| November
2004
Dear
Fellow Book Lovers:
WILD
ABOUT BOOKS
Children's
Book Week is celebrated each November to promote books, children
and the love of reading. Let's Book is the
2004 theme, and libraries all across the nation will display
and distribute the promotional materials available from the
Children's Book Council (www.cbcbooks.org/cbw).
This special week is a time to get creative with programming
and allow children of all ages to go wild with book ideas.
Wild
About Books by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Marc Brown
is a good way to get young patrons excited about books. Something
literally amazing happens when librarian Molly McGrew drives
her bookmobile into the zoo, and pulls out a copy of her favorite
Dr. Seuss. The playful, rhyming text, and the warm, friendly,
and funny illustrations appeal to the natural sense of humor
in children. "In a flash, every beast in the zoo was
stampeding to learn all about this new something called reading."
Here are a few programming ideas to Let's Book
with Wild
About Books:
- Create a mural with zoo animals. Children may want to
use paper of various colors to cut out silhouettes of animals.
Have them draw in the features of each animal.
- Ask children to think of an appropriate title for each
of their animals to read. For example, the elephant may
be reading Horton
Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss, or The
Story of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff; the lion may read
The
Lion King, a Little Golden Book, or The
Happy Lion by Louise Fatio; the wolf may read Peter
and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev and Janet Schulman.
- Ask children to vote on their favorite animal stories,
and then print an Animal Bookmark for distribution in the
library.
- Have children dress as their favorite animal. Sponsor
a Wild
About Books animal parade. Children should carry their
favorite book in the parade.
- Sponsor a writing contest, and ask children to select
one of the animals from Wild
About Books and write a story about why they would like
that animal as a pet. For example, Why I would Like
a Zebra for a Pet.
- Have a fact or fiction trivia contest. List interesting
facts or myths about the animals in Wild
About Books and allow children the opportunity to guess
whether the statement is fact of fiction. For example, a
hippo loves wallowing in the mud.
- Some of the animals in Wild
About Books become authors. For example, the python
writes a story called "Mice are Nice," the porcupine
writes "The Famous Porcupine Spy." Ask children
to pick an animal and write the story that the animal might
write. Talk with children about the purpose of a dedication
page in books. Then ask them to write an appropriate dedication
in the book the animal writes.
- The animals build a Zoobrary at the end of the book. Ask
children to select 5 works of nonfiction about animals to
be included in the library.
- Write a letter to Molly McGrew that the animals might
write to her thanking her for introducing them to books
and reading.
- Connect fantasy to real life by reading aloud True Animal
Tales by Rolf Harris. Then ask children to share something
about their pets. Encourage them to bring in pictures of
their pets, and ask them to find at least 5 books (fiction
or nonfiction) about similar animals.
Whatever
you do in your libraries to celebrate Children's Book Week,
ask local bookstores to publicize your programs, and display
books that connect to your celebration. This way, the entire
community can Let's Book together.
You may email me
at pscales@scgsah.state.sc.us.
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