Get ready for a great reading year
How to establish a reading culture + YKNR Favourite Bookshops
Regular listeners of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast will know that Megan and Allison kicked off 2024 with an episode dedicated to setting up a reading culture at your place. (You can hear the full episode here.)
Allison promised a summary of the tips in that episode for newsletter subscribers, and here they are!
Celebrate milestones: Create a reading challenge for your young readers – a reading log, or a visual representation, a way to record their progress and milestones.
Model reading and reading enjoyment: “At school my first lessons back are all about sharing what we’ve read over the break – and that includes the books that I’ve read – and then talking about our reading goals for the year,” says Megan.
Establish reading routines: Making time and space in busy lives is one of the keys to a great reading year. For more tips about this, listen to episode 40 of the podcast.
Explore different genres: Reading widely is great for not only sparking the reading bug, but for feeding into writing activities and tasks.
Read together: Reading aloud with your young readers encourages deeper understanding and wider vocabulary.
Make use of libraries: School and public libraries offer endless browsing and reading opportunities, and your school’s teacher-librarian is a brilliant source of ‘next book’ recommendations.
Join a bookclub: Combining books with social activities, discussion and snacks is a great way to make them accessible and engaging. Look for a book club at your school or public library, or start your own (Megan has a course to show you how here.)
Incorporate digital and audio reading: “Every year, I teach (or remind) my students how to download audiobooks and e-books,” says Megan. “The start of the year is a really good time to get good practices in place. Blending print and digital formats for reading makes reading more accessible, especially for those with who may read differently.”
Give kids a reason to read: No-one knows your young reader/s like you do, and each of them will be motivated by different things and different times, particularly when it comes to tweens and teens. Tapping into those motivations and helping them understand why reading is important to them is a great way to inspire them to crack a book.
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
We are back and it’s full steam ahead. We have a huge year planned for 2024 and look forward to sharing updates about what’s in store as the year unfolds.
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. Her debut picture book THE BEEHIVE is out now! More about Megan here.
If you’ve listened to the podcast you’ll know that life is never smooth at my place and that my moving plans have been up-ended. Nonetheless, I am prepping for events to celebrate ‘The Beehive’, which has been enormous fun!
My next event is in Sydney, and illustrator Max Hamilton will join me on Sunday 25th February at GleeBooks, Glebe. Bookings are essential – book here!
Would love to see you there!
MEGAN’S BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your young readers.
‘Dazzlehands’ by Sacha Cotter. Illustrated by Josh Morgan.
All farmer wants is for Pig to OINK, just like a good pig should.
But Pig has other ideas.
Outlandish, rhyming, dancing, grooving, totally DAZZLING ideas, to be precise.
And it’s driving Farmer round the bend!
Published in English and Māori, Dazzlehands has a FABULOUS pink cover and great graphic design. It was sent to me by a lovely school librarian from NZ who knew enough about me to know this book just screams MEGAN DALEY.
And indeed it does.
A total joy to read aloud, and act out with a class of small humans who love a bit of dazzlehand action.
Pig is FABULOUS.
‘Night Watch’ by Jodi Toering. Illustrated by Tanya Harricks.
Sunset beckons. Moon appears, and Tawny Frogmouth stirs. She begins her nightly flight, watching over all the animals nestled down to sleep in the burrows and branches of the beautiful Australian bush.
Australia's native Tawny Frogmouths are often mistaken for owls, and like owls are nocturnal.
A distinctly Australian bedtime story, this beautiful book follows the journey of the Tawny Frogmouths as they soar through the skies and through the night ... keeping watch over native fauna as they settle in for their safe slumber.
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
And just like that, we’re in February. How did that happen? I was supposed to be having a quieter year in 2024 as 2023 was far too massive. Also, I have my youngest in year twelve this year, which is always chock full of social events.
Admission: by the second week of January, I had already somehow managed to sign up for almost as much in 2024 as I covered in that massive 2023, so … oops. To be fair, it’s just too hard to say no to all the exciting things. And post-Covid times, why would I want to?
We all know how lucky we are to be doing lovely events and festivals and meeting up with publishers and other authors. So, let the fun begin!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
This post in the YKNR community made me laugh so much.
This kid knows where it’s at. Who doesn’t love a good food book? And who doesn’t love BREAD and all things BREAD ADJACENT. #carbs #nevergivingupcarbs #carbsforlife
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
Look, to be honest, I’m in limbo. One of the things I love most about writing is leaping into the abyss guided only be a character and that all-important question: What Happens Next?
Fun in fiction, not so entertaining in real life.
There are many certainties in my life, it’s true. School’s back, the podcast is back, there are a lot of great things on the horizon. But right now, in this moment, I’m waiting.
Writers spend an awful lot of time waiting, and I’ve trained myself over the last decade to use that waiting time wisely. To the point where I wrote an entire blog post about it, which you may find of interest if you, too, are a writer.
Speaking of blog posts, my blog turned 14 a couple of weeks ago. Yep, I’ve been putting my words and thoughts on the internet for fourteen years – before I was a published author and long before YKNR was even a twinkle in my eye.
There’s a lot of tips and advice over there for writers of all ages. Book lists for readers of all kinds. Everything you need to know about any and all of my books – including posts about the very first inklings of my first series The Mapmaker Chronicles.
Come and say hi!
THE YKNR COMMUNITY’S FAVOURITE BOOKSHOPS
Following recent comments, widely covered in the media, from an Australian independent bookseller, we asked the Your Kid’s Next Read community to recommend their favourite bookshops.
The places they go for a wide range of diverse and interesting stories of all kinds, advice and a warm welcome.
Well, we were INUNDATED with glowing responses and reviews, and have put them into a list for easy reference (and so you can plan your Bookshops Of Australia roadtrip).
And, yes, we’ve included some New Zealand Faves as well.
Click the button for the full list.
FEBRUARY BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we’re giving away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner* is chosen from our full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are SIX books in the FEBRUARY prize pack.
The FEBRUARY bookmail giveaway winner is … S. Ryan.
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want a chance to win next month? All you have to do is subscribe.
Here’s to a great school year!
We’ll see you in March with more bookish goodness. Later this month, paid subscribers can look forward to that fabulous visual reading log PDF we promised on the podcast.
Allison T, Allison R and Megan
*Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.