Hello Book Bums families!
Watch out! Tomorrow, April 1, 2023, is April Fools’ Day, and you don’t want to be deceived.
Did you know that, according to history.com, Taco Bell once announced that they had purchased Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell?
Burger King once advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” and many folks actually ordered it.
Google is notorious for hosting April Fools’ Day pranks too, so be ready!
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Word of the Week
influential (in-floo-en-shul) adjective/describing word - having the power to cause an effect or make a change
Books can be very influential in a child's life, exposing them to new worlds, ideas, and possibilities.
Literary Calendar
- April 4 is National School Librarian Day
- Take this opportunity to have your child write a thank you note to their school librarian!
From our Bookshelves
Dolly Parton was one of twelve children raised in a single-room cabin in East Tennessee. Though her family had very little money when she was growing up, Dolly treasures her mountain memories and often shares them through her music.
Dolly recorded the lyrics to her song “Coat of Many Colors” in this beautiful children’s book of the same name. The story is about a time when money was especially tight, the weather was getting colder, and Dolly’s mother lovingly sewed a coat for her from the scraps someone had given their impoverished Appalachian family.
Dolly shared that she felt “as rich as she could be” when she wore her coat of many colors, because, while sewing, her mother had shared the story from the Bible about Joseph and his coat of many colors. The story goes on to share about Dolly’s surprise when some of the more well-to-do kids made fun of her coat. She said,
But they didn't understand it
And I tried to make them see
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me
Tips for Families
I read a statistic the other day. It said that if you read just one book a day to your child, they will have experienced 1825 books by their fifth birthday and that every book counts.
Did you know that Dolly Parton began a program called The Imagination Library? It’s a book-gifting program that mails free books to children, every month, from the time they’re born until they begin kindergarten. Parton started the program as a tribute to her father who had not attended school. She shared, “My daddy couldn't read and write and that always troubled him and bothered him, so I wanted to do something special for him . . . So, I got the idea to start this program and let my dad help me with it, and he got to live long enough to hear the kids call me the ‘book lady.’” She said, “It's so important to me because if you can teach children to read, they can dream, and if you dream you can be successful.” Parton called the Imagination Library “one of the most precious things” she’s done in her life.
I was never much of a Dolly Parton fan, but a few years back, during an interview, someone asked me, “Who do you believe is one of the most influential people in the literacy world?” I heard myself say, “Dolly Parton.” So many experts today fuss and argue about how to best teach kids to read, but not many folks are actually doing anything about it. Dolly Parton’s program, on the other hand, gifts over two million books to children every single month!
A while back, I heard about a podcast called Dolly Parton’s America on NPR. I thought it’d be worth checking out, and boy was I captivated. I’m not a folksy country music lover, but I fully appreciated each of the nine episodes. You might want to check them out, too.
Listening to the podcast, I learned that the anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela, was a huge Dolly Parton fan, and he often listened to the 1974 song, “Jolene” during his 27-year imprisonment.
Of course, no one could forget the song "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston, but I much prefer "I Will Always Love You" performed by Dolly herself. As I read through the comments on a website comparing the two versions, I agreed with so many of the responses.
Whitney's version has the power, Dolly's version is pure honesty.
When Whitney sang this song, you could feel it resonate in your bones. With
Dolly, it resonates with your heart.
Whitney's cover is like a declaration to the world. Dolly's version is like a
whisper of love into your ear.
When I hear Whitney sing this, I marvel at the power and brilliance of her
voice. When I hear Dolly sing it . . . I cry.
What do you think?
Today, Dolly Parton is 77 years old. Do you know she’s still recording music, and it’s actually really good! I’ve added some of my favorites, below.
"God Only Knows" with for King & Country
"There was Jesus" with Zach Williams
"Faith" with Galantis
"It's Gonna Be You" from 80 for Brady
Tips for Readers and Writers
Dolly has done many incredible things with her 77 years, but one of her greatest talents has been songwriting. So I thought I’d share some ideas you might use to promote songwriting with your kids. Many literacy-focused skills can be exercised when writing song lyrics. Kids can learn to write drafts, experiment with rhyme and repetition, rehearse and perform their work, and more.
Check out the full "Songwriting with Kids" article from Reading Rockets.
Did you know that reading lyrics while listening to songs has been shown to improve reading fluency? Sometimes kids can get “stuck in a rut” with their slower reading rates. To accelerate the number of words they can read per minute (without actually timing them), try printing the lyrics to some songs your kids love and invite them to sing along.
A word of caution:
The preference will always be reading with prosody over fast reading. Prosodic reading is reading like the author intends the story to be read. Sometimes it’s fast, and sometimes it’s slow. We want our kids to match the context of the story.
In picture books, like the wonderful Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems, authors make some words bigger and some words smaller to direct kids as to how the words are to be read. In books for more sophisticated readers, authors direct our reading with paragraph breaks, punctuation, word use, word selection, and more. It’s a bit of an art, but it can and should be taught.
Wordology Workshop
• The Latin root libr means book.
• You find it, of course, in the English words library and librarian.
Practical Grammar
This week’s newsletter is full of different kinds of titles. Here’s an easy guide to help you remember how to punctuate them.
Titles of larger items such as a book, a magazine, an album, or a collection of poems are all italicized. (If you’re writing by hand, they would be underlined.)
The smaller items contained inside those larger items such as a chapter title, an article, a song, or a poem are all punctuated with quotation marks.
So Dolly Parton’s latest album is Run, Rose, Run. “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans” is one of the songs included on the album.
Just for Fun
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