My picture book, Gabby, is coming out this September.

I’m excited! The illustrations are by Jan Dolby and it’s published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

I’ll be doing some readings in schools, book stores and at Word On The Street to publicize the book.

I sewed and stuffed some fabric letters to use during the readings. It occurred to me that letters like this are also great for new readers, since they can hold them and make words out of them. Making letters and words tactile for kids is a terrific way to get them reading.

There are lots of ways you can do this without making your own fabric letters (trust me, it’s a lot of work). You can use Scrabble tiles, foam letters from the dollar store, letter dice from a game like Jr. Boggle or Alphabet Scoop, or you can cut out letters or words from magazines.

Julie Booker is an author, a teacher, a librarian and last but not least, the mom of twin toddlers.

All this to say, she knows her picture books!

Her Canadian summer picture book reading list was recently published here on 49th Shelf, an awesome Canadian book website.

Below is her list of the best of the best. For her comments about each one, visit 49th Shelf.com. Click on their book links for more information about each book.

Drumheller Dinosaur Dance by Robert Heidbreder

Jelly Belly by Dennis Lee

M is for Moose by Charles Pachter

The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier

City Alphabet by Joanne Schwartz and Matt Beam

Eenie Meenie Manitoba by Robert Heidbreder

The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service

Butterscotch Dreams by Sonja Dunn

My pick from here - If you're not Canadian and you've never read The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier, get your hands on a copy because you will fall in love with its folk-charm illustrations and true-life story about a boy who loves his Montreal Canadiens hockey team. (If you are Canadian? You've already read it.) Oh, and another way you know Julie Booker knows her books? Her last name, sha-zam!

Image: kiwiowner, Wikimedia Commons

Studies show that kids who read during the summer jump back into school with a head-start.

Kids who take the summer off (reading, that is), often tend to find September a bit of a struggle.

So for all kinds of reasons, it’s good to keep your kid reading during the summer.

Some of my best memories are of going to the tiny library near our cottage and loading up with a week’s worth of books.

But what if your kid isn’t a super-voracious reader?

Here are some tips:

* See if your library has a summer reading program. Here’s an example. They typically bundle reading incentives into the program – it works! And if you live in Canada, here’s a link to TD’s summer reading club.

* Plan on a quick trip to the library at least once a week. Even if your kid takes out one book, it’s worth it.

* Use books on CD (or MP3) to replace TV time.

* An ebook by the dock? Why not? (Just don’t drop the Kindle in the water…)

* Outdoor time can be reading time. Check out this outdoor literacy suggestion for active kids.

* Alternative reading material counts! Comic books, magazines, ebooks, books on CD… all better than mind-numbing video games.

* Buy your child a book, wrap it up, and hide in in their bed as a bedtime surprise. It’s not a school night, so sure you can stay up and read for a while longer!

* If you’re really serious about breaking some rules for a good cause, include a flashlight with the book you give your child. They’ll figure out pretty quickly that it’s fun to “fool your parents” into thinking you’re sleeping, when you’re really reading in bed with a flashlight. (Of course, you’re one step ahead of them.)

Amy Leask believes that the best and most interesting philosophers are kids.

They tend to ask the “big questions” like: Where did I come from? Why is this good and that’s bad? And, “Why can’t I have another piece of cake?”

What is philosophy?

The word “Philosophy” comes from the Greek words Philos (love) and Sophia (wisdom).  In other words, philosophy is the love of wisdom.  It’s the practice of asking very big questions, ones that often have more than one possible answer, or no clear answers at all.

Leask has written a series of books that help kids learn philosophy in a fun, simple and understandable way.

Her series of books covers: Metaphysics (“What is all this stuff?”); Aesthetics (“Gee, that’s pretty!”); Epistemology (“How do you know what you know?”) and other big-question topics. There’s also an introductory book to get you and your kids started.

Amy says it better than I ever could, so click on the video below to listen to her explain why kids should ”do philosophy” –

Check out the website for the books, which includes activities for kids.

“I’m not illustrating the words in the text so much as I am the gaps between the words.”
–Brian Deines, Illustrator, “The Circle Game”

Joni Mitchell’s hauntingly beautiful “The Circle Game” is put to pictures by illustrator Brien Deines in this lavish new picture book that takes the reader through the protagonist’s life from boy to young adult.

Deines has done a wonderful job illustrating the gaps and bringing the song to life.

My son has a loft bed. It’s like a bunk bed, except there’s no bottom bunk – there’s a desk under there instead. So he always sleeps up in the clouds.

The eternal problem, when you’re way up on the top bunk, is that you can’t get at your stuff.

And by “stuff” I mean “books.”

And Kleenex, and bedside light, and drinks… and books.

So, in the “I-can’t-believe-someone-didn’t-come-up-with-this-sooner” category is: The Bunk Bed Buddy.

It’s essentially a lightweight, sturdy holder for all your stuff. It hangs up there on the wall beside where you sleep in your bunk bed.

My son loves his. He keeps a variety of books in it, and… well, mostly books. And magazines.

So now, his bed is like a little fort, with all his favourite stuff within reach.

He doesn’t have to climb all the way down the ladder when he’s finished his book—he can just grab another one from the Bunk Bed Buddy.

The Bunk Bed Buddy is manufactured by TidyBooks. It’s appropriately priced at $79.99 and it’s available through amazon.com. (No, I don’t get a commission.)

I’m currently nose-deep in Jane Eyre; I came across this wonderful and evocative passage.

Jane has just dashed downstairs to the kitchen to snatch up a hasty dinner for her young charge; she hoped to avoid the fine ladies gathered at Thornfield Hall:

Presently the chambers gave up their fair tenants one after another: each one came out gaily and airily, with dress that gleamed lustrous through the dusk. For a moment they stood grouped together at the other extremity of the gallery, conversing in a key of sweet subdued vivacity: they then descended the staircase almost as noiselessly as a bright mist rolls down a hill. Their collective appearance had left on me an impression of high-born elegance, such as I had never before received.

Is classic literature difficult to read? Yes, sometimes. Is it worth it? Yes, always.

I almost didn't want to put a picture with this post, so as to leave it all to your mind's eye--but then I saw this lovely and appropriate one on the blog Real West Dorset.

I am so excited to see that two books I’ve been waiting for have recently been published.

I haven’t read either of them yet. But I’ve read all the other books in the two series and they’re terrific.

The first is blockbuster YA (young adult) author Rick Riordan’s latest. Serpent’s Shadow is the third and final book in his Kane Chronicles, which is set in Egypt. Siblings Carter and Sadie Kane have to battle–well, a magic snake (hate it when that happens). The whole series is fast-paced and exciting and loaded with real-life facts that kids love, mostly about Ancient Eqypt. If you’re thinking that Riordan (rhymes with ”fire-dun”) sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the one behind the huge and wonderful Percy Jackson series.

The second one is a prequel to the fantastic Benedict series. In The Mysterious Benedict Society series a band of extraordinarily gifted children, led by Mr. Benedict–himself extraordinary and gifted–save the world from an evil-doer who is trying to claim our thought waves. In author Trenton Lee Stewart’s new book, The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, we meet the man himself as a young boy. I can’t wait! These books are quirky, fun and thoughtful… and a little teensy bit dark.

Here’s the trailer for the new Benedict book:

If you’re teaching English as a second language (ESL) or if you’re wanting to push your students’ English to a more sophisticated level, here’s a well-thought-out game.

Phrazzle Me! is essentially 200 blocks of wood with words imprinted on them.

The simplest way to play the game is to take seven blocks (each block has four words to choose from) and make a sentence. The next person builds on your sentence, going up and down or across. You get a point for every block you use.

If a phrase doesn’t make sense (“The table barked”) you lose a point.

But Phrazzle Me! (“phrase” + “puzzle”) can go beyond just game-play. If you’re teaching ESL, you can take the game in lots of different directions.

For one thing, the words are colour-coded. For instance, green is “to be” and gerunds “-ing words.” Red is “to have” and past participles.

Now, people who already speak English will probably stop right there. Because in North America, most people don’t know their gerund from their modal–that’s just not the way we normally like to learn languages.

But in most of the rest of the world, teachers and students are very familiar with past participles and auxiliary verbs, and are quite comfortable learning that way.

So for them especially, Phrazzle Me! can be a tremendous teaching tool.

For instance, the teacher can take just the question words, the auxiliary verbs and the subjects and then tell the students to make questions using this format:

Question + auxiliary + subject + verb.

“Where are they flying?” Boom, that’s a great question with every word in the right order.

You can easily change the rules. If you’re working on gerunds, make them worth double the points. If you’re working on past tense, make that key to the game. Let students take more or fewer blocks.

Phrazzle Me! is elegantly designed and sturdy. There’s no board; players set up the game on any flat surface. And it includes a draw-string bag that holds the pieces afterwards.

The game can be played without a moderator, but it works much better when a teacher is involved who decides if phrases are correct or not. It’s designed to provoke discussion and a long-term understanding of English.

We played Phrazzle Me! with our family and found that it can be quite challenging. It just goes to show how complex and difficult the English language is, even for native speakers.

The game is available through phrazzleme.com. There is also a Toronto-based distributor; contact them at dr.montecinos@gmail.com.

At $100 UPDATE: $79.99 a game (which includes shipping) it’s not in the same pricing ballpark as most just-for-fun games. But this is the kind of game an ESL teacher would buy and use throughout her career because it will last forever.

Scary tongue pumpkin; Image: André Koehne, Wikimedia Commons

Cyberspace can be a strange and dangerous place.

Here at Getting Kids Reading we’ve had our share of troubles lately.

First we got hit with a nasty virus. It was lousy, but we learned some things. We upgraded our safety features and software and I hope it never happens again.

Then, one of our plug-ins went haywire.

I want to thank my amazing husband/tech support person who worked for many hours to rectify both of these problems. And I want to thank the people at WPZoom for their responsive and helpful suggestions and for sending us files and information. Real advice that worked. (And trust me, there were other firms who finger-pointed, sent us useless, half-thought-out suggestions or tried to sell us stuff that wouldn’t even fix the problem.)

WPZoom is the only company that actually helped, and in a timely manner. It’s a great firm and I urge you to check them out if you’re looking for a WordPress template. I’m not getting paid for this endorsement – I just really think they’re a great bunch.

I also need to thank several people who have sent me products and/or books for review. I haven’t been able to post reviews–and I’ve got a slew of amazing literacy resources to share. Needless to say I’ll be posting like crazy in the coming weeks.

Lastly, thank you to you, loyal reader, who has had to put up with all of this Interweb nonsense. Thank you, everyone! To botch an African saying, ”It really does take a village to maintain a website.”

Hey, remember this recurring character from Night Court? (:31 seconds) “I’m feeling muuuch better now!”