Kensington Kids

Banned Book Week is Sept. 29- Oct. 1. The national event is sponsored by The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), and others to celebrate the freedom to read.
The other sponsors are the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

Independent booksellers tend to promote this event in a big way. Visit your nearest independent and check out the list. You’ll be surprised at some of the titles and the arguments behind them. The ABFFE site also has that info.

You can’t sit your teenager on your lap and read books every night, but there are still ways to influence their desire to read.
First off, make sure there are tempting books within reach. School-required novels are sometimes depressing; try to find lighter books for recreational reading. The Unfortunate Events series has humor teens and even adults would love.
For girls, anything by Gail Carson Levine or Meg Cabot.
For boys, encourage John Ritter’s baseball books, or the Boy-Scout-manual-like Dangerous Book for Boys. It’s a top best-seller, though perhaps nostalgic Dads are the buyers, not their sons.
For the older non-fiction-loving teen, how about a new current affairs book on the scene, State of the Unions by Philip M. Dine, an anecdotal-rich book about labor unions, or The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin, about the Supreme Court.
And don’t forget the value of a clever picture book: Diary of A Spider by Doreen Cronin, and A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech.
Other off-the-cuff tips: read magazine articles at the dinner table, suggest a stream-of-consciousness moment whereby you both share a minute of impromptu thoughts, and try to regularly applaud your teen’s academic efforts.

Good luck!

Hey, parents. Want to read something scary?
One in four adults did not read a book last year. See more on this here. Maybe Kids Reading Circle.com. can help turn this tide of non-reading…feel free to leave a comment on the issue below.

News about KidsReadingCircle.com:

We’ve added the a Children’s Book Review feed to Kids Reading Circle. Why don’t you go visit and grab it up and stay on top of all our new Book Reviews. Don’t know how to use an RSS Feed?

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Happy reading,

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