Summer Reading Challenge from Second Lady Usha Vance

Embark on wild adventures, get lost in imagination, and open new worlds of learning and discovery when you accept the Second Lady’s 2025 Summer Reading Challenge!

The challenge is open to children in grades K – 8, from now until September 5th. To participate, download the Summer Reading Challenge Tracker and read 12 books of your choice. Completed trackers should be submitted to: read@mail.whitehouse.gov by Friday, Sept. 5 to receive a personalized certificate, a small prize, and entrance into a raffle to visit the Nation’s Capital.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is proud to support Second Lady Usha Vance’s nationwide Summer Reading Challenge. The challenge encourages kindergarten through eighth-grade students to continue their intellectual and personal development. As the nation’s leading supporter of museums and libraries, IMLS recognizes the critical role that public libraries play in ensuring that students have year-round access to books.

All reading done since June 1 counts, so kids can backfill their reading logs. Here’s how the program works:

• Families can print off or download this fillable reading log.
• Fill in the titles and authors of 12 books that a child reads between June 1 and September 5.
• The logs can been emailed directly to read@mail.whitehouse.gov by September 5, 2025
• That’s it!

If you want to promote this program more broadly in your community, check out this page with links to a flyer and social media templates and graphics. You can also learn more about this Challenge here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/read/

Three Literacy Awards Announced by LC

Three new awards were announced at the International Summit of the Book yesterday: Here is an excerpt a from the press release:

The trio of annual awards will include the David M. Rubenstein Prize for a groundbreaking contribution to the sustained advancement of literacy by any individual or entity worldwide; the American Prize, honoring a project developed and deployed in the United States during the preceding decade with special emphasis on combating aliteracy; and the International Prize, which would honor the outstanding work of an individual, a nation or a non-governmental organization (NGO) working in a specific country or region.

"The Library of Congress joins the nation and the world in gratitude for this latest expression of David Rubenstein’s support for the life of the mind," said James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress. "David has long supported the popular National Book Festival, has made it possible for us to display the historic Abel Buell map of America and has been generous with the Library and the American people in many other ways," Dr. Billington said. "This new set of awards will invigorate those who understand the value of literacy to critical thinking and how essential it is to living and good government."

The literacy awards program will be managed by the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Final selection of prize winners will be made by the Librarian of Congress, who will solicit recommendations from literacy experts on a National Advisory Board to be established for the program. Criteria for the prizes include innovation, replicability, sustainability, measurable impact and demonstration of reliance on existing professional literature and applied practice.

The first winners will be announced in 2013 at the second annual International Summit of the Book, which will be held in Singapore on August 16, 2013.

Grants Available for NH Literacy Projects

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is pleased to announce that the Granite State Reads program is currently accepting applications for the 2012 grant cycle. Those interested in applying for a Granite State Reads grant should visit http://granitestatereads.org/ for details on how to apply. You can contact Granite State Reads at gsr@dcr.nh.gov.

Granite State Reads offers financial support to New Hampshire organizations that provide literacy assistance to New Hampshire residents. An organization with a project that improves the literacy skills of New Hampshire children or adults is eligible to apply for a Granite State Reads grant of $500 or more. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2011. Grant recipients will be notified of funding decisions by February 6, 2012.

Since 2003, nearly $97,000 has been distributed to New Hampshire literacy programs through Granite State Reads. Previously funded projects include a program that provided books to babies and toddlers, several family reading initiatives, guided reading groups, and literacy programs for people with learning challenges. Granite State Reads is a program of the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

Grants Available for NH Literacy Projects

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is pleased to announce that the Granite State Reads grants program is currently accepting applications for 2010.

Granite State Reads offers financial support to New Hampshire organizations that provide literacy assistance to New Hampshire residents. An organization with a project that improves the literacy skills of New Hampshire children or adults is eligible to apply for a Granite State Reads grant of $500 or more. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2009. Grant recipients will be notified by February 5, 2010.

Since 2003, nearly $97,000 has been distributed to New Hampshire literacy programs through Granite State Reads. Previously funded projects include a program that provided books to babies and toddlers, several family reading initiatives, guided reading groups, and literacy programs for people with learning challenges. Granite State Reads is currently a program of the Center for the Book with funds collected by Verizon through its “Check Into Literacy” program.

Those interested in applying for a Granite State Reads grant should visit http://granitestatereads.org/ for details and to download the required application. You can contact Granite State Reads at gsr@dcr.nh.gov.

Grants Available for NH Literacy Projects

The Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library is pleased to announce that the Granite State Reads grants program is currently accepting applications for 2009.

Granite State Reads offers financial support to New Hampshire organizations that provide literacy assistance to New Hampshire residents. Any project that improves the literacy skills of New Hampshire children or adults is eligible to apply for a Granite State Reads grant of $500 or more. The deadline to apply is December 1, 2008. Grant recipients will be notified by February 1, 2009.

Since 2003, nearly $75,000 has been distributed to New Hampshire literacy programs through Granite State Reads. Previously funded projects included: a program that provided books to babies and toddlers, several family reading initiatives and summer reading programs, guided reading groups, and literacy programs for people with learning challenges. Granite State Reads is currently a program of the Center for the Book with funds collected by Verizon through its “Check Into Literacy” program.

Those interested in applying for a Granite State Reads grant should review the GSR FAQ and download an application. You can contact Granite State Reads at gsr@dcr.nh.gov.

International Literacy Day - September 8, 2007

From the UNESCO web site:

September 8 is an occasion to give hope to the millions of women, men and children who cannot read or write even their own names. International Literacy Day is a timely reminder to the world about the importance of literacy for individuals, families, communities and whole societies. This year’s theme, “Literacy sustains development”, emphasizes that literacy is not only a positive outcome of development processes but also a lever of change and an instrument for achieving further social progress. “Literacy is not merely a cognitive skill of reading, writing and arithmetic, for literacy helps in the acquisition of learning and life skills that, when strengthened by usage and application throughout people’s lives, lead to forms of individual, community and societal development that are sustainable,” says Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO Director-General in his message on the occasion of International Literacy Day 2006. Events are organized worldwide to raise public awareness and support for literacy.

The Alphabet of Hope: Writers for Literacy, a book bringing together internationally renowned authors advocating Literacy for All, will be published by UNESCO as part of the African Regional Conference in Support of Global Literacy, 10 to 12 September 2007, in Bamako (Mali).
Authors in the English version include: Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Paulo Coelho, Nadine Gordimer, Amitav Gosh, Francisco Sionil Jose, N. Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Amy Tan, Miklós Vámos, and Banana Yoshimoto.

According to UNESCO, an estimated 774 million adults, two-thirds of them women, live without basic literacy skills. Many organizations in the Granite State working to help people in our community to improve their lives by improving their reading. International Literacy Day is an opportunity for you to decide how you can help.

Boys & Books

There was an interesting program on NHPR's The Front Porch last night about Boys and Literacy. Liz Bulkley's guests were Ralph Fletcher, author of Boy Writers: Reclaiming Their Voices and UNH Professor Tom Newkirk, author of Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture. I would encourage you to check out the online audio if you missed the program as it was a good discussion about how writing is taught in school and how that relates to the reading and writing skills among boys.
There are some other good resources on this topic as well which you might want to check out:

Connecting Boys with Books by Michael Sullivan is a very good resource on this topic. He also has a blog called Boy Meets Book.

Author Jon Scieszka has a project called Guys Read. Their mission is "to motivate boys to read by connecting them with materials they will want to read, in ways they like to read. "

Are there other good resources out there on this issue? I would love to hear about them! Please leave a comment.