Community Literacy Solutions
The Overstory is a best-selling novel by Richard Powers. It tells the stories of a few enormous formidable trees and how their existence affects the trees’ people. I never heard of an overstory before reading the novel, and I have since learned that they are giant trees that live above the other trees in their own climate—they even breathe their own air. If nature is
“Do you carry any of those special books that help kids that aren’t learning to read easily?” I asked this question to our librarian many years ago. It was early in our journey, and I was still getting my arms around why the reading instruction and interventions at school weren’t working. Fortunately, I knew enough to sign our daughter up for reading services at the
Literacy is not political or partisan. The right to literacy is as fundamental as the right to a free and appropriate public education, and both are deeply intertwined. Lately, it seems, everything is political, and now there’s a movement to suggest that those parents, teachers, literacy specialists, and advocates spouting about the science of reading are part of the far-right movement. If we weren’t living
Public and school libraries support equitable literacy solutions and connect the dots between the school and community.
We started working with public libraries in 2019 to raise awareness of reading issues like dyslexia and educate librarians about resources that help all children learn to read. Who would’ve envisioned that within a year a pandemic would hit, and public libraries would close. Franklin Square Children’s Librarian, Faye Lieberman, tells us what it’s like to be a librarian working remotely through COVID-19 and what
What does a librarian say when parents of struggling readers say their children won’t read anything? What’s it like to hear parents tell their children they can only read books at certain levels? Why do all the young adult books seem to include themes that are so difficult for our tweens and teens to grapple with? Struggling readers in this age range are often facing