Growing a Reader: Kids Books, Tips and More

Dial-a-story

Toronto Public Library has a wide range of services for children, especially when it comes to enjoying a story. Besides the ability to come and borrow books in many languages and our regular storytime programs, TPL also has a service called Dial-a-story that offers a full range of stories in thirteen different languages with more being added on a regular basis. The stories are offered either for the very young (under 7 years of age) or for children between 8 and 12.

Simply by dialing 416-395-5400, you and your child can listen to a lively telling of a wonderful tale. Some of the stories are from books, others are folktales, which are meant to be listened to! The stories change each day and are a delightful routine to get into with your child.

During certain times of the year the stories highlight events happening in the community. Over the summer, the stories relate to the TD Summer Reading Club theme and throughout the year the stories reflect the various celebrations taking place (May is Asian Heritage Month, February is Carribean/Black History Month and so on).

To find the information from TPL homepage, click on Using the Library on the upper menu and then on Dial-a-story from the left hand side of the Using the Library page.

Please join us and celebrate story with your children!

 

A remarkable reading opportunity!

The Forest of Reading®   is a children’s choice award program run by the Ontario Library Association (OLA). It is the largest recreational reading program in Canada with more than 250,000 students registered in the program annually. Celebrating Canadian authors, illustrators and publishers, The Forest of Reading® is the program where reading and participating makes you a rock star. The program usually runs in the schools from January to May, when the winners are announced at the Festival of Trees in a two day celebration.  There are 5 school aged programs: Blue Spruce (Kindergarten to Grade 2), Silver Birch (Grades 3 to 6), Red Maple (Grades 7 & 8), White Pine (Grades 9 – 12) and Le Prix Tamarac (a French language program). Check out the video of children talking about The Forest of Reading® to get their perspective.

The books for 2012 have just recently been announced, and they constitute a blockbuster line up of Canadian talent.  All of these books are available from Toronto Public Library, but will be very popular once the programs get underway in January. You can help your child get a head start on reading them, placing holds on the books now ensures you will be able to read them in time. Be part of your child’s reading experience, children can read these books on their own, or have the books read aloud to them. It is an exciting and powerful program as the children know that their opinion of the best book on each list really counts.

Check with your school’s teacher-librarian to see if your school is participating in The Forest of Reading®. There is also the opportunity for individuals to register for the program should your school not be participating (or if you are homeschooling your children). There are 90 books on the lists, 10 books for every category, far too many to discuss here. A few of the titles are highlighted below.

A Flock of Shoes is nomintated on the Blue Spruce list. It is a whimsical look at how young children view the changes of the seasons along with the need to put away clothing that is no longer appropriate for the weather conditions. Abby loves her pink, brown and lime green sandals and fights taking them off in the fall. One day they take flight and she worries if she will ever see them again. Written with rich, evocative language and delicate pictures, this is will resonate with children.

Silver Birch includes both fiction and non-fiction and Don't Touch That Toad is a non-fiction book that attempts to dispell the myths of youth. Can cracking your knuckles really lead to arthritis? Does eating fried food give you acne? Will your eyes freeze if you cross them? This delightful book examines all of these questions and many more.

 

Nominated for the Silver Birch Fiction list (aimed at grades 5 and 6), Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze is both a poignant and humourous look at loss and recovery. Milo, a 12 year old, is dealing with the death of his mother as well as all of the other angsts that being in grade 7 brings. This is truly one of those transformative books that will stay with you long after the last page is read.

 

Nominated for the Red Maple program (Grades 7 & 8), Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom introduces Violet who is dealing with the divorce of her parents and the resulting chaos of her mother's attempt to find love again. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Violet and her friend Phoebe decide that the perfect mate for Violet's mother is George Clooney.

Books, Online

We know that kids spend time online, even youngish ones, and in some online activities there is literacy skills involved. Of course, we also know that reading entire stories is extremely good for their reading level, their understanding of narrative, and building imagination, crucial to creative problem-solving later on. The interesting thing is that with ebooks and online marketing becoming huge for publishers, their is more harmony of print and screen than ever, and it can be a match made in heaven in the effort to get your computer-loving child reading more books.

To begin with, publishers are using teasers, trailers, and sneak peeks to build reader interest in many titles. This means that if you've heard of a book, or seen it in a store briefly, but had no time to look at it in detail, you can easily find out more about it to help you make an informed choice about putting it on hold or purchasing it. These excerpts, trailers, and page views are often found on their websites.

A few examples include Random House, who excerpts many of its novels, HarperCollins, who offers a Browse Inside features that lets you read chapters or see enough pages of a picture book to get a sense of it, and Chronicle, who posts trailers and page views for picture books. (Take a sneak peek at Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and Press Here, a big favourite of mine.)

Chronicle also uses Scribd, a site that allows for posting of trailers and online books. While Chronicle links to them from their own site, you can also browse scribd.com to find excerpts and entire books. Searching under the genre of children's books and stories will net you plenty of classic fare that can be read online, as well as some fun, silly kids books that are only available online.

Book trailers being videos, can also, of course, be found on YouTube, where several canny publishers have their own channels specifically for children's books, making them safe places for kids to browse, too. Look there for Macmillan, Harper, and Thomas Lee, for starters. There are also lots of children's books read alooud on YouTube, though these are usually done by individuals, so it's worth taking a look at them first, and being aware that they may be violating copyright, as well. This trailer for the amazing book of animal photography Creature is one of my favourites, and a great one for kids. (It also comes as a wonderful ABC book for kids.)

 

Finally, don't forget the library, a natural source for kids' reading material, even online!

Some books have also been opened up completely online for you to read, either by the publisher, or in an online service like Tumblebooks, availble through our Kids' Space site. Here you can read electronic books for children, just like ebooks for adults, online. It's a great way to allow your kid screen time without opening the wide world of the internet to them, if they are clamouring to be on the computer. We also offer virtual books, stories to listen to, and links to authors' websites on our Kids' Space site, as well as an ever-increasing number of ebooks for kids that can be downloaded onto your computer or ereader on our ebook service, Overdrive.