I think if you have children who read independently, eBooks and POD titles could be popular. Especially when you are traveling!
What can people do to help The Reading Tub and literacy in general?
Please read with a child. Just 20 minutes of reading each day can make a HUGE difference in a child's reading achievement. There is a website called Ladders to Learning, and they had this to say about why we need to read with our kids: The group of children who were read to on a daily basis were 1.6 times as likely to be rated by their teachers as being near the top of their kindergarten class in learning skills, and 2.3 times as likely to be near the top of their class in communication skills. These relationships hold true regardless of the income of the child’s household and the education of the child’s mother.
If you don't have children, visit your local library and see if you can volunteer to read during story time. Or call your local family services center to see if there are programs you can volunteer with. If you're worried about "how" they teach reading these days, don't be. The important thing is that a child has an adult who supports them and says "I believe in you" just by helping. Last year we commissioned a set of articles about Guided Reading by Cathy Puett Miller, the Literacy Ambassador. The articles offer steps about ways to read with a child.
We would love to have some more book reviewers. We have a list of more than 200 titles on our "wish list." Some of these are books that people have asked us to read, but we haven't been able to get to them because we have so many sitting on our shelves already. All it takes is a trip to the library to read one of these books.
When you visit our website, please take the time to register. We don't ask for a lot of information, and we don't send out a lot of email. We just want to know about the books you are reading with kids (grandkids, kids in playgroup, kids at school). Tell us your zip code and we can add your local library to our list. We don't have any registered readers in Nebraska or North Dakota, so if you know someone … spread the word. I would love to have a link to at least one library in every state by the end of the year!
Some people believe there’s simply too much sex and violence in young adult novels these days, while others believe books should reflect our present culture and society. What’s your opinion?
Article comments
1 - Cathy Puett Miller
I loved this blog interview - especially the parts about how important it is for parents to read with their children and the plug for the Reading Tub, a worthy organization. Keep up the good work.