“Food deserts” refer to low-income areas where convenience stores are often the only viable food source and fresh produce is a rarity. But nutritious foods aren’t the only thing kids need to thrive and grow. Many of these undernourished kids also live in so-called “book deserts”—areas without easy access to libraries and reading material to nurture their imaginations and development (just think of the 12-year-old boy in Utah who asked his mailman for junk mail to read because he couldn’t get to a library). To combat these problems, creative-thinking librarians and literacy supporters are using inventive solutions to expand access to books and promote a love of reading. READ MORE: Librarians on Bikes Are Delivering Books and WiFi to Kids in “Book Deserts” | GOOD
Tag Archives: children
‘Trashy’ #Books: Garbage Collector Rescues #Reading Material for Colombian #Children | Times Colonist #kids
A second-grade education has not stopped garbage collector Jose Gutierrez from bringing the gift of reading to thousands of Colombian children. Gutierrez started rescuing books from the trash almost 20 years ago, when he was driving a garbage truck at night through the capital’s wealthier neighbourhoods. The discarded reading material slowly piled up, and now the ground floor of his small house is a makeshift community library stacked from floor to ceiling with some 20,000 books, ranging from chemistry textbooks to children’s classics. READ MORE: ‘Trashy’ books: garbage collector rescues reading material for Colombian children | Times Colonist.
Are #Tablets Harming Our Children’s Ability to Read? | Technology | The Guardian #reading #kids #tech #devices
The last few years have seen the biggest change in how young people spend their time since the invention of the television – but is it a good thing? READ MORE: Are tablet computers harming our children’s ability to read? | Technology | The Guardian.
How #Autistic People Helped Shape the Modern World | WIRED #autism #learning #disabilities
THE CENTERS FOR Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 68 children in the US are on the autism spectrum, a number that stands in staggering contrast to a 1970 study that put the figure at one in 14,200. Some people believe we’re in the middle of an autism epidemic. But autism has always been part of the human experience, as journalist (and WIRED contributor) Steve Silberman shows in his new book, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. It’s only recently, he argues, that we have become properly aware of it. We spoke to Silberman about how the modern world came to recognize autistic people and how autistic people helped shape the modern world. READ MORE: How Autistic People Helped Shape the Modern World | WIRED.
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Gay #Parenting #Books to be #Banned from Venice #Schools | Telegraph #diversity #kids #reading #censorship
Children’s books about being raised by same-sex parents, including one about a pair of “gay” penguins bringing up a chick, are to be banned in Venice’s schools, as a new mayor stamps a more conservative mark on the World Heritage city. READ MORE: Gay parenting books to be banned from Venice schools | Telegraph.
Best Children’s #Books To Celebrate #Diversity | HuffPo #kids #reading
Canada is known as a cultural mosaic because it’s home to many people of different ethnicities, cultures and languages. This diversity presents a great opportunity to teach our kids about other nations and their customs, as well as to celebrate our similarities and differences from them. Reading is one the best ways to learn, so we’ve rounded up 13 of the best children’s books that celebrate diversity. READ: Best Children’s Books To Celebrate Diversity | Huffington Post.
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- A Children’s Illustrator Is Losing Fans Because Of Her Anti-Racist #Art | BuzzFeed #books #racism #diversity
- I Never Noticed How Racist So Many Children’s #Books Are Until I Started #Reading to My #Kids [Opinion] | Vox #diversity #racism #culture
- Stories For All (Diversity & Inclusion) | First Book #diversity #books
- As Demographics Shift, Kids’ Books Stay Stubbornly White | NPR (June 25, 2013)
The Key to #Digital #Learning? Bring It Into the Real World | WIRED #kids #education #museums #interactive
IF YOU WANT to teach your kid about ecology, sustainability, or the future of interactive education, take them to the New York Hall of Science and head for the giant virtual waterfall.
The massive digital faucet feeds the ecosystems of Connected Worlds, a cutting-edge installation that aims to teach youngsters about environmental science by immersing them in it. It’s an interactive simulation big enough to walk around inside—virtual reality that’s not piped into a headset but projected onto a real physical space.
Kids can shape the environment through a clever combination of physical and digital interaction. READ MORE: The Key to Digital Learning? Bring It Into the Real World | WIRED.
Boy Who Couldn’t Afford #Books Asks Mailman For Junk Mail To Read; Mailman Responds Spectacularly | HuffPost #reading #kids
Twelve-year-old Mathew Flores is a bit different from the rest of us. He loves junk mail. Until recently, advertisements were the only reading materials available to the boy. Flores loves reading so much that he approached his mailman in a Salt Lake City suburb on Friday to ask if he could have any junk mail. The strange question prompted the mailman, Ron Lynch, to ask why. READ MORE: Boy Who Couldn’t Afford Books Asks Mailman For Junk Mail To Read; Mailman Responds Spectacularly | HuffPost.
The Picture Book That Parents Worldwide—And Google Ventures—Can’t Put Down | Co.Create #picturebooks #kids #custom #printondemand #books
Depending how you look at it, the Lost My Name team has either created one artful book or 53,849. The Little Boy/Girl Who Lost His/Her Name, the top-selling picture book in the U.K. last year, is personalized for each recipient. The child’s name doesn’t simply get mentioned a few times—an easy enough publishing gimmick. Rather, the story itself changes; different characters appear for each name. In fulfilling orders for 53,849 children’s names so far, the company has created that many stories—and books.
The technology required for that degree of customization and print-on-demand capability is significant. “There are tens of thousands of lines of code behind every book we deliver,” co-founder Asi Sharabi tells me on a recent visit to the Lost My Name offices. “Everything we do is on software.” READ MORE: The Picture Book That Parents Worldwide—And Google Ventures—Can’t Put Down | Co.Create | creativity + culture + commerce.
Free: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Short Course, The Inexplicable Universe | Open Culture + #CampGoogle For Kids | Camp.WithGoogle #MOOCs #science
Free: Download Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Short Course, The Inexplicable Universe, in Audio or Video Format | Open Culture
For now, The Great Courses will let you access Tyson’s Great Course for free, including all of its downloadable audio and video lectures, as long as you make an account at their site — a process which, we can report, entails only a reasonable hassle factor.
Camp Google | Camp.WithGoogle.com
Camp Google is a free summer camp that gets kids learning through fun, interactive science activities and adventures. Led by experts, the activities have been designed to encourage kids to ask questions, setting them on a lifelong journey of exploration and discovery. Everyone is welcome, and you can jump in anytime.
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