Now I Know My ABC’s

By Andrea Jeppesen

Knowing the alphabet is a necessary precursor to learning how to read. Children who know their ABC’s before starting school have a huge advantage over those who don’t. Here is a list of some fun ways to help your child learn. If you have any other suggestions, please share! What fun things have you done at your house?

1. The Alphabet Song – point to the letters as you sing

2. Find the Letters on Everyday Objects – cereal boxes, at the store, around the house

3. Alphabet Coloring Pages – for example, (http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/mabcposter.html)

4. Letters of their Name - Start by just saying aloud the spelling of their name. If you can come up with a little song for the letters of their name then the learning is usually much faster. For example, if your child has a 5 letter name try replacing the letters of the song BINGO with the letters of your child’s name

5. Tracing Their Name – on paper, or in salt, sand, gel, fingerpaint, pudding, or shaving cream.

6. Tracing the Letters of the Alphabet – use same ideas as above

7. Playdough - roll out and make the letter (or use a toothpick to write the letter on the playdough).

8. Magnetic letters – on the fridge or cookie sheet

9. Matching Games – talk about the shapes of the upper and lower case letters. Are they the same or different?

10. Take your finger and trace the letters on the palm of the hand or on your child's back.

11. Practice using sticky notes and label objects in the house that begin with the letter.

12. Alphabet Stamps – useful for alphabet recognition, making words, and spelling

13. Eating the alphabet – form letters using vegetables, pretzels, potato sticks, and candy. Decorate cupcakes, cakes or cookies using frosting tubes to print letters. Squeeze mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, or jelly letters out of containers to enhance your food. Try Alphabits Cereal for breakfast and name the letters.

Sources:

Anderson, Sheila. Teach the Alphabet: 8 Fun Tips to Teach Your Child the Alphabet, 2009.

Mascle, Deanna. 15 Tips For Helping Children With Learning the Alphabet Letters, 2007.

Stolen Lives Book Review

Review Written by Kristen Smith

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail

By Malika Oufkir

So this is my first attempt at ever reviewing or reccomending a book to anyone. So, I am including the book review from Oprah's book club website. My mother-in-law read this book for her book and club and reccomended I read it as well.

The details of the book are included below so I will just share my brief thoughts. First off, this book opens your eyes to a world more foreign than I could wrap my mind around. The idea first that princesses and actual royalty that still exists. Second, the courage people have to stand up for what is right in countries where human rights don't carry a whole lot of weight. Third is the fight that exists in every human soul if allowed to persist and fourth the power of family.

You would think it was a fictional story by human rights activist trying to blow the whistle on how people are treated in some countries, if the women the story was about did not actually live today in Europe. Live being the key word. It opened my eyes to what is going on in the world that I have no idea about.

It is an incredible true story about one women's will to save her life and her families.

As far as ease of read goes, you won't want to put it down.. However, you can read it in spurts and it is suitable for most mature audiences. There are some things you would not want teenagers reading about. But you could read it first and help navigate them through those brutally honest and uncomfortable areas.

Announced May 16, 2001

An Introduction to Stolen Lives
The eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide, Malika Oufkir was adopted by the king at age of five as a companion for his daughter. She spent most of her childhood and adolescence within the gilded walls of the palace, living an extraordinarily privileged yet secluded life.

Her world was shattered on August 16, 1972, when her father was executed for his part in an attempt to assassinate the King. Along with her mother and five siblings, Malika, then nineteen, was imprisoned in a penal colony. The Oufkir family spent the next fifteen years in prison, the last ten in solitary confinement, until they managed to dig a tunnel and escape. Their freedom ended five days later, however, when they were captured and returned to prison. In 1996, after twenty-four years of incarceration, the Oufkir family was finally granted permission to leave Morocco.

In Stolen Lives, Malika recounts her family's story with unflinching and heartrending honesty. She recalls their day-to-day struggle for survival in harsh conditions, being watched around the clock by prison guards, and communicating with her family solely through prison walls for more than a decade. She tells of raising her brothers and sisters, teaching them good manners and attempting to provide them with some semblance of a normal life. They celebrated Christmas and birthdays, saving up rations to make cakes and fashioning toys out of cardboard. Through it all, Malika managed to draw upon her sense of humor, which, she says, "allowed us to survive even-and most of all-at the worst moments."

In the Preface to Stolen Lives, co-author Michˆle Fitoussi recalls that, upon first meeting Malika, she asked herself, "How can anyone appear normal after such suffering? How can they live, laugh, love, how can they go on when they lost the best years of their life as a result of injustice?" The answers are found in this poignant and inspiring account of a family who endured with courage, determination, and dignity the cruel and unjust circumstances fate had in store for them.

And the Winner Is...

After a very scientific selection process (that involved writing everyone's names on a post-it, folding them in half, depositing them in a small basket, and having Scott randomly draw a name), the monthly challenge winner is...

LISA MCGEE

Congratulations Lisa! We wish you the best of luck in beginning your own personal library--hopefully your gift card can help you get started.

For those of you who weren't as lucky, we'll be having a new challenge for this month. Read below to find out more...

All of us read. It might be a book, a magazine, or even an article in a newspaper. Whatever it is you read, we would love to hear about it. Essentially, this month's challenge is to share a book review with the literacy blog community. You can write a brief (or not-so-brief) review of something you've read lately and it will be posted on the blog for others to read and learn about.

Hopefully, most of you will be willing to share a review out of the goodness of your hearts, but for others it might take a bit more enticement. In order to entice those of you who might not be so good-hearted (just kidding, you can be good-hearted and still want a free book), for every review you submit this month, you'll be entered into another random drawing to win a copy of Long After Dark.

As the back of this fiction book states, "A man struggles--literally--with his dead father. A housewife suffers from post-calling depression. The son of a plygamist comes to terms with his upbringing. An unwed teen mother faces her father. In these award-winning stories and a new novella, Todd Robert Petersen takes the reader on expeditions to Utah, Arizona, Brazil, Rwanda, and into the souls of twenty-first-century Mormons caught between their humanity, faith, and church."

While I have not read the book, I have heard very good things about it, and I hope this month's winner will enjoy it!

So, in order to participate, all you need to do is write up a short review and e-mail it to Lonica2.blogforliteracy@blogger.com. I will post your review to share with others and you will automatically be entered to win this month's prize. What more could you want? Get started writing your review today! You only have until the 28th of February to participate.

One Last Day to Set a Goal

Don't forget that today is the last day to set a goal for our monthly challenge. Well, of course you could always set a goal later, but you wouldn't be part of the drawing for a $10 gift certificate. Check it out and participate here. Happy goal setting!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick created waves with his “picture book” The Invention of Hugo Cabret. At 530 pages long, this is definitely not your typical picture book (most picture books have a standard 32 pages). It is, however, a wonderful story—so wonderful in fact that it was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 2008, marking it as the most distinguished American picture book for children of the year.

Told with beautifully illustrated images, this story follows the adventures of Hugo as he strives to survive alone, lonely, and destitute in a Paris train station. With a talent for working on clocks and fiddling with machines, Hugo hopes to keep himself alive long enough to reconnect with his father by rebuilding an automaton he hopes will pass on a message from his father who died years earlier in a fire.

Along his quest to reconnect with his father, Hugo manages to get himself into a few scrapes, meet some new friends, discover some new truths, and find himself and loving and caring family. A tear jerker and heartwarming at the same time, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is not only a landmark literary creation, it is also an emotional story readers of all ages can enjoy.

Have you read a good book lately? Tell us about it! E-mail your review to Lonica2.blogforliteracy@blogger.com and it will be posted to blog.

The Hunger Games by Suzzane Collins

I recently read and devoured The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It was a great and quick read! Although, it’s a young adult novel, this work of fantasy/science fiction could easily be consumed by teens and adults alike. The story begins years into the future after the destruction of North America. In an effort to keep the newly-formed “districts” under control the Capital hosts a yearly “Hunger Games” event. Two teenagers from each district are selected to travel to the Capital and fight to the death in this Gladiator-like experience. When her younger sister is selected for the competition, Katniss volunteers to take her place, thus saving her sister’s life. But can Katniss save her own life? You’ll have to read to find out! I highly recommend this book to anyone. Although not much of a fan of science fiction, I found I could hardly put this book down. As a growing popular novel, you’ll want to find out for yourself what all the excitement is about.

Have you read a good book lately? Tell us about it! E-mail your review to Lonica2.blogforliteracy@blogger.com and it will be posted to blog.

An Introduction to YA Fiction

By Lonica Rowley

Young Adult or YA Fiction has a rather modern history, when compared with literature as a whole. While books that appeal to teenagers have always existed—think Anne of Green Gables, Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, and Little Women—it wasn’t until the 1950’s that books were thought of in terms of “young adult” novels. Some claim the creation of this literary category began with the writing of The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies. Although these books were originally intended for an adult audience, they quickly appealed to young adult readers as well. However, it wasn’t until the writing of The Outsiders--by an actual young adult author—that category really took off.

Despite its rather recent beginnings, the trend to read and write young adult fiction has grown exponentially. It now demands a large portion of the publishing market. Teenagers of today are surrounded by literary works of fiction that appeal and are written specifically for them.

This section of the fictional market should not be overlooked; these books shine with literary value and merit. Many writers, just as capable as any New York Times Bestselling Authors, focus their energies in appealing to a younger demographic. These books are valuable—to young adult and adult readers alike—for a number of reasons, many of which we will look at throughout this column. Come back often to learn more about this growing literary trend .