READ ALOUD LENTEN LITERATURE

A good book my husband and I would have had trouble doing without in our years of raising a family was, Making God Real In the Orthodox Christian Home by Fr. Anthony Coniaris.  I love this quote about Lent:

"It is significant that Lent happens to coincide with spring.  I think there is a wonderful lesson for us in this happy coincidence.  Lent should be for all of us a period of placing ourselves in the position where the best things can happen to us...in the presence of Christ, where the Sun of His love and power can shine into our arid souls to bring about a real awakening..."

For many of us, that awakening comes by slowing down, turning off the television, and making more time for daily prayer, spiritual reading, fasting, and participation in the special church services of Lent.  


In our family, we also tried to carefully choose good books to read aloud with our kids during Lent, that would help underscore what we were doing.  


There are the obvious choices of Bible and Saints stories, but today I thought I'd highlight some good literature for kids, that you may not have considered...please let me know if you have any to add!


SIR GIBBIE by George MacDonald, Kathryn Lindskoog. (ages 8-12) From Publisher's Weekly: George MacDonald's 1870s' Sir Gibbie, about a destitute Scottish orphan, was reportedly a favorite of C.S. Lewis's. An edition of the novel, prepared by Kathryn Lindskoog, inaugurates a Classics for Young Readers series, while a companion, Sir Gibbie: A Guide for Teachers and Students by Ranelda Mack Hunsicker, is available for teachers, students and home-schoolers. In the Guide, Hunsicker contends that Sir Gibbie served as a source for Huckleberry Finn, although Mark Twain (a friend of MacDonald's) upended MacDonald's religious message. Noting that previous editions of Gibbie "cut out much of MacDonald's Christian teaching," Hunsicker adds that Lindskoog's goal was "to restore [the book] to its original Christ-centered plot."  (218 pages)


HEIDI by Johanna Spyri, illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. (ages 7-12)  I hope you can find this adaptation with Ruth Sanderson's gorgeous illustrations. In any case, try to get a good unabridged version. Spyri's descriptive telling of Heidi's struggle to learn to read, as well as her relationships with her grandfather, the Alps, the goats, Klara, and Peter and his blind grandmother are not to be missed. What touched me most was the underlying story of the stern grandfather ("Alm Uncle") as a prodigal son figure who has his heart softened by his tender granddaughter. (285 pages)



THE BRONZE BOW by Elizabeth George Speare. (6th grade and up) Newbury Medal Winner. Daniel bar Jamin is driven by only one passion: to avenge his father's death, by driving the Roman legions from his land of Israel. He joins an outlaw band and leads a dangerous life of spying, plotting, and impatiently waiting to seek revenge. Headstrong Daniel is devoid of tenderness and forgiveness, heading down a destructive path toward disaster until he hears the lessons taught by Jesus of Nazareth.  Elizabeth Speare said she wanted to make young adults feel what it would be like to live during the time of Christ. I think she succeeded!

GOOD BOOKS FOR CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITES

Reading aloud to children helps with language development and literacy, as well as listening skills.  This can be especially important for kids with various developmental disabilities, including ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), because understanding and using language can be very difficult for them.


Dr. Monica Ultmann has created a "Developmental Disabilities Literacy Promotion Guide", that can be obtained here at ReachOutAndRead.org. This guide (specific to seven different disabilities) includes handouts, activities and reading tips, suggested books, and lists of resources for parents.

CLICK HERE for the "Doctor Recommended Book List" for children who suffer from developmental disabilities...the seven that are addressed include: Speech and Language Problems; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Intellectual Disabilities (mental retardation); Inattention and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Cerebral Palsy; and Vision and Hearing Impairments.

A CLOSER LOOK AT AUTISM & READING
As a follow-up to my post on Library Story Time for Autistic Readers, I want to highlight some specifics about Autism Spectrum Disorder and how books can help.  ASD  impacts the way children react to situations and people.  Children with Autism often have trouble making eye contact and sharing their thoughts with words or gestures. Non-verbal communication is especially difficult for a child on the autistic spectrum.   Body language, gesture and facial expressions are not understood as clues to communication.

TIPS FROM REACH OUT AND READ:
 Borrow books from the library that have photos and drawings of babies and people’s faces. This can help your child recognize emotions.
 Read the same story again and again. The repetition will help her learn language.
 Read aloud. Talk about the pictures and read the text.
 Find books that have lots of repetition of phrases. Also find books with rhymes. Softly clap your hands and help your baby clap along to the rhythm.
 Find books that have buttons your child can press that have sounds.

PREDICTABLE STORIES ARE IMPORTANT:
"Predictable books play an important role in developing early language and literacy skills for infants and toddlers (Miller, 2000). Books that allow children to guess what will happen next in the story, books that provide repetitive catch phrases (e.g., Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Martin/Carle, 1996),
and books with a predictable rhyme pattern (e.g., Fox in Sox by Seuss/ Geisel, 1965) contribute to language and literacy growth. Cumulative patterns also contribute to predictability, with new events being added with each episode, as in the book I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Westcott, 2003). 
All books become somewhat predictable with repeated readings and children enjoy hearing them over and over again. Books with familiar sequences and those in which pictures exactly match the text are usually predictable for children. Predictable books provide the emergent reader with a satisfying and enjoyable first experience."  -from the article Birth to Three: Building a Foundation for Literacy, SpeechPathology.com

Even MORE book recommendations...from AbilityPath.org


Leave a comment to let me know your favorites!

PUBLIC DOMAIN MONDAY: A MOTHER'S LIST...

...OF BOOKS FOR CHILDREN by Gertrude Weld Arnold.  I would love to own a copy of this gem.  Click HERE to look through this amazing book, which is full of great quotes and an exhaustive list of all types of books for ages 2-14 (first published in 1909).

SOME MEMORABLE EXCERPTS ABOUT CHILDREN'S LITERATURE:

"The baby's first book will naturally be a picture-book, for pictures appeal to him early, and with great force.... If we understood children better, we should realize this vitality which pictures have for them, and should be more careful to give them the best." -W. T. Field.

"What an unprejudiced and wholly spontaneous acclaim awaits the artist who gives his best to the little ones! They do not place his work in portfolios or locked glass cases; they thumb it to death, surely the happiest of all fates for any printed book." -Gleeson White.

"The mother sits and sings her baby to sleep; here is one of the very best opportunities for the right literature at the right time." -Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf.

"As color appeals to the child before he has much notion of form, his first picture-book should be colored, and as his ideas of form develop slowly, his first pictures should be in outline, and unencumbered with detail." -W.T. Field.

"Blind Homer and the chief singer of Israel and skalds and bards and minnesingers are all gone, tradition is almost a byword, but mothers still live, and children need not wait until they have conquered the crabbed types before they begin to love literature." -Mrs. H.L. Elmendorf.

"Babies do not want," said he, "to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds". -Dr. Johnson. (Recorded by Mrs. Piozzi.)

"And as with the toys, so with the toy-books. They exist everywhere: there is no calculating the distance through which the stories come to us, the number of languages through which they have been filtered, or the centuries during which they have been told. Many of them have been narrated, almost in their present shape, for thousands of years since, to little copper-coloured Sanscrit children, listening to their mother under the palm-trees by the banks of the yellow Jumna--their Brahmin mother, who softly narrated them through the ring in her nose. The very same tale has been heard by the Northmen Vikings as they lay on their shields on deck; and by Arabs couched under the stars on the Syrian plains when the flocks were gathered in and the mares were picketed by the tents. -Thackeray.

"So, in this matter of literature for the young, the influence of the home teaching is enormous; all the school can do pales before it. Let the mother add to the poet's rhyme the music of her soft and beloved voice; let great fiction be read to the breathless group of curly heads about the fire; and the wonders of science be enrolled, the thrilling scenes and splendid personalities of history displayed. Children thus inspired may be trusted to become sensitive to literature long before they know what the word means, or have reasoned at all upon their mental experiences." -Richard Burton.

HOW MO WILLEMS MAKES US LAUGH

photo credit:  Marty Umans

Mo Willem's wildly popular picture books about pigeons, piggies, elephants and kunffle bunnies have kids laughing, and reading.  The books - with simple illustrations and word bubbles - are perfect as family read alouds and also as first readers for young learners.  Perhaps it's his past writing and animating for Sesame Street that make his short (sometimes only one-word) sentences fit so perfectly with his simple pictures.

Parents and kids alike will get the quick wit.  And new readers will feel the satisfaction of reading a whole book from start to finish by themselves.  I fondly witnessed this last week when I brought my friend's kids WE ARE IN A BOOK!

(I knew I had to get it into the hands of her middle child Jonah, who is a new reader, after I stood - laughing out loud - in the middle of the bookstore!)

and when another friend's daughter, Sophie, delighted in ELEPHANTS CANNOT DANCE!  all by herself.

The PIGEON books are just as hilarious...  

I was introduced to DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS

at a family camp during "Skit Night".  

THE PIGEON FINDS A HOTDOG

In fact, several of Mo's stories have been turned into plays and musicals!  I think the appeal of these books is the humorous, yet simple, way that Mo deals with kids' emotions and challenges (such as learning to share and not being jealous). That and his funny characters help his stories translate perfectly to the stage.

From "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" Musical

Mo's KNUFFLE BUNNY books are also adorable and endearing, with his simple illustrations and signature word bubbles, this time against a photographic background.  In the first story, KNUFFLE BUNNY: A CAUTIONARY TALE,
a little toddler named Trixie accompanies her dad to the neighborhood laundromat and loses her stuffed bunny.  Panicking, she tries communicating this to him, as he unsuccessfully tries to interpret her "flabble-babbling" on their way back home...

Click HERE to read about KNUFFLE BUNNY: A CAUTIONARY MUSICAL and watch a video interview with Mo Willems (at the end of the post).

And have fun perusing Mo Willem's website with your child.

IRREPLACEABLE TREASURES

For any of you who read my post back in October 2010, IN PRAISE OF PICTURE BOOKS, you know about the New York Times front-page story, "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children", which caused quite an uproar in the World of Children's Books - among publishers, bookstores, parents, authors, and illustrators.

I recently came across a rebuttal to this article printed in Publisher's Weekly that, I'm happy to say, explores some of the same points in defense of picture books that I did!  It's titled, "Don't Write the Orbit for Picture Books Yet" and you can read it by clicking here.

Karen Springen, the author of this well-researched article, makes many great points about what is influencing the sales of picture books, but I think two that she highlights are especially relevant:  the economy and libraries.

In a bad economy, families are still reading picture books—but many families are getting them at the library, and previewing them before deciding to purchase them. "Library use is up," said Julie Corsaro, president of the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children division. "And in many public libraries, picture books have the highest circulation." At the Brooklyn Public Library, picture book circulation is at an all-time high—1.5 million at the end of the most recent fiscal year. For the next fiscal year, BPL is projecting circulation of more than two million, said youth selection team leader Alison Hendon. She is buying new ones, too—both replacement copies and new titles...


But when the economy recovers, will picture books return to their heyday? It's hard to know for sure, but booksellers, publishers, and librarians maintain that traditional picture books are irreplaceable treasures. Oddi of Cover to Cover told the story of a young man who works for minimum wage at Jiffy Lube, next to her store. On break, he stopped in and, on a staffer's recommendation, bought Dog House by Jan Thomas to read to his three-year-old. He said it was $14 he didn't have and at first regretted it. Later, he returned to the store and said, "I read that book every night to my little girl. She laughs," said Oddi. "He said, ‘That's the best $14 I ever spent.' "


But we consumer parents, teachers, and literature lovers knew that, huh?

A PARADOXICAL SETTING FOR THE BIRTH OF A KING!

CHRISTMAS NIGHT, FAIR AND BRIGHT by Julie Stiegemeyer, illustrations by Melissa Iwai. (ages 3-7). If you're looking for a book that emphasizes the true meaning of Christmas for even the youngest of children, look no farther!

In simple rhyming words, Julie Stiegemeyer expertly recreates the sights and sounds of the first Christmas and at the same time, emphasizes the two natures of Christ -- His abject humility in his simple birth and His ultimate divinity as our King and Saviour. With each verse, Jesus' perfect life and death on our behalf is communicated:  "Jesus, born for us."

Most of this telling takes place in the humble stall -- the paradoxical setting for the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords:

Frankincense hangs in the air.

Stars are twinkling everywhere.

A child is born beyond compare -

Jesus, born for us.

Jesus has no kingly hall.

Jesus has no fortress tall.

Home becomes a cattle stall

for Jesus, born for us.

So sequined stars become a crown,

night, a robe to wrap around;

God's own Son to earth came down.

He's Jesus, born for us."

This book predictably recounts the events of that first Christmas, but it includes the flight to Egypt as well. It also alludes to the crucifixion. Melissa Iwai's illustrations are perfect for the 3-7 age group.  Her brightly colored images have less detail than those for older children, but still capture the drama and reality of the events on that dark night in Bethlehem, when Christ, the Light of the World, was born.

To see more books by Julie Stiegemeyer, click here.