Articles by CLiF Staff
Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, a children’s book author from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, has been visiting K-8 students at the Lunenburg Elementary School and Gilman Middle School since October to teach her Story Keepers humanities curriculum. Story Keepers is part of Lunenburg’s three-year Community Literacy grant from CLiF. Natalie’s books are often based on her own family stories. … Continued
Are you familiar with Patricia Polacco? I hope you are. I have been in love with her beautiful, funny, moving, and meaningful books for years. My all time favorite is The Bee Tree in which a little girl, with the help of her grandfather and some bees, learns that the “adventure, knowledge, and wisdom of … Continued
Even as my eyes scanned the titles on display at the storytelling event at the school, I was associating certain individual young borrowers with particular titles, guessing who would like what among the kids that frequent our library. But after Duncan’s performance, when the audience was invited to take a peek at all the great … Continued
The day before Thanksgiving, Duncan rolled up to McLaughlin Middle School with the CLiF mobile chock full of books. CLiF specifically came to visit the ELL students – or English Language Learners – at this school in Manchester, NH. Almost all of these ELL students are New Americans, whose families have recently relocated to Manchester from … Continued
(Though I wrote this post, I would like to attribute it to Meg, my daughter. – Karen) By Meg, age 6 This morning I was having a warm and wonderful dream and was very happy… and then sunlight bothered my eyes and someone tickled my face. Then my mom said, “Good morning!” in this very … Continued
Have you thought about making your first donation to CLiF, but haven’t got around to it? Now’s your chance. This December, the first 25 donors who make their first-ever donation to CLiF of $25 or more will be entered in a raffle to win a Keurig Platinum Single Cup Home Brewing System worth $189! The Keurig was … Continued
General / Book Recommendations
We all know the power books can have. They can persuade, instruct, entertain, stimulate, educate, amaze, etc., etc., etc. But can they make it snow? Probably not all by themselves, but maybe with our help. Just maybe. Remember the old “Think Snow” slogan? Well, this is exactly the time of year to pull it out … Continued
CLiF’s newest program, Year of the Book, provides more than $25,000 in literacy support, programs, and new books for six schools across New Hampshire and Vermont. One important part of Year of the Book is the mini-grants program. In each Year of the Book school, CLiF has offered $2,000 in funding for mini-grants for classroom … Continued
Book Recommendations / How You Can Help
Word of mouth is a powerful tool in the book world. Who doesn’t love a good book recommendation, especially from a trusted source like a friend or an expert? Most of the time this ups your chances of finding a book that you will like. The same can be said for students and getting them … Continued
I pulled out a pad of paper to jot down a few ideas for my blog post, and the toddler to my right (my son Emmett’s friend) inquired, “Mommy write?” Impressed with her command of the word “write,” I joyfully responded, “Yes. I’m going to write!” To this, she replied, “Mommy write?” Again, “Yes. Write.” … Continued
Last week, the New York Times‘ Opinionator blog featured an essay called “What Should Children Read?” by English teacher and writer Sarah Mosle. In the essay, Mosle highlights the new emphasis on nonfiction in the Common Core State Standards, “a set of national benchmarks, adopted by nearly every state, for the skills public school students … Continued
Thank you author Dallas Clayton for this beautiful book that reminds us of all the wonderful things in the world to be thankful for: the usual and the unusual. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to the sun above thank you for … Continued
We love Ramona. Ramona Quimby. You know, Beezus’s little sister. The one who is always getting into so much trouble. What kind of trouble? Oh, you know, there’s the time she took one bite out of every apple in a bushel, forcing her mom to make the world’s biggest batch of applesauce. Or the time … Continued
Someone is starting to read! It is so amazing to watch, incredible really. It starts so small, you hardly notice it’s beginning. You’re just going along your merry way packing lunches, patching boo boos, and carrying on as if everything is perfectly normal. But deep in that little brain something miraculous is happening. Behind those … Continued
Election season. An exhausting ride where we are all bombarded with campaign ads, controversial discussions, heated debates, and a barrage of political humdrum.
Halloween Eve 9:00 p.m. I can’t imagine how this is possible. My sugar-hyped children have fallen asleep. Thank God. I look around the house. Some dishes from dinner are still on the counter; we barely gobbled it down before heading out to Trick or Treat. The table is covered in neatly sorted piles of peanut … Continued
General / Book Recommendations
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be spending this Halloween curled up with a scary book as you wait to chase hooligans off the supposedly-haunted bridge across from your property. But even if you’re not like me, you should still consider spending this cloudy, drizzly, decidedly creepy time of year reading an appropriately eerie book … Continued
Do you see these beautiful children? Oh, they are a handful! I love them so much, but at the end of a long day of chicken herding, I am worn out! Like chickens, they all seem to be going in different directions at the same time. And just when you think you have got everybody … Continued
CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.