In Canada, today, January 27, 2012, is Family Literacy Day. What a great day to share a picture book written by members of a family! Title: Dumpy the Dump Truck Author: Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton Illustrator: Tony Walton Publisher: New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2000.
A wonderful way to encourage children’s enjoyment of reading and being read to is to share poetry with them from an early age. My mother and I loved to recite poetry to and with each other, and we shared poetry together until her last days. In the last couple of years of her life, one of the books we turned to most often was this anthology, which has something for everyone.
I am a firm believer in the importance of the arts in children’s lives. That is perhaps readily recognizable through the tagline of my blog, “Writing, Reading, the Arts, and Life.” For me, those four things are inextricably entwined. Drama, dance, music, the visual arts – they all have the capacity to enhance a child’s self-esteem. They also have the capacity to enhance a child’s appreciation of and understanding of the written and spoken word.
Since this week Emma Walton Hamilton is “In The Spotlight” on my blog, she is the subject of my Wednesday Worthy post today. I first became aware of Emma through the books she has co-written with her mother (I had delighted in her mother’s books for years prior to that). Then Emma started writing a blog, which I followed, and learned from, and commented on. Emma’s blog focuses on writing, and I have learned a great deal simply from reading her blog. When I learned that Emma had an online/home study course on how to write a picture book, I was intrigued, but it took a couple of rejection letters on the first manuscript I’d been brave enough to send to publishers for me to realize that perhaps it would be a good idea to try Emma’s course. It was more than a good idea. It was an excellent idea.
It’s all very well for me to sit here and say, “Get your kids to enjoy reading!” “Reading is important!” “Make reading a joyful experience!” I can hear you all the way from wherever you’re sitting saying, “But HOW?” It would be nice if it was as simple as making sure kids have access to books, and modeling the enjoyment of reading. Certainly these are important factors, but they don’t do it all. After those magical, clickable words ‘read more’ (so appropriate in this case), I’ll give a few suggestions and a few links that may help in the care and feeding of the bookworms-in-the-making in your life.
This is the first post in what will become a regular monthly feature on my blog, “In The Spotlight.” During the last full week of each month, I will devote all three regular posts to spotlighting the work of one particular author or organization, or will focus on one particular topic. This inaugural “In The Spotlight” week features a double focus (plus a bonus!) One day last spring while I waited to board a plane in Minneapolis, I sat reading Emma Walton Hamilton’s book Raising Bookworms: How to Get Your Kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment. A man sitting near me got my attention by asking, “Are you a teacher?” (No, although I certainly considered teaching as an option.) He then said, “I wish I’d had that book when my son was growing up.” He told me that when his son was very small, he loved books. He loved being read to, he loved reading – until he got to school, where somehow he got the message that real boys don’t like reading. The man in the airport told me, with more than a tinge of regret in his voice, that his son was only now starting to read for enjoyment again. His son is 30. I, too, wish that Raising Bookworms had been available to that man to counteract the wrong thinking that so influenced his son.
