New Literacy Based Storytime Books!

Former ALD employee Kathy Totten has a new book out from Neal-Schuman, Family Literacy Storytimes. Kathy says the book is organized by theme, and she includes ways to use each book listed with 2 or 3 different literacy skills. She also has sample plans for each theme, focusing on just one literacy skill.

If you do a family storytime, especially a bilingual storytime, this book may be very useful to you.

Also, Saroj Ghoting, who wrote the "blue book" Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library, has another book out just this month: The Early Literacy Kit: A Handbook and Tip Cards. This sounds very cool and I can't wait to see the tip cards.

I've requested LMS purchase both titles for the branch professional collections, so keep your eyes out for them!

December Trainings

The December Training Calendar is now posted on StaffNet, so don't forget to take a look. Some classes you might be interested in are Homework Databases, and Patron Interview. There's also a new class required for PSSs called Basic Reader's and Viewer's Advisory.

December Training Calendar

SCBWI

That alphabet soup refers to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of which is having their annual fall conference on September 20-21, 2008 in Lakewood.

I would encourage you to check out their brochure and see if you'd be interested in attending! They have agents, editors, authors, and illustrators as speakers and lots of workshops and panels.

Even if you don't attend, it's good to keep the SCBWI in mind. We all occasionally get patrons who approach us about being readers for their manuscripts, or want us to answer questions about the state of children's publishing, and the SCBWI is a great referral in those situations.

In addition, Koelbel, Smoky, and Southglenn have copies of The Children's Writers' and Illustrators' Market, which can also be a help.