Reading / Literacy

It’s Read Across America Day!

Talk about a good day to read. Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss and what a better way to celebrate his enduring genius than by having a nationwide reading celebration. Read Across America is a partnership between The National Education Association (NEA) and Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Its mission: to promote the joy and importance of reading and to celebrate the birthday of beloved author Dr. Seuss. Since  its founding 1997 Read Across America has become the signature program of the NEA. Though today is the big day, the NEA offers year-round programming that focuses on motivating children and teens to read.    There are...

Continue Reading →

Read To Learn / Books for Free

Fact: Reading at grade level by the third grade is the leading indicator of school success and high school graduation Fact: Almost half of third graders in South Florida  fail to achieve this critical benchmark. The Read to Learn initiative is hoping to change that.     The Children's Trust and The Center for Literature and Theatre at Miami Dade College have teamed up for Read to Learn / Books for Free a program focused on increasing access to books for kids  in underserved communities. The hope is that by placing bookshelves stocked with age-appropriate new and gently used books in WIC offices, public...

Continue Reading →

Goodnight Moon kicks off Jimmy Kimmel’s Book Club

Jimmy Kimmel likes to read and has always wanted to join a book club. Unfortunately most books are just too long for his busy schedule so Kimmel picks the perfect genre to fulfill his book club dream, children's books. [youtube]http://youtu.be/-PLB58ePPbs[/youtube]   Previously on Book Patrol: The Furry Side of Margaret Wise Brown     Goodnight June by Sarah Jio Goodnight Moon is an American classic, holding a special place on the bookshelves of infants and toddlers all across the country. In Goodnight June Jio takes us on a heartfelt fictional  journey of  discovery as we find out just what was the  inspiration for...

Continue Reading →

A book-of-the-month club for the infants and toddlers of Washington D.C.

By the time kids reach the third grade in the public schools of Washington D.C. less than half are reading at grade level! I repeat, less then half. We know the equation pretty well and we know that the long term consequences lean severe. Low literacy = higher chance of unemployment and incarceration. Ward 6 DC Councilmember Charles Allen has introduced legislation that would send a book a month to all 41,000 children under 5 that live in the district. “We have households in the District that have hundreds of books and households where the only book in the house may be the phone...

Continue Reading →

Seattle: The Book Buying Capital of America

The results are in and Seattle takes the cake when it comes to buying books. For her New York Time Opinion Piece, What People Buy and Where,  Elizabeth Currid-Halkett utilized the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey to track differences among cities in household spending in various categories from 2007 to 2012. In the book category Seattle ran away from the field by spending a whopping 68% more than the national average on books!  Full disclosure: I live here and I buy a lot of books :-)    

Continue Reading →