Friday, January 16, 2009

Around the interwebs on a cold, cold day

It's too cold to do anything but sit in front of my happy little laptop. Or, that's what I'm telling myself anyway. Here's what I've been surfing lately:

MotherReader's got her reflections on the Cybils and she points us to a post at Children's Literature Book Club that sums up the experience of serving on a panel.

Sarah over at The Reading Zone is encouraging everyone to peruse the book Readacide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It (link opens a PDF preview of the book) by Kelly Gallagher and then join in the discussion happening via blog tour next week.

Teresa's posting on the ALSC blog about additions to Great Websites for Kids. This is good to know if you have a kids' page on your library website. It might be time to update those links!

There's an article in the Idaho Statesman about the potentially lost art of cursive handwriting: Can't read cursive? You are not alone. I've talked about it with several coworkers over the past couple weeks. While legible penmanship is important, part of me wants to say that in a society where things are increasingly required to be typewritten... who cares if you know cursive?
(Via The Reading Zone)

And whew, I'm really delayed in linking to this one, but Bill of Literate Lives posted about a really interesting program he did in his school library: The Amazing Library Race. Based on The Amazing Race, he creates clues that require kids to find books on the shelves. Complete with a roadblock challenge and a prize for the fastest teams, this is a great idea for engaging kids at the library.

That's what I've been reading around the interwebs lately... what about you??