December 2023

Our annual guide to great kids’ books for gift giving and much more!

In this issue: Children’s Books & Authors / Literacy at Home / Sister Site Spotlight / In the Classroom / Events & News

Children’s Books & Authors

Books as Gifts: Our 2023 Guide

December is a time of lights, family, friends, celebrations — and sharing gifts from the heart. Celebrate this season of sharing with books and reading. This year’s list includes multicultural stories, picture book biographies, poems, graphic novels, a bit of fantasy and mystery, and books about science and nature, pets, family, and friends.

Books are a great way to explore our world and create memories that extend well beyond the short days of winter.

Happy Holidays from Reading Rockets!

100 Children’s Authors and Illustrators Everyone Should Know

Meet 100 wonderful authors and illustrators who create beautiful and timeless books for children, contributing fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and poetry to our bookshelves. We hope you discover some new books and learn about the folks who brought them to life.

You can meet many of these wonderful book creators in our video interview library!

Once Upon a Book: Our Interview with Grace Lin

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than 20 books for kids — from picture books to young adult novels. Most of her books are about the Asian-American experience, yet their themes are often universal. In these new interview clips, Grace talks about how food and stories connect her to her culture, the story behind her new fantasy co-authored with Kate Messner (Once Upon a Book), and how she dreams of the day when diverse books are just books.

“Books erase bias, they make the uncommon everyday, and the mundane exotic. A book makes all cultures universal.”

Favorite Books for December Celebrations

Warm your hearts with these holiday stories, from old favorites to new delights. These recommended books for kids are about generosity, love, and friendship, and are perfect for the season, no matter what traditions you celebrate!

Literacy at Home

Creating Holiday Learning Traditions

During the holiday season, consider adding some new traditions for your family that will make meaningful memories and strengthen foundations for reading and learning success. (Tips in English and Spanish)

Riding and Reading

Turn travel time during a family trip into a great bonding and learning adventure with activities that build language skills and boost kids’ brain development. Here, you’ll find simple, fun ideas for singing, reading, and sharing family stories together. (Tips in English and Spanish)

How can I help my child figure out what to write about?

In this video Q&A, children’s author Carmen Agra Deedy (Martina the Beautiful Cockroach) has some ideas on how to jumpstart ideas for young writers. See more Q&As about writing — including tips on organization, using more interesting words, spelling, grammar, handwriting — in our series Writing SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Writing.

Related: 7 Great Ways to Encourage Your Child’s Writing (In English and Spanish)

Start with a Book: Read. Explore. Learn!

Do you know children who are fascinated by dinosaurs, planes, bugs, birds, animals, the moon and stars, art, or wild weather? Are there any young detectives, explorers, or superheroes at home? Do your kids love reading poetry, myths, or tall tales? At our companion site, Start with a Book, you can browse 24 kid-friendly topics — each paired with fiction and nonfiction books, hands-on-activities, writing ideas, podcasts, and more resources for building knowledge about our world.

If you are looking for fun learning ideas during the winter break, take a look at Start with a Book!

Sister Site Spotlight: AdLit.org

Unsung Heroes Text Set

Unsung heroes have changed the course of history with little recognition for their impact, but their significance is hard to deny when you scratch beneath the surface of many pivotal moments in time. Help your students explore Unsung Heroes with our newest AdLit text set.

Learn more about teaching with text sets on AdLit.

In the Classroom

Teaching Text Structure

Understanding text structure is key to reading comprehension and also helps strengthen writing skills. In this section you’ll learn about the 5 most common text structures and how to help students learn to identify and use text structures in their reading and writing.

Implementing the Text Structure Strategy in Your Classroom

Explore how to implement a research-based text structure strategy that infuses text structures at every step of reading comprehension instruction, beginning with the introduction of the lesson, previewing of text, selecting important ideas, writing a main idea, generating inferences, and monitoring comprehension.

Grasping for Meaning: What It’s Like to Struggle with Reading Comprehension

“I thought experiencing reading difficulty of our own could help us relate to the comprehension challenges that our students face, so I planned a professional development session for the teachers at my school,” says literacy coach Margaret Goldberg in her newest Right to Read blog post.

Sit in on Margaret’s PD session, where her colleagues dig into the dense article presented, and make the leap from awkward silence to this:

“Our conversation was animated as we grappled with the passage. We pointed out parts of the text, asked questions, pulled in our relevant background knowledge, and made sense of new ideas.”

Top 5 Resources for Educators

Nearly 9 million educators and parents visited the Reading Rockets website this past year! We are grateful that so many of you are looking to us for free evidence-based resources on helping young children learn to read. Here are 5 of our most visited resources in 2022:

A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words

Classroom Strategy: Blending and Segmenting Games

Reading 101 Online Learning Module: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

The Simple View of Reading

Book Finder

Events & News

Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning
January 31-February 2, 2024 | New Orleans, LA

60th Annual International Learning Disabilities Association Conference
February 20-22, 2024 | Orlando, FL

The Reading League Summit
Finding the Alignment: From Research to Practice
April 27, 2024 | San Diego, CA

Inside one Rochester classroom, a peek into the future of reading instruction
Minnesota Public Radio

What Costs $1,000 Per Student and Might Help Children Learn to Read?
The New York Times

‘Right-to-read’ settlement spurred higher reading scores in California’s lowest performing schools, study finds
KQED Mindshift

Babies Learn Language Best Through Sing-Song Speech, Not Phonetics
Neuroscience News

Disability or ‘Superpower’? The Push to Change Mindsets About Students With Learning Differences
Education Week

What Is Morphology? Should Teachers Include It in Reading Instruction?
Education Week

PBS Kids Creating New Series About Characters With Autism
Disability Scoop

Enhancing Collaboration Between Classroom Teachers and ELL Specialists
Edutopia

Here’s What Students Miss Out on When Their Schools Lack Librarians
Education Week

Jeff Kinney: Librarians Are the Beating Hearts of the Communities They Serve
School Library Journal