Finding Your Child's Gateway to Reading: Writer Wednesdy

If you're a reader you can can probably think back to your childhood and name a book and writer that lead you to become a reader.  This book and writer who created a passion for reading has created a new term in reading circle called "gateway books."  All gateway books create a passion for future regular reading into adulthood and academic success in reading, so finding this gateway book is important for your child.  Here are my tips to helping your child find his or her gateway book and author:

1. Provide good material.  If you want your child to eat well, you buy them good food.  Start where you can get good books:  libraries, book fairs, books stores, and even your own bookshelves! 
2. Start with what you know.  What books and authors were your favorites growing up?  Share these with your children with read alouds, or discussions, check them out or buy them.
3. Provide variety.  You might be a mystery fan, but your child might like action adventure, fantasy, or science fiction.  It's all about letting them try different genres!
4. Graphic Novels can plant the seed.  A graphic novel is a graphic illustrated novel much like our childhood comics only longer in format.  Allowing your child to read graphic novels is okay because it can create a love of reading and they will move to chapter books as they mature.  I cannot tell you how many people have become readers because of Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants!"  My students will probably remember "Dog Man" also by Dav Pilkey as their gateway book.
5. Peers can provide help.  Find ways to your child to get recommendations from their friends!  It may be as simple as asking them, what is so and so reading?  Or look into summer reading programs and take them to the library with friends.  Join a Battle of the books program, or send them to teen activities at the library with friends.
6. Ask the librarian!  Your school and local librarians are wonderful resources for what books are currently hot.
7. Check out Goodreads.com and look for books with good ratings in genres your child likes and find out if the book fits your child's reading level.  With the Internet, it is easy to determine if a book is appropriate for your child's age, grade and Lexile level.
8. Check out Amazon and look at books you know your child likes.  Then look for the "people who bought this, also purchased these books."

Helping your child become a reader is as important as training their good eating, sleeping and exercise habits!   Today's child has so many distractions from reading, so make an effort to keep them engaged in reading and it will pay off with future success!

Try it Tuesday: Battle of the Books

This is my first year at a Battle of the Books coach and I cannot say enough about how well I love this program!  Here are 10 reasons you should have your child check out Battle of the Books and become a participant:

1. Good Books!  The books used in our local Battle of the Book program are all Bluestem Readers Choice Award recipients with a few exceptions this year to make questions easier for our library to write.  They often have great lessons in empathy and are fun and interesting to read!
2. Reading is critical!  Reading is critical to your child's success and this program is a wonderful way to get them reading and keep it fun!
3. Social Activity.  Get your child out of the house and away for screens for a fun activity that involves friends and classmates!  They'll meet new friends that they will soon be attending the same middle school.
4. Fun!  Our Battle of the Books team meets after school for an hour usually once or twice a month for practice.  We play games, have a snack and socialize.  Once a month we have a battle that is often attended by parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and classmates.
5. It gets whole family to read!  This is a wonderful opportunity to take the whole family to the library or a book store and get everyone reading!
6. It creates a better bedtime routine and good nights sleep!  Now, you may be wondering where this came from but studies have shown that reading before bed can lead to better sleep.  Use the BOB to create this pattern for your child because it will create a routine that tells their body to shut down, reduces stress, and gets them off their screens (screen time before bed produces lack of sleep).
7. Prevents a summer slide in your child's reading test scores.  You want a reading plan for your child's summer that will keep them engaged and reading?  Well this is it!
8. Teaches good sportsmanship.  Just like an athletic team, this teaches them good sportsmanship lessons, like supporting your team members, accepting judges calls, acceptable competition behavior, shaking hands after a battle, taking pride without rubbing it in, helping a team mate who has given the wrong answer with confidence and accepting a loss.  If you have a child who is not an athlete, they can still learn these skills here!
9. Creates a love for the public library.  Some of our students are not in the library system and have not had an opportunity to visit the library.  Or maybe, you've just been busy with sports and activities that have kept you from visiting the library, but every child should know what libraries can offer them and understand their importance and value!
10. Creates a desire for future academic competitive teams. Your child will have so much fun they will consider joining future academic competitive teams in middle school and high school. 

So bring your child to watch the North Stars compete in our next Battle on April 22, 2019, at the Sycamore Public Library!  Battles will begin at  5:15 pm.  Or see us on May 4, at 6:00 pm same location for our final battle.  Contact Mrs. Parsons, Mrs. Jordan or Mrs. Dempsey for more information.

Memoir Monday What Makes This Genre So Good?

Memoirs are one of my favorite genres for reading and it is popular among students as well.  What is it about memoirs that make them such good books?  Authenticity!  

If you have every written a story for school, you were probably encouraged to write about something you know.  It is in writing what we know that our writing sound most natural and authentic.

Children's books that our memoirs are often wonderful stories that create empathy, and teach valuable lessons.  Above are two memoirs available at North Elementary Library that are wonderful books that can teach empathy, and valuable lessons about intolerance and overcoming adversity.  Stop by your local library and check out this genre for your child!

Sell the Series Sunday

Because of our shortened 20 minute library special, I have made an effort to make book selection quick and easy for my students.  I also want them to find books that will interest them.  So, I have tried to chose a series every week and highlight it.   I call this strategy Sell The Series. I start with a book series talk and display the rest of the books near the front desk.  As a librarian and as a parent I love series books, because once a child finishes a good book, they have their next read all picked out just by reading the next book in the series.  And I like to remind my students that often good books are made into series because they are so well loved.  

As a librarian, sharing these book series talks has had a side benefit I did not anticipate:  peer promotion.  When I share a series, students often pipe up with their love of the books and this generates more check outs for for students new to the series.

To make these book easier for my students to find, I have made small signs with logos or graphics that make these series books easy to find in the library.  I then display the sign on the shelves.  We also have many series books in book bins for quick and easy access.  Our children are often times visual learners and so many today, are getting screen time!  So, I feel these signs are helpful to navigate our book shelves.  My hope is to create readers, and I hope they will move to books with no sequels after they do so!

Series books can also be a wonderful option for reluctant readers!  These books are usually well known by peers, so they are valued by these peers and often times this will move the reluctant reader to read them.  You can also, get the first book in a series as an audio book, and play this for your reluctant reader.  Once your reluctant reader is involved, hand them the next book to read!  You can also play a portion of the book, and swap to the book mid-book!

eWallets Available for Scholastic Book Fair at North Elementary

eWallets are now available for our North School Scholastic Book Fair starting today.  They will be available for purchase through Friday, May 3, 2019.  As the flyer says below it is "a secure digital payment option."  This is the perfect Easter Basket gift idea!  And I love that our sale is a Buy One Get One Free Sale just before Summer!  Get some Summer reading options on the cheap.    Here is our link for adding funds to your child's eWallet.  You can also donate to your classroom teacher's library, buy creating an eWallet for them too!

Thankful Thursday: Children's Books Worthy of Adult Reading

As a parent I had the privileged of reading to my children and discovering new books and authors I love.  However, my boys are 19 and 15 and the days of reading to them has gone.  So, I am so thankful for my job as an elementary school librarian paraprofessional.  I am once again reading children's books that I love and might never have found had I not started reading books in the North School catalog.
So today I am sharing some of my favorite fantasy young adult and early childhood books I have read this year that I think adults will enjoy too!  So, I encourage you to check these books out and read them aloud to your children!

"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman.  Listed as young adult fantasy, this is not a genre I favored in the past, but books like this are giving me a new fondness for the genre and plenty of new material.  

"The Blackthorn Key" by Kevin Sands.  I would describe this as a historical fiction mystery, with a fantasy flair.  I couldn't put it down and as the mother of boys I so enjoyed and understood the trouble Christopher got himself into.

"Powerless" by Matthew Cody.  A Caudill award winner 2012, this was a book I couldn't put down.  What would happen if children has superpowers, but lost them when they turned 13 and forgot they ever had them?  

Word Wednesday: If I only had time or More Volunteers!

My creative brain often goes faster than my body.  On top of my creativity, I subscribe to media that I believe will help me be a better librarian that provide more ideas to make the library a fun place to be and a destination for our students. I also have some very involved parent volunteers who make suggestions.  I would love to implement this suggestion, but have no time. So, often ideas I would love to implement, go on the Pinterest board for another day.  
Here is an idea I would love to implement and it would only take a volunteer a few minutes each week to choose a word and change a board with the word and it's definition.  Parents, get involved in your school library with something that you are passionate about in small ways!  You will:

1. Show your child that reading is important and a priority for you!
2. You can teach your child the importance of volunteering.
3. You can get to know your school librarian and teachers while you volunteer.

School librarians, need help with shelving, book fairs, bulletin boards, displaying books, helping students find books and so much more.  Just contact your school librarian and see how you can help!