Book Corner
Reading is the single most influential subject in helping children through their entire educational and professional life. There are many wonderful websites here that encourage youngsters to read; be sure to visit them all!
Scholastic Book Clubs
The best gift any parent can give a child is the love of good books and the joy and benefits of good reading. Children who read at home, or are read to, have a head start on reading success in school. LLS is participating in the Scholastic Book Clubs™ . Each month during the school year your child's teacher will send home a Club flyer with a different selection of books offered. You'll find award-winning books, as well as old and new favorites. The books span a wide range of children's reading levels and interests and they are inexpensive.
Children's Book Week Moves to May
Since 1919, educators, librarians, booksellers, and families have celebrated Children's Book Week during the week before Thanksgiving. This year it will move to May!
A celebration of the written word, Children's Book Week introduces young people to new authors and ideas in schools, libraries, homes, and bookstores. Through Children's Book Week, the Children's Book Council encourages young people and their care givers to discover the complexity of the world beyond their own experience through books. Children's Book Week will be observed May 12-18, 2008.
Esmé Raji Codell
For great children's book recommendations and on the mark reviews, check out teacher, librarian and author Esmé Raji Codell's website, Planet Esmé. Her Reading Archives are especially fun to read through!
Don't miss Madame Esmé's book a day blog, which you can find by clicking here.
Brian Cleary; Words are Categorical Series
What are adjectives, verbs, nouns, prepositions, adverbs, pronouns, and synonyms?
Author Brian Cleary's clever, series of books on the various parts of speech is a fun way to help your child learn. Look for them in the library, bookstore, or Scholastic Book Club flyers.
Brian Cleary's website is also a must see. It is vibrant, fun, and interactive, with colorful animated characters encouraging children to engage in the activites and learn.
Take your Child to the Library
The Lafayette Public Library has 10 convenient locations in the parish. Find one near you and take your child to get their very own library card. The FUN starts then! Follow the above link to the library's main website.
The Lafayette Public Library has a variety of programs for children at the main library as well as the branches. You can get calendar information by going to the LPL Kid's page on their Web site by clicking here.
The TumbleBook™ Library
Through the Public Library's website is a great ebook library for kids. The TumbleBook™ Library is an online collection of animated talking picture books which teach young children the joys of reading in a format they'll love! Children can read along or sit back and listen to the narrator read to them. There are games and puzzles and even languare learning books. Be sure to check out this fun site.
This is a subscription based site but if you go through the main Library website you can access it for free.
The American Library Association Awards
The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, is the world's largest organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of service to children in all types of libraries.
ALSC administers the most prestigious awards in children's literature; the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, as well as several other awards and lists of recommended children's media. These awards, and others, are announced during the ALA Midwinter Meeting and presented to the award winners during the ALA Annual Conference. ALSC awards and publications provide direction to librarians, parents, educators and others who work with children. Awards also recognize and demonstrate appreciation for publishers who produce the best material for children.
2008 Newbery Medal Winner
The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the ALSC to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. By clicking on the link you can learn more about the history of the award.
This year's winner is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz , published by Candlewick.
In "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village," thirteenth-century England springs to life using 21 dramatic individual narratives that introduce young inhabitants of village and manor; from Hugo, the lord's nephew, to Nelly, the sniggler. Schlitz's elegant monologues and dialogues draw back the curtain on the period, revealing character and relationships, hinting at stories untold. Explanatory interludes add information and round out this historical and theatrical presentation.
Newbery Honor Books
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
In Elijah of Buxton, Elijah is the first free-born child in Buxton, a Canadian community of escaped slaves, in 1860. With masterful storytelling, vibrant humor, and poignant insight into the realities of slavery and the meaning of freedom, Curtis takes readers on a journey that transforms a "fra-gile" 11-year-old boy into a courageous hero.
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion)
In The Wednesday Wars, seventh-grader, Holling Hoodhood, is convinced his teacher hates him. Through their Wednesday afternoon Shakespeare sessions she helps him cope with events both wildly funny and deadly serious. "To thine own self be true" is just one of the life lessons he learns.
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)
Feathers tells the story of how a new boy's arrival in a sixth-grade classroom helps Frannie recognize the barriers that separate people, and the importance of hope as a bridge. Transcendent imagery and lyrical prose deftly capture a girl learning to navigate the world through words.
2008 Caldecott Medel Winner
The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the ALSC to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Click on the link to read more.
This year's winner is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic)
From an opening shot of the full moon setting over an awakening Paris in 1931, this tale casts a new light on the picture book form. Hugo is a young orphan secretly living in the walls of a train station where he labors to complete a mysterious invention left by his father. In a work of more than 500 pages, the suspenseful text and wordless double-page spreads narrate the tale in turns. Neither words nor pictures alone tell this story, which is filled with cinematic intrigue. Black & white pencil illustrations evoke the flickering images of the silent films to which the book pays homage.
Caldecott Honor Books
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railrod illustrated by Kadir Nelson, written by Ellen Levine (Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic)
Inspired by an antique lithograph, Kadir Nelson has created dramatically luminous illustrations that portray Henry "Box" Brown's ingenious design to ship himself in a box from slavery to freedom.
First the Egg, written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Neal Porter)
Laura Vaccaro Seeger's innovative concept book on transformations, First the Egg uses strategically placed die-cuts to provide an astonishing visual explication of the word "then." Her richly textured brushstrokes creatively reveal the process of metamorphosis for young readers.
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, written and illustrated by Peter Sis (Farrar/Frances Foster)
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, a graphic memoir of Sis's youth in Prague, brilliantly weds artistic and design choices to content: tight little panels with officious lines and red punctuation; full-bleed line-and-watercolor spreads of nightmares and dreams; color and absence of color.
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, written and illustrated Mo Willems (Hyperion)
Willems sets the stage for one of the most dramatic double-paged spreads in picture-book history in Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. Masterful photo collages take Trixie and her daddy through their now-familiar Brooklyn neighborhood to the Pre-K class where Trixie discovers that her beloved Knuffle Bunny is not "so one-of-a-kind anymore."