If you received your packet of summer reading manuals for 2012, I hope you took notice of the Early Literacy Program manual. The manual helps you develop a thematic summer program for children who are not yet readers, or in some cases, not yet talkers. In the children’s librarian world, this early literacy focus is one of the hot issues. Because so many children are in preschool, more families are looking for library programs geared to infants and toddlers. Libraries can attract this audience during the summer reading program, too. Most early literacy programs target the parents and caregivers by helping them understand the early literacy skills that children need to acquire before they are ready to learn to read.
If your library wants to reach out to parents and help them with resources for early literacy development, you may want to feature some of the books and activities highlighted on the Pennsylvania Center for the Book. They offer a series of lists called “Baker’s Dozen,” which represent their top picks of books that promote early literacy.
And, take a look at your Early Literacy Summer Reading manual! Even if you don’t use it for summer reading, you may find some useful activities that you can use in storytime the rest of the year.