In his hugely successful "Connecting Boys with Books" (2003), the author delved into the problem that reading skills of pre-adolescent boys lag behind those of girls in the same age group. In this companion book, Sullivan digs even deeper, melding his own experiences as an activist with perspectives gleaned from other industry experts to help…

As the end of the calendar year approaches, many begin to think about the holiday season. Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's all bring an opportunity to bring family and friends together. Libraries will be stocked with titles to help folks remember classic stories and introduce them to new tales as well. Educators can use holiday books…

Once again, this column has been inspired by a recent discussion amongst teacher-librarians. The topic, as it often is, focused on getting kids to read for pleasure when there are so many other choices. This article offers some simple suggestions that school librarians can use to get kids to choose to read over other activities.

Children learn to love reading by sharing quality books. Intended for children's librarians, media specialists, teachers, day care providers, and parents, this book will make it easy and fun to conduct book club meetings with little preparation time. Everything needed to start a weekly book club at school or at the library is included--detailed…

This manual provides suggestions for materials and projects to carry out a summer reading program for children based on a monster theme. The planning process outlined may be used as a "how-to" guide for developing summer reading programs on other themes as well. In addition to general guidelines, the manual provides information on the following…

This book looks at a broad sweep of books--from "little books" with patterned sentences to small illustrated chapter books. The book integrates discussions of nearly 200 different books, sorted along a gradient of difficulty, beginning with Reading Recovery levels and extending to a framework for evaluating more complex texts, the…

This guide outlines the suggested program for 1988 for the Texas Reading Club, an activity sponsored cooperatively by local libraries and the Texas State Library to encourage children and their parents to read and use the library. The general theme, "Trailblazers, Stargazers," focuses on people who do new things, go new places,…

Funded by the Library Services and Construction Act, the 1997 Florida Library Youth Program is an extension of the successful and long-running Florida Summer Library Program to help librarians provide year-round programs for elementary school-aged children. The goal of the program is to introduce children to the library and its services, and to…

The product of a two-day symposium on children and children's books, this booklet features remarks of Elaine Moss, British author and critic, and Barbara Rollock, coordinator for children's services at the New York Public Library. Moss's speech discusses meeting children's need for books offering depth and involvement, while Rollock's talk…

Intended for teachers of preschool and up, this book combines three favorite pastimes: reading great books, exploring related activities, and cooking. The book lists 36 books relating to a holiday or observation, beginning with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and ending with New Year's Eve. It summarizes each featured book and gives a related…

Two studies focused on children's reading but employed very different procedures and techniques. The first study examined the link between the levels of children's reading comprehension and the quantity of reading they did. Subjects, 198 children chosen at random from years 5, 6, and 7 of a single elementary school in Adelaide, Australia,…

Developed for the Texas Reading Club, a program sponsored cooperatively by local libraries and the Texas State Library and designed to encourage children and their parents to read and use the library, this planning handbook is intended to help librarians and volunteers organize and manage a local reading club. The Texas Reading Club program is…

Children quickly become bored with repetition requiring the library media specialists to vary their booktalk formats to sustain children's attention and promote recreational reading. This article discusses the four basic booktalk formats: plot summary, anecdote, character description, creation of mood, and a fifth to promote books with a common…

Developed for the Texas Reading Club, a program sponsored cooperatively by local libraries and the Texas State Library and designed to encourage children and their parents to read and to use the library, this guide is intended to inspire program ideas, including activities, crafts, books, and audiovisuals, appropriate to the Reading Club's 1987…

This guide is a collection of books, activities, art, creative dramatics, creative writing, games, and films intended for use with children from age three through grade seven. Eight weeks of activities that are fairly simple and inexpensive to put together and of varying degrees of effort and complexity are presented in eight chapters reflecting…