March Newsletter

 365 Days of Children's Books Monthly Newsletter

March 1, 2011

Results of voting for Favorite Book featured in January 
There were only three votes cast and all three were for different books, so I'm declaring a three way tie between

• The Newfoundland and Labrador ABC Alphabet Book by Dale Ryan
• Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury
• Sadie And The Snowman by Allen Morgan

Participants in February Reading Challenge
There were 224 form submissions during the February Reading Challenge!  Great job to those that took part. It was so much fun to watch the spreadsheet fill up and to check out what you all were reading.  If you want to check out what everyone read during February you can do still do that.

February Winner/prizes
Flanker Press provided two books as prizes for the February Reading Challenge. The winners were decided using the random number generator at Random.org.  The first number given was #113.  Danette R. submitted the 113th submission in the spreadsheet.  The second number given was #134. Stevie Stairs submitted the 134th submission.  Danette will be given first choice in the prize and Stevie will receive the other one.  Congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to Flanker Press for donating the prizes.

Thanks to all that participated.  Everyone that participate is eligible to receive a certificate and a list of the books they submitted.  Email me to receive these.  I hope you will join us again this month.

Summary of February features

• 28 books were featured 
• 8 by Newfoundland Authors, 8 with Newfoundland illustrators
• 8 by Canadian Authors, 8 with Canadian illustrators

Vote for Favorite book featured during February
This month you get to cast 4 votes

• your favorite book featured by a Newfoundland author 
• your favorite book featured by a Canadian author 
• your favorite book featured by other authors 
• your favorite of all the books featured during February  

Make sure you take a minute to cast your vote.  Remember, you can choose a book either because you read it and loved it, or because the review on the blog makes you want to read it.

March Challenge
Continue to make it a goal to read at least one children's book a day.  Don't worry if you miss reading or recording each day, the main thing is to read.  It's also a great idea to record what you read somehow.

Visit the Reading Challenge page and use the form there to record your reading and you may become one of our monthly winners.  Also at the end of the month you will recieve a certificate and list of the books you submit for you to print and keep in a special place.

Throughout the month it is fun to check out what every one is reading as we watch the spreadsheet at the bottom of the page fill up.

March Prizes
Creative Book Publishers has agreed to provide a prize for a lucky participant in the March Challenge.  Watch the blog side panel or the facegroup events page for more information as I get more concrete information about what the prizes are.  The winner, or winners, will be randomly chosen at the end of the month and announced in next month's newsletter. Every time you fill in the form you will increase your chances of winning. So get reading and don't forget to fill in the form.

World Read Aloud Day
March 9th is World Read Aloud Day. Two of my favorite suggestions on how to celebrate the day are to have a Read-a-thon or to host a Reading Party.

For the Read-a-thon you keep track of how many minutes you read and then report them at the end of Read Aloud Day. You can use the WRAD Tally Sheet to track your minutes read starting right away and send in your total  on March 9th

For the Reading Party everyone brings their favorite book along to read to everyone.  If you like you can make it into a fund raisers by charging a small entrance fee and donating the proceeds to LitWorld or using them to buy books to give to someone that you know could use the help.

I'm hoping to arrange something for both our library and our local homeschool group.  Why don't you plan something special for that day too?  I'd love to hear what you do to celebrate World Read Aloud Day.


Keep checking the 365 Days of Children's Books blog for more suggestions of books for you and the child in your life to enjoy and help spread the word about the blog and reading challenge.

Happy Reading!
Jacqueline

February Newsletter

365 Days of Children's Books Monthly Newsletter

February 1, 2011

The first month of the 365 Days of Children's Books blog is complete! Thank-you for supporting it either by joining our Facebook page, or by becoming a Follower via blogger, or by subscribing to the feed. I hope you are finding books to enjoy with the children in your life.

Summary of January

31 books were featured.

9 by Newfoundland authors, 8 with Newfoundland illustrators

9 by Canadian authors, 10 with Canadian illustrators

I hope you are taking the time to introduce your child to authors and illustrators from our great province and country.

Vote for your favourite

Which book of the books featured this past month was your favourite? Check out the Vote For Your January Favorite Book Featured page on the blog to cast your vote. You can vote either for one you've read and enjoyed, or one you want to read because it sounds good.

February Challenge - Read a Book a Day with a Child

My local librarian asked me about setting up some kind of a challenge and a recording system to present to our local Children's story group during Family Literacy Day activities. That is what inspired the Book-a-Day Challenge I now have posted on the blog. You can find it listed under Pages in the right hand column of the blog. On that page you will find a challenge, a form, and a spreadsheet.

The challenge is to read at least one book a day to a child and to somehow keep a record of the books you read. If you like, you can use the form on the page to enter all, or some, of the books you read into the spreadsheet on the page. Your information will automatically be entered into the spreadsheet when you fill in the form. The only information you are required to submit is a name and a book title. You may add as much or as little of the other information as you want.

It will be fun to see the spreadsheet fill in as people share the books they are reading. You will notice at the bottom of the spreadsheet it says Sheet1, Jacqueline and Anna's books, Springdale, Newfoundland, Canada.  All entries will be automatically be entered into the first sheet and automatically filtered into the other sheets according to your information if it applies.

Edit:  Just a small note that this challenge is open to anyone, not just those in the places mentioned about, it's just that those are the only places registered in the spreadsheets yet.  I'd love to see people from all over participating.

Prizes!

Flanker Press has agreed to donate at least one prize to be given to a participant in the challenge. The winner, or winners, will be randomly chosen at the end of the month and announced in next month's newsletter. Every time you fill in the form you will increase your chances of winning. So get reading and don't forget to fill in the form.

Keep checking the blog for more suggestions of books for you and the child in your life to enjoy. Help spread the word about the blog, facebook page, and contest.

Happy Reading!

Jacqueline