interviewed the author of Woozy the Wizard: A Spell to Get Well, Elli Woollard, about her work. Given Elli is a poet, I challenged her to answer me in rhyme….

Zoe: Rhyming seems to be in your blood. Where did this passion come from?

Elli Woollard: The thing about me is I sing quite a lot
(I rather enjoy it; the neighbours might not),
And I guess if you’re singing for much of the time
Your mind sort of slips into thinking in rhyme.

Zoe: How does your blog, where you regularly publish poems/works in progress, help you with your writing?

Elli Woollard: My blog’s like a sketchbook for scribbles and scrawls
And all of my mind’s muddly mess.
I write them all down, and sometimes I frown,
But some make me want to go ‘YES!’

Elli on the Dr Seuss book bench that was recently on view in London.

Zoe: What would your ideal writing location/environment be like and why?

Elli Woollard: A hot cup of coffee, a warm purring cat;
There’s not much more that I need than that.
Working at home is really quite nice
(Except when the cat thinks my fingers are mice).

Zoe: What was the most magical part for you in the process of seeing Woozy the Wizard come to life as a printed book?

Elli Woollard: Writing, writing, is ever so exciting,
Especially when you’ve finished and say ‘Look!
All of my creations now come with illustrations!
Bloomin’ heck, I think I wrote a book!’

Zoe: What tips do you have for kids who love to write poetry?

Elli Woollard: Use your ears, use your eyes, use your heads, use your feet,
Stand up proud, read aloud, and just listen to that beat.
Feel the rhythm, feel the vibes of the poetry you’ve heard,
And think about the magic that’s in every single word.

Zoe: Which poets for children do you like to read?

Elli Woollard: Donaldson (Julia), Rosen (Mike),
Lear (Edward) and Milligan (Spike),
I could go on, and write a long list,
But so many good ones I know would get missed.

Zoe: Thanks Elli! I’m already looking forward to the next outing for Woozy, in spring 2015!

A Look at the 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal Award Winner and Honor Books | Storytime Standouts

The Watermelon Seed written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
Picture book for beginning readers published by Disney Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group

When a charming and exuberant crocodile explains that he loves watermelon, we are utterly convinced,

Ever since I was a teeny, tiny baby cocodile, it’s been my favorite.
CHOMP! SLURP! CHOMP!

While enthusiastically devouring his favorite fruit, the crocodile accidentally ingests a seed, his imagination runs wild and he assumes a variety of terrible outcomes.

Repetitive text, limited use of long vowel words and very good supporting illustrations make this a great choice for beginning readers.

The Watermelon Seed at Amazon.com

The Watermelon Seed at Amazon.ca

Ball written and illustrated by Mary Sullivan
Picture book for beginning readers published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

There is little doubt that this dog loves his small, red ball. From the moment he wakes up, he is focused on only one thing: playing with the ball. He especially loves when the ball is thrown by a young girl but when she leaves for school there is no one available to throw it.

This is a terrific picture book that relies heavily on the illustrations for the narrative. Apart from one repeated word (ball) it could be classified as a wordless picture book.

It will be thoroughly enjoyed by dog lovers and young children – especially those who are eager for an opportunity to read independently.

Ball at Amazon.com

Ball at Amazon.ca

A Big Guy Took My Ball written and illustrated by Mo Willems
Series for beginning readers published by Hyperion Books for Children

This charming story will remind readers that appearances can be deceiving and perspective is everything! Gerald and Piggie’s friendship is solid and Gerald is more than willing to stand up for Piggie when her ball is taken by a big guy.

Delightful illustrations will appeal to young readers as they effectively portray a range of emotions. The text is perfect for children who are beginning to read – lots of repetition and very few long vowel words.

A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) at Amazon.com

A Big Guy Took My Ball! at Amazon.ca

Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes
Generously illustrated chapter book series for beginning readers published by Greenwillow Books An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

It truly is a treat to read such a beautifully-written chapter book for beginning readers. Kevin Henkes has created a new character: Penny. She is a young mouse with a sense of right and wrong. In this book, she is out with her sister when she “finds” a beautiful blue marble. She excitedly puts it into her pocket and later wonders if she did the right thing.

Lovely, full color illustrations and a thought-provoking dilemma make this a great choice for newly independent readers.

Penny and Her Marble at Amazon.com

Penny And Her Marble at Amazon.ca

Storytime Standouts - Raising Children Who Love to Read

Photo by Vicky Lorencen

At the close of the SCBWI – Michigan conference on Mackinac Island, book reviewer, blogger and first grade teacher extraordinaire Ed Spicer (I know cheers will erupt at the mention of his name!) shared about one of his students. Brycen struggled with reading. He simply could not decipher those black squiggles on the page. That is, until he found a book that unlocked the magic for him. The title of the book isn’t significant to Brycen’s story. It was well reviewed and nicely illustrated, but it was not a groundbreaker or a bestseller. That didn’t matter to Brycen. He simply loved that book, and it loved him back by patiently waiting for him to decode it word-by-word until he could read it with ease. By reading it over and over and over, that story gave him the confidence to select more titles.

He’s such a book lover now that, well, why don’t I let Brycen tell you . . .

Ed Spicer shared Brycen’s story to remind authors and would-be authors that our stories make a difference regardless of critical acclaim or popularity. We may never know how one of our stories set up camp in a child’s heart and made a forever home there. And that’s okay. We just need to make the best stories we know how and trust they’ll find the hearts that need them, hearts like Brycen’s.

Feeling small or discouraged today? Keep crafting your stories with love and care. Because you just never know.

There’s so much more to a book than just the reading. ~ Maurice Sendak

Seeing as you’re reading this blog I’m willing to bet that you hope the children in your life will develop a love of reading.

But is hope good enough?

What practical steps can you take to encourage a lifelong passion for books?

Help your Child Love Reading: A Parent’s Guide by Alison David provides interesting, forthright answers to this question. It is written in an accessible, encouraging way, full of clear lists of “Dos and Don’ts” and real-life Q&As from parents looking for reading advice.

David outlines concrete suggestions to help create a reading culture within your family, with targeted strategies for each age range; 4 core chapters focus on the 0-4s, 5-7s, 8-11, and finally 12-16s. The focus is solely on reading for enjoyment and is not about the technicalities of learning to read. And it is about reading for pleasure in a family setting; whilst teachers and librarians may also want to read this book, it is written primarily with the parent in mind.

The most important message for me in David’s book is about a glorious side effect of promoting an enthusiastic reading culture at home; reading acts as family glue, enabling better, deeper and easier relations between parent and child. She rightly quotes from research showing the benefits to the child who loves reading. Not only does that child have an enriched interior world, enlivened imagination, strengthened empathy and better self-understanding, there is also a measurable positive impact on that child’s academic achievement. Yet it is David’s novel focus on family reading as a tool for building strong families that I found most exciting; it’s a message I hadn’t heard loudly before, but one which really resonated with me.

A key plank of David’s approach to helping your child love reading is the restriction of screen time. I am 100% with her on this (for my family it has been a very deliberate decision to have no TV, no smart phone, no Wii or tablet at home), but I do wonder if some families may find the vigour of her arguments unpalatable, or at least (perceived to be) impractical and a challenge to follow through. Again I’m with David who believes parents can and should set firm boundaries (though where these are located will vary from family to family) and I hope parents who read this book will feel empowered to do so. I’d love to hear what you think about screentime and its interaction with reading.

Another area where David argues very clearly for a particular strategy (and one I haven’t seen so enthusiastically promoted in other reading-for-pleasure books) is when it comes to co-reading. Co-reading, ie where parent and child alternate reading aloud, is clearly something David and her son have enjoyed and so it is no surprise she strongly recommends it. I, however, don’t share her position on this.

Co-reading has always been an unpleasant experience for me and my kids (I shall admit that more often than not I have “forgotten” to make M and J do their reading aloud set by school). When I read aloud to my girls I want it to be an unadulterated pleasure for them, and asking them to read a paragraph or a chapter aloud before I continue strikes me as punitary. Of course IF your child wants to read aloud, be happy to listen to them, but I’d debate with David as to how essential it is as a device to foster a love for reading.

[If anyone can point me to research showing reading aloud having a beneficial impact on learning to read and/or becoming an avid reader I'd be most grateful if you would share it. I can see it as a useful tool for monitoring a child's progress whilst they are learning the mechanics, but my kids are living examples of it not being as necessary as some would have us believe. Could reading aloud regularly to your kids be just as beneficial in helping them learn to read as making them read aloud themselves?]

As a mother to a son David is keen to stress that a love of reading can be fostered equally well in boys as in girls, despite widespread misconceptions to the contrary. I’m delighted to see this tackled head on in her book, but it then comes as a disappointment that gender stereotypes in family reading for pleasure do appear elsewhere: there is a focus on what the mother can/should do in the family.

Whilst Dads/spouses are mentioned on the odd occasion, I would strongly argue that both parents can and should be at the heart of making the family home a hotbed for reading. One particular case in point is when David discusses strategies for reading to siblings of different ages. At no point does she suggest what seems to me the easiest and best solution for everyone involved; that one parent read to one child whilst the other reads to the second child. Why should spouses miss out on the “relationship glue”? If you’re arguing a family should think structurally and boldly about screentime, I think you could also encourage them to think about managing reading time so that the every member of the family can be involved, and not just the mother. Yes one parent or the other may work late, but this book is partly about blue-sky thinking, and about deciding what matters to you as a family – about making the effort to create time for reading… or not.

Help your Child Love Reading is a thought-provoking and supportive read. Whilst it doesn’t include a bibliography or further reading section for adults wanting to read more (there are plenty of interesting, well written books about promoting reading for pleasure out there, although few of them have been written – like this one – specifically for parents in the UK), it does contain a list of children’s books, sorted by age, which David has found very useful in supporting her son develop the reading bug. It’s great to see her include poetry and non-fiction, and to read how passionate she is about reading in all its guises including comics, newspapers and magazines.

I ended David’s book feeling bolstered, hopeful AND also armed with real-life strategies to help my children love reading. Perhaps this book should be given to every set of new parents by their midwife, so more parents can be equally encourage and enthused?

Learning to read is a transformative moment in the life of any child. But for one who has been struggling, it's particularly powerful.

iRead With is an innovative shared reading program on iPad designed to foster language development and help preschoolers get ready to read. iRead With animated stories encourage a participative reading experience engaging both child and parent.

.. Smith: The Story of a Pickpocket by Leon Garfield The New York Review Children’s Collection 5 Stars . . . . . .   .   .   ..   .   .   .(illustration free). Back Cover:  Twelve-year-old Smith is a denizen of the mean streets of eighteenth-century London, living hand to mouth …

The Shark King, a Toon Book by R. Kikuo Johnson (April, 2012, 40 pages), is an easy reader graphic novel that's multicultural, intellectually interesting, and emotionally engaging, which is just about the swellest combination of descriptive phrases I can imagine combining (and the pictures are nice too!).

It's the story of Kalei, a girl in long ago Hawaii, who all unwittingly marries the Shark King, a shape-shifting deity. On the night before their child is born, her husband returns to the sea, leaving her to raise the boy alone. But Nanaue is no ordinary child. His inherited enough of his father's shape shifting magic so as to appear monstrous at times (jaws snapping from his back!), and his appetite is insatiable. So much so that the fisher folk of the nearby village grow hungry....and when they realize Nanaue is to blame, they try to hunt him down.

But the father Nanaue longed to meet is waiting for him, and so all ends well. Except that poor Kalei is left alone, which I found sad (in as much as I automatically relate, quite naturally, to the mother. I would be very sad if my boys dove off into the sea and I never saw them again, and the handful of shells Kalei gets as a memento would not be much comfort. Young readers doubtless won't have this particular issue).

The story is simple enough so that the young reader can read it independently, and enjoy it as an adventure story, but complex enough, with it's themes of finding one's true self, parent/child relationships, and being different, that the young mind will be fed on a deeper level. As a bonus feature, there's a little guide at the end on how to read comics with kids.

I'd have loved another bonus feature giving more information about the original myth, but that's my only complaint.



disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

The One and Only Stuey Lewis by Jane Schoenberg, illustrated by Cambria Evans (nominated for the Cybils by Sarah Wendorf at Page in Training) is the first book I’ve read with my book-judging hat on, and if all the books I read as part of the Cybils judging process are as good as this, I’m in for a really wonderful next few months.

Four perceptive, funny stories following a school year in the life of The One and Only Stuey Lewis make up this Early Chapter Book. The book opens at the start of Stuey’s second school year with him full of worries about what the year, his school, his teacher will be like. All his fears are magnified because he feels he’s not a great reader and doesn’t want anyone to know this secret of his.

Later in the school year we meet Stuey conjuring up schemes to collect as much Halloween candy as possible, and then learning tough lessons about being his own man, stepping out of the shadow of his big and brilliant brother Anthony. By the time the school year draws to a close, Stuey is actually sorry to see the summer holidays start: It’s been a great year for him, he’s learned to read well, he’s been brave and found his own way, and he’s discovered that he can survive, that he can actually make anything work.

This book has many strengths but I particularly enjoyed it for its humour, its warmth and lightness of touch. It’s a book full of love and optimism, without ever being patronising or sickly sweet. I think its an ideal book for a kid in his or her second year in school to read themselves, although perhaps at the start of the year it will still be a little challenging a read for many children.

The physical book is a very nice thing too – just the right size and weight for young hands to hold and feel like they’ve got a “proper” book in their mitts; hardback but pocket sized, with a sprinkling of fun illustrations that match the tenor of the text to a T.

Although with a clearly American setting (Stuey is a second grade student, football is called soccer, the tradition of Halloween candy collecting plays a major role) I think this book will be enjoyed by 6/7/8 year old kids across the world – kids whether in Sydney, Nova Scotia or Sydney, Australia may worry about what their teachers will be like, how they are going to deal with kids in their classes they don’t get on with, and what skills they’re going to need to survive school. With The One and Only Stuey Lewis in their hands and heads, they’ll feel more confident, more reassured, and will no doubt have a good giggle along the way.

Disclaimer: This revie

Looking for a great book to use to help your young child understand the driving force behind evolution? Try Charlie and Kiwi: an Evolutionary Adventure (Atheneum, June, 2011, 48 pages). Peter H. Reynolds, Fablevision, and the New York Hall of Science teamed up to create a picture book that does a brilliant job clearly explaining the principle of survival of the fittest, with the science set in an engaging narrative of a time-travel adventure.

Young Charlie picks the kiwi as the subject of his bird report in school, bringing in his own newly acquired stuffed kiwi as an example. But the other children are doubtful--"Izzat a bird? Where's the wings?" asks one. And Charlie, when asked why the kiwi is so very different from other birds, draws a blank.

Fortunately, his stuffed kiwi is ready to help out, taking Charlie back in time (the box Kiwi came in magically becomes a time travel machine) to meet his many times great grandfather. Together Charles Darwin, Kiwi, and Charlie go on an evolutionary adventure, to observe first hand the ancestral proto-kiwis of New Zealand. And then they head back even further in time, to see for themselves how birds evolved from dinosaurs.

My kids and I thought this was a great book--we were charmed by the stuffed kiwi, and thought the explanation of natural selection/survival of the fittest was interesting and clearly explained. It might be a bit wordy for some picture book affectionados, but for kids with an interest in science and nature, I recommend it highly.

Here's Grandpa Charles beginning his explanation of natural selection:

"Long ago, maybe kiwis were more like regular birds.
Maybe they had wings and flew.
But say one family was a little bit different.
Say some stayed on the ground a little more and smelled bugs
a little better. They'd be safer, and catch more dinner...."

I love the idea of using a time-travel story in an educational way--I vaguely feel that lots of books say "let's go back in time," but one like this, that uses a fictional narrative, with engaging characters and touches of humor, is very rare indeed. (It's the first time I've ever applied my fantasy label and my non-fiction label simultaneously!)

(and it's awfully nice that Charlie is a kid of color)

In a little departure from the norm, today I’m not reviewing a book, but rather a film, Eleanor’s Secret, directed by Dominique Monfery.

The reason why I’ve wanted to share Eleanor’s Secret with you is because it is a celebration of the joy of reading and a tribute to the power and magic of stories.

Seven year old Nat cannot yet read and is terribly disappointed when he discovers he has inherited his Aunt’s library. Although he adored having stories read to him by his Aunt, when Nat himself opens a book he almost drowns in a jumble of letters. Understandably Nat wants nothing to do with what makes him feel so uncomfortable.

Only after his parents sell the collection to a dealer who has realised the library is packed with first editions does Nat learn that he has an important responsibility. He must save all the characters in the stories read to him by Aunt Eleanor from disappearing forever by reading aloud a magic inscription. If the spell is not read by midday, all his storybook favourites will be lost for eternity, and children the world over will only ever be read true tales.

Eleanor's Secret - Aunt Eleanor's house

Alice in Wonderland, the Match Girl, Peter Pan, Rapunzel, Mowgli and many other colourful characters climb out of their books and beg Nat to help them before it is too late. Only the wicked fairy, Carabosse from Sleeping Beauty, throws a spanner in the works. She refuses to believe that Nat is the true inheritor of the library – after all he cannot read. In a puff of magic she shrinks him and in doing so makes his race against time to return the books to the library, and to learn to read, even more difficult.

I was instantly entranced by the story in this film – swept up in its passion for developing a love of reading, for wearing its heart on its sleeve. “Mankind can never live without dreams” says Aunt Eleanor, whilst the inscription Nat must read before the clock strikes 12 is “Just because it’s a story doesn’t mean it’s not real“.

The look of the film is utterly gorgeous. The colours and textures at times reminded me of Shaun Tan’s illustrations whilst the library and magical characters made me happily remember How to Live Forever by Colin Thompson. It was only after I’d seen the film did I discover that its art work is based on drawings by French illustrator Rebecca Dautremer whose The Secret Lives of Princesses has been well received in the English speaking world.

As well as being a pleasure to look at, the characterization is great. I think the animation of what Nat feels when he’s presented with a text he can’t read is acutely, brilliantly imaginatively observed. The tricky, teasing but ultimately supportive and loving relationship between Nat and his older sister is also very believable.

Due to the exigencies* of life, I do not have my beautifully insightful, articulate etc review extolling the virtues (and they are many) of The Midnight Gate, by Helen Stringer, ready to post yet. So some ferrets are filling in.

As far as I'm concerned, the only drawback to Ferret Fun, by Karen Rostoker-Gruber, illustrated by Paul Ratz de Tagyos (Marshall Cavendish, 2011) is that it will make your child pine for a ferret of their own. This utterly charming picture book, presented in graphic novel-esque panels, tells of two ferret friends who are confronted with a visiting cat. The cat is not a friend; when he sees the ferrets, he sees "double-rat snack pack."

And so the ferrets must determine just how they can survive the visit of this malevolent predator.

"We could ignore her." says one.

"She'll bug us more." says the other.

"We could run away."

"Then who would feed us raisins?"

"It's no use. We're doomed."

But soon the courage of the ferrets is revitalized, and in a bold full page spread that underlines the power of Determination in the face of Bullying, the ferrets take a stand. (Yay, ferrets!)

And all becomes well.

Share this one to your little one who is learning to read. It's perfect for the sort of reading in which your child takes one or two parts to read, and you take the rest. You can also leave this one around for your eight and ten year old boys to read and re-read--my boys got a kick out of it, as did I!

The pictures of the ferrets are awfully charming. I almost want one, or two, ferret friends myself....

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

*(how is exigencies pronounced, btw? EXigencies or exIgencies?)

A big warm welcome to this month’s celebration of early literacy, easy readers and short chapter books! The I Can Read carnival is all about sharing finds, approaches, successes and more when it comes to books aimed at those just beginning to read for themselves, or those consolidating their reading skills.

If you’ve a review, commentary, or an experience you want to share on this topic, please leave a comment on this post including a link to your piece and I’ll add you to the carnival. The carnival will remain open until the evening of Monday 16th May so if you haven’t got a blog post all ready to submit you’ve a few days to write one to be included. Infact we’re happy to accept posts up to a year old – so really there’s every reason to join in