Books and turkey in November? Yes! As well as Thanksgiving, your family can celebrate 30 days of National Family Literacy Month. Since 1994, the National Center for Families Learning, which organizes the event, has “joined libraries, schools and educational programs across the country” to host family-centered reading activities, according to its website.
Reading Together for National Family Literacy Month
“In my experience, parents can encourage literacy by doing two things: modeling a love of reading and integrating it into your lifestyle,” said Desaray Mnyandu, a mother of four in New Carrollton, Maryland. She is also president of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington and a children’s author, illustrator and art teacher.
Mnyandu and her husband, the assistant director of Howard University’s Center for African Studies, created a rich pre-literacy environment when their children were tots. They read aloud to them, frequently, sharing print books rather than e-books or material on screens.
Research has long supported the link between reading aloud to young children and their later development as readers and language users.
Now, 11, 9, 6 and 4 years of age, the Mnyandu children are avid readers, with a range of interests. Below, Mnyandu shared what’s helped make reading a joyous experience in her family:
- Regular visits to the local library.
- Parents choose an article in a newspaper every week for the older children to read aloud, with the whole family discussing it. Age-appropriate topics might be new zoo animals, space exploration or historical events.
- Daily reading time. For 30-45 minutes, older kids might silently read their chosen book while a parent or older sibling reads aloud to younger ones.
- Reading aloud a chapter book, like “Matilda” or “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” to the whole family and then seeing the movie and comparing the two.
- Letting children see parents reading and discussing books. Having books for kids and adults in the home. Listening to audiobooks in the car.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach,” said Mnyandu. “Find what works for your family and make literacy feel like a natural (and hopefully enjoyable) part of everyday life.”
For more ideas, explore Washington Parent’s How to Get Kids to Love to Read.
For added fun, your family might dive into some books about books: playful, lively, even illuminating.
National Family Literacy Month books: Tots to age 7
The Bad Seed Goes to the Library
By Jory John
Interior illustrations by Saba Joshanghani
Harper, 2022, $5.99
The Bad Seed loves his local library, where he happily checks out the perfect book. At home, he reads it again and again and refuses to return it when due. Youngsters with their own beloved books will empathize with the naughty seed, whose expressive face hilariously reveals his every mood. This book is a wonderful read-aloud for the whole family. It’s sure to spark giggles and discussion of personal favorites and proper library behavior. (True to his name, the Bad Seed is sometimes ultranoisy, bouncy and sneaky.)
“There is no Frigate like a Book/To take us Lands away,” proclaimed the great poet Emily Dickinson. More than 150 years later, two acclaimed storytellers have written a tale that does exactly that. On a bleak, boring day, Alice wishes she were somewhere else and immediately finds herself, literally, in a picture book. Moreover, every time she wishes for a change a place less dusty, say, or quieter the page turn reveals her transferred to a magical sea or floating in space. This beautifully illustrated homage to the power of books ends cozily, with the girl’s contented return to family and dinner.
Available in English and Spanish editions, this picture book brings to vivid life a great librarian, storyteller, children’s author and puppeteer. Immigrating from Puerto Rico in 1921, Pura Belpré found work in the New York Public Library. But she soon realized something was missing, something important to the city’s many Spanish-speaking children: folktales from her native land.
So, she began to tell the tales she heard as a child, using puppets she fashioned herself. Soon she was traveling, with her puppets, to libraries, churches, classrooms and community centers across the city. She wanted to make sure that immigrants “felt at home” in the library and these other spaces. This book is a delightful way for families to learn about Pura and her transformation of the literary landscape.
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National Family Literacy Month books: Tweens
By Kate Klise
Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise
Algonquin, 2020, $7.99 paperback
Kids will have a great time putting together clues found in emails, notes, newspaper articles and transcripts to uncover the nefarious doings at tiny Appleton Elementary School. Once again, the Klise sisters have teamed up on a funny, illustrated, sure-to-be-popular novel. An oddly formal dress code, doofus principal and disappeared books soon come under scrutiny by the new librarian. But when she and her daughter and the other fifth graders start to dig deeper, what emerges? Secrets, scandal and a slew of puns and hijinks!
Mystery lovers are in for a treat! This gripping novel debuts a new series by Lindsay Currie, author of numerous bestselling books for young people. A fierce ice storm strands first-person narrator Merrick and her friends at an inn, with a bookstore, that is managed by Merrick’s mom. When an elderly regular is found dead, these resourceful seventh graders fans of Agatha Christie’s renowned whodunits decide to investigate. Helped and hampered, in turn, by other icebound staff and family members, the friends draw on interests in gaming, science and classic mysteries to ferret out the truth. Lively characters and clever plot twists will draw in readers, whether solo or as part of a family read-aloud.
National Family Literacy Month books: Teens
Since 2020, book censorship has ramped up dramatically, according to the American Library Association. Why? And what might be the impact on targeted authors, libraries and readers? Acclaimed kidlit scholar Leonard Marcus first provides an overview, putting censorship into a historical context. He then includes interviews with 13 contemporary authors whose books, for various reasons, have been widely banned.
Readers might be surprised to hear from popular, award-winning authors like Dav Pilkey, Katherine Paterson, Angie Thomas and David Levithan. This certainly shows that no author or book is exempt from the increased pressure of today’s organized, book-banning groups. Because young people, in schools and communities, are often vigilant about protecting freedom of expression (a constitutional right), this book can be illuminating for teens and their parents to read and discuss.
Mary Quattlebaum lives in Washington, DC and is the author of 30 award-winning children’s books, most recently “Queen Elizabeth II,” an early reader biography. She teaches in the graduate program in writing for children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a popular school and conference speaker. maryquattlebaum.com
