The Joy of Children's Literature

Last Thursday was the first day of classes at William and Mary . I decided that my first day of class read aloud was going to be Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin. I played the audio so we could rock out. Most of these students are fairly new to the School of Education. I'm sure that starting class by rocking out with Pete the Cat was a new experience for them. But, they were good sports and jumped right in. The song is contagious! I'm not the only one who started the first day of school with Pete the Cat . Check out Many's blog post at Enjoy and Embrace Learning . Love the shoes, Mandy! I see a new trend starting... What was or will be your first day of school read aloud?

I have an exciting announcement that I believe is quite timely right here at the beginning of the new school year. I have started a new project, Many Voices, One World . The purpose of the Many Voices, One World project is to provide access to an online collection of picturebooks written in dialect that are read aloud by people who convey an authentic voice of the book. Today, there are many children’s picturebooks that reflect the language variation found among the many and various cultural groups in the United States. These books do much to validate the cultural values, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and mannerisms of these cultural groups for children. My hope is that the online read alouds included on the Many Voices, One World project website can be used by teachers to share picturebooks that provide a rich source of culture and diversity to the classroom. Right now, there is only one book available, but it is a wonderful book: Don't Say Ain't written...

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure , which began as an online story of 27 biweekly installments on Read.gov , will soon be available in book form from Candlewick Press. his story-game was a collaboration between the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, one of the center’s reading-promotion partners. The story was originally available at Read.gov , a Library of Congress website devoted to books, reading, literacy and libraries. "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" is a buoyant, spontaneous experiment--a progressive story-game like those played by children where one person begins a story, stops at a cliffhanging moment, and the next person picks it up and continues until everyone in the group has the opportunity to contribute. And just as in those games, the contributors to "The Exquisite Corpse" invented characters that spontaneously erupted out of their imaginations; plotlines that tumbled fort...

You definitely don't want to miss his year's August 10 for 10 Picturebook Event hosted by Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek .  Thirty-two bloggers, including myself , have posted their top 10 picturebooks. I have already added numerous titles to my picturebook wishlist! How about you?

Picturebooks. Who can resist them? Old and young alike, there's a picturebook for everyone. But, keeping up with the best of them can be daunting. That's why you might be interested in Cathy Mere and Mandy Robek's 10 for 10 Picturebook Event . In event hosts bloggers who have chosen 10 picture books s/he could not live without and wrote a post about the titles.  Each blogger puts her/his own spin on a collection. Last year (the first year for the event) there were over 400 "must have" picture books. There are so many ways to create this list. I could list 10 of my all time favorites or 10 new releases which I plan to use in my class this year. But, I've decided to focus on 10 new nonfiction books. Why? Because nonfiction is vastly overlooked in the classroom and because these new nonfiction picturebooks are amazing! The nonfiction titles I chose to include range in age/grade level appropriateness and also include both biography and informational tex...