Choosing books for young readers

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called Reading – Choosing what to read in the holidays? and included an infographic. In the first week of our school holidays I have spent my time looking after three primary school children. Two are just beginning to read on their own. The weather has been cold so although we have spent some time outside, we have also done a few indoor activities as well. Reading with the two boys was part of it. It was a great way to share my enjoyment of some of my favourite children’s books. The boys enjoyed snuggling up and being read to as well as having a go themselves. The Peter Rabbit stories are currently being televised as a cartoon and this was a great starting point.

I thought would share this infographic that seeks to give some advice about books for younger readers if  you are interested in some more  ideas about what might make good starting point. The following is another infographic, created by Personal Creations, that might be a useful starting point. They have analyzed over 50 popular children’s books, from the classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit to the more contemporary bestseller, Harry Potter and given some idea about how long it might take younger readers to finish the books.

They followed the fluency standards for elementary grades, based on academic fluency standards (US) and calculated how long it takes kids to read these books.

How Long It Takes Kids to Read Popular Books shows each book accompanied with the number of words, and the reading time – split into three grades: 2, 3, and 4.

Wondering where your child falls in this list? Follow the fluency standards for elementary grades 1 – 6 below and you can quickly calculate how long it’ll take your eager reader.

Grade 1: 50 words per minute (wpm)
Grade 2: 70 wpm
Grade 3: 100 wpm
Grade 4: 130 wpm
Grade 5: 140 wpm
Grade 6: 160 wpm

Reading comprehension is not built into calculations and it is important to talk about what the young reader has understood about the text and illustrations, but most of all the activity needs to be about encouraging an enjoyment of reading.

Please include attribution to PersonalCreations.com with this graphic.

How Long It Takes To Read Popular Kids Books by PersonalCreations.com

CBCA 2014 Books of the Year – Winners and runners-up

Congratulations to the authors and illustrators of the books below. To their editors and publishers and also the CBCA judges.

The CBCA winning books for 2014 voted on by the judges, were announced this afternoon. The judges have a difficult job and I know that a lot of deliberation and discassion has gone on. The CBCA awards are given to works that are the benchmarks for quality in Australian children’s literature. The books that made to this short list are being read and enjoyed by the boys. I wrote a post about the older readers shortlist with links for follow-up earlier in the year.  As is usually the case the books chosen this year were quite varied in their styles and subject matter.

The 2014 CBCA Book of the Year awards have been given to the authors and illustrators in the following five categories from older readers to early childhood

Older readers

Winner: Wildlife by Fiona WoodShortlist

Honour Books

  • Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near
  • The Sky so Heavy by Claire Zorn

 

Younger readers

City of Orphans - A very unusual pursuit -smlWinner: City of Orphans: A very unusual pursuit by Catherine Jinks. Catherine has an interesting page about the title, there are teaching notes and, from the Allen and Unwin site, there are Reviews by teachers (PDF) also.

Honour Books

 Early Childhood

Winner: The Swap by Jan Ormerod and Andrew Joyner.  Teacher notes here 

Honour Books:

 Picture book

Rules Of Summer-smlWinner: Rule of Summer by Shaun Tan. I am so pleased that another wonderful book by the brilliant author Shaun Tan won this section. There are some great resources  – my post with links including to videos, a teachers’ guide here and a podcast on The art of Shaun Tan.

Honour Books

 Eve Pownell Award for Information Books

Winner: Jeremy by Christopher Faille

Honour Books

The most popular books of all time

I have seen many lists of popular books but below is a new infographic explaining a few different things on their infographic.

And just because I like the sketch (and it is Friday) a short video – Mr Bean in the library

This is a visualisation of data on the most popular books every written. It includes number of editions, number of translations and units sold. Sourced from http://www.lovereading.co.uk/

The Most Popular Books of All Time

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

CBCA 2013 Books of the Year: Winners and runners-up

After several months of speculation the CBCA award winners for 2013 have been announced. The CBCA awards are given to works that are the benchmarks for quality in Australian children’s literature. Even making the short list guarantees that there will be attention given to these works.  In two posts about the 2013 shortlists ( older readers and younger readers) I wrote about these books and offered links to follow up each of them. The books chosen this year were quite varied in their styles and subject matter.

The winners and honour books have a gold medallion put onto the covers and they will be bought by schools for their libraries and their use in classes, public libraries and parents (and relatives) of young people.

The 2013 CBCA Book of the Year awards have been given to the authors and illustrators in the following five categories from older readers to early childhood.

OLDER READERS:

Sea_Hearts-small

Winner: Sea Hearts  by Margo Lanagan 

Honour books: 

YOUNGER READERS:

The_children_of_the_kingWinner: Children of the King    by Sonya Hartnett

Honour books: 

EARLY CHILDHOOD: 

Winner: The Terrible Suitcase  by Emma Allen & Freya Blackwood (Illus)  Teacher’s notes have been written for this book

Honour books: 

  • With Nan by Tania Cox  and Karen Blair
  • Too Many Elephants in This House by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner

PICTURE BOOK: 

Winner: The Coat  by Ron Brooks (illus) and Julie Hunt. Also available: Teacher Notes and Teacher reviews 

Honour books:

  • Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon
  • Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester

INFORMATION BOOK:

Winner: Tom the Outback Mailman by Kristin Weidenbach and Timothy Ide. Also available: Teacher Notes 

Honour books:

  • Lyrebird! A True Story  by Jackie Kerin and Peter Gouldthrope
  • Topsy Turvy World: How Australian Animals Puzzled Early Explorers by Kirsty Murray

What’s a good book for me to read?

Above is a question that all those who have worked in libraries are asked many times. It is a question that I always answer with more questions. What do you regard as a good story? is one of the questions I often ask back. More information comes from me asking the students to tell me about the books they have enjoyed, the tv or films they chose to watch, the games they like to play. These are all examined before I can even begin to answer.

Over the two weeks so far this term, I have spent a lot of time assisting our students find something to read for the wider reading program. Many English classes are studying a film text this term but have to continue with some regular reading, both at home and for 10-15 minutes most English classes.

All our school library staff help students (and staff) not just find what the book they are  looking for but also help them discover books they are not aware of or haven’t heard about. This is still a valuable service to our readers. Find the right book for them and these students/staff may become part of you  “good” or regular readers.

We have a digital space and offer e-books and databases and have pointers to reading and various guides, a blog and reviews. Whilst they can find out about books any number of ways , we know that there are still many in our community who like  personal attention and a conversations as they look for a book. They also often like the tactile experience of reading a printed book. They still like how the book feels and smells.

There are others who just love the stories. These students want nothing more than to get their hands on the story, in whatever format. This is especially so of books in series. There are many of our boys who read “safely”. They are not confident readers and they would rather re-read a book they have read and liked before than try a new one that they may not like. Series have been a great boon for us as we can find books for them to read. By reading through a series our boys often find a level of success that we use to get them on to other novels with a similar theme or style. Success breeds confidence and we can build on this as we get to know our readers.

Of course there are many good readers, including the staff, who love to read series. They build a connection to the characters, the settings and/or enjoy the author’s writing style. I am collecting my thoughts on a number of popular YA  series that I have been reading over the last month and will write more about them soon.

The infographic below tries assist with the definition of the ‘perfect’ book. A piece of literature that pleases a broad crowd with the bestselling books having just under four hundred pages. Men are more likely to read science fiction and a story with a male protagonist. However a publication with women protagonists are much more likely to become a bigger hit. Books still seem to have a huge market, be they in digital form or in print, for the moment at least, e-book have not killed off paperbacks rather they co-exist.

The DNA of a Successful Book

by NowSourcing.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

Reading is not dead – or teenagers still reading

With the Term 2 school holidays now upon us, we have had a lot of English teachers bringing their classes into the library so the boys can borrow a book for holiday reading. Many of our boys like reading although not always novels. They have to read a something in a narrative format so many borrow biographies. All sorts of biographies are popular but sporting biographies are the “best sellers”. This year we can hardly keep up with the demand for basketball biographies, followed by the soccer biographies and finally AFL ones.  Basketball has not been very popular for a few years but interest in the NBA has really been evident across all year levels so far in 2013. Most students are quite happy to read, in whatever format they can get the item, although a few prefer hard copy and others love the e-books.

Our borrowing records and student comments prove time and time again that reading is not dead. All we need to do is to find the right interest/subject at the appropriate level and most are happy to read. They love sitting in the armchairs , feet up on the ottomans, especially when it is cold outside. We have teachers who read with their students and many parents who also read. It is always interesting when a student tells me that he is borrowing a book for himself and another for his mother or father. I love the fact that they are supporting each others reading.

I recently came across a post on the PewResearchCenter site that contained a great interactive graph. The data compared 2011 and 2012 data about American Reading habits. I do not think that an Australian survey would be all that different and it certainly ties in with what I witness here. The data shows that teenage readers (16-17) are reading more than they did the previous year.

Reading habits-2011-2012-All_books.-whole-jpg

Reading in “all formats” is up from the previous year. The darker column is 2012 data.  Continue reading

Re-using old books and creating amazing art works

It’s Friday. As the school day ends I have been looking around pinterest and the wider web community for images. I am always looking for interesting views of books and/or libraries and I was very pleased that I came across a 2012 post by Pinar (@mymodernmetArtist), 5,000 Books Pour Out of a Building in Spain – My Modern Metropoli

The post offers some photos and explanation about how she did it as well as a video of the amazing sculptures by Spanish-based artist Alicia Martin. The Biografias (translated as Biographies) project used 5,000 books in each of three site-specific sculptures, all based in historic buildings in Madrid. You can see how the sculture works in the video below.

I also came across the following site this week that had some great artisitic uses for old books. I am not sure if I could actually bring myself to cut and re-use the books in some of these ways but I am impressed by what these artists did.

Re-Use of Books = Art is from the Inspiration Green site . There are some great photographs in here showing how artists have re-used old books to create some amazing art, including some more by Alicia Martin and the very creepy image by Waldo Lee (Walee) http://walee.com/v3/.

Waldo Lee, aka WALEE

So some more images to add to Pinterest board.

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