Bestselling Children’s Fiction

Publishers Weekly says…

the bestselling children’s fiction books are…

Click here to see what your friends are reading for fun!

Black Poetry Day

Maya Angelou. Sterling A. Brown. Lucille Clifton. Toi Derricotte. Paul Laurence Dunbar. Jessie Redmon Fauset. Angelina W. Grimke. Jupiter Hammon. Langston Hughes. Claude McKay. Anne Spencer. Ntozake Shange. Natasha Trethewey.Margaret Walker. Phyliss Wheatley.

Read a poem in honor of Black Poetry Day.

Three Cheers for Cheerios and Spoonfuls of Stories

Cheerios is at it again. For the seventh year in a row they’re putting five million specially sized books in Cheerios cereal boxes. For free. FIVE MILLION—that’s a whole lotta books!

Cheerios encourages kids to read AND is teaming with First Book to get brand-new books to low-income families.

This year’s books are: Duck for President, When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, Romeo and Lou Blast Off, Monkey and Me, and Diego’s Wolf Pup Rescue.

See the full article here.

Check out the Spoonfuls of Stories website here.

Check out the Cheerios for Kids website for reading fun, games, and downloads here.

Happy International Literacy Day!

Did you know today is International Literacy Day?

Now you do!

Here’s a link with fun reading ideas for kids.

Literary Smorgasbord or Book Buffet?

Summer still has me in par-ty-mode! I’m thinking a Literary Banquet would be fun. We could plan a whole meal or dessert around food from our favorite books.

Sam-I-Am has Green Eggs and Ham.

Charlie has a factory of chocolate delicacies.

Harry delights in Pumpkin Pasties, Licorice Wands, and Butterbeer (no, there’s not really beer in there).

Edmund is tempted by Narnia's Turkish Delight.

Mmm. Reading and food fun! How many food dishes from books can you think of?

Become a Reading Warrior!

Are you ready for a summer reading adventure?!?

Learn to identify your prey and where to hunt for it…

The Reading Warriors Summer Reading Challenge is rooted in the legends and adventures of the Cats and Clans in Erin Hunter’s best-selling series—Warriors.

Kids eight (96 moons) and over earn reward codes which can be used to earn exclusive Warriors rewards.

Explore new lands… Establish and defend territory… take the reading challenge today!

Reading Online Can Make Reading Books Fun

Scholastic just published an interesting report on kids and reading.

They discovered that lots of kids go online as part of their reading experience.

Mm hmm.

Kids do things like:
Look for books by authors they like.
Find other books in a series.
Visit fan sites.
Check out sites that are about books they like.
Connect with classmates and friends online about books.
Search for and sample books online.
Write their own book review.

Hey! That’s what we do here!

It turns out, kids who go online are more likely to read a book for fun everyday. And, they value and enjoy reading more than kids who don’t.

Also, even though kids like to go online to read… they still love books printed on paper best!

I’m thinking this means you should visit cheriwilliams.com daily ;0)

From Reading Fun… To Disney Vacation

Woo hoo! Scholastic is giving away four trips to Walt Disney World!

Kids in grades PreK–8 who read and log 4 or more books can enter.

September 1st is the deadline. Winners will be randomly selected. It’s easy to enter!

Oooh, check out the bookshelf games while you’re there.

I gotta go find my kids…

Harry Potter Prequel?

Have you heard? J.K. Rowling wrote a “prequel” to the infamous Harry Potter series. It’s just one scene and it takes place long before Harry hits Hogwarts.

I haven’t decided how I feel about it—except that because it’s handwritten, it’s kinda hard to read. The 800-word story card was sold at a charity auction. You can read it here.

Just thought you should know!

Tomorrow, I’ll get back to finding fun books.

Finding Fun Books – Part 4

One thing I really like to do is go to a real live book store—like Borders or Barnes and Noble (click on the store name to find a store near you).

I walk up and down the aisles picking up anything that grabs my interest. Then, I find a comfy seat, a stool, or even sit right on the floor (sometimes, I hang out in the coffee shop!) and dig in.

It’s totally okay to look through the books and read them for awhile. This is the absolute best way to decide if you’re going to like a book!!!

I have to ask, does anyone else out there LOVE the way books smell? I’m not saying I do or anything.

Really.

I’m just wondering ;0)

Finding Fun Books – Part 3

Oh, yeah—I forgot to tell you something. Even though I’m numbering these posts, they’re really not in any kind of order. Like, number one isn’t necessarily my favorite. I totally love all of them!

Okay. Another way I find fun books is listening to kids. Lots of places have book lists, but my very favorite ones are the ones where kids pick the best books.

Here are just a couple:

The Children’s Book Council and the International Reading Association ask 10,000 schoolchildren to select their favorite books. It’s called the Children’s Choice Book Awards. The kids actually vote—sweet!

And...

Bearemy, of Build-A-Bear fame, has a book club. It’s called Bearemy’s Book Club, imagine that! He lists his favorite books and kids can review and rate books. It’s beary cool! (There’s a Games and Stories area too!).

If you have time, let me know your favorite books and I'll make a list of them too!

Finding Fun Books – Part 2

Another way I find fun books is to visit Amazon.com.

First, find the Search box and click the down arrow. Then, choose Children’s Books and click on Go.

You can search by Title, Author, Category, Age, or Price. If you click on Advanced Search, there are even more choices.

I always find something that looks great!

The thing I like about Amazon is that they have a thing called Search Inside. It’s so cool! I can see the book’s front and back covers, the front and back flaps, and the table of contents.

The best part is that I can actually read part of the book to make sure that it really is fun. It’s like a sneak preview!!!

You can thank me later ;0) Happy searching!

Finding Fun Books – Part 1

Okay, this is my little secret, but… I’m going to share it with you.

I’m whispering with my most whispery voice… so listen close.

To find a fun book I go to the Renaissance Learning website. It lets me search by topic, book level, AR points, fiction, nonfiction, even by publisher.

Like, I can search for humor, 5th grade, 1 point (which is pretty short) and get a whole list of suggestions.

Or, fantasy 3rd grade, 5 points and get a completely different list.

No more reading boring books!!!

It’s awesome.

Click on Renaissance Learning or click here! You can also check it out at cheriwilliams.com.

Speaking of Favorites…

The Renaissance Learning web site made a list of the books kids read most. They are:

· 1st Grade - Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

· 2nd Grade - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

· 3rd Grade - Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

· 4th Grade - Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

· 5th Grade - Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

· 6th Grade - Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

· 7th & 8th Grade - The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

· 9th - 12th Grades - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

You can read the full report, “What Kids Are Reading,” here.

I need to get busy. There are still a few on this list I haven’t read!

What about you? Have you read some?

I’d love to know what you thought about them!

Click on the word comment below to let me know. You can choose to be anonymous if you don’t want to share your name.

Fourth Graders Rock!

Last Friday I hung out with fourth graders. Totally awesome and amazing fourth graders!

They blew my mind… I was there to teach them about writing fiction, but they taught me!

These kids are readers and writers, and boy do they know their stuff.

Here’s a list of their favorite kinds of books (in their own words):

Adventure, Comedy, Comic Books, Drama, Fantasy, Funny, Girls Lit (we made that one up), Historical Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mystery, Mythology, Realisitc Fiction, Scary, and Tragedy.

Tragedy. Whoa!

Their favorite genre?

Mystery.

They really like fantasy and scary stuff too.

Sweet.

I couldn’t believe all the different books they’ve read. The list is huge. Care to guess their favorites? Click below in comments to make a guess.

I’ll announce it tomorrow.

I'll also tell you the one thing they really, really don’t like.

Reading Tips From Kids

This is cool… Reading Rockets asked kids for advice!

Here’s what kids wish parents knew:

1) I want to pick out my own books!

2) Goals and rewards are good. Encourage me.

3) Seeing Mom and Dad read gets me interested too.

4) Make it fun!!! Read to me.

5) Make reading special one-on-one time with me.

What do you guys think? Is this true?

You can read the full article here, if you want. Then, tell your mom and dad what you think!

Free Disney World vacation?!?

Ooh-baby! I don’t know how I’m gonna top this. Kids reading with their parents AND a chance to win a FREE trip to Disney World!

Reading is Fundamental and US Airways have partnered and put on the Read With Kids Challenge.



P.S. If you win… let me know. Cuz I wanna go!!! ;0)