The Book With No Pictures

Big news, folks—I have a new, favorite read-aloud book! B.J. Novak--you might know him as Ryan from the TV show “The Office”--has written a hilarious new children’s book, his first (of many, I hope!), that is sure to have your kids laughing hysterically almost immediately. As the title suggests, The Book With No Pictures lacks an important picture-book ingredient, the pictures! With Novak’s wit and humor, however, illustrations will not be missed.

The book starts by saying that a book with no pictures probably seems like it’ll be no fun, just really serious and boring. It goes on to say, however, that the person reading the book has to say everything that is written in it…no matter what. From there, hilarity ensues. The reader is forced to say made-up words like “blork” and “bluurf” and silly things like, “I am a monkey who taught myself to read.” After each of the silly remarks, the reader says things like, “This book is ridiculous! Can I stop reading yet? NO?!? There are MORE pages?! I have to read the rest?!?!” This, my friends, is kid-humor at its finest.

And, in case the book wasn’t funny enough, you adults will get a kick out of the book jacket. In the back, where it has the usual blurb about the author, instead of a photo of B.J., it says: “B.J. has brown hair and blue eyes. There are pictures of him, but not in this book.” J

Can You Say "FREE?!?"

 

 

For many families, the start of school marks one of the busiest times of the entire year. With so much going on, it can be easy to let some of your routines slip a bit. Don’t worry; it happens to everyone! Though letting up on some of your regular routines might be a necessity, I urge you not to forego those wonderful reading habits you built over the summer.

Reading aloud to your child lays the foundation for literacy development and is widely regarded as the single most important activity for reading success. Not only does it allow a connection to be made between the written and spoken word; it also serves as a demonstration of fluent reading. Even as your child starts reading on her own, reading aloud to her is still extremely beneficial. Since she can listen to more difficult books than she can read, it exposes her to more complex ideas and vocabulary than she’d get by reading on her own.

If you’re struggling to find time to read to your child as much as you’d like, try one of our library’s most amazing (and free!*) resources, TumbleBook Library. This website, filled with tons of picture books and short chapter books, allows your child to follow along with the words of a book as it’s being read to her. While it’s not quite as cozy as that one-on-one time with mom or dad, listening to a book this way is a great alternative on those busy days!

*The library subscribes to TumbleBooks, which allows you to use it for FREE! This means that you need to use the link on our website, rather than going to the Tumblebook Library website directly. Just go to http://kids.wclibrary.info/read/index.asp and click on the Tumblebook Library icon to get started. It's really easy to use!

Donkey Deliveries

Can you imagine how different reading to our children would be if our only access to books was through a delivery man on a donkey?  Lending periods would seem limited in a much different way.  "You mean I have to wait THREE WEEKS until I can get another book?!"

Monica Brown's new picture book, Waiting for the Biblioburro, takes readers on a journey to a small village in South America where a little girl named Ana has only one book to her name.  She reads her cuento, or story, over and over until one day a librarian, with the help of his two burros, Alfa and Beto, brings dozens of books to her town .  Sprinkled throughout with spanish words, this story is based on the author's experience in Columbia getting to know a traveling librarian.

Share this with your budding bibliophiles and make sure to check out the last page containing spanish definitions and a bit about real traveling librarians all over the world.  I felt very humbled and grateful that I don't spend my days in a saddle smelling of donkey. 

Don't Stop!

Believin'...hold on to that feelin'...ah, eighties power ballads.  I digress.

Don't stop readin' is what I really meant.  Even when your children begin to read on their own, the benefits of being read to don't go away.  One of the greatest champions of literacy and reading aloud is Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook.  His book is in its sixth edition, and one of the more inspiring arguments for continuing to read to your children at every age. 

Trelease fills this handbook with humorous stories, astonishing statistics about the benefits of reading, and a fabulous treasury of read-aloud suggestions.  He also has a great website with constantly updated ideas for what to read to your growing reader! 

Being a reader is a life-long affair, and just like Journey's famous song, it goes on and on and on and on.