For myself, I’m apt to use the nearest scrap to hand—an old grocery list, a postcard, a receipt, a ticket stub, a playing card, an empty seed packet—to mark my place in a book. But for kids, bookmarks should be treated with respect and enthusiasm, artistry and humor.

Taking time to make a bookmark can be helpful for new readers, kids who’re in for challenge and pleasure (in unequal parts!) when they open a book. It’s like making a gift for themselves and the books they’re planning to reading; it marks books and reading as something special.

Kids can make bookmarks from pretty much anything: a column of appealing postage stamps re-glued on card stock; cut-up artwork, a magazine page or birthday card; a snippet of ribbon with pony beads on both ends; plain paper plastered with stickers, and so on.

I don’t know why, but right now I’m smitten with bookmarks that look like the books they’ll be used in. All it takes is a stop at a copy shop after you’ve been at the library. For Elise Broach’s Masterpiece, I made a color xerox of the book’s spine on card stock. For E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, I copied the cover at a slightly reduced size.

As it happens, neither of these books is for beginning readers. But they’re wonderful read-aloud books for good listeners as young as 7. The Mixed-Up Files should be read first, BTW, then Masterpiece, which owes a lot to Konigsburg’s classic.

Bookmark templates abound on the web, of course. If you google the authors or illustrators of your child’s latest library books, you may find something to download from their web sites or blogs. Here’s one example I particuarly like, from artist Quentin Blake’s web site. It’s also fun to look at the bookmark photos on Flickr.

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A fallen leaf

Shaped bookmarks (a check mark, giant exclamation point, phrases such as “I’m Up to this Page!”, images from a magazine, etc., their own photos, )

Pendaflex tabs!!!!

The school district’s new schedule welcomes kids back three full weeks before Labor Day and dismisses them before Memorial Day. And as a cost-cutting measure there are four “furlough” days—no work, no pay for teachers and no classes for kids—on November 1st, February 4th, March 25th and April 25th.

So what do the dolls* pictured above have to do with the new school year?

They’re little folk art toys from Burma, called Pyit Taing Taung. The words literally mean “to throw … every time … to stand up.” And indeed, when you toss the dolls, they immediately right themselves.

In other words: May you always land on your feet every time life lets you down.

And that’s my wish, for all of you at the start of a new school year.

*Regular readers of Bookmaking With Kids may recognize these dolls from a post last summer. They were a gift from Rosanna, a kindergarten teacher in Bangkok who spent a week making books at our 2009 Summer Camp. Like books, these dolls are gifts that keep on giving. So thanks again, Rosanna.

And that, indeed, is what it is. It’s equally true, however, that this is a picture of
me. Not that I see myself as a dog! But this is the way I feel when I disappear into a good read.

This charming illustration is from Louise Yates’ new picture book, Dog Loves Books. It tells the story of a canine bibliophile so smitten by books that he decides to open his own bookshop. His first two customers, alas, are anything but: One is a lady who mistakes the place for a tea shop, the other a man seeking directions. To pass the time waiting for real customers, Dog begins pulling books off the shelves at random and reading. And then comes Dog’s Ah ha! moment:

When he read, he forgot that he was waiting.
When he read, he forgot that he was alone.

So Dog reads and reads and reads. And when at last someone wants help choosing a book, Dog knows just what to recommend.

With more illustrations than words, this is a lovely book to explore with babies, toddlers and preschoolers—rich in opportunities for grown-ups and kids to pretend their way into the pictures and enter into the spirit of Dog’s adventure. I’d also read it to kindergartners, early in the school year, because it serves nicely as an implicit reminder that the business of learning to read leads to the pleasures of reading.

Little kids have an instinct for acting out these stories with their toys, varying events and contriving mayhem of their very own. This fun often continues once kids are reading and writing. In fact, I’ve yet to meet a K–4 teacher who didn’t relish using the Numeroff books as writing prompts for students. Click the link to follow this particular adventure. (more…)

“By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote,” to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The book of quotations collected by Amy Gash and pictured to the left appeared 11 years ago but I en-
countered it by chance only this summer—summer being a time for eclectic reading and serendipitous discoveries. What the Dormouse Said is aptly described by its subtitle: Lessons for Grown-ups from Children’s Books.

Never fear, it’s not a parenting manual. Rather it’s an idiosyncratic gathering of tidbits from the best of all books—children’s literature.

Your could zero in on its various categories in search of advice or wisdom, inspiration or humor. Or you could just dip in, light on a quotation at random and see where your thoughts take you. I’m actually not going to quote any of the quotations in the book; that would spoil your fun. But here are three sentences from Judith Viorst’s introduction to enjoy:

“… I’ve always believed that, at their best, the language and the art of books for children are as good as it gets. At their best, the subjects treated in these books include almost all of our central human concerns. At their best, children’s book offer insights we’ll want to remember and ponder and savor and learn from and revel in. …”

P.S. Children like quotations, too, I’ve found. Click here to see the beautiful books made by kids under my colleague Susie’s tutelage.