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How do you explain your passion for reading and/or writing? Is yours a public or private passion?
I ask because getting my kids reading is a no-brainer for me. I want them to grow into life-long readers, as much as I want them to healthy and productive members of the community.
I just spent a week with my family at a reunion and I noticed that my parents and siblings were never far from a book. I want to make sure that my kids know that reaching for a book can often be as easy as a library card. I think they will get that lesson through me, but it was nice reinforcement to see where I had learned it from, as well.
To me, my parents' love of reading has translated into a love of writing and reading on my part. I'm not sure when I knew I wanted to write, exactly, but I remember when I worked in a law firm during college and noticed how seriously some of the lawyers chose their words. I've tried to carry that throughout my life and being careful in my choice of words. (Not always successful, but I've tried!)
But if you have a writing or reading passion, it's important to note that you don't always need an audience, either. You don't need to blog or publish books or join a book discussion group. While you may want to share a good book with a friend, you don't have to. You can keep it to yourself, just as you might have a passion for journaling and a wish not to share with those around you. Your reading and writing can still be a passion.
But I love to talk to my kids about their books. Sharing a book or a story or something I've written helps make reading seem more alive and less solitary, to me. While I do enjoy quiet time reading, I'm also someone who likes to discuss reading and writing.

So, what about it? Is your writing or reading a public passion for you? If so, how do you make it so? And who do you enjoy sharing your writing or reading with most of all?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor who loves visiting the library and sharing her writing and reading.

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Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!

Books really do make the best gifts, for everyone on your list (and especially kids). Here are just a few reasons why:

* Books are evergreen – they keep on giving, well beyond the day they are received. They give with each read, and if they are subsequently shared or passed down, they keep on giving. They are like presents that can be opened over and over again.

* Books send a message to the recipient beyond that of the book itself. They tell the reader, “I care about you. I think of you as this sort of person, and therefore I think you would enjoy this book.”

* Books educate, inform and inspire. They broaden consciousness and perspective. They also cultivate curiosity, nurture the imagination, and promote a sense of wonder.

* Books provide outstanding long-term value for a relatively low cost.

* Giving young people books as gifts subliminally underscores the connection between reading and the joy of receiving, thus strengthening the association between books and pleasure.

* There are countless types, genres, styles, subjects and authors to choose from, maximizing your opportunity to find something uniquely suited to each recipient.

* If you are overwhelmed by options, or not sure where to begin to find the right book for a loved one, there are myriad resources to help. Your local bookseller is trained to help match the right book to the right person. You can also explore Amazon.com’s “listmania” lists and “Customers who bought this book also explored…” feature. You can pick up a copy of the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, American Libraries magazine or any number of other publications dedicated to reviewing books. There are even websites geared to helping people find books they love – one to explore is www.goodreads.com.

Plus, I’ll be posting next on great books to buy (or give) about reading and writing.

So give the best gift of all this year. Give books!

November is National Inspirational Role Models Month. Whose posters are on your child’s walls? Whether its sports, music, fashion, or any other subject of special interest to your child, providing books that speak to a personal passion builds on the association of reading with pleasure. It is also a powerful way to affirm your child’s individuality.

Our teenage son Sam has always been Mr. Non-Fiction. When he was very young, he was passionate about trucks. We read everything we could get our hands on in the “truck” genre, from You Can Name 1000 Trucks to I Stink! These days, he’s into humor, baseball, and classic rock.  We offer up a lot of baseball and musician memoirs, and point him towards authors like Gary Paulsen, Gerald Durrell, Mike Lupica and Matt Christopher.  As long as he’s reading for pleasure, we’re happy.

Our seven year-old daughter Hope is all about fantasy. Her heroes are princesses, fairies, ponies and ballerinas, along with girl rock stars, fashionistas and just plain gutsy girls. (What can I say? No matter how hard we tried to be gender-neutral parents, we ended up with two gender-stereotype kids.)  She loves series books, including the Pony Pals, Rainbow Magic and Magic Treehouse series, as well as the Allie Finkle, Just Grace and Clarice Bean books.  As long as the protagonist is female!

By Jill Earl





As I read my way through the memoirs, poetry, writing how-tos and other genres of this year’s reading list, children’s books continue to be a favorite go-to for me. Not only do I gain inspiration from them, but they’re a great break from more ‘adult’ reads.

One of my childhood favorites is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It doesn’t matter that I know the adventures of Water Rat, Mole, Badger and Toad by heart. Each time I read, I relive the wonder of Mole’s discovery of life above ground. My mouth waters at the feasts they eat. I shake my head and laugh at Toad’s ability to stay in trouble and his friends’ faithfulness to stand by him through everything.

Another favorite is Julie Andrews Edwards’ Mandy. Ms. Edwards, better known as actress Julie Andrews, weaves a sweet tale about Mandy, an orphan who yearns for a place all her own and creates one in an abandoned cottage she finds. As an only child, I identified with Mandy’s desire and cheered her boldness to go for her dreams.

A couple of months ago, I read a delightful children’s book, Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth, about siblings Karl, Addy and Michael befriending a most unusual neighbor. Stillwater, a friendly giant panda who wears boxer shorts, lives a simple life and dispenses Zen-like pearls of wisdom. Not surprisingly, the advice given by him is just what each child needs at the time. I love how the beautiful full-color illustrations of Stillwater and the children contrast with the black-and-white ones of the panda’s tales, the latter reminding of calligraphy a bit in its depiction.

All three of the aforementioned books have been welcome additions to my writer’s reading list.

What about you, dear reader? Do you read children’s books for pleasure? Why or why not?

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photo by idovermani www.flickr.com

First, I want to apologize if this photo from Flickr.com makes you hungry for cookies and milk today if you are on a “healthy eating plan.” (That’s what I like to call a diet. ) But I won’t apologize for this great information I have to share today with parents, librarians, and teachers. I am so lucky to have great Facebook and Twitter friends, and they are often sharing links with me. This link was brought to my attention on Facebook last week–Milk + Bookies. First of all isn’t the name of the organization just the greatest? I love clever people. So, let me tell you about this site.

Here’s what they say on their website: “Milk + Bookies is a non-profit organization that teaches young children how great it feels to give back while celebrating the love of a good book.” It was founded in 2004 by Meredith Alexander, who has two sons and lives in L. A. She was joined five years later by Heidi Lindelof and Laura Zimmerman, also moms in L.A. When people hold Milk + Bookies events, children are given an opportunity to select, purchase, and inscribe a book for someone less fortunate. The events also have storytime, activities, and you guessed it–milk and cookies.

This is one of my favorite paragraphs from their website: “Milk + Bookies combines two essential and worthwhile efforts: LITERACY PROMOTION AND SERVICE LEARNING. While the book donations are imperative to our mission, just as important is instilling the seed of giving into each teenage host and their young guests, sparking feelings of importance, self-confidence and the desire to give and give again.” WOW! These ladies are brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

So, what can you learn and do by visiting this site? You can learn how to get teens and college students involved with this organization and information about helping them to throw their own Milk + Bookies event. You can visit the blog. You can view information about their first ever celebrity-filled Story Time Celebration and donate money to the cause.

I love to see organizations like this because reading is just so important–I mean how do you even figure out how to make macaroni and cheese without being able to read the directions on the box. If kids/people can develop a love of reading, it just makes their lives more fulfilled and easier, in my humble opinion.

So, grab some milk, cookies, and a book today while you check out the Milk + Bookies organization. If you know a teen or college student looking for a service learning project (or even a whole class), check out this website today!

Paddington Bear, to let you in on a secret, started my love of writing. Michael Bond, the author of the Paddington Bear series, became my hero when I wrote him as a 9-year-old and told him I wanted to be a writer. While he was never my mentor, his approachability has left a mark through my reading and writing career.
We carried on a correspondence--heaven knows what I wrote him as a pre-teen fan--and each time he kindly responded and sent along a note from Paddington, as well. I remember discovering each new volume of Paddington and then being led into other books by my growing enthusiasm for reading.
As I watch my children devour books, it makes me wishing for the first blushes of a first favorite childhood book. Although I get it secondhand in the wide-eyed discovery I witness as my son checks out all the Magic Tree House books as the characters take him around the world or watching the hours my daughter spends alongside Nancy Drew as she unlocks another mystery.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy finding a new voice in literature. I love reading a well-paced mystery or an excellent magazine article ... any author who is able to bring me out of my day-to-day life and transport me to Brazil or to a farm in France.
But there is something magical about that first book crush.
And, while I miss reading my old friend Paddington and his creator, or exchanging letters with them, they taught me so much. In fact, those two are the beginnings to my long-term love story with books, which continues to this day.
What was your first book love?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach. She also blogs at www.TheWriteElizabeth.com, delving into creativity in everyday places and is planning a series of workshops. She plans on taking at least one scrumptious book while her husband is traveling. Any suggestions?

(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for fresh interviews, news, How Tos, and writer's markets. Enter the WOW! Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest Open Now!

Nonfiction writing for children represents a pool of unique tools for educators teaching knowledge learning areas. Certainly nonfiction gives educators ways to build content knowledge. Don't forget that it also serves as a window of opportunity to motivate all students, to turn them on to reading. I've always said, "there's a book for every child" and, when you open the selection to include nonfiction texts, you raise the likelihood that each student finds that book.

I know educators and librarians don't have a lot of time to find these gems on their own so here are a few great new resources that will help you in your search:

My friend, and author, Vicki Cobb, and many of her fellow non-fiction authors just this week introduced a brand new database, website and blog, dedicated to helping busy educators and librarians tap into this world. To quote their introduction on their INK THINK TANK website "The real world has never been so interesting!"

Search this resource by subject area, national standard, grade level and much more on the database included here. There are more than 20 different contributing authors on almost any subject matter you can think of. They also have a corresponding blog where the authors of these great tools visit, share ideas and thoughts, and help us all maximize resources.

Ever feel as though your students have no hook, no foundation of knowledge, on which to build new content area knowledge? Need a quick tool to find picture books to use when introducing that content area subject matter? Powerful Picture Books: 180 Ideas for Promoting Content Learning is an environmentally-friendly, easy-to-use resource you can reference all year long. An annotated list of over 180 quality picture books, suggests one title to read for every day of the typical school year. Most of the entries represent picture books readily available in your local public or school libraries. Read aloud book 1 to book 180 in your classroom or use the interactive index to help you select the content area you need.

Each annotation includes the title, author, and publication details plus ideas (and some hyperlinks) for extending the learning. These recommended reads cover such content areas as history, writing, the arts, geography, science and more. You can find picture books applicable for use with elementary, middle and high school students.

Get your media specialist involved! Sharron McElmeel, from in Cedar Rapids Iowa Community School District, shares some great ideas for promoting nonfiction with the youngest readers in her article entitled A New Section for Young Readers: J is for Junior Nonfiction.

Maximize the use of nonfiction with your students and turn more of them on to reading as a tool for life, a way to feed their interests and explore new worlds.

Do you miss read alouds? In many of today's classrooms, reading aloud with children has been squeezed out or, perhaps even worse, has become a clinical, teacher-directed instructional piece to the point where it's lifeblood and impact have been depleted.

Take a look at an abbreviated list of values for reading aloud with students:

Pure enjoyment of great stories/growing motivation and interest in reading
Taking students to a different level of understanding of the story (Bloom’s
Taxonomy concepts)
Discussion and reinforcement of story elements
Reflecting on the text and searching for multiple meanings
Exploring the elements and format of print and story
Practicing and modeling specific comprehension strategies such as questioning,
predicting, clarifying, etc.
Building and activating background knowledge
Using inference
Understanding of the writing process, use of grammar, point of view,
writer’s voice, word choice and other writing-related skills.
Introducing and reinforcing vocabulary
Reinforcing content area learning
Modeling and Practicing “think-aloud” and visualization
Introducing and/or reinforcing summarizing skills

This list reads like a list of standards. I expect you can find at least a few of your state's embedded here.

So what's the deal? What I recommend to many teachers is to step back. Look at what you do as a reader when you read text. It is an active and interactive process. You draw on all you know about how to figure out those squiggles on the page and the meaning behind them, almost effortlessly. Our students are still learning about those through comprehension strategy instruction, decoding instruction and fluency practice. So open up your brain. Get off the "lesson" channel and just explore, think, wonder, figure out and celebrate great writing.

It doesn't have to take 30 minutes - try 5 or 10 (most picture books can be read in that length of time). Evaluate the "down times" in your day - waiting for students to arrive, during the "morning meeting"/first few minutes of class, before or after lunch, closing out the day. There IS time.

When you take this approach to reading aloud with your students, it will have an incredible impact.

Do you know about the research behind read alouds (there is actually quite a bit)? Dr. Wesley Sharp has written an excellent article summarizing some of it on Educationworld.com. Dr. Maryann Manning's take includes not only references to research but also personal experiences. My favorite principal of all time, Dr. Reba Wadsworth, has great insight into this area as well. One more resource: Katherine Goldner's action research in conjunction with her graduate studies. It so clearly illustrates the value of such "in the classroom" experiments and evaluation.

I'd love to hear from real teachers out there using (or not using) read alouds. What have your experiences been?

I was thrilled when my copy of IRA's The Reading Teacher came in the mail yesterday. If any of you are members of the International Reading Association, this journal is one of the best in terms of practical ideas.

This month Tim Rasinski (as he does so often) pairs with a classroom teacher. This time the two discuss how reader's theater can create an academic pathway to grow students' fluency. I hope that those of you with experience with reader's theater review this article's abstract as well as the article itself if possible. On the online version, there is even an idea for using Jan Brett's book Hedgie's Surprise in a reader's theater environment from Read Write Think. If you have not used reader's theater in your classroom, now is a great time to try it, especially with the detailed approach outlined. Tim's website also provides a great list of sources for reader's theater scripts. You can even have your students create their own as part of a writer's workshop or groupwriting experience.

One point of the referenced article is particularly important in today's classroom with an increased focus on fluency. The purpose of improving fluency is increased comprehension. I fear that in the past few years, many schools have swung the pendulum too far in the direction of focusing purely on speed and the result, as Tim and Chase talk about in this article, is children that can read like a house afire but have little understanding of what the meaning behind the text is. That can be terribly damaging to their ability to read increasingly complex text as they move forward in their schooling.

I saw this first hand as I conducted a research study on fluency and the influence of family reading on first graders' growing fluency. In a study conducted in schools in GA, AL, TX and TN, about 80% of the students we asked to read a leveled piece which included inference could not identify what the children in the story were doing (building a snowman). Many students immediately upon finishing the one minute reading (timed so we evaluate all the students within a reasonable time) asked, "how many words did I read?". It seemed they had nearly been "programmed" to ask that, even when there was no direct evidence that this is what our assessment was attending to. In fact, I recommended this response to our evaluators who heard that comment: "I wasn't paying any attention to that; I wanted to listen and see if you sounded like you were talking when you were reading and whether you understand what the story was about." Although this was not the focus on the study, it was indeed a wakeup call.

Educators must be very careful as we work with students to improve their fluency that we do not minimize or sacrifice expressiveness, pacing, automaticity in word recognition, and decoding. Worst still, if speed is our primary focus, children get the mistaken idea that fast word calling is reading. That is simply not what makes a good reader. Whether we are working with beginning readers in kindergarten or first grade, or older students still struggling with reading, we must be sure that we are sending the messages that fluency is a tool, that reading is squeezing the juice of meaning out of text. If we do not send that message loud and clear, we may see children benchmark on fluency assessments but their comprehension (tested more frequently that speed of reading and much more important) will suffer.

Certainly we want our young and maturing readers to be fluent, but we also want them to be able to think deeply and widely, analyzing and evaluating what they read, rather than simply regurgitating facts. That takes excellent, engaged teaching, giving some time to fluency, but always going back to the focus and purpose of reading, to gain meaning from that text.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with reader's theater and how you are using it in your classroom. How are you putting fluency in its correct perspective with your students?

I’ve had the privilege of interviewing authors, illustrators and book people of all walks of life and spanning both ends of careers.  Today, I break new ground for me as I interview a six year-old who’s not my own daughter.

Lily was five when she submitted an illustration to our Love of Reading Gallery, making her the youngest contributor to our collection of art.  She never named her piece so I’ve called it Books and Friends.  On this edition, I speak with blogger and budding author/illustrator, Lily, about her illustration, the tools she uses and the projects she’s working on.

Listen to interviews with other members of Lily’s family:

• Author/illustrator, Aaron Zenz
• Gracie
• Isaac

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

As part of the second anniversary celebrations of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast, we invited illustrators to submit artwork that promotes a love of reading. Now, well into our fourth year, we’re still conducting short interviews with contributors to our Love of Reading Gallery.

On this edition, Mark speaks with author/artist Aaron Zenz about The Big One (his contribution to our Love of Reading Gallery), reading with his children and pencil technique.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

As we find ourselves soldiering into our fourth year of Just One More Book!!, we remain in the process of catching up on interviews with illustrators that contributed original work to our Love of Reading Gallery — part of our second anniversary celebrations.  Yes, we’re a little behind.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, Mark speaks with designer and children’s book illustrator hopeful Candace Trew Camling about her contribution titled Bookworm, still reading children’s books at age 25 and the genius of Adam Rex.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

As part of the second anniversary celebrations of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast, we invited illustrators to submit artwork that promotes a love of reading.  We are now catching on our series of short interviews with each of 51 contributors to our Love of Reading Gallery.

On this edition, Mark speaks with illustrator Katie Davis about her contribution called Get Into Books and not being able to time travel.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

There’s one thing you can count on when it comes children’s book creators; they’re wildly passionate about what they do and what they believe in which is typically literacy and a love of reading.

Count illustrator Cyd Moore among that crowd. I called Cyd to interview her about Book Buddies, her contribution to our Love of Reading gallery and when I brought up literacy and love of reading in general, she took off, joking that she’d jumped on her soapbox. And you know what? It was great. I could have talked to her for hours.

On this edition of Just One More Book!!, illustrator Cyd Moore shares her personal experiences with children’s books and her passion for getting children hooked on reading.

Among Cyd’s illustration credits are:

• Willlow
• I Love You Stinky Face (and other books in the Stinky face series)
• Room for Rabbit

Books mentioned:

• Missing Rabbit

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

There’s no turning back, now. We’re eleven interviews into fifty-one with illustrators and children — artists all — who’ve contributed amazing illustrations that promote a love of reading for the Just One More Book!! podcast’s Love of Reading Gallery.

On this edition, Mark speaks illustrator, designer and artist Tom Bojarczuk about his contribution called Reading Under a Tree.

By the way, if you know Mark you know that he’s very particular about good audio quality. More importantly, he’s extremely particular about great conversation. Unfortunately, his audio card acted up during this interview and the resulting audio is disappointing. The conversation is too good to attempt an encore performance. We assure you that if you can be patient with the audio quality, you’ll be rewarded by the discussion.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Mark reached Tom at his home in Brazil.

As part of the second anniversary celebrations of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast, we’re conducting short interviews with each of 51 contributors to our Love of Reading Gallery. These interviews are being published as extra shows in our interview feed until we’ve interviewed everyone who contributed before June 15.

On this edition, Mark speaks with illustrator Denise Simon about her contribution called Little Red Reading Hood and her hope to illustrate children’s books.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Books and stories mentioned:

• Little Red Riding Hood

There’s no turning back, now. We’re eight interviews into fifty-one with illustrators and children — artists all — who’ve contributed amazing illustrations that promote a love of reading for the Just One More Book!! podcast’s Love of Reading Gallery.

On this edition, Mark speaks with after-hours illustrator Lucy Autrey Wilson about her contribution called A Book Can Take You Anywhere.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Books mentioned:

• The Wind in the Willows
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales
• Hans Christian Anderson Tales
• Goodnight Moon
• The Velveteen Rabbit

When we put out the call for illustrations that promote a love of reading, we didn’t expect to receive 51 submissions in about a month.

As part of the second anniversary celebrations of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast, we’re conducting short interviews with each illustrator that contributed to our Love of Reading Gallery. These interviews will be published three times each week as extra shows in our interview feed.

Author, illustrator and artist Oliver Jeffers makes an encore appearance on this edition of Just One More Book!! This time Oliver talks about his Love of Reading Gallery submission titled The Incredible Book Reading Joy.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Relevant links:

• Interview with Oliver Jeffers on Just One More Book!!
• Review of The Incredible Book Eating Boy on Just One More Book!!
• National Literacy Trust

When we put out the call for illustrations that promote a love of reading, we didn’t expect to receive 51 submissions in about a month.

As part of the second anniversary celebrations of the Just One More Book!! children’s book podcast, we’re conducting short interviews with each illustrator that contributed to our Love of Reading Gallery. These interviews will be published three times each week as extra shows in our interview feed.

On this edition, Mark speaks with Rebecca Gavney Driscoll about her contribution called Reading With My Friend.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

It’s a fun job and somebody has to do it.

We’re talking about interviewing 51 artists — professionals, hobbyists and children — about their drawings for our Love of Reading Gallery. It’s all part of the celebration of the second anniversary of the Just One More Book children’s book podcast.

On this edition, Mark speaks with Deborah Zemke about her contribution, You are What you Read.

Besides book illustration, Deborah Zemke is an illustrator for Ranger Rick Magazine.

Be sure to enjoy all of the amazing artwork in our Love of Reading Gallery.

Interest in our Love of Reading Gallery exceeded our expectations. Submissions continue to arrive in our inbox despite the June 15 cutoff date and the number of people stopping by to admire the amazing artwork grows everyday.

Thank you to everyone who submitted artwork for our gallery. Your work is incredible and we love being able to admire it — anytime and all the time — and share it with other children’s book enthusiasts.

Interviews with the artists whose artwork arrived on or before June 15 will be published beginning next month.

In the meantime, we have decided to continue accepting artwork for our gallery. Details on how to submit appear at the top of our Love of Reading Gallery page.