Fresh Takes: Canadian Publishing 2014

If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers

David J. Smith

Sep 19, 2014

Kids Can is expecting David J. Smith’s new picture book, If: A Mind-Bending New Way of Looking at Big Ideas and Numbers, which is all about scale and size, to be a “category killer,” says Lisa Lyons Johnston. It offers readers images for grasping big issues, such as global wealth distribution, explaining that if all the world’s money were represented by 100 coins, the richest 1% would have 40 coins, while the poorest 50%, half of the world’s population, would share just one coin. “There’s really nothing else like this out there. Pretty well every spread is a lesson plan,” says Lyons Johnston. More . . . 

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Diversity North: Canadian Publishing 2014

By Leigh Anne Williams | 

Sep 19, 2014

Calls for more diversity in books this year have echoed north into Canada. While publishers in the country acknowledge that there is still work to be done to produce books that reflect current racial and cultural realities, they also draw attention to their long history of working toward diversity and offer a few examples from their latest books.

Diversity is a real and important issue, says Rick Wilks, director of Annick Press. “When kids are looking at books, [the books] are not that reflective of what you see in the classroom and the societies they live in.” More . . . 

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Max Tell is an award-winning poet and songwriter.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at 50

llustration by Quentin Blake

•  Lucy Mangan 
• The Guardian, Saturday 30 August 2014

In many ways, the most astonishing thing about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – a bestseller since it was first published 50 years ago, beloved of generations of children, multiply adapted for stage and screen and a furnisher of images and phrases that have entered the cultural lexicon forevermore – is that it ever got written at all.

At the end of the 1950s, Roald Dahl was riding high. He had had a "good" war, as first a flying ace and then an intelligence agent in Washington funnelling information back to MI6, and was leading a glamorous life in the US as a successful writer of dark short stories for adults and the husband of the film star Patricia Neal. By 1957, he had started making up bedtime stories for the first two of the couple's five children, Olivia and Tessa. One of the tales was about a small boy who lived near an enormous chocolate factory – inspired, perhaps, by the one flattened by the eponymous fruit in James and the Giant Peach, his first book for children, which he had just finished and which would be published in 1961. More . . . 

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More Happy Readers is published by award winning poet and songwriter, Max Tell.

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10 Benefits of Reading

Benefits of Reading

Originally posted on http://www.best-books-for-kids.com/benefits-of-reading.html.

The benefits of reading start with the first book a baby hears and continue into childhood and throughout the child's life.

Here are the 10 Benefits of Reading - the Top 10 reasons why reading is important and why children – and adults! - should read often and widely.

10 Benefits of Reading

1. Kids who read often and widely get better at it.

This is pretty much just common sense.

After all, practice makes perfect in almost everything we humans do and reading is no different from anything else.

2. Reading exercises our brains.

Reading is a much more complex task for the human brain than, say, watching TV is.

Reading strengthens brain connections and actually builds new connections.

3. Reading improves concentration.

Again, this is a bit of a no-brainer.

Children have to sit still and quietly so they can focus on the story when they’re reading. If they read regularly, they develop the ability to do this for longer periods.

4. Reading teaches children about the world around them.

Through reading, children learn about people, places and events outside their own experience. They are exposed to ways of life, ideas and beliefs about the world which may be different from those which surround them.

This learning is important for its own sake however it also builds a store of background knowledge which helps younger children learn to read confidently and well.

5. Reading improves a child’s vocabulary and leads to more highly-developed language skills.

This is because children learn new words as they read but also because they unconsciously absorb information as they read about things like how to structure sentences and how to use words and language effectively.

6. Reading develops a child’s imagination.

This is because when we read our brains translate the descriptions we read of people, places and things into pictures. When we’re engaged in a story, we’re also imagining how the characters are feeling. We use our own experiences to imagine how we would feel in the same situation.

7. Reading helps kids develop empathy.

This is something I’ve only recently realised but it makes sense. As my fifteen-year-old son said to me when we were discussing it, ‘Of course it does because you’re identifying with the character in the story so you’re feeling what he’s feeling.’ 

8. Children who read do better at school. And they don’t just do better at subjects like reading, English and history. They do better at all subjects and they do better all the way through school. 9. Reading is a great form of entertainment!

A paperback book or an e-reader like the Amazon Kindle doesn’t take up much space so you can take it anywhere and you’ll never be lonely or bored if you have a book in your bag. 

You can read while waiting in a queue, while waiting for a friend who’s running late or during a flight delay at an airport. 

10. Reading relaxes the body and calms the mind.

This is an important point because these days we seem to have forgotten how to relax and especially how to be silent.

The constant movement, flashing lights and noise which bombard our senses when we’re watching TV, looking at a computer or playing an electronic game are actually quite stressful for our brains.

When we read, we read in silence and the black print on a white page is much less stressful for our eyes and brains.


So there you have it – the Top 10 benefits of reading! 

Why Mr. Rogers Is Having A Big Moment In Education

Digital media? Creativity? Early Childhood education? 

Mr. Rogers was an early champion for trends that are hot in education today.

by ANYA KAMENETZ

May 24, 201410:03 AM ET

"Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won't you be my neighbor?"

Fred Rogers — the beloved TV host, Presbyterian minister, puppeteer, composer, organist, best-selling author and cardigan aficionado — died in 2003, but his ideas on education are as relevant as ever.

Here's why Mr. Rogers still matters:

More . . . 

More Happy Readers is published by award winning poet and songwriter, Max Tell.

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37 Children's Books That Changed Your Life

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

via blogger.com

BuzzFeed Community

To celebrate the 95th Children’s Book Week (May 12 to 18), we asked our fans and followers to tell us what children’s book changed their lives. We received HUNDREDS of responses on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr. What follows is a compilation of some of our favourites. More . . . 

Please comment and tell us what children's book changed your life.

Max Tell is an award winning poet and songwriter.

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PW KidsCast: Listen Now

PW KidsCast: Listen Now

Peter Sís, Nick Bruel, Holly Black, Peter Brown, Daniel Handler, Shannon Hale, Melissa de la Cruz, Jennifer Donnelly, Marie Rutkoski, Jerry Pinkney, Charlie Higson – listen to these and other top writers and artists discuss their new books for children and teens in PW KidsCast, a regular podcast from Publishers Weekly. Click here to listen.

Max Tell is an award winning poet and songwriter.

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