FABULOUS BLOG TOUR

There's a terrific blog tour going on this week. It's called SHARE A STORY, SHAPE A FUTURE. The calendar for the entire week is here. This morning, as part of the series, the READING ZONE has a post on READ-ALIKES. The READ ALIKE idea is exactly what we've been trying to do with the book stepladders, "If you liked …, you might also like…" Yesterday, I also especially enjoyed a piece on GIFTED READERS, and one on STRUGGLING READERS. Today, MaryLee's piece on USING NONFICTION IN READ ALOUD was terrific! Oh heck, actually they've all been terrific! Check out this fabulous series!!!!

STEPLADDERS UPDATED

It's been really fun to read people's comments about creating book stepladders for kids. I think, if I knew what I was doing, I could create a sidebar link, but I just have to figure out how. Until I do that, I guess I will update it this way. People had some great ideas today. Here are the latest and greatest updated lists:

Junie B.- Junie B., Moxy Maxwell, Judy Moody, Clementine, Ruby Lu (Oohh, I love when I hear about books I don't know at all), Amber Brown, Ramona

Male version of Junie B.- Stink, Marvin Redpost, Zac Files, Jake Drake, Alvin Ho

Captain Underpants- Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Just! (Andy Griffiths' series), Diary of a Part Time Indian

Friendship- Frog and Toad, Pinky and Rex, Ivy and Bean

Dog Books- Henry and Mudge, Down Girl and Sit series (I don't know either of these), Leanin' Dog, Where the Red Fern Grows

Fantasy- Time Warp Trio, Billy Hooten Owl Boy, Gregor the Overlander, Atheron, Percy Jackson (series), House of Rowan (series)

Mystery- A to Z mysteries, James Patterson

Sports- Matt Christopher, Dan Gutman, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, Mike Lupica

Keep sending your ideas and I will keep updating the lists. I will also try to figure out, soon, how to do the lists as a sidebar link (if that is what you call them- remember I'm still a little slow in the hip and with-it department!)

STEPLADDERS

This morning I'm thinking about stepladders. No, not actual stepladders, although those are certainly a constant in this not quite 5 foot woman's life. This morning, I'm thinking about a concept I'm calling BOOK STEPLADDERS. It is, as my friend JoAnn would say, an infant idea, or maybe it's an idea someone else has already been nursing for years, but this morning it's on my thinking radar screen.

I'm thinking of book stepladders as mini-collections of books that help kids step into the big wide world of literacy. For instance, say a reader loves JUNIE B. JONES. I'd like, as a teacher, for her to hang out with Junie B. for a while, but at some point I also want to be ready to help her take one step up as a reader (that phrase doesn't feel quite right to me, it kind of implies a hierarchy of easier and harder books, with harder ones being better, and that's not exactly what I mean, but it's Sunday morning, and church, and the grocery store and housework are screaming my name and I don't have time to play with it). If I were thinking in terms of stepladders, I might offer MOXY MAXWELL, or the CLEMENTINE SERIES, then maybe AMBER BROWN, or RAMONA. After that, I might try to move this reader out into the world of authors, e.g. Barbara O'Connor.

Thinking about some of the other readers in my life: a stepladder might start with CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, but would also include the WIMPY KID series, and Sherman Alexie's DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN. There are probably other steps in there between WIMPY KID and INDIAN, but I have to think about them some more. I envision setting up book stepladders by subject (e.g. books about horses, or genre, or author, or ???).

As someone who loves children's books, and loves to read, I can do some of this without even thinking. I know lots and lots of kids' books, and it's not that hard for me to reach into the book bag in my head, and pull out a book that matches a particular reader with authors and genre I love, e.g. realistic or historical fiction. There are certain other genre, however, fantasy, animal fantasy, or science fiction, that I don't love, and don't read as regularly, where I would have a harder time applying this concept.

I'm also thinking about my colleagues who don't know and love children's literature like I do. How might I organize this information (database?, online?) in ways that would support them? How could I draw on the expertise of my friends in kids' litosphere to create bunches of book stepladders for educators and librarians to use?

I'd love to hear other people's thinking on this topic…