Kid Konnection

Kid Konnection    is a Saturday feature hosted by Booking Mama, where she says we can post anything  related to children's books.  I hope that's true, because this is pretty random.

On Tuesday  afternoon, I took  off work to ride to Reno with the Handyman.   It's a 2 1/2 hour drive and I usually like to go with him so I have a 2 1/2 hour forced reading time without interruptions.   OH....and the pleasure of his company of course.

Before we took off, I grabbed   The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease off of my shelf. 

I've read this many times--I have 5 of the six editions.... yes, it sounds a bit obsessive ( aren't all bookworms?), but I was a children's librarian for a lot of years,  I LOVED that job, and it's just carried over into my real life.

I just felt the need to reacquaint myself with some good children's literature.
If you are a parent, grandparent or someone who just loves books and would like to see a child  'discover the pleasures of lifetime reading'   (quote from Goodreads)  then this book is for you.
I first read it when my oldest son was about  6 years old--he is  32 now--and I began, what was for me, some of the best times I had with my children.   Reading.    At bedtime always,  sometimes at breakfast, when they were sick, in the car and for one summer at the dinner table. (that didn't last, because by the time the chapter was done, everyone had finished their plates but me  and I was left to eat alone--BUT, they all remember that summer,  that's the important part, so it was well worth eating alone, I guess.  It's  a great memory for all of us.  One of the books we read that summer, was THE BFG by Roald Dahl.    He liked human beans and my boys thought that was the funniest thing.)

Goodreads says this of the Read-Aloud-Handbook:
For more than two decades, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease's beloved classic to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. Now this new edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook imparts the benefits, rewards, and importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research, The Read-Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies—and the reasoning behind them—for helping children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers


I bought it years ago and keep buying the new editions (and  also check out his webpage every few weeks) for the lists.  He updates the lists of great read-alouds with each new edition.  I haven't been a children's librarian for more than 15 years now, but I've been a grandma for 10, so I like to keep up on what's new in children's books.
 Kid Konnection is a really good place to keep up on good children's books too.   Especially, if you are like me, love the genre, but don't have young children, don't work in the field anymore or don't subscribe to the School Library Journal.

After re-reading it on the way to Reno, I came home and did two things.

1) I decided to put all my children's books into alphabetical order by the author's last name. 

I began laying them out on the bed in stacks by the author's last name (The grandkids room, which is a spare bedroom upstairs and  the books are on the closet shelves).... but.... I have one problem.  

What am I going to do with the rest of the shelves?  Where am I going to stack them??    (please disregard the wrapping paper tub on the floor of the closet,  I'll have to find  another place for that.)

Anyway...the books on the bed are all from one shelf only as you can tell!!  
I don't think I can stack all the rest on the bed. I'm not sure what I got myself in to.
This looks like a huge job to me!  But I know that when I'm done I'll really like it being so organized.
2) The second thing I did was,    I impulsively ordered a few new books from Amazon.  New  'good read alouds.'  Because I want to be  known as  the  book grandma.   The Library Gramma!!


This is what I ordered --and they came today--all recommended by Jim Trelease author of the Read Aloud Handbook.

Originally published as four separate picture books, these stories featuring twins Jimmy and Janet are now newly illustrated and bound together in one volume.

Henk was hidden on the farm when he was young and the Nazi soldiers came. But the war is over now, and Henk finds out that the people he lives with, the people he loves, are not his real family. He doesn't remember his real parents, and now a new life in the city lies ahead of him. Will things ever be the same?

Donald Zinkoff is one of the greatest kids you could ever hope to meet. He laughs easily, he likes people, he loves school, he tries to rescue lost girls in blizzards, he talks to old ladies. The only problem is, he's a loser.

A harrowing account of a town that surrenders its humanity. "A frightening and compelling story about prejudice, ignorance and hysteria."--

There is quite an age range there, but my grandkids range in age already, and I have one more on the way, so...

like I said--these look like great read-alouds.

And.....I might have ordered 3 more books--coming soon.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!  I can't wait to see those babies and read, read, read.

(disclosure:  I keep saying babies and they are five of them ages,  3, 5, 10.  I can't help myself. )

here are a couple of them now...

My little Cassie Roo.  (I added the Roo, her parents did not) 

She loves those pattern books.

My youngest son, reading to his babies  (who are now 3) 

(they were premies and it always amazes me what 1 pound difference can look like. Eli wieghed about  10oz more than his sister)

 

This is that same sister, Emerson, walking home from the library earlier this spring.

I love having readers in the family.

I love reading to them too.