Professional Reading:
Early Literacy Storytimes @your library® and Ready-To-Go Storytimes

Angela and Dianna recommended these two titles in December at which time I commented that these books would be the March Professional Reading topic. Thanks for suggesting these titles! Both of these books offer wonderful suggestions in creating storytimes that will enhance the experience for children and caregivers.

Early Literacy Storytimes @your library®: Partnering with Caregivers for Success, written by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz, adds to the important information of Every Child Ready to Read @your library®, a joint project of the Public Library Association and ALSC. The first section of this book clearly explains the current early literacy research and why it is important for library storytimes to include speaking points about early literacy skills to the adults who are bringing the children to the library. As Ghoting and Martin-Diaz write on page 18:

Storytimes offer young children and their parents/caregivers exposure to a variety of skills, small and large motor development, social and early literacy skills. Through modeling, we offer adults an opportunity to observe how they can support their children’s early literacy development outside the library.

Early literacy enhanced storytimes take them a step further by explaining to the adults how the elements of storytime support early literacy. In this way, we can help parents/caregivers become more fully aware of the key role they play in the development of their child’s early literacy skills and the importance of early literacy as part of overall child development. In addition, adults learn specific ways to support their children’s continued development of these skills.

Ghoting and Martin-Diaz share a wealth of outlines of early literacy enhanced storyimes in the second section. Their kind and gentle encouragement in regard to talking to the parents and caregivers during the storytimes are particularly helpful to those of us who might be intimidated by the thought. The third section offers ways to evaluate and promote early literacy enhanced storytimes.

Ready-To-Go Storytimes: Fingerplays, Scripts, Patterns, Music, and More by Gail Benton and Trisha Waichulaitis offers exactly what the subtitle says. The “ready-to-go” is a bit misleading in that you will need to practice and gather (or make) props first. My favorite part is the “more” that the authors suggest. I simply love the idea of including matching games for children and caregivers to play together during each of the six themed storytimes. Benton and Waichulaitis encourage participation in all aspects of the storytimes; I was having fun just reading about them. I look forward to including their ideas in an upcoming storytime of my own.

Both books are geared to create storytimes that will offer much variety and a bigger impact for the youngest patrons we serve and the adults in their lives who want to help these children reach their fullest potential.