You’ve got to be a reader to raise a reader: My take on recent research on teens and reading

May 14, 2014beccakinla advice, literacy, parenting, reading, recommended reading, teachers, teens Tags: adolescents, advice, book, common sense media, habit, kids, kids reading material, library, literacy, literature, media, parenting, reading, reading habits, teaching, teens Leave a comment

Common Sense Media recently issued a report about kids and teens and their reading habits. The four principal findings (I’m going to quote CSN directly) were these:

Reading rates have dropped precipitously among adolescents.
Reading achievement among older teens has stagnated.
There’s a persistent gap in reading scores between white, black, and Latino kids.
There’s also a gender gap in reading across ages.

The NY Times and NPR are both aghast at the findings, but their responses focused more on the problem — and how it has arisen — than on solutions. Common Sense Media itself has offered several strategies to increase reading, but I’m going to suggest my own. Continue reading →

Reading is for everyone, even those with no bookshelf

February 27, 2014beccakinla book, books, librarians, library, literacy, literature Tags: access, Amy Goldman Koss, books, Evelyn Nieves, free, help, homeless, homeless shelter, internet, librarian, libraries, library, magazines, patrons, poor, social services, visitor 2 Comments

In The L.A. Times, I just read a touching article by YA author Amy Goldman Koss about her efforts to offer reading material to the homeless. Her program is in a Glendale, California homeless shelter, but I was reminded of the role libraries play in the lives of the homeless, as well.

In local libraries, I’ve encountered the homeless on nearly every visit. Continue reading →

Take 2 Books and Call Me in the Morning: British docs prescribe books for patients

December 22, 2013December 22, 2013beccakinla parenting, parents, personal safety, reading, recommended reading, research, students, teachers Tags: alternative, anxiety, benefit, book, books, britain, british, depression, docs, doctor, doctors, eating disorder, england, general practitioner, gp, health, library, mental health, mood, patient, prescribe, prescription, psychologist, psychology, read, reading, recommend, recommended reading program, relationship, research, shrink, social worker, therapist, therapy, uk, united kingdom, wales 1 Comment

Therapeutic reading?

Imagine popping a couple chapters of a book instead of two of these.

Newspapers are reporting that doctors in the United Kingdom will be prescribing self-help and health books as reading material for those suffering from a variety of mild-to-moderate mental ailments, such as mild depression, anxiety and panic attacks. The CEO of the British charity the Reading Agency, Miranda McKearney, explained in an article in The Guardian, “There is a growing evidence base that shows that self-help reading can help people with certain mental health conditions to get better.”

Wales has already started the recommended reading program, with England scheduled to start in a few months. Continue reading →

How to optimize your Goodreads “To-Read” list

October 16, 2013beccakinla advice, award, book, books, boring, clean, comments, failure, friendship, habit, kosher, labeling, librarians, library, lists, literacy, literature, modesty, novel, novels, research, review, reviews, stories Tags: amazon, book, books, choose, choosing, choosing the right book, disappointment, experience, favorite author, goodreads, hate, have to read, how to buy books, library, list, must read, pick, picking, preferences, read, reader, reading, review, select, selecting books, selection, taste, to-read 4 Comments

A few weeks back, I posted about how we select the books we want to read now, next and never.

On a related theme, I just spent an hour culling unwanted books from my Goodreads “To-Read” list.

Because what good is a “To-Read” list if you don’t really want to read the books on it?

After my very well-intentioned husband took the aforementioned list to the library and returned with many of the books it contained, I discovered few were readable in the land of Mrs. Rebecca Klempner. Three offended my (admittedly rather sensitive) sensibilities so much that I immediately took them out to our van and left them there to be returned to the library. Ugh.

How do such books get on my “To-Read” list in the first place? Continue reading →

My first foray into playwriting: lessons learned about writing and directing plays for kids

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, children, children's books, how to write, humor, kids, publishing, spiel, stage, stories, students, teshuva, theater, writer, writing, yom kippur Tags: actor, actors and actresses, actress, adaptation, author, Bible, big fish, child, day school, directing, jewish, Jonah, kid, library, pint size, play, playwriting, production, reader's theater, rosh hashanah and yom kippur, school, stage, story of jonah, student, Tanach, theater, theatre, whale, writing, yeshiva, yom kippur, Yonah 1 Comment

As I mentioned last week in passing, I spent a good chunk of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur preparing a play for the kids at my synagogue. The topic: the story of Jonah, which is read during the afternoon of Yom Kippur.

Yonah waiting to see if Nineveh gets destroyed. He’s kinda hoping it does. How’s that for schadenfreude?

Now, I’ve always thought this story was packed with humor. I mean, G-d singles Jonah out for a little tete-a-tete and he hops on a boat headed in the opposite direction as the mission G-d sent him on? Then he sleeps through the ginormous storm that has everyone else aboard freaking out and get swallowed by a giant fish. Come on!

And when Jonah finally makes it to Nineveh, it gets even wackier. Continue reading →

Struggling to pick out books for your Jewish children or students?

August 29, 2013August 29, 2013beccakinla advice, book, books, children, children's books, clean, frum, Jewish, Judaism, kids, Orthodox Tags: acceptable, books, children, clean, endorse, jewish, kids, kosher, librarian, library, list, orthodox, parenting, recommmended, religious, selection, yeshiva Leave a comment

So many Orthodox parents and teachers have asked me for help finding books for their kids and students that I’ve decided to help them out. Please see the newest page on my author site for a book list and more information about picking out the perfect book for your kosher kid. And don’t forget to list your favorite “kosher” books in the comments to the page.

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Therapeutic reading?

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Because what good is a “To-Read” list if you don’t really want to read the books on it?

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