Notes from Left Field

My friend J.R. has the most adorable child, who, when she was about three, took to telling the librarians that she was taking books from the library so she could read to dogs. At the time, we all just giggled and chalked it up to another of Gabriella's 'cute-isms,' but I've just seen an ad from Target about kids reading to dogs. Wow! We always knew that G. is future Mensa material!
And here's something else we already knew: reading to kids -- from actual books -- a Good Thing. A report from Temple University reveals that traditional books are the ticket for the parent-child interaction that a child needs to assist them with early childhood literacy. The researchers presented the findings of their study, "Electronic books: Boon or Bust for Interactive Reading?" on Nov. 3rd as part of the Boston University Conference on Language Development. Do check out their findings.

Ladies and gentlemen: we have ARRIVED. Props to Jackie's Mom, another awesome librarian, for pointing this out -- the Cybils have made the Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf Newsletter! You'll need to scroll down a ways to In Brief to find it, but I'm tickled that our group of intrepid readers, writers, teachers, librarians and home schooling parents has made a bigger ripple in the book world than we thought. Yay for us! And thanks to my fellow teammates, and all the others, who are working so hard to make this happen. This is -- even with all the weird questions about double nominations, and deciphering which book belongs on which list -- so much fun.

And now, back to work...