The topic of yesterday's blog post (Basic Literacy and Your Library) is such an important one that I thought a follow-up was in order ... continue and you shall discover several helpful websites for parents.
Rather than saying, "This is the best site" or "This is my favorite site," I'm going to say that the sites described below are just a few that I've come across when searching for ways to help connect children with the books they will (potentially) love.
One such website is called Read Kiddo Read, and it's "sponsored" by James Patterson.
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There, book suggestions are divided into four categories ...there are illustrated books (Mo Willem's Pigeon books, for example), transitional books (like the Junie B Jones series), page turners with authors such as Lemony Snicket and Carl Hiaasen, and books for advanced readers (Eragon, for instance). Once you click on the reading level, you'll see that the suggested titles are further divided into fantasy, mystery, non-fiction, and so on.
Boys for Books is a site with more of a targeted audience in mind. At a seminar Mr. Sullivan presented not too long ago, he mentioned a number of interesting facts about boys and their reading habits. Here are two such tidbits:
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- boys' reading level average is 1.5 years behind that of girls
- a sophmore study showed that boys in the U.S. read an average of only 2.3 hours per week, while spending 6.5 hours on average in front of a screen each day
In the hope of closing the gender gap by connecting boys with books that they'll enjoy, Mr. Sullivan provides of a list of hundreds of "boy books" including "Dogzilla" (a picture book by Dav Pilkey), the non-fiction title "It's Disgusting and We Ate It!" (by James Solheim) and the Cirque du Freak gothic horror series by Darren Shan.
Naturally, folks associated with libraries have their own thoughts on the matter, and they, too, have been known to make lists.
Clicking here will take you to the Young Adult Library Services Association's list of quick picks for young adult reluctant readers.
No matter what source you use to find books of interest to you (or your child), the Frank Sarris Public Library is here to help!
Come in to search the shelves or browse our catalog from home and remember, if we don't have a particular title, we'll be happy to try to find it for you through the inter-library loan system.