New Page Added: Teaching Dickens and Drama

Ghost of Christmas Present and Ebeneza Scrooge

Charles Dickens

Checkout our NEW page:  Teaching Dickens and Drama.  Although this is a work in process, and we are still Under Construction there are some great links and PowerPoint presentations to aid in teaching Drama and Dickens.  Visit Teaching Dickens and Drama.  Let us, here at The Things You Can Read, know if these resources are useful!

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Holiday Season in Full Swing: Book Lover Gift Giving Tip # Five

Tarcher/Penguin

As we all look for unique ways to share our love of books this holiday season we, here at The Things You Can Read, have been scouring the Internet to locate unusual gifts for book lovers to give children and adults of all ages.  Here is one smaller gift that is perfect for the stocking.  Check out these inspirational card decks that are inspired by three Tarcher/Penguin books:  The Artists Way, Think and Grow Rich, and The Science of the Mind.  Check out the Tarcher/Penguin site and view samples of the cards.  

Happy Reading and Gift Buying!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Holiday Season in Full Swing: Book Lover Gift Giving Tip # Four

Happy Holidays!  Well, today's tip for from our series on Book Lovers Gift Giving is for the true blue Hobbit fan!  Drum roll please...your very own Hobbit Hole.  Yes, if you really want to make a Tolkian Fan's Christmas, purchase them their very own Hobbit Hole!  Think of all the reading you could get done inside a replica of Bilbo Baggin's home. 

 Check it out on Etsy!  Don't forget to tell us the name of your favorite Tolkian novel!  We are partial to The Hobbit.

Happy Reading and Gift Buying!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Take Your Child to a Bookstore: December 1, 2012

For a third consecutive year, December 1 is Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day!  According to takeyourchildtoabookstore.org roughly 400 stores took part in this event last year, and this year they expect the number to be even higher!  Many participating bookstores are offering treats, giveaways, and gift certificates, so get in on the experience, and take your child to your favorite bookstore.

For further information on this event, which includes an interactive map of participating stores, head on over to takeyourchildtoabookstore.org.  Let us know, here at The Things You Can Read, the name and location of your favorite bookstore, just in case we are in the neighborhood.  Happy Visiting!

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Holiday Season in Full Swing: Book Lover Gift Giving Tip # Three

As we all look for unique ways to share our love of books this holiday season we, here at The Things You Can Read, have been scouring the Internet to locate unusual gifts for book lovers to give children and adults of all ages.and then we remembered about our great find back in October during Banned Book Week.  Take a peek at theses great looking pieces:

Banned Book Jewelry: Bracelet, Necklace, and Pin

Features covers of books that have been banned in libraries. Titles include: Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, Color Purple, Howl, Alice in Wonderland, Go Ask Alice, Annie on My Mind.

Checkout Amazon for each of these items!  Hey, dont forget to let us know the title of your favorite banned book!

Happy Reading and Gift Buying!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Dickens in December

During the month of December join the folks celebrating Dickens in December.  Beauty is a Slepping Cat and Postcards from Asia are hosting the event.  The event includes book and movie reviews, a read-along, and two give-aways.  You can pick your Dickens novel or you can join the read-along.  You decide.  Checkout the hosting blogs and consider reading Dickens in December.  Let us know, here at The Things You Can Read, the title of your favorite Dickens Novel.  Ours is Great Expectations. 

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Holiday Season in Full Swing: Book Lover Gift Giving Tip # Two

As we all look for unique ways to share our love of books this holiday season we, here at The Things You Can Read, have been scouring the Internet to locate unusual gifts for book lovers to give children and adults of all ages. Our decision to do this is rather fortuitous, since we want our gifts to our children to be both educational and fun!   

Now, today's tip is a dossy.  Take a peek at these wonderful pictures from Spineless Classics.  Now wait.  Did you notice something?  These pictures contain the entire text of the novel!  Really!  They do.  Here is how the Spineless Classics describes them:

Imagine a whole book on a single sheet. A bold art print on which, up close, you can read the full and complete text of your favourite classic work, right from "It was the best of times" to "a far, far greater thing". Take the words of a classic book and hang them on your wall!

 

Yes, these lovely posters can decorate the bedroom of both young and old alike.   Checkout the Spineless Classics website.  Don't forget to let us know what you think of your favorite book on a single page!  Which one would you purchase first?  We love so many of them, but our very favorite classics are missing...so make sure you sign-up for their newsletter, if you don't see your favorite amongst the offerings.  Maybe our most favorite classics will be added in the very near future.

We would be remiss, if we did not thank Blogs of a Blogaholic for sharing this find!  Please checkout this wonderful blog, as well as  Spineless Classics.

Happy Reading and Gift Buying!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Holiday Season in Full Swing: Book Lover Gift Giving Tip # One

As we all look for unique ways to share our love of books this holiday season we, here at The Things You Can Read, plan on sharing unusual gifts for book lovers to give children and adults of all ages. What made us think of this?  Well, we took notice of a, new to us, book, which we ran across as we perused possible book choices to give our preschool aged children for Christmas.   Take a peek at these three wonderful picture "pop-up" books, perfect for holiday gift giving, for young and old alike.  Yes, there are adults out there that collect pop-up books and if you are one of them,  Louise Rowe's paper cut outs are amazing.  Checkout the illustrator's, website.  Don't forget to let us know what you think of Brother's Grimm going pop-up!

Happy Reading and Gift Buying!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Macmillan's 12 Days of Christmas in November!

Hey, Macmillan is offering 12 Days of Christmas, but not in December.  This spectacular giveaway started on November 12 and ends on November 29, 2012.  What's that you say?  Well, for twelve days during the month of November Macmillan is offering wonderful giveaways of children's books.  Unfortunately, we are a little late in participating, so there are only seven days of giveaways left, but take advantage of the remaining offers.  Take a peek.  It's not too late to enter!    

Macmillan Children's has a book for everyone on your list!

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Hygiene and Classics?

Herman Melville

Who would'a thought that reading the first paragraph of  Moby Dick by Herman Melville would increase handwashing!  Well, the collaboration between Herman Melville and Allegheny County Helalth Department in Pennsylvania has proven that if you start washing your hands and reading the excerpt from Moby Dick at the same time, you should be nice and clean by the time you finish reading!  Why was this implimented?  Well, according to the Literary Classics Handwashing Awareness Campaign, here is the rationale behind the campaign:

A campaign to promote handwashing dubbed the Literary Classics: A New Kind of Reading Material for Public Restroomswon the Health Department the prestigious J. Howard Beard Award from the National Association of County and City Health Officials way back in 1999.

A major outbreak of shigellosis — an intestinal illness often associated with poor handwashing practices — prompted ACHD and a local ad agency to develop a series of restroom posters that were based on the works of famous authors like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville and promoted handwashing in an amusing way.  Shigellosis cases dropped dramatically and surveys found handwashing rates to be much higher in restrooms where the posters were displayed.

If you want to impliment this idea at home, here are a few more posters that have worked in the past...

Charles Dickens

Jane Austen

L. Frank Baum

For more posters check out the Literary Classics Handwashing Awareness Campaign!

Happy Reading and Washing!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

Books as ART?

Antiquarian Book Collage by Alexander Korzer-Robinson

We admit that we, here at The Things You Can Read, are visual folks, which is probably why we are so impressed with the work of Alexander Korzer-Robinson.  Over at Flavorwire you can view ten of Alexander Korzer-Robinson's scultptural antiquaian book collages.  The artist is attracted to the medium because of the randomness of the elements.  However, it doesn't look so random to us.  We, don't know about you, but cutting up an old book seems like a scary prospect, but after viewing what Korzer-Robinson is able to create you might think differently.  Enjoy these gorgoues one-of-a-kind creations over at Flavorwire. or take a peek at the artist's website.  Let us, Here at The Things You Can Read, know what you think of the collages!

Antiquarian Book Collage by Alexander Korzer-Robinson

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

How to Make a Child a Reader

Agree or disagree, but here is what James Patterson, the author of the YA Maximum Ride Series, has to say about How to Make Your Child a Fanatic Reader,

"Sorry, moms and dads, but it's your job -- not the schools' -- to find books to get your kids reading and to make sure they read them." 

This is a subject that is near and dear to our hearts, here at The Things You Can Read.  As a teacher and parent, we want all "our children" to be readers.  Over at Nerdy Book Club there is an excellent post by Julie Falatko, who is a mother, blogger, and reviewer of children's books, on this very subject.  Take a peek.    What are your thoughts on this subject?  Let us know!  We will close with another quote from James Patterson, the prolific author, who has this additional comment on the subject:

"Here's a simple but powerful truth that many parents and schools don't act on: The more kids read, the better readers they become."

Make time to read to or with your child this weekend!


Where to find books your kids will gobble up?

ReadKiddoRead.com

GuysRead.com

Oprah.com's Kids Reading List 

American Library Association 

Young Adult Library Services Association 

DropEverythingandRead.com-has a "Favorite D.E.A.R. Books" tab on its home page.
Also, don't forget your local libraries and bookstores

Final Tip:  According to Patterson, "Kids and parents should visit Scholastic and other book fairs. Free or low-cost books for schools are available (while supplies last) at ReadKiddoRead.com, FirstBook.org, and ReadertoReader.org."

Happy Reading!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!

November is Picture Book Month! Come Celebrate

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children's picture book designed, illustrated and written Eric Carle, first published by the World Publishing Company in 1969, later published by Penguin Putnam.

Did you know that November is Picture Book Month?  Well, it is, and boy, has Candlewick Press embraced this idea.  Over at Candlewick Press they have initiated a yearlong campaign entitled We Believe in Picture Books.  Their website for this is Reading Starts Here.  For 365 days the site will celebrate a picture book a day.  On Saturday, November 10 at 1:00 PM they will also be featuring, "...a book symposium featuring three illustrators who have worked successfully both on screen and in books."  Check it out.  

As if this wasn't enough, in Candlewick's recent newsletter they mention another site entitled Picture Book Month Celebration, which has a wonderful series of posts on Why Picture Books are Important.  Check this out, as well.  

Hey, what is your favorite picture book?  Let us know, here at The Things You Can Read.

Happy Picture Book Month!
The Things You Can Read

Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, and the Power of Books!