Resources for Finding Books

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/awardsgrants/childrensnotable/notablechibooks/index.cfm

Here are the best of the best in children's books Among many books selected by a committee of the Association for Library Service for Children. Among books recommended by this site, I read only one, "Stinky" because my younger one picked it up from a library and loved to read again and again. I wonder if librarians have different book preferences from teachers';).. From this site, parents and teacher could get other useful information such as "Great Interactive for Kids", "Notable Children's Recordings", "Notable Children's Videos", etc.

http://www.reading.org/Publish.aspx?page=RT-63-2-CChoices.html&mode=retrieve&D=10.1598/RT.63.2.9&F=RT-63-2-CChoices.html&key=8A0AE037-402E-4E63-8229-EE0E48DE24A7

I came across the site of International Reading Association and found it has great resources for people like me who interested in reading instructions for children and reading in many languages. And I found it has the book list for children and the reading instruction for teachers, parents, and librarians. If you click the above link, you could find Children's choices 2009. I could notice that while other sites have book lists selected by adults, this book list seems to show children's own preferences. I already found so many attractive stories from this list!

I listened to this book before I read it. It was when my second one was around kindergarten. I borrowed the audio book of "Half Magic" from a local library and listened to the story on the road with my children. Since my second son's English was not good, I wondered if he could understand the story... Soon it turned out this story became his favorite. Whenever he had to ride, he asked to turn on this book. ;) I had to buy the audio CD for sure.

This story about four children who couldn't go anywhere during the long summer vacation because their father died several years ago and their mother should go to work everyday to earn money for their living. The one day Jane, the oldest one, picked up a nickel from a crack in the sidewalk. It was not a just nickel, but a magic coin.

Originally I picked up this book from the library because I was attracted by the title. I questioned "what is half magic? why not 'whole magic'?" to myself... In the story four children could have magic power using the coin but there was a secret to use it. The title mentioned about the secret... Although the story has about "half" magic, this story is wholly fun and my children and I enjoyed to listen to and read again and again..

When my first son was the second grade, I heard that there are several interesting children's books written by a Korean author. As soon as I found her name is Linda Sue Park, I started to look for her books and read all of them with my children. My first son learned from her books about who is the founder of Kokooryeo (The name "Korea" came from the name of this ancient country) from Archer's Quest, the first son's position and roles in Korean traditional families from The Kite Fighter, and the way to like Kimchi from Project Mulberry. I think the book taught my children about Korean culture much more than I could do.

For this blog, I chose this book among many her books although this book may not Park's best work, because of the following reasons: First, this book is about a science project. Maybe since I am still a fan of science, it was excited to read what happened to silk worms and how they changed over time. I heard that my mother used to raise silk worms at her house when she was young, but I never saw silk worms with my eyes. It was quite wonderful to know how silk worms make cocoons from this book! ; Second, this book describes the friendships between people who have different ethnic backgrounds. All the characters appeared in this book became friends beyond their biased prejudice about ethnicity. I wish my children do act like the main character, Julia, and make good friends...

This book really let me know that such short stories can be funny and appealing for all readers, including adults like me!. I like this story so much more than my children's do. It may be because I was born in the year of pig (1971) or because I have similar characters with the small pig. The small pig likes to eat, run around the barnyard, to sleep, and most of all, he likes to sit down and sink down in good, soft mud. I like to eat, run around my neighbor, to sleep, and most of all, I like to sit down and sink down in good soft pile of comforters. :D The small pig's adventure began because of the farmer's wife who loved the small pig so much and wanted to make his surroundings shiny and neat, which removed his good, soft mud. After running away from his barn, the small pig had all sorts of troubles to find good soft mud. The place he could find the perfect mud poodle finally was, the home, sweet home he lived with the farmer and his wife. I read this story so many times even without children around me because this story makes me happy and satisfied. :)