General / Research / Literacy Activities / Education

Find JOY despite another COVID winter

To everyone working hard on behalf of our kids: thank you. Thank you for all that you do, despite and because of another year starting with COVID overlays and challenges. CLiF has open grants – we acknowledge that grant writing might not fit with the current demands on all educators’ time, but the applications are … Continued

Year of the Book

A Wave of Nostalgia: My First CLiF Event

For my first CLiF event, I went to the Year of the Book kick-off at Braintree Elementary School in Braintree, Vermont. As a smaller school, they have fewer than 100 students, but it was clear to me from the get-go that this didn’t prevent them from instilling a strong love of reading in the kids’ … Continued

General

Buy a Book for a Child This Holiday Season

Kids need books. Access to books is the number one way to ensure kids develop strong literacy skills, which are crucial to their future success. Books help develop empathy, vocabulary, and comprehension. They also provide a positive escape for many children from the challenges in their lives. They can be a connection to a larger … Continued

General

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

You did it! You helped us raise $17,363 for new books for children with incarcerated parents on Giving Tuesday! You made this our most successful Giving Tuesday ever! Thanks to our generous friends, Rick and Linda Roesch, who matched all donations up to $5,000. Hundreds of children will receive new books from their incarcerated parents … Continued

General / Book Recommendations

What Books Are Flying Off the CLiF Shelves?

At any given time, the CLiF library is filled with thousands of beautiful new books waiting to find eager young readers. We give away high-quality books for every reader’s level and interests. We do our best to offer a wide variety of diverse titles, both classics and new books and series. Here are some of … Continued

General

10 Children’s Books to Inspire Creativity

Children love creating things probably as much as they love ruining them afterward. But when it comes to art, there are some ways you can motivate your child to be more creative with what they make. Here are ten children’s books to inspire creativity. #1 Looking at Pictures by Susan Woodford If you want your … Continued

Presenter Profiles

Q & A with Jason Chin

CLiF is lucky to have 64 amazing authors, illustrators, poets, graphic novelists, and storytellers who we send to schools, libraries, afterschool programs, childcare centers, refugee/immigrant programs, prisons, affordable housing developments, and other spaces where low-income kids and families spend time in New Hampshire and Vermont. These talented folks share their processes of creating books and … Continued

Book Recommendations / Education

A Great Resource: The NCTE Children’s Book Awards

Recently, I just completed my fourth and final year on the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction selection committee. While the award itself has been around for almost thirty years, it’s a “quiet” award that members of the CLiF community may not yet know about. The Orbis Pictus was … Continued

General

A Year in Review: CLiF’s 2018 Highlights

2018 has been a tumultuous year of alarming headlines and disasters of all kinds. Though perhaps less widely covered, it has also been a year of kindness, generosity, building connections, and discovering joys like reading and writing. We’d like to share some of our favorite moments from 2018. In 2018, the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF)… Celebrated … Continued

General

Why I Write Children’s Books

I think the question I am asked most frequently by individuals, organizations and the media with respect to my children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest, is this:  Why would a former college president (and law professor) write children’s stories?   Sometimes the question reveals genuine curiosity, a desire to understand why I write these children’s … Continued

Book Recommendations

Inclusive New Reads

As we lean into the warmth of the changing seasons, I am excited to share some important new picture books on shelves now, or arriving very soon. These books are for the kids on the margins, and also for the rest of us learning how to be their best allies. The messages conveyed in these … Continued

General

Thank you for sharing the gift of literacy!

We know Thanksgiving was last week, but this week at the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) we’re feeling pretty darn thankful. We’re thankful for the many generous donors who gave 359 children’s books and dynamic literacy programming to the kids we serve for #GivingTuesday, and all our supporters who have donated so far this year. Your … Continued

General

The Gift of Reading

“I like how you can go on adventures without even leaving your house. You can travel around the world and learn new things.”    That is how a child who attended a Children’s Literacy Foundation Summer Readers event last summer described reading. To him, a book is full of adventures and new things to learn. … Continued

General

Thank you from the Children’s Literacy Foundation!

As we gather with family and friends this week, we at the Children’s Literacy Foundation (“CLiF”) want to share how thankful we are for so many wonderful partners, supporters, and volunteers, who help us spread the joy of literacy to thousands of low-income, at-risk, and rural children in Vermont and New Hampshire each year. CLiF … Continued

CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.

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