Before children learn to read on their own, the are building the foundation they will need TO learn to read. One of the things they're developing is their print awareness . Children are beginning to notice words all around them - on signs, in books, on boxes, - and that words have meaning. They're learning, too, how books and print work. There are lots of ways to help your child develop this skill. You can point out words and say what they mean. You can look for signs and ex

Look, it's well into February and I'm finally getting around to writing about my favorite books of the previous year! Let's just say that...

Oh, preschoolers are fun. They've got OPINIONS and FACTS (about dinosaurs and firetrucks and Disney characters) and THINGS TO TELL YOU. They can handle more complicated storylines, where the action doesn't all happen on the page or in the words. Stories can be more nuanced, the jokes less obvious. But still, they're young, so attention spans are short. We don't need paragraphs of text - 3 or 4 sentences a page, max. But their eyes can find more details in illustrations and so

In my monthly library program, I choose an early literacy theme on which to focus. In November it was vocabulary - or, more specifically,...

So, first, I admit, "babies" is a broad category. There is a difference between what a newborn might respond to versus a 9 month old...

*[cross-posted on In The Writer’s Web] I realized recently that two of my manuscripts have unreliable narrators. One is a “voice...

What do toddlers like in picture books? What kinds of books will keep them most engaged? Young toddlers are still developing their eyesight, so super-complicated images with lots of detail might be harder to decipher. They need more information spelled out in the text, and a simpler plot with fewer sentences - one or two per page - as their attention spans are short. VERY short. Toddlers, in general*, love: books with repeated refrains, simple concepts (counting, colors, numb