Tuesday, June 8, 2010

New Father's Day books for kids to share




Father's Day is rapidly approaching, and here are some timely tips and book suggestions for Dads and their kids from the BookDads website, as well as reading helps from the 60 Second Parent site on Twitter.

There's also good news for readers in Spanish, too: the launch of a Spanish-resource language site, Wikilengua. Look for any books you see reviewed on BookBag using the Amazon / World Catalog search boxes, and don't forget to visit the helpful community of folks over at BookDads!


Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share, by Ken Denmead(Gotham Books) A fully illustrated, idea packed resource of fun, games and adventures geared toward the geek in us all. Ken Denmead is an engineer turned geeky dad who has found an inner calling through his many projects, crafts, and fun times with his kids. And what Geeky Dad isn’t waiting for Iron Man? We can certainly come up with a fun project that ties to the opening and gets readers excited for the release! Geek Dad started as a blog on Wired.com and now, Ken and his many followers spend their days making kites with lights to fly at night, video cameras that fly with the help of balloons, lamps made out of legos, and cyborg jack-o-lanterns for the holidays ... and lots more.


Cool Sports Dad, by David Fischer (Skyhorse Publishing) Fathers may not know how to swish foul shots or throw the perfect spiral, but NBA star Grant Hill and NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers do! With Cool Sports Dad, all Dads will have the sports know-how to really impress their kids. Sports greats like Derick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and New York Rangers Captain Chris Drury help hads stay on top of every detail behind every sport! Out in time for Father’s Day, Cool Sports Dad is packed with mini essays with step-by-step instruction from the world’s most knowledgeable sports experts. The contributors range from instantly recognizable All-Star names like Jerome Bettis and David Wright, to the next generation of extreme athletes like BMX biker and 2005 X Games silver medalist Scotty Cranmer and Bass-masters fishing champion Kevin Van Dam. All of these stars have been chosen for inclusion because they are at the very top of their profession, be it basketball, baseball, football, BMX racing or even fishing.

And if you're a brand new Dad (or soon will be) here's another idea from Chris at the BookDads website: I found the 60 Second Parent website on Twitter sometime late last year. I initially was going to the site to read up on infant development, but recently I have found them to have great resources for ideas of activities to do with your infant/toddler. I also wanted to share some of the reading resources I found on their site:

* 7 Ways to Develop Good Reading Habits

* Why Read to Your Baby

* Why Read to Your Toddler

* Why Read to Your Kindergartner

* Books Your 2 Year Old Will Love


Wikilengua, a new resource for Spanish readers

From the website of Spanish Book Distributors:

The web has a new resource for Spanish-language readers, Wikilengua.org. It's the collaborative platform for the Spanish language (much like Wikipedia) and aims to help the world's more than 400 million Spanish-speakers, taking the information from dictionaries, reference works, books and readers' original input.

What is great about Wikilengua.org is that users can present words, idioms and grammatical rules from all over the world, not just those that appear on RAE (the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language). Since it began last August, the site already has over 5,000 subscribed readers and recently added 1,500 more. Together they could collaborate and form a great tool for everyone looking for answers about Spanish. While still in its infancy, it could prove to be a formidable resource to understand the different idioms used all over the world, and a great benefit for libraries as well.

Spanish from Spain and the RAE is understood and used by all Spanish-speakers. Because most of the books used in classrooms around the world to teach Spanish during the last two generations have been published in Spain, or by Spanish publishers, most Spanish-speakers have learned what could be called Castillian Spanish. The same is true for most of the books published as Spain, and it’s publishers, produce the great majority of titles.

There are, nevertheless, many idioms, slang and expressions, that vary in different countries and even communities within each country. These are not always represented in RAE or other sources. They bring richness to the language and can now be represented within this community.

Parents will find the site a useful resource for Spanish language and topics. Wikilengua should be bookmarked at every library that serves Spanish-language readers so that all those readers could continue enriching the common language. Visit this website and start collaborating by reading, commenting, adding your own expressions and sharing your knowledge. Send any comments or suggestions to blog@sbdbooks.com

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