"Bridge to Teribithia" author becomes literary ambassador

On Tuesday, the author of Bridge to Terabithia becomes a national ambassador for young people's literature. In an article appearing in The New York Times, writer Motoko Rich reports that Katherine Paterson's advice to children is simple: read more. Here is an except from the article:

... Ms. Paterson, who is perhaps best known for the novel Bridge to Terabithia, said it was reading that informed her future writing self. As the daughter of missionary parents in China, she read her way through her parents’ library of children’s classics by A. A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Kenneth Grahame and Frances Hodgson Burnett. “That is where the friends were,” she said, evoking her lonely childhood.

Now, as ambassador — a joint appointment by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book and Every Child a Reader, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Children’s Book Council, a trade association for children’s book publishers — Ms. Paterson hopes to share the unfettered pleasure that reading can deliver. The main advice she’ll be giving adults: Read aloud to your children. “You can read out loud, and if you’re exhausted or crying so hard because you know that Charlotte is going to die in the next chapter,” she said, “you can turn it over to the kid to read the next part.” (That’s Charlotte’s Web she’s talking about, of course.)

Ms. Paterson, 77, succeeds Jon Scieszka, the author of subversive picture books like The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, who was the first writer to hold the ambassador’s post. James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress who will officially appoint Ms. Paterson on Tuesday, said that he was pleased with Mr. Scieszka’s reign and that he looked forward to Ms. Paterson’s putting her own spin on the job.

Help for letter-writing, and silly word games

Sometimes books can be just silly fun to read. Playing with language can be a new way to explore words and their meanings -- here is a selection of books about language used in unexpected ways, from goofy sentences to word games. You can find these books by using the World Catalog and Amazon search boxes here on BookBag.

Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog! And Other Palindromes, by Jon Agee (Farrar Straus Giroux) Nonfiction. Palindromes are words, phrases, and sometimes whole sentences that read exactly the same backwards and forwards (read the title "Go Hang a Salami! I'm a Lasagna Hog!" backwards). This knee-slapper of a book is jam-packed with palindromes like "Mr. Owl ate my metal worm," each of them illustrated with its own cartoon. Word aficionados may also want to check out Elvis Lives, the author's book of anagrams, and his book of oxymorons, Who Ordered the Jumbo Shrimp?


The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster; illustrated by Jules Feiffer (Epstein & Carroll) Fantasy. Milo is bored--really bored. He just can't see the point in anything, so when a tollbooth appears in his bedroom out of nowhere, he blithely pays the toll and drives his toy car through...to a completely amazing and altogether unfamiliar place. Soon he's off on an adventure filled with peril, bizarre beasts, and its fair share of outright silliness, hoping to rescue twin princesses Rhyme and Reason and unite a divided kingdom. With more puns, wordplay, and over-the-top literalism than you can shake a stick at, this wondrous story is a word-lover's dream.


Regarding the Fountain: A Tale, in Letters, of Liars and Leaks, by Kate Klise (Avon Books) Fiction. Replacing a leaky water fountain should be simple, right? Dry Creek Middle School's principal thinks so when he requests a catalog from Flowing Waters Fountains, Etc. But in reply, artist and fountain designer Florence Waters informs him that all of her fountains are custom-made. Soon Ms. Waters is polling the fifth-graders for design ideas (they're in favor of auxiliary chocolate-milk dispensers) and planning an increasingly elaborate fountain ("Do you all have scuba gear?", she writes)--while a history class uncovers a sinister plot to halt the fountain's construction. Told entirely in letters, memos, transcripts, newspaper articles, and the like, this sublimely ridiculous story is filled with wordplay, puns, and clues to the mystery.


Word Nerd, by Susin Nielsen-Fernlund (Tundra Books) Fiction. As 12-year-old Ambrose's airways begin to constrict, he realizes that a trio of bullies have tampered with his sandwich and he visualizes the news headline "FRIENDLESS NERD KILLED BY PEANUT." Ambrose survives, but his panicked mom decrees that he'll be home-schooled from now on. While she works nights, Ambrose pesters their landlords' grown son, Cosmo, for lack of anything better to do. When Ambrose, who loves Scrabble and is constantly re-arranging letter combinations in his head, cons Cosmo into accompanying him to the weekly meetings of a Scrabble Club (without his mom's consent), neither of them has any idea of the misadventures ahead of them. Ambrose is a quirky, unforgettable character, and while anyone who likes a good laugh will enjoy this story, word nerds will love it.

Help for letter-writing

From Joanne Meier's weekly blog at the Reading Rockets website, here are some resources to help encourage and improve kids' letter-writing skills:

It is the time of year when many children sit down to write an important letter addressed to the North Pole. Other children pen thank you notes and party invitations during this busy time of the year. Some say letter writing is a lost art, but it doesn’t have to be!

An Introduction to Letter Writing covers activities for many common types of letter writing, including formal and informal letters, thank you notes, letters of complaint, and more. For kids who prefer to work online, or need a more step-by-step approach, try Read, Write, Think's Letter Generator. It's set up to help kids write either a friendly letter or a business letter.

For character-related fun, the Arthur section on the PBS Kids website has a Letter Writer Helper that shows kids the various parts of a "good old-fashioned" letter, an email, a greeting card, and a postcard. Staying within that site, kids can use Letters To to help them write to Arthur, Francine, Sue Ellen, or The Brain.

If you're wondering whether you have realistic expectations about your child's writing, some of the links within this section on Education.com can help you understand what to expect in writing by age and grade.

Whatever the reason for writing, hopefully these resources will help.

New & recent reads for tweens, and the Share Literacy program

With Christmas on the way it may seem difficult to find time to read, but the longer nights and colder weather make this a perfect time to curl up with a good book when you're not making out that Christmas list. Here are some new fiction and fantasy titles for tween readers, filled with adventure and exciting characters. Look for these books using the World Catalog and Amazon.com search boxes here on BookBag. There is also information and a link to the Share Literacy program, which provides reading materials for at-risk readers and their families.

Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Chlodenko (Dial Books) Historical Fiction. On Alcatraz Island in 1935, 12-year-old Moose Flanagan, son of a prison guard, finds a note in his laundry from inmate number 85 -- notorious gangster Al Capone. In the previous book Al Capone Does My Shirts, the famous thug supposedly pulled some strings to get Moose's autistic sister, Natalie, admitted into a special San Francisco boarding school. Now the mobster wants a favor in return ... and Moose is scared. Packed with schemes, shenanigans, and historically accurate details of life on Alcatraz, this is a fun and fascinating read.

The Islands of the Blessed, by Nancy Farmer (Atheneum Books) Fantasy. In this final book of the Sea of Trolls trilogy, apprentice bard Jack joins moody shield maiden Thorgil and the town Bard on a quest to put an enraged spirit from the sea to rest -- before it destroys their village. The trio must journey to Notland, the domain of the fin folk, and they meet with many enemies and adventures along the way. This exciting tale is filled with fantastic characters like mermaids, hobgoblins, and sea hags, and has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing -- and reading long past lights-out.

The Lost Conspiracy, by Frances Hardinge (HarperCollins) Fantasy. Hathin and her sister Arilou live in a coastal village with their people, an outcast tribe called the Lace who bejewel their teeth, smile constantly, and worship a trio of restless volcanoes on their island home, Gullstruck. After a representative of the Lost -- people who are able to disconnect their senses from their bodies and observe anything on the island -- comes to determine whether Arilou might be one of them, a tragedy sets the sisters against a whole host of enemies ... and on the run. If you like books that invent amazing worlds and societies and make you feel as though you're living in them -- well, welcome to Gullstruck.

Everything for a Dog, by Ann B. Martin (Felwel and Friends) Fiction. Fans of the book A Dog's Life, the story of a stray puppy named Squirrel, may have wondered what became of Squirrel's brother Bone after the two of them were separated. In Everything for a Dog, Bone is rescued, but that's just the beginning of his story of finding -- and losing -- a whole series of homes. Bone narrates chapters that alternate with the stories of two boys, Charlie and Henry, whose paths are about to cross with his in a most unexpected way. This touching tale is sure to satisfy animal lovers and fans of dog stories like Shiloh.

The Share Literacy program

Share Literacy promotes the development of reading and thinking skills. The California-based national program partners with agencies serving poverty-level and low-income families, after-school programs, and organizations providing ESL and adult literacy instruction. Over the past seven years, with the help of grants from several foundations and many individual donors, Share Literacy has served more than 150,000 disadvantaged children in the U.S.

Program goals:

• Improve literacy skills
• Encourage the development of higher-level thinking skills
• Ensure that every child participating in a Share Literacy program takes home at least one book to keep
• Improve parental knowledge and involvement in the development of their children's literacy
• Promote tolerance and understanding by using multicultural literature designed to teach problem-solving and commonality of human experience
• Improve teachers' instructional skills in the areas of early literacy and literacy training

The Share Literacy program provides books and training materials, plus professional development services, at cost. It relies on donations and grants to cover these costs to enable the program to continue and expand. Share Literacy chapters around the nation are administered by volunteers; 100% of contributions goes towards professional development training and materials for teachers and Home Literacy kits for children. To find out more about the program, visit the Share Literacy website.