Read Across Kauai Day is just around the corner

 

Read Across Kauai Day was designated to:

Increase awareness about the importance literacy
• Provide an opportunity for children to interact with local authors
• Reinforce the importance of reading by encouraging creativity through writing and
artistic expression
• Provide children with new books that they can read at home
• Provide parents with information about the importance of reading to their children

Read Across Kauai Literacy Events 2015

The Kauai Children’s Authors Guild in partnership with the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii will be holding their annual Read Across Kauai Literacy Day event on February 27th, 2015. However, because of the large number of children that will be read to this year, the event will be extended from February 15-April 15^, to allow schools and libraries to schedule local authors to come visit their classrooms and reading groups.

To complement Read Across Kauai Day, a special storytelling event will also be held at the Storybook Theatre on Wednesday, February 25^th at 10:30 am. This event will take place in the Peace Garden Amphitheatre and will feature local authors and storytellers. The event will also be filmed as an episode of the Russell the Rooster show. This event will cater to younger toddler and preschool-age audiences that won’t be able to attend school performances.

This year’s theme for Read Across Kauai Day is environmental literacy. Many of the local authors have written books about Hawaiian wildlife and its importance to us here on Kauai. In fact, author Susan Dierker’s new book, Albatross of Kauai, the Story of Kaloakulua, teaches children about Kauai’s albatross from hatchling to fledgling. Thanks to generous donation from the Betlach Family Foundation, hundreds of children on Kauai will be receiving a copy of this book, during the Read Across Kauai Day event.

Last year, members of the Kauai Children’s Authors Guild made appearances in schools to promote the importance of literacy and read to more than 400 hundred children across the Garden Island. This year, the guild expects the numbers to double.

The Read Across Kauai Day event was modeled after the national event, Read Across America Day, but guild members recognized that Kauai is uniquely special place so they designed Read Across Kauai Day to be a little more personal, a little more “Kauai Style”. The event provides an opportunity for children to interact with local authors and establish a personal connections with the books that are read to them. The authors also share their experiences about writing and publishing books in order to inspire children to become better writers. The guild members hope to reinforce the importance of reading by encouraging creativity through writing and artistic expression.

One of the most valuable components of the project is the distribution of an information sheet that is sent home to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. Since Read Across Kauai Day was devoted to literacy, guild members wanted to make sure that this significant information be disseminated to the children’s parents.

For more information about Read Across Kauai Day, visit the page dedicated to Read Across Kauai Day here on our blog or

www.storybook.org /literacy-programs-events/

To participate in the Storybook Theatre event, please call for reservations (808)335-0712, office@storybook.org.

Albatross of Kauai Just Released!

Thanks to the Cornell Ornithology Lab's live bird cams, in 2014 for the first time ever, almost 2 million people from more than 195 countries were able to watch a Laysan albatross grow up from hatch to fledge. Now, by the author of Knuckles, The Hound of Hanalei, the new illustrated children's book, Albatross Of Kaua'i, The Story Of Kaloakulua, tells the story. As always, author Susan Dierker tells the story in English, but includes Hawaiian words. A 48 minute dvd of live footage from the 'Tross cam is also included so that children can learn more about the Albatross of Kauai.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Betlach Family Foundation, 1000 of these books will given to the children of Hawaii in 2015. Albatross of Kauai will be read to hundreds of children during the annual Read Across Kauai Day event, and schools and libraries will be receiving copies. In fact the theme for this year's event is environmental literacy, and this book will help educated children about the Laysan Albatross found on Kauai.

For more information about the book or the author, please visit the Albatross of Kauai website.

Read Across Kauai Day 2015

If you would like to sponsor a class, or books for kids, please visit the Storybook Theatre website, and click on the donate button. Make sure to include Read Across Kauai as the purpose for your donation.

Lucid Publishing is proud to announce the release of their new children’s title, Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Coloring Book

Lucid Publishing is proud to announce the release of their new children’s title, Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Coloring Book by award-winning Kauai illustrator, and member of the Kauai Children's Authors Guild, Monika Mira. The book comes just in time for the fall season, when kids and parents are getting ready for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. The coloring sheets have been available for a while on teacher’s websites like Teacher’s Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers, but because of their popularity, Lucid Publishing decided to offer this title in a book format.

The Day of the Dead Coloring Book features ten original sugar skulls designs that can be colored in and used to string banners, decorate an alter, make masks, or for a cultural activities in the classroom. A blank skull template is provided for artists who want to create their own designs. Intricately designed sugar skulls are not all that the book has to offer. Also included is a 4’ child life-sized skeleton. The skeleton takes up about ten pages of the book and can be colored in, cut out and assembled by a child. The life-sized skeleton is perfect for Halloween decorations, party games, or even an anatomy lesson.

Teachers who want to use the book as a classroom resource will find that they can cover lessons in social studies, world cultures, art, and anatomy. Additionally, coloring and assembling the skeleton as a class is a great team-building activity. Students absolutely love creating their own sugar skulls and building the skeleton. Rave reviews have been pouring in from teachers who use this activity in their classrooms. Mom’s who home school are also enjoying the Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Coloring Book.

According to the author and illustrator, Monika Mira, the book started as party game that she put together for a group of kids a couple of years ago. The collection of sugar skull illustration began to grow, and the children looked forward to coming over for the annual Dia de los Muertos party. Each year, Mira would add new designs and new features. Last year, she added the life-size skeleton, which she buried in a mock graveyard outside. She had the kids dig through piles of leaves in the yard to find the pieces of the skeleton. Then the kids brought the pieces inside to assemble the skeleton.

The game was so much fun for the kids that she decided to share it with some teachers and friends. The word got out and the requests began to come in, so Mira organized the coloring sheets into a usable download for teachers, and most recently Lucid Publishing decided to make it available as a book.

Now families and classrooms, can enjoy these fun activities in the Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Coloring Book. If you are a teacher, you may prefer to license the coloring sheets through TeachersPayTeachers or Teachers Notebook.

Currently, the Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Coloring Book is only available on Amazon. For more information about the book, please visit Lucid Publishing’s website: www.lucid-hawaii.com.

American Academy of Pediatrics Recommends Reading Daily to your Child

It comes as no surprise to those of us who have been advocating this for years, but now the American Academy of Pediatrics has solid studies with proven results and has recommended that children be read to daily from birth. (Read the original article here)

From our standpoint at the Kauai Children’s Authors Guild and as parents ourselves, we realize that a lot is going on when you read to your children. Everyone gets so focused on academic success, which is valuable, but what about the quality time that you can spend with your child? Having your child seated in your lap makes them feel safe, it offers an opportunity for parent child bonding and it helps boost your child’s self esteem. It is no wonder that when these things are in place, learning can then occur.

Reading daily to your child sends them a very strong message. The message is that reading is something we do everyday, like brushing teeth, taking a bath, and eating dinner. It becomes part of life-long routine.

Hearing words and pointing to pictures forges new connections in your child’s brain and prepares them for academic success.

The statement by the American Academy of  Pediatrics, will allow for strong partnerships between child advocacy groups and government. Organizations will begin to partner and work with pediatricians to get the information to the most vulnerable groups and put books in the hands of parents and children that may not otherwise have access to them.

The Kauai Children’s Authors Guild will hold a planning meeting to respond to this statement and will continue the work that they have been doing with Read Across Kauai. This year, we would like to hold a special event at one of the hospitals, but that remains to be organized.

The Kauai Children’s Authors Guild is a volunteer organization that works in partnership with the Storybook Theatre of Hawaii. If your organization would like to partner with us to provide channels to better serve our children or to help fund our book giveaway on Read Across Kauai Day, please contact us. To learn more about our Read Across Kauai Day Literacy Event and the work that we do to help promote literacy on Kauai, please check out the articles on the Kauai Children’s Authors Guild Blog.

Summer Reading by Kauai Authors

It's that time where the kids get out of school and you start looking for activities to keep them busy all summer. Besides swimming classes, soccer camp and summer trips to far away places, reading is an important part of a child's summer. If you live in Hawaii, or are taking a trip there, you might consider choosing some books by Kauai Authors. Here is a good place to start.

Great books for summer reading with your 3-8 year olds:

1.) Who Lives in the Sea? Ocean Animals of Hawaii (ages 2-6) available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle format or Book App for Kindle or iBooks.
2.) Knuckles, The Hound of Hanalei (ages 2-7) available at Done by Dogs Publishing
3.) The Magic Ukulele (ages 3-8) available on Amazon or at Banana Patch Press
4.) Sabrina The Girl with a Hole in her Heart (ages 5-8) available on Amazon
5.) Mele the Crab (ages 2-6) available on Amazon
7.) King of the Beach (ages 4-8) available on Amazon
8.) Knuckles the Hound of Hanalei Book 2 (ages 2-7) available at Done by Dogs Publishing
9.) Benny the Beetle (ages 2-7) available on Amazon
10.) The Eye of the Lion, The Story of my First Hurricane (ages 5-8) available on Amazon