On Friday, August 28, the award winning children’s program Reading Rainbow aired its final episode. It marked the end of an era. For the past 26 years, host LeVar Burton has introduced countless children worldwide to the joys of reading. In that time the show has been the recipient of over 250 awards, including 26 Emmys (ten for “Outstanding Children’s Series”), a Peabody, and nine Parent’s Choice Awards. While the show stopped producing new episodes in 2006, PBS had continued to air reruns until last month, when lack of funding made it impossible for them to renew the show’s broadcast rights. This unfortunate happenstance is at least partially due to a paradigm shift in children’s literacy work which asserts that the focus should be on teaching the mechanics of reading instead of attempting to foster a love of books, as Reading Rainbow did (See the NPR article for more on this).

The Library has many Reading Rainbow videos available for checking out.   Additionally, the Reading Rainbow section of the PBS kids website is still running and will remain accessible until December 2009.

I was a huge fan of the show as a kid, and though it has been many, many years since I last had the pleasure of viewing it, I still remember the words to the theme song. I bet you do too.

Correction: originally, this post said that the Reading Rainbow series was not available at the Library.  This was a mistake, and has been corrected above.  Thanks to the readers who pointed this out to us!

With school starting back today, homework is not far behind for the students of DeKalb County. How many times as a parent have you had your child come to you early in the evening and say  “I have an assignment due tomorrow morning, and I need to go to the Library!” I know my first thoughts are I don’t want to go out now.  My second thought is usually, the library will be closing shortly or is already closed.

We have a variety of electronic resources that may help you or your child with homework from home. They can be found on our Reference Database page.  For elementary and lower middle school children, many of the resources can be found on our Children’s page. You will need your DeKalb County library card number and your personal identification number (PIN) to access these resources. (The PIN is a 4 digit number.)

For general research help, we have online encyclopedias such as Groliers and Britannica. For social studies homework, there is Grolier’s Passport, Sirs Researcher, Student Resource Center for middle school and younger. For high school or older students, we also have CQ Researcher available.  For Science homework, there is Student Resource Center, Encyclopedia of Animals, and the National Science Digital Library  (available through GALILEO).  For literature homework, there is Literature Criticisms Online and Literature Resources from GALE.

Although the Learning Express Library is listed under test preparation, this resource has several tutorials, tests and diagnostic tests that can help with homework. For instance, they have practice and diagnostic tests for reading comprehension, a variety of math for all levels and vocabulary for high school students. This resource also has a few courses available such as Middle School Writing Courses, and some basic math courses.

Searching for newspaper or journal articles? We have a couple of resources for this type of research. The easiest way to search is to go to GALILEO.  (It will ask you for your library card and PIN numbers and then give you the current password. You will then type in the password to proceed.)  If you click on the search button and type in your keywords, it will search for relevant articles.  These are just a sampling of electronic resources that you have available at your fingertips from home.  Feel free to browse our database page or GALILEO.  If you need specific help on where to start your search, don’t forget to use our Email A Librarian service. It can be found under the Research tab on our home page.  Be sure to select “I need help finding information.”

On Monday, the American Library Association gave the John Newbery Award for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature to Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this year’s choice because the Newbery doesn’t often go to fantasies and because of the frequent tendency for Newbery books to be ‘good’ books, as in good-for-you. Even Mr. Gaiman seemed surprised, saying that “there are books that are best sellers and books that are winners.” Popularity is not a consideration for the Newbery award (and rightly so), but there’s been a lot of debate in the library world recently about the obscurity of the most recent winners.

As a child I resisted reading ‘good’ books, preferring escapism to character-building.  As an adult, I know that I missed out on some excellent stories the child-me would have loved. As a librarian,  I’m trying to get those excellent stories to children who are just as reluctant as I was to read a ‘good’ book.  So I’m happy that this year’s Newbery choice means the good and the popular are on the same page.

I always love looking at the Caldecott books and this year the award for the most distinguished picture book for children goes to The House in the Night, illustrated by Beth Krommes and written by Susan Marie Swanson.

The ALA makes lots of other awards as well, including the Odyssey Award for audiobooks.  One of this year’s Odyssey Honor nominees is Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, written and narrated by local author and DCPL favorite Carmen Agra Deedy. Congratulations to Ms. Deedy, Mr. Gaiman, Ms. Krommes and all the other winners and nominees!

Book clubs are an enjoyable way for children to develop literacy skills. Reading increases vocabulary and fluency, and exposes children to new views and beliefs. Getting involved in a book club further enhances these skills by giving children the opportunity to share ideas and opinions, analyze the story, and strengthen comprehension skills. Plus, book clubs are fun! Children have the chance to make new friends and read great books.

Get a book club started today with help from these library books:

The Kids’ Book Club Book by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp

The Book Bunch: Developing Book Clubs for Beginning Readers by Laura J.H. Smith

And it wouldn’t be a book club without yummy snacks:

The Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp

The Dunwoody Library and the Clarkston Library currently offer book clubs for kids.  Contact these branches to learn more.

-Nancy M

J’nai’s post on Tuesday about journaling got me thinking about books for children and teens that are written in a diary format.  Its popularity as a format has grown recently due to several factors – they’re easy to read, they bring an immediacy to the characters and setting, etc.  Probably most important is that kids and young adults like them.  One of the most popular books to come out recently is Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffly’s Journal and its sequel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, both by Jeff Kinney.  Both books have waiting lists and are a big hit with middle school age kids, especially boys who enjoy the humor and the cartoons that appear throughout the books.  Listing all the books the library owns would make for a very long list, so I’ll just list a few of my favorites.

Diary of a Worm by Dorren Cronin:  A young worm discovers, day by day, that there are some very good and some not so good things about being a worm in this great big world.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee: In a series of journal entries, eleven-year-old child prodigy Millicent Min records her struggles to learn to play volleyball, tutor her enemy, deal with her grandmother’s departure, and make friends over the course of a tumultuous summer.

Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman:  The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.

And here are a couple for teens:

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flynn: Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin, examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with his abusive father.

Planet Janet by Dyan Sheldon: Sixteen-year-old Janet Bandry keeps a diary as she deals with an annoying family, school, a quirky best friend, and trying to find herself through vegetarianism, literature, romance, and her “Dark Phase.”

Miss Manners would surely disagree with the title of this post.  I believe she’s on record as being against playing with your food.  However, experimenting with food is a fun way for kids (and adults) to learn about science.  Now, I’m not talking about food fights or lobbing handfuls of mashed potatoes across the dinner table.  (Unless you’re studying the trajectory of those mashed potatoes, but that’s not the kind of experiment we’re interested in here.)   Check out the following books for lots of great experiments and recipes for kids to try on their own or with adult supervision.

More Science Experiments You Can Eat by Vicki Cobb: Experiments with food demonstrate various scientific principles and produce eatable results. Includes beef jerky, cottage cheese, synthetic cola, and pudding.

The Science Chef: 100 fun food experiments and recipes for kids by Joan D’Amico and Karen Eich Drummond:  Can one bad apple really spoil the whole bunch?  Why does popcorn pop?  Lots of fun recipes and experiments.

The Science Chef Travels Around the World: fun food experiments and recipes for kids by Joan D’Amico and Karen Eich Drummon: Introduces fourteen countries, including Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, describes an experiment related to some basic food ingredient typical for each country, and provides a recipe for a complete meal based on each food.

Everyday Science Experiments in the Kitchen by John Daniel Hartzog:  Provides experiments that explore scientific phenomena occurring in the kitchen.

With the financial crisis making headlines every day, children are naturally wondering what to make of it.  Slate had a great article a couple of weeks ago called Great Kids’ Books About Financial Ruin.  The author lists several childrens books dealing with money (or the lack of) and recessions.  All of the books (except one title, which is on order) are available in our system.  They won’t necessarily explain the current crisis, but they’ll provide a solid background for understanding what’s happening.

The elections are a month away.  If you haven’t already, now is a great time to explain the importance of voting and how the process works to your children.  The library has lots of resources to help you, including dvds, picture books and information books.

Here is a sample of what the library offers:

Vote! by Eileen Christelow:  Using a campaign for mayor as an example, shows the steps involved in an election, from the candidate’s speeches and rallies, to the voting booth where every vote counts, to the announcement of the winner.

How Do We Elect Our Leaders by William Thomas:  Describes the process for electing local and national officials.

Election Day:  (DVD)  From campaigning and debates to rallies and voting, this program explains the activities that precede Election Day. Different levels of public office elections are reviewed along with the constitutional amendments that gave the right to vote to all groups. Children also explore the history of voting and examine the attributes of a good leader by watching as a group of middle school students elect their class president.

Max for President by Jarrett Krosoczka:  Max and Kelly both want to win the election for class president, but when one of them loses, the winner finds a way to make the loser feel better.

Grace for President by Kelly S. DiPucchio:  When Grace discovers that there has never been a female U.S. president, she decides to run for school president.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the importance of including nursery rhymes when reading to young children.  Along those same lines, introducing children to poetry at a young age can help foster a life-long love, not only of poetry, but also of words and reading.  Incorporating poetry into your regular reading habits isn’t as daunting as it may sound.  Many picture books are already written in rhyming verse, so chances are, your child already has some experience with it.  Quite a few well-known poems have even been adapted into a picture book format.  The Owl and the Pussycat and Casey at the Bat are two famous ones.  Other popular adaptations include The Spider and the Fly, Wynken, Blynken and Nod and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

If you’re still unsure where to start, Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky are perennial favorites.  They’re smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and usually pretty short.  Other well known authors and poets have books that have been written specifically for, or adapted for, children, including Robert Louis Stevenson, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou.

Reading poetry should be fun and enjoyable for both you and your child.  Browse the poetry section of your library for more books.  Remember, the goal isn’t to analyze it.  Listen to and enjoy the words and imagery.  Then, if you or child wants to, discuss it as you would any story you’ve just read.

With school back in full swing, lots of students are coming to the library in need of homework help.  Books are great places to start when doing research for reports and projects.  Sometimes, though, the book your child needs just isn’t available.  More often, teachers are requiring students to use books AND articles.  We have several databases that are designed specifically for students in elementary, middle in high school.  They can be found here or by going to our homepage, clicking on Reference Databases under the Research tab and scrolling down to Student Resources.

Each database has a short description of the kind of information and the subject areas it covers to help you choose.  If you need help navigating the databases, library staff are always happy to help!