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Another Great Review of CRADLE ME!!!

Thank you Debbie Reese, you can view her blog here: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2012/03/cradle-me-by-debbie-slier.html

CRADLE ME by Debbie Slier

It is impossible for me not to have positive feelings when I look at the faces of babies. Debby Slier's Cradle Me had me happily gazing at the faces of babies from eleven different tribal nations in their cradle boards.

Inside are babies in their cradleboards, smiling, frowning, peeking, touching, crying, yawning, thinking, looking, sleepy, and sleeping. Beneath each of those words is a line for a parent/librarian/teacher to write that word in--perhaps--the Native language of the child the book is being used with. It is a powerful book because the images are photos, not drawings, and because Slier included a two-page spread that specifies each baby's tribal nation.

When you use the book, make sure you use present tense verbs! I recommend it and think you'll enjoy it, too. (Note, 3/2/2012: Cradle Me is published by Star Bright Books.)

Who is Debbie Reese?

A founding member of the Native American House and American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois. she is on the Literature Advisory Board for Reading is Fundamental and the Advisory Board for Reach Out and Read American Indian/Alaska Native.

First Peoples listed her site as one of the Top Five Native Blogs and Podcast to follow. School Library Journal's Elizabeth Burns featured her site as her Blog of the Day on July 2, 2007, and in 2007, the ALA's Association for Library Service to Children invited her to write a blog post for their site.

First Book’s mission is to provide brand new books to programs serving children from low-income families. But we couldn’t get books to kids without the tremendous support of our nonprofit partners who work directly with children in need.

Today, two of our partners, Reading is Fundamental, the nation’s largest children’s literacy organization, and Reach Out and Read, an organization that provides books to children in pediatric exam rooms, are at risk of losing critical federal funding.

Each year, congress votes to earmark a portion of the U.S. Department of Education’s budget for programs like Reach Out and Read and Reading is Fundamental. This year, however, that funding is in jeopardy. Without it, these programs will have to work even harder to reach the millions of children in need of books to prepare them for success in school and beyond.

These groups need your help. To learn how you can support these programs in their effort to secure continued funding, visit Reading is Fundamental’s Advocacy Center.

PS – You can read a great column about RIF’s endangered funding on The Huffington Post.