Tag Archives: Children’s Literature

Books, Public, School Media Specialist

Somali folktales added to Ebooks MN!

Are you using Ebooks MN? If not, you should definitely check it out! You can access a wide variety of reading materials for many different age groups and subjects.

Some new additions to the Ebooks MN project are four Somali folktales, available in both English and Somali. “The books help to promote and preserve heritage languages and increase English literacy skills of refugee and immigrant families in Minnesota.” These stories will be especially useful in our Central Minnesota area!

Two of the stories in the collection include:

  • Wiil Waal: ” In this clever folktale, a father reluctantly follows his daughter’s advice and has astonishing results.”
  • The Travels of Igal Shidad: “Igal walks the drought-stricken Somali landscape, searching for a better home for his family and animals, asking for Allah’s guidance along the way. As he confronts obstacles, both real and imagined, he discovers his prayers can be answered without his even realizing.”

Check out Somali Kid’s Books for videos, books, and more bilingual resources!

 

 

Books, Communication, Public, School Media Specialist

Finding but not keeping: Some book recommendations!

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Many libraries have issues with patrons who struggle, and fail, to rein in their impulses to keep things they find. In this case, we are focusing on our younger patrons; and suggesting some books to help to share some good behavior habits!

A librarian was looking for book suggestions to help overcome a problem in her school library. She wanted books to help kids learn a few skills:

  • that when we find— we don’t keep
  • we don’t pass on what we find to someone who does not own it
  • we don’t put it in our backpacks or pockets and take it home
  • we give it to the person who we know for sure owns it
  • or we give it to the Teacher or the Teacher Librarian​-it may belong to another student, the Teacher, The Teacher Librarian, the library, the classroom, the school, etc.

As library people do, there was a quick rush of suggestions for books that might help in this school. And they sounded so good, they just might be helpful in your library too! Continue reading Finding but not keeping: Some book recommendations! →

Communication, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist

ALA 2017 Youth Media Award Winners

It’s award season! On Monday, Jan. 23rd, ALA announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults. Some of the awards announced include: Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards. Check out our previous article about Minnesota author Kelly Barnhill’s win of the Newbery award!

See below for a few examples of awards and winners!
Continue reading ALA 2017 Youth Media Award Winners →

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Minnesotan winner of Newbery Award!

This week it was announced that Minnesota author Kelly Barnhill won the Newbery Medal for her book The Girl Who Drank The Moon.

This article from the St. Cloud Times describes the plot of the book, in which a village fears a witch that lives in the nearby woods and to keep her happy (so they think) they bring a newborn baby to her forest each year. But the witch is actually good, and brings the babies to be with families on the other side of the woods.

In the article, Barnhill shares how the book can easily translate to real life situations for her young readers: “This notion of rumor spreading and of getting the wrong idea about a person,” she said, “that’s like real stuff for these kids, that’s what their life is like right now.” Barnhill is a teacher in Minneapolis for a nonprofit arts organization, and really enjoys interacting with the kids that read her books, and hearing how they interpret the story.

Fox Animation has acquired the rights to The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Barnhill looks forward to the interpretation into film.

You can read about another of Barnhill’s books, The Witch’s Boy, in this article from MPR, and keep an eye out for her next novel, The Sugar House, which should be released next year.

 

 

 

 

General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist

Read 1,000 books before kindergarten!

Early literacy and love of reading is so important, and has lifelong benefits for young readers. In order to encourage this, libraries and parents can participate in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program! Reading 1,000 books sounds impressive, and it definitely is! But as their website explains, it’s completely achievable:

“Read a book (any book) to your newborn, infant, and/or toddler. The goal is to have read 1,000 books (yes you can repeat books) before your precious one starts kindergarten. Does it sound hard? Not really if you think about it. If you read just 1 book a night, you will have read about 365 books in a year. That is 730 books in two years and 1,095 books in three years. If you consider that most children start kindergarten at around 5 years of age, you have more time than you think (so get started).”

Continue reading Read 1,000 books before kindergarten! →