One In Three

According to a survey conducted by Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy’s, only one in three parents  with kids 8 and younger  read to them every night. Fifty percent of parents say that their children play video games or watch TV before bed. Macy’s and RIF are partnering to provide 1.6 million  books for children in need. Check out  the Be Book Smart program.

The most important thing you can do to help your child to become a reader is to read to him! The amount of reading done outside of school is consistently related to gains in achievement. Children who do not read well by the end of third grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of high school. Today is a good day to start!

More Ideas To Get Kids Reading This Summer

Melissa Taylor, on her Imagination Soup blog, has some ideas to help your kids get reading this summer. At the bottom of the post are links to Easy Chapter Books (in a series) and Chapter Book Series That Kids Love. One of the best ways to get your kids to read over the summer is to find a series that interests them. They will already know which book they want to read next. The Chapter Book Series features one of the blog’s  favorite series, The Red Blazer Girls.

Back Seat Book Club The One And Only Ivan

June’s  Back Seat Book Club discussion with author Katherine Applegate about The One And Only Ivan aired today on NPR. You can listen to it here. The July selection is Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood. It has been on my to read list for months. Better get cracking!

20 Minutes of Reading a Day

A simple graphic from EBook Friendly to illustrate what 20 minutes a day of reading at home adds up to over the course of the elementary school years. The math is based on 180 school days per year. You can double that if your child reads 20 minutes every day. Standardized test scores aside, which student is going to have the best chance at a fuller more rewarding life?

What Kids Are Reading, In School and Out

An interesting piece from NPR about what kinds of books kids are reading as they get to high school. There is an interview with someone from Renaissance Learning about the Accelerated Reading Program (Yulupa and Strawberry Schools participate in the AR program) that helps to explain how the books are rated.  There is also a plug at the end for this month’s back seat book club choice, blog favorite The One And Only Ivan. Check it out.

Holes

Stanley Yelnats  is unlucky. His family is cursed. It is all the fault of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great grandfather for breaking a promise.  Because Stanley was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he is sent to Camp Green Lake. A camp that is not a camp nor is it green or a lake. It is a detention facility in the Texas desert. Every morning, the boys detained  arise at 4;30 AM to dig a 5 foot wide and 5 foot deep hole in the desert; one boy, one hole. Stanley’s story is interwoven with the pig-stealing-great- great grandfather’s story in Latvia and in the United States, his great grandfather and the story of Kissing Kate  Barlow in Green Lake, when it was green and a lake. Eventually, Stanley figures out that all the hole digging is not just about building character; the warden is looking for something. All the strands of the story are woven together in the satisfying conclusion of Holes by Louis Sachar . 

Holes was awarded the 1999 Newbery Medal.  This is another book that has been a favorite in my family. It will keep your child turning the pages to find out what happens next.

The Sonoma County Library has many copies of this book as well as audio recordings and copies of the Disney movie made from the book.

The AR level is 4.6, the test is worth 7 points and Yulupa has the test.

Happy Birthday Maurice Sendak

Today, June 10, 2013 would have been Maurice Sendak’s 85th birthday. Today’s  Google Doodle honors him with an animation. Enjoy!