Product Description

Are children reading enough? Not according to most parents and teachers, who know that reading aloud with children fosters a lifelong love of books, ensures better standardized test scores, promotes greater success in school, and helps instill the values we most want to pass on.

Esmé Codell-an inspiring children's literature specialist and an energetic teacher-has the solution. She's turned her years of experience with children, parents, librarians, and fellow educators into a great big indispensable volume designed to help parents get their kids excited about reading.

Here are hundreds of easy and inventive ideas, innovative projects, creative activities, and inspiring suggestions that have been shared, tried, and proven with children from birth through eighth grade.

This five-hundred-page volume is brimming with themes for superlative storytimes and book-based birthday parties, ideas for mad-scientist experiments and half-pint cooking adventures, stories for reluctant readers and book groups for boys, step-by-step instructions for book parades, book-related crafts, storytelling festivals, literature-based radio broadcasts, readers' theater, and more. There are book lists galore, with subject- driven reading recommendations for science, math, cooking, nature, adventure, music, weather, gardening, sports, mythology, poetry, history, biography, fiction, and fairy tales. Codell's creative thinking and infectious enthusiasm will empower even the busiest parents and children to include literature in their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51781 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781565123083
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Codell (Educating Esme) has amassed an exuberant treasure trove for parents who want to help their children develop a love of reading. A strong believer in reading aloud, Codell gives an admiring nod to the work of Jim Trelease (The Read-Aloud Handbook), while presenting her own theory that interest (finding the right books for the child), integration (using reading as a springboard into other disciplines) and invention (when a child's unique ideas are inspired by the writing) can make the difference in how a youngster approaches reading. Codell, a teacher and librarian, resists grouping books by age level, explaining, "don't let somebody else's scoring system define your child, and don't let reading levels level your child's love of reading." Instead, she offers a simple method for determining whether a book is too difficult while pointing out that kids may listen on a much higher level than they read. The witty, comical "Madame Esme" (as she calls herself) offers scores of thematic book lists parents can use to inspire young readers, ranging from topics as diverse as medieval England to dinosaurs or hiccups. Covering a vast spectrum of subjects and authors, Codell casts a wide net as she builds a magical literary bridge between home and school. With appendixes of Caldecott and Newbery winners present and past, the book is akin to having one's own personal children's librarian at one's fingertips. Codell creates a contagious enthusiasm for the enormous value of children's literature, which will leave parents primed for their next trip to the library or bookstore.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Esme Raji Codell runs the very popular children's literature website, PlanetEsme.com, which was rated A by Education World, and is the author of Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, which won Forewod magazine's memoir of the year and the distinguished Alex Award for outstanding adult book for young adult readers. Codell has been a keynote speaker for the International Reading Association, the American Library Association, as well as a "virtual" keynote speaker for the National Education Association's "Stay Afloat!" on-line conference for first-year teachers. She has been a classroom teacher, a school librarian and a children's bookseller and has appeared on CBS's This Morning, CNN, NPR, and C-Span's Booknotes. Esme's public radio appearance earned her first place for National Education Reporting from the Education Writer's Association.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
This book started with a potato. I was sitting at my kitchen table, staring at a dimpled, wrinkling, sprouting old potato. I thought to myself, if I had a potato, nothing but a potato, how could I teach a classroom full of children?

Well, I could cut a potato in half. (I can use the paring knife from my own kitchen, right?) We could review fractions. With one half, I could cut a design and do potato prints. We could plant the eyes from the other half of the potato (it can have eyes, right?) and grow more potatoes, charting their growth. We could write a story about a potato, or write a book of potato recipes or potato poems. If we grew enough potatoes, we could make potato stamps of all the letters of the alphabet, and I could teach reading. I could go to the public library and find "The Potato with Big Ideas" from Little Old Mrs. Pepperpot by Alf Proysen or Brave Potatoes by Toby Speed. We could talk about the Irish potato famine of 1845, maybe read true accounts from Feed the Children First by Mary E. Lyons or Black Potatoes by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. We could write letters to the executives at Frito-Lay about their potato chips, or Playskool regarding their product, Mr. Potato Head.

Perhaps I am a bit potato headed myself, wasting precious time plotting the pedagogy of potatoes, but it begs the question, how do we teach our children, using what is available to us? Moreover, is there anything available to us that is as plentiful and versatile as potatoes, ready to feed all appetites?

Yes, there is. Children's literature is our national potato. Thousands of studies from the U.S. Department of Education as well as findings by independent researchers here and abroad consistently credit the utilization of children's literature for everything from school achievement to emotional development to increased life span and higher standards of living. So many of the dreams and goals we have for children, and that they have for themselves, can be advanced through the use of children's literature. So much of the blame exchanged between school, community, and family about education's failure can be converted into shared responsibility and success through children's literature. But the thing is, if you hand somebody a potato, or if you hand somebody a children's book, and he doesn't know how to make it cook . . . well, then.

This book is a recipe book for children's literature: how to serve it up so it's delicious and varied. Children's literature makes for a main course or a sustaining side dish, so you can use these recipes no matter what is on the menu in your child's classroom. First, let's recognize the main ingredient: trade literature, which is the kind of books and reading material you can find readily available at bookstores and libraries. These books have clearly designated authors and illustrators, with characters that usually appear in print before they appear on a television screen. I was trained as a teacher but it was not through teacher training that I discovered there was the whole world in children's literature. Instead, it was during the seven years I spent in children's bookselling before I got my degree. Every genre and every subject was there in the bookstores, many at a level of quality that rivaled or exceeded that of adult literature-only specially designed with children in mind and encompassing so much energy, joy, and imagination that these elements became the criteria for excellence. This inspired me entirely. While studying to become a teacher, I could imagine nothing greater than delivering this world to the children I would teach. This dream became my energy and my joy. It was as the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky wrote about his discovery of books in My Apprenticeship: "I came to appreciate what good books really were and realized how much I needed them and they gradually gave me a stoical confidence in myself: I was not alone in this world and I would not perish!" By using children's literature, I had the utmost faith that when I became a teacher, I, too, would not perish or feel alone, which is a wonderful and sometimes unusual thing for a teacher to believe. But I considered myself in an even more formidable position to use exclamation points than Gorky, because not only would I not perish, not only would I not be alone in the world, I had the tool that would allow me to help children to feel the same amazing way.

As strongly as I feel about advocating for the child, I feel equally as strong about advocating for the author. If, in the course of delivering literature-based education, we can constantly remind children that authors and illustrators are real and singular people, with intentions, then we are not only giving children the books, we are giving them the people behind the books. And if you are talking about reading, you are talking about connecting the two. In facilitating this connection, the most important question we can ask about a book is, "Why did the author write this?" In other words, "What did the author want to share?" This is a very difficult question, and it is the most important question, because it connects the child across time and space with this real person, this author, who had something to share, and cared enough to share it. This is extraordinary magic, a trick that allows a child who can read the option of never being quite as alone as a child who cannot. "Why did the author write this?" is also a question that can be asked of any book on any level, thus opening up a world of picture books to older readers, because any reading is made more sophisticated when this relationship is addressed. The connection between the author or illustrator and the young reader is a particularly remarkable relationship in which an adult trusts a child with all sorts of dreams and stories and memories and confidences and explanations. For many children, this relationship with an author may be the first emotional bond shared with an adult outside her own family and community. From this perspective, it should not be taken lightly.

If your child understands that a book is an extension of an author, then your child will also understand that he may not always connect with an author's style, just like he may not always like everybody he meets. And he will understand that he can always get another book and read what someone else has to share. With the right guidance and some freedom of choice, he will find authors he likes. Most problems arise in school settings when too many mismatches have been bound into one big fat textbook that the child is assigned every day, or if the literature made available to that child is of poor quality or incongruous with the child's ability and interests. When this happens, no one can accuse a child of being unjustified if he forms negative associations with books and takes that bloodcurdling leap into the world of "I hate reading." If reading is indeed a relationship between author and reader, people in the position of matching children with books are responsible for making informed choices so that the children are matched appropriately, so that they are most receptive to what the author or illustrator is trying to communicate. This is only difficult if you (a) don't know the body of literature available, (b) don't know the child, or (c) don't have access to books. I hope the thematic storytime adventures in this book will offer you a chance to know children's literature and to use it to connect with the children you love.

Potato Possibilities

When I figured out what I most enjoyed was sharing literature, I changed my job from "Madame EsmT, Classroom Teacher" to "Madame EsmT, School Librarian" so I could do more of what I loved. Whether working as a bookseller, storyteller, teacher, or librarian, I have discovered approaches that complement and support literature-based learning. Approaches are merely tools that allow us to present the main ingredient in delectable ways. Now, if we were talking about preparing a potato, maybe we'd approach it with a knife, a grater, a masher, a deep fryer. We'd need to come up with a lot of ways to prepare potatoes if we expected them to remain appetizing over a period of time. In this book, I discuss read-aloud, thematic, and integrated approaches to presenting literature-ways to keep books fresh, and, with a little practice, these approaches are as easy as mashing potatoes. Working with a theme, for instance, can give your child's reading a shape and can tie in to interests that will further motivate her. Nonfiction and historical fiction broaden learning's scope, and help children integrate, or see the connections between, reading and all areas of life. Read-aloud is the simple act of opening a book and reading it to a child. It can and should also be integrated into all areas of literature-based learning because read-aloud is literature-based education's gravitational force, the sun around which other planets, or literature-based approaches, revolve and maintain a forward direction. As I was pondering potato possibilities for using what already exists, I realized that the potential for reading could reveal itself in unexpected places, too. We've all encountered the musician in the subway. Well, for a change of pace, what grown-up wouldn't enjoy a bit of read-aloud before the train arrives? Maybe an adventure serial, or a folktale for all five o'clock commuters? Wouldn't it be nice to hear the train coming and all the passengers crying, "Aaawww," disappointed that they will have to wait to find out what happens-or excited to go out and buy the book for themselves?

I've also noticed children sitting on the curb in front of the Laundromat for hours, while their clothes wash, rinse, spin, wash, rinse, spin. What a perfect place for a bookshelf. Or how about the video store? How about books that were made into movies borrowed free with rental?

Then I looked at my own apartment. Couldn't I do something there?

The answer was yes. When I left teaching for maternity leave, and when I left again to write full-time and to run a children's literature Web site, I still had the desire to read to children. So I started to run children...

Customer Reviews

Rx for Illiteracy
_How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ was conceived when Esmé was staring at a shriveled potato that was sprouting eyes. She wondered, " . . . if I had a potato, nothing but a potato, how could I teach a classroom full of children? Well, I could cut a potato in half. (I can use the paring knife from my own kitchen, right?) We could review fractions. With one half, I could cut a design and do potato prints. We could plant the eyes from the other half of the potato (it can have eyes, right?) and grow more potatoes, charting their growth." The ideas cascade: writing a story about a potato, making a book of potato recipes or potato poems, making potato stamps of all the letters, teaching reading, getting books from the library about potatoes, talking about the Irish potato famine, writing letters to executives about potato chips or Mr. Potato Head.

The preceding excerpt illustrates the boundless creativity of author Esmé Raji Codell. On this first page she establishes the metaphor that recurs throughout _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_: "Children's literature is our national potato." It is the seed that, through its many shoots, can help our children become caring, educated citizens.

Although the cover dubs _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ a "Parent's Guide," this book is a treasure trove for teachers, librarians, grandparents, anyone who cares about children and books. It provides "activities, ideas, and inspiration for exploring everything in the world through books." It is a valuable resource for nourishing juvenile readers, both the reluctant and the ravenous.

_How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ includes over 3,000 titles recommended for children from birth through eighth grade. However, it doesn't stop with mere recommendations. As Esmé says, "This book is a recipe book for children's literature: how to serve it up so it's delicious and varied."

After a section on reading with "the littlest bambinos," _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ is organized by subject matter: social studies, math and science, story books, etc. Esmé subdivides the broad categories, however, so that book lists have very specific headings. She offers books for specific seasons, for special occasions (such as the arrival of a sibling or losing a tooth), for dealing with everyday problems (tattling or the hiccups).

Because the categories are so specific, many books are listed simply by title and author. That is sufficient. Sometimes Esmé adds just a word or two of description. For example, in the math section the note "place value" beside the title _The King's Commissioners_ is extremely elucidating. For some books Esmé provides sentence summaries. For others she provides more information, even excerpts. She provides just enough information to whet our appetites.

But _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ has so much more! Esmé's wisdom and revelry shine through on every page. Esmé includes dozens of articles, some on controversial subjects (for example, should reading be rewarded?). She has recurring features honoring "reading heroes" and addressing questions about various aspects of reading. She provides a list of benefits of reading aloud, a "Happy Childhood Checklist," a list of "Must-Reads by the Time You're Thirteen," six pages of story starters. She offers suggestions for integrating literature with life, often in celebration -- a parade of books, a storytelling festival, an unbirthday party. She recommends additional resources, many of them on the Internet.

Appendices and indices round out _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_. The appendices include Newbery and Caldecott Award honorees as well as winners. Information about a specific book is easy to find since the books are triply indexed -- by title, author, and subject.

I am thrilled to have discovered Esmé Raji Codell. She is indeed an exuberant, eloquent young voice for promoting literacy through children's literature. _How to Get Your Child to Love Reading_ may well offer the best hope for stemming the current tide of illiteracy.

Reading Resource Extraordinaire!
What a fun, cleverly written book! Codell's writing is inspiring as well as informative. She provides tons and tons of ideas for reading materials on all manners of topics from social studies to bath time. But she doesn't stop there! She also includes clever ideas to make reading come to life for kids. As an avid lover of resource and child education books, I admit I only own few but this one is a keeper. I would recommend this for parents of infants through early elementary students. If you are looking for reading material to augment your child's life experiences or classroom experiences, I believe this book would be a valuable asset. Happy Reading!

A MUST HAVE FOR ALL TEACHERS & PARENTS
I purchased this book when I began my journey to become an elementary school teacher and I have never put it down. I have countless books that I accumulated in course after course throughout this experience, but I assure you that this is the only book that is DOG EARED. I even bought copies for all my friends who were becoming teachers. Every recommended "Potato Pick" has been wonderful as suggested, every author hightlighted has been fantastic, and Esme has also completed categories for any kind of theme you can think of for kids. In my children's literature course I just chose books I found in this book to read. I take it with me to all bookstores, Scholastic book fairs, ordering via Amazon dot com, or even the public library. Teachers need to but this book, pre-service teachers need to buy this book, and parents especially should buy this book to hook your kids to the most wonderful gift in the world...the world of reading and all the fantasy and fulfillment it can bring.