By: Darcy Pattison,
on 12/11/2013
The story of the oldest known wild bird in the world. At 62+, she hatched a new chick in February, 2013. Read her remarkable story. A biography in text and art.
Here’s an adorable video “Gotta Keep Reading,” a variation of “I Gotta Feeling,” with teachers and kids from New Academy Canoga Park. THIS is why we write!
‘Gotta Keep Reading’ Music Video from NACP School on Vimeo.
If you can’t see this video, click here.
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By: Cheryl Rainfield,
on 2/1/2009
Jen Robinson has a wonderful, thoughtful post and discussion going on at her blog, about how can we encourage reading aloud. Most of us agree that it’s important to read aloud to kids, to help them learn to love reading. Check out Jen’s post for some inspiring ideas, or to join in on the discussion.
I *love* the idea of an international campaign to encourage kids to read. I’m thinking internet ads, maybe an email ad, even radio…. Bookstore bookmarks, or printable bookmarks, that kind of thing.
What do you think? How would you encourage parents and others to read aloud to kids? Do you like the idea of a campaign?
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 7/5/2007
Today had the potential for being one of those days, given that it began at seven a.m. in Budapest airport when the check-in lady's face fell and she told us that somehow our flight from Budapest to Amsterdam wasn't in their system and that we'd have to go standby on the plane following the one we were meant to get and miss our connection to the US. Somehow we solved that (I think having a twelve year old girl looking worried helped), and they put us on the plane we were meant to be on, but we ran into more problems in Amsterdam because they'd somehow reissued the tickets to solve the Budapest bit of the problem and now we weren't in the computer on the Amsterdam to America leg, but we solved that one, and then it could have got really bad when we got to America and having to go and sit in passport control following the discovery that Maddy's new US passport is, oddly, in the name of "Madeleine Griman". But everything sorted out just fine, and instead of locking Maddy up they just apologised and said that the US passport people were working flat out and making a lot of mistakes, and stamped us in.
So it wasn't one of those days. Maddy and I got home safe and we watched the "Utopia" episode of Dr Who, and then we didn't watch any more because we were too tired. I'm down one cellphone (a Nokia N-80, let me know if you find it), but had a wonderful time, and will tell you more about it when I wake up.
I love the idea of a campaign.
I also think it would be really cool to have a collection of audio files - a new one each day - where parents or teachers or book reviewers or anyone interested in reading aloud would contribute their reading of a section of a book aloud - no more than a couple pages. The purpose would be two fold. A)Listeners would have to try to identify the book the passage was being read from, and B) the passage chosen would be tempting so it would encourage kids to pressure parents to find the book and keep reading! So it could be a contest AND a reading incentive. It could be a lot of fun. I LOVE listening to people read and I love reading aloud. It would be good to set up passages for middle school kids too because that’s often when people stop reading to their children.
Janice, that’s a fantastic idea! I love the idea of audio files–easy to upload, fun to listen to. And fun to try to figure out what book it is! I agree, too, that it could get kids and other readers interested in that book.
Thanks for writing about this, Cheryl. And for the neat suggestion, Janice. It’s been great to see so much energy around this whole topic - I think it’s going to really go places.
You’re very welcome, Jen. You do such great stuff on your blog about reading and children’s books! I’m glad to spread the word.