It’s Children’s Book Week!
By Sandy Meagher

Online Extra: Parent Book Recommendations November/December 2006

Bookmarks, posters and other materials celebrating Children's Book Week can be found at www.cbcbooks.org

Children's Book Week (November 13-19) gives us a great opportunity to engage children in fun activities related to what they read and expose them to what's new and exciting. If you need some fresh ideas, I suggest The Children's Book Council website at www.cbcbooks.org I plan to use some of the ideas listed at the CBC website in my own library and share some others with fellow teachers. I especially liked the Children's Book Week Story Starters written by Barbara Park, Lemony Snicket and Mary Pope Osborne. These authors are favorites in our school.

Make way for new ideas
I'm constantly looking to regenerate or just try some new ideas. Some ideas I have are to set up simple book clubs at each grade level. This year I have a Bio Book Club and every student who reads a biography and fills in a Bio coupon will have a chance to win a book.

I'm challenging students in all grades to read a book about a famous person, and I'll be sure to introduce some new ones. I really liked Out of the Shadows: An Artist's Journey by Neil Waldman (Boyds Mills Press, 2006, ISBN: 1-590-78411-1). Knowing the turbulence in so many of our students' lives, introducing this book will allow them to learn and understand how the artist Neil Waldman and his siblings discovered art to carry them through difficult times. Baseball fans will love Hammerin' Hank: The Life of Hank Greenberg by Yona Zeldis McDonough (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2006, ISBN: 0-802-78997-8). Books are vital in my outreach and this biography introduces a famous athlete who was discriminated against because of his religion. It also mentions his kindness to Jackie Robinson and allows us to share and understand compassion and acceptance.

A wonderful series for older readers is published by the National Geographic Society and includes subjects such as Michelangelo, Gandhi, Marie Curie and others. Be sure to go to The Kids Shop at http://shop.nationalgeographic.com to learn more about these outstanding books for middle grade through eighth grade readers.

Sensational series
Sensational Series is another book club that I'd like to start in my library. This will work the same way as the Bio Book Club; students just have to fill in the Sensational Series coupon and they will have a chance to win a book.
Some sensational series are "Junie B., First Grader" by Barbara Park (Random House) "Ivy and Bean" by Annie Barrows, (Chronicle Books) and "The Caped 6th Grader" by Zoe Quinn (Yearling). There are so many wonderful books in series to keep kids coming back for more.

The ideas for different books clubs can go on and on. A club called Names the Same can involve kids with finding books with their name in the title. Perhaps you have an Isabella who will love Isabella's Above-Ground Pool by Alice Mead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006, ISBN: 0-374-33617-2). Another favorite club idea among kids would be Animal Lovers and club members could find a fiction or nonfiction book about a favorite animal. I loved My Big Dog by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel (Random House, 2005, ISBN: 0-375-83297-1).

Plan ahead of time
Planning for our celebration of Children's Book Week goes on all year. In my experience, using a digital camera is a great way to have students get some experience using technology. We've put photos of students reading on our school library web page, made photo collages of students holding the book they've read, and decorated our display cases with the photos that teachers and students incorporate into library learning.

I've found that inviting guests to read to students is always wonderful. One teacher has the children write invitations to people in our community; some people can come and some are delighted just to be asked. We make sure that we take photos of each visit and sentence strips are made by the kids to describe what happened. This also makes a great display for our Open House.

Giving thanks
Since Thanksgiving also takes place this month, here are a few books to incorporate into your read-aloud library times. Laughter is truly the best medicine in the book Thelonius Turkey Lives! (On Felicia Ferguson's Farm) by Lynn Rowe Reed (Knopf, 2005, ISBN: 0-375-83126-6). Music shines for kids in Over the River: A Turkey's Tale based on the song by Lydia Maria Child (Simon & Schuster, 2005, ISBN: 0-689-87635-6). I also loved The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood, (Simon & Schuster, 2005, ISBN: 0-689-85410-2). I especially liked the ending, "We don't give thanks because we're happy. We are happy because we give thanks." I intend on sharing this book with teachers so they can incorporate it into language arts and Thanksgiving.

The possibilities for Children's Book Week are endless – don't be afraid to try whatever it takes to get kids reading!

Online Extra: Parent Book Recommendations November/December 2006

Sandy Meagher is the Library Department Chairperson and School Librarian in the Wayne Highlands School District, Honesdale, PA.

November/December, 2006, Vol.37, No.3