The CYBILS: Children’s Literary Blogger Awards

November 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When it comes to picking the best type of books that are on a children’s book shelf it can be quite a task. There are literally millions of children’s books published every year and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of reprints and reissues of old favorites.

As a parent the sheer volume of books available can be very overwhelming and it can be hard to tell what books you should pick for your child to read. Luckily, there is a group of book bloggers that have helped with that task.

Every year the CYBILS, or Children’s and Young Adult Blogger Literary Studies Group, gets together to form the top picks of the year. The categories are broken up into picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, science fiction and fantasy, non-fiction and fiction. Some of the categories are broken up into middle school and young adult but some are not for example the picture book category is not.

In October the nominations open for anyone to nominate a favorite book that was published at any point in the previous year. These bloggers read through 100s of books and narrow the selection down to anywhere from 4 to 7 books of their choosing for the final selection.

Parents have started to use these final selections as book buying guides so that they know which types of books to buy for their child. Every book is age appropriate and has no objectionable content for children.

The best thing about the CYBILS is that they will often times pick books that wouldn’t normally make the bigger award categories so parents are always getting a new look at different types of reading materials for their children.

If you find that the final selection isn’t long enough for you the Cybils also provides a copy of all the novels nominated for that year so you can look through the 100s that are nominated.

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Choosing Books for Your Children

November 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When it comes to choosing books for young children, there are some specific considerations that you should make. For example, you should be looking at how the book actually looks. You should be looking for books that seem like they might be easy to read, which means for a younger audience that the book will only have 50 pages or less. Choose a book that has an engaging story and that has both text and illustrations on each of the pages. These are going to be the best types of books for children that are beyond normal picture books but that are generally considered to be too young for chapter books.

For example, there is a book called “If You Take a Mouse to School,” that is an excellent example. This book has larger text in comparison to adult books, and the sentences are short and are specifically written to be easily read by the younger audience. You should be looking for books that have uncluttered pages with a lot of white space. You should also look specifically for books that have pictures capable of giving clues relating to the story. This is going to help your child read and understand the words on the page and their individual meanings as related to the story.

Visit children’s book events and read about authors in the area that write for young audiences. Get business cards for local authors and local children’s bookstores, and keep a list of authors and types of books that appeal to you and your family so that you can pick up new books for your children and your family on a regular basis. Finding the right books may not always seem like an easy task but if you put some effort into it, you can find the right books for your young child or children.

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Fun Picture Books

September 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Shockingly diverse kindergarten group in Paris
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For some children, the pictures in books are more important than the actual words. Pictures can give the child’s imagination a little kick-start and help them visualize what’s happening in the story that they are reading. Picture books, are simply inexpensive booklet printing, which leaves parents and teachers at an advantage to getting their kids to appreciate books at a young age.
A really cute picture book that a child could laugh about and enjoy reading is ‘Suddenly!’ by Colin McNaughton. This book has a little bit of a three little pigs theme because there is a big, scary wolf trying to capture a little pig named Preston. In this book, Preston goes throughout his normal day as the wolf follows closely behind him, trying to capture him. The pictures show the wolf sneaking up behind Preston, just about to catch him, then ‘SUDDENLY’ Preston nonchalantly moves out of the way and the wolf gets hurt. With each turn of the page, this book gets funnier and funnier. It keeps the child guessing and anticipating what will happen next. It’s a great book for any child.
Another great picture book for children is “Tackylocks and the Three Bears” by Helen Lester. This book is about a bunch of penguins that decide to put on the play Goldilocks and the three bears for some penguin children. Each penguin is given their part in the play and the oddball penguin named Tacky is chosen to play Goldilocks. As Angel, Neatly, Lovely, Perfect and Goodly all practice their lines and set the stage, Tacky goofs off. The play doesn’t quite go according to plan because Tacky didn’t learn the play right. He eats all three bowls of porridge, stacks all the chairs up to try and reach some dessert from the cabinet, and then takes all the blankets off the beds (revealing the ice blocks and rubber rafts used to make them). The play ends with Tackylocks and the three bears getting into a pillow fight. Even though the good penguins think that the play was ruined, the little penguin children absolutely loved it! There are so many fun pictures in this book and they just seem to make Tacky’s character that much more fun and interesting.

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