How did you celebrate World Read Aloud Day 2014?

March 5 was World Read Aloud Day, a day for promoting the joys of literacy for everyone worldwide. As part of our festivities at my library, we hosted a special program: Read with a Police Officer.

The premise of the program was to have a recognizable community figure come to the library to read a story aloud, talk about why they love to reading and why reading is important to them, and then answer kids' questions.

Officer Ochs of the Lake St. Louis Police Department came to my branch completely ready to read--what else--Officer Buckle and Gloria. Officer Ochs is the police officer in our town who visits lots of schools and daycares, so she's well versed in dealing with kids. She even has her own copy of Officer Buckle and Gloria, as it's one of her favorite stories to share with kids.

After she read Officer Buckle and Gloria to the kiddos in attendance--both preschool- and school-age--Officer Ochs talked about how she needs to read to be able to do her job, and that she enjoys reading stories for fun, too. Then she asked the children what they want to be when they grow up. As the kids responded (president! ninja! firefighter! musician! librarian!), she reinforced how important literacy is by mentioning that each and every one of these jobs will include reading.

Officer Ochs's portion of the program wrapped up with a Q&A, with the kids asking her questions about her job. They asked some great questions: what's on her utility belt, and why is it included? what are the patches on her uniform for? how many bad guys has she stopped? The kids were absolutely riveted as they listened to the answers from a real, live police officer.

I finished up the program by tying everything back to World Read Aloud Day and how much fun it is to share stories out loud. From there, the kids could add their favorite read-alouds to our celebration poster. I had die-cut books in a variety of colors, as well as lots of markers, for kids to write down their favorite stories before taping them to the poster. That poster is now hanging from the reference desk at my library, in clear line of sight of almost everyone who visits the library. Others can add their own favorite read-alouds to the poster, too.

That's how we celebrated World Read Aloud Day at my branch library this year: with a community helper reinforcing the importance and joy of literacy right alongside me, the librarian. Kids had fun, shared stories, and then checked out books to read at home. All in a good day's work!

How did you and your library celebrate World Read Aloud Day?

World Read Aloud Day is March 5!

If you haven't made them already, you should make some plans to do extra read-aloud activities next Wednesday. That's because March 5 is World Read Aloud Day!

According to LitWorld, the international non-profit that puts on the event each year, "World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people." It's a prime opportunity to insert a few bonus story read-alouds or writing activities at your library.

Next week at my library, we're celebrating in a handful of ways. We have an advertised "Read with a Police Officer!" story time program in the afternoon, and a member of my local police force will come to share a story and talk about why reading is fun and important. I'm going to set up a "Favorite Books to Read Aloud" station for all library customers; they'll be able to write the names of their favorite read-alouds on die-cut books and share them on a display. And my plan is to do impromptu read-alouds in the children's area whenever there are a handful of kids present.

I'll report back next week for a recap of our World Read Aloud Day festivities. In the meantime, I'd love to hear how you plan to celebrate!

Reading it Forward: World Read Aloud Day 2013

Sharing stories with children is one of my favorite parts of my job. That's why I loved being able to participate in World Read Aloud Day yesterday. I previewed my WRAD format last month; I called it "guerrilla story time" on Twitter, emphasizing that my goal was to engage children who happened to be in the library on March 6 with an unexpected story time. That's exactly what happened, too.

My coworkers and I read 12 books and poetry selections for World Read Aloud Day--one for every hour the library was open. We announced the events over the PA system, and as we walked back to Picture Book City to do the readings, we encouraged any interested kids to come listen for a few minutes. Many kids did, and they all had smiles on their faces. Ah, the simple joys of being treated to a story read aloud.

We had over 100 people enjoy our WRAD read alouds, and almost all of the children and grownups opted to add their names to our reading wall afterward. I would call this program a definite success, especially when one considers that we didn't have any formal programs (story time, Lego Club) going on during the day to draw people to the library in the first place. Our participants were people who are happy to set aside what they are doing for a few minutes to enjoy reading. When all is said and done, the names on our reading wall show that we are a community who values literacy. I encouraged everyone to share the books they love with people they love, and they assured me they would read it forward.

In case you're curious, here's the breakdown of what books we read when:
9:30 a.m. - Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
10:30 a.m. - It's a Tiger! by David LaRochelle
11:30 a.m. - Under Ground by Denise Fleming
12:30 p.m. - Boy + Bot by Ame Dyckman
1:30 p.m. - Eggs 1 2 3: Who Will the Babies Be? by Janet Halfmann
2:30 p.m. - If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen
3:30 p.m. - Miss Nelson is Missing by Henry Allard
4:30 p.m. - Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt by Doreen Rappaport
5:30 p.m. - exerpts from A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky
6:30 p.m. - Let's Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas
7:30 p.m. - How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
8:30 p.m. - exerpts from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

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Did you celebrate World Read Aloud Day? What did you do? How did you read it forward?

A Snapshot of My Reading Life

I could offer you several different snapshots of my reading life. I could provide an actual snapshot of where I do a lot of my reading:

(Please note the sticky notes on my side table--to mark interesting passages in books and magazines--as well as the almost-dying plant.)

I could provide you a list of the types of things I read during the average week:

• Blogs (At last count, my RSS feed contained 93 blogs)
• Trade journals such as School Library Journal, Booklist, Children & Libraries, YALS, American Libraries, and Public Libraries
• The Week and The New Yorker--what planet was I on when I decided this would be a good year to start subscribing to The New Yorker?!?
• A cookbook or two
• About a dozen different picture books
• Some combination of children's fiction and non-fiction books
• A young adult or adult book, as my book club chooses

I could provide you with examples of some of the things I eat and/or drink while I'm reading: fruit, cheese and crackers, some sort of sweet thing (currently Marshmallow Peeps); water, diet soda, hot or iced tea.

I could also direct you to this graphic representation of what I read in an average year--although I won't be publicly sharing that same breakdown of my reading for 2013 because of my committee work.

All of those snapshots provide you with a view of my reading life. What does your reading life look like?

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This post is part of the World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge, which features weekly blog prompts leading up to World Read Aloud Day on March 6. Make sure to come back next week for the details on the implementation of my library's WRAD program!

Reading, Then & Now

Today, as part of the build-up to World Read Aloud Day, I'm going to finish some sentences about reading from the perspectives of both my 10-year-old (4th grade) self and my current grown-up self.

Sentence #1: I think everyone in the world should read...

10-year-old Amy: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. I loved the idea of having a Terabithia--a special, secret place to go. I remember scrunching up into a corner of my bedroom and pretending that I needed to use my hot pink electronic Dear Diary in order to access my secret hideaway. The password, of course, was "Terabithia."

Grown-up Amy: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage. I especially think that everyone in the world should read this story aloud in order to enjoy the stylistically-perfect language as much as the quirky characters and captivating mystery.

Sentence #2: If I could listen to anyone in the world read aloud to me it would be...

10-year-old Amy: my cousin Stephanie. She lived in New York when I was growing up, which felt very far away from my house in Indiana. I loved when her family came to visit. Stephanie was very theatrical--she would write plays for all of us cousins to perform--and she was always talking about the books that she was reading. Hearing her read aloud would have been a natural combination of her aspirational literary enthusiasm.

Grown-up Amy: Neil Gaiman. I was so excited when my best friend Mike told me I could listen to Gaiman read The Graveyard Book online. Gaiman has one of those reading voices that can make the nutritional content of cereal sound magical, and I'd love to hear him read aloud from some of my favorite books.

Sentence #3: When I read aloud, my favorite character to impersonate is...

10-year-old Amy: Sister Bear from the Berenstain Bears books. We had a lot of these books in my house growing up, and when I was ten, I would still read them with my 7-year-old brother.

Grown-up Amy: the bear narrator from Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back. I love doing all of the voices in this book--a slow turtle, a confused what's-that-animal--but my favorite is the bear. I particularly like to say, in my best distraught bear voice, "My poor hat. I miss it so much." It always gets some giggles from listeners.

Sentence #4: The genre that takes up the most room on my bookshelf is...

10-year-old Amy: Newbery Award books. My mother was always happy to buy books for my brother and me, and our school's book orders included great, inexpensive paperback copies of Newbery winners and honorees. I had a great selection.

Grown-up Amy: Jane Austen books, both written by her and about her. I know, that's not really a children's librarian thing (although I do own the board book version of Pride and Prejudice!), but when all is said and done, Jane Austen books take up over 2 feet of bookshelf space in my apartment. I also own four different copies of Persuasion, my favorite Austen novel.

Sentence #5: The last book I wish I'd written or inspired me to write my own story is...

10-year-old Amy: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg. I was absolutely enchanted by how all of the characters and narratives were woven together, and I was inspired to write my own story, also set at a trivia competition, in the same style. My story was three pages, I think.

Grown-up Amy: none. With all of the books that I've read, I have realized that creating stories is not a particular talent of mine. That's not a bad thing, and it doesn't make me sad at all. Instead, I am thrilled that I have a job that allows me to share the work of talented writers and storytellers with children.

Do you ever reflect back on what your reading life was like at different times in your life? I'd love to hear how you would have finished these sentences as a young reader!

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This post is part of the World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge, which features weekly blog prompts leading up to World Read Aloud Day on March 6. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks another WRAD Blog Challenge post and the details on the implementation of my library's WRAD program!

What's so special about reading aloud?

As a children's librarian, I have interactions with children who cannot read, those who struggle to read, and those who voraciously read. Yet whatever a child--nay, a person's--age or reading ability, I've found that people consider it a treat when someone reads aloud to them.

What's so special about reading aloud?

Reading aloud connects us all to our cultural ancestry, to a time before ebooks and the printing press and lay literacy, when the only way to tell stories was out loud. Technological developments in the book world haven't dented the human appreciation for stories, and listening to a book read aloud resonates with a fundamental need to connect with the world through words, imagination, and stories.

Reading aloud allows us to rejoice in the rhythm and melodious sounds of words. There is such beauty in language, and I love to share that with others. I'll often read a sentence or passage aloud to my coworkers or the children in the library simply because of how beautiful it sounds.

Reading aloud gives listeners shared experience. I love to share funny books aloud because group laughter is infectious and momentous. I regularly have classrooms of preschoolers talk to me excitedly about a book we shared months before, simply because the experience of sharing that book was a touchstone for them. I also often take my favorite picture books home for visits to read aloud for friends and family after dinner simply because shared stories are wonderful. Reading aloud together creates strong bonds.

Reading aloud is comforting. One of my favorite summer programs is a Book Bunch Picnic Lunch series, where families bring sack lunches to the library and eat an indoor picnic while I read aloud. I love to see just how much older school-age children in particular enjoy listening to stories despite the fact they can read them on their own. Being read to feels safe and relaxing and luxurious.

Reading aloud gives us mantras and meanings that enrich our lives. "I think I can, I think I can!" "Let the wild rumpus start!" We internalize the lines and stories that we hear and love; they stick with us. My mother and I can still recite the first several pages of Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book--that's how much we read it together and loved it. And while it may seem amusing that I know an intro to a Dr. Seuss book by heart as a 26-year-old, I would firmly argue my life is better for having bits of books inside my brain.

What do you think is special about reading aloud?

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This post is part of the World Read Aloud Day Blogging Challenge, which features weekly blog prompts leading up to World Read Aloud Day on March 6. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for more WRAD Blog Challenge posts, culminating in details on the implementation of my library's WRAD program!

My Plans for World Read Aloud Day 2013

World Read Aloud Day 2013 will take place in one month on Wednesday, March 6. World Read Aloud Day is an event from the folks at LitWorld, and it is a global initiative to draw attention to the prevelance of illiteracy worldwide. Did you know that almost 10% of the world's inhabitants are unable to read? Last year, hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the joys of reading by participating in 65 countries all over the world. My library will be among the many, many sites celebrating literacy this year on March 6.

I'm planning an all-day celebration of reading at my library to mark World Read Aloud Day. On the half hour of every hour that the library is open (9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and so on through 8:30 p.m.), one of my colleagues or I will announce over the PA system that it is World Read Aloud Day. We'll invite anyone in the library who is interested to join us in Picture Book City, my library's children's area, for a read-aloud story to celebrate literacy. I'm choosing a wide variety of books for my twelve read-alouds: classics, new favorites, non-fiction, poetry, and award-winners will all be represented. We'll share one story every hour, and after the story is over, participants will hear a quick world literacy fact and be asked to write their names on colorful die-cut books. Each cardstock book will be displayed in the entryway of the library. My hope is that we'll have a rainbow of books with names on them in the library entryway to show just how much we support worldwide literacy.

Are you interested in planning your own World Read Aloud Day event? Looking for some tips? Head over to the official website to download activities, an event kit, and the event badge. If you've got Skype capabilities in your facility, you may want to connect with authors and illustrators for your event; author Kate Messner is compiling a list of book folks who are interested in virtual visits to classrooms and libraries, and she'll have full info on her blog later this month. Don't forget to register your event on the LitWorld website, too.

I hope you'll consider sharing the joys of reading and bringing awareness to global literacy by celebrating World Read Aloud Day on March 6!