Of course, Children’s Book Week is special to me–I am a children’s author, I blog about children’s books, and I am a parent (as well as former elementary school teacher). I think I love children’s and YA books better than adult books some times! And I know that I am not alone.
But why are children’s books so important? I believe it is not ONLY because they help us to learn to read and comprehend OR because they remind us of a special time in our childhood when our moms read to us or when we went to library programs or even read 100 books over the summer. Children and YA books are meant to be used.
That’s what my blog is all about. I’ve covered using children’s books (and some adult books, too) since August 2008. You can see by my categories in the sidebar that I’ve covered YA, middle-grade, and picture books, and you can see the many authors I’ve read and wrote about, too. One of my favorites for middle-graders is pictured here–the “Al Capone” books–these books help children who are struggling with a special family situation, such as a sister with autism. It’s a great read, too, with a loveable main character, and children won’t even realize they are learning family dynamics or about children with special needs. That’s why I love children’s books–they are so good at disguising the lesson.
You can use children’s books and YA novels to teach history, social studies, science, writing, reading skills–almost any curriculum objective in the classroom or home school can be covered with the right book. I have included three activities to go with most of the books listed here on about 80 percent of the posts in almost 4 years–these activities are easy and ready to use in the classroom or at home.
The best thing, though, is children’s books can be used to talk about things that are hard for children–from potty training with Elmo to dealing with suicide with Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why. Children can discuss joys and concerns through characters in books–that is a lot easier than talking about themselves.
So my hope for you is not just to read children’s books this week/summer/year, but to use them with a child or teen, too. You won’t be sorry!
And don’t forget to leave a comment below AND record that you did this in the Rafflecopter box to be entered to win a picture book critique or a bag of books from Guardian Angel Publishing.
PS: If you are interested in writing for children in magazines, picture books, middle-grade novels, or YA novels, check out WOW! Women On Writing’s classroom page. Our classes are economical and the teachers are professionals! Here’s the link: http://www.wow-womenonrwiting.com/WOWclasses.html. All classes are online and run this summer!
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