Here is our January update for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten!
Remember, if you have not yet registered, there are two ways to participate in 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten:
- You can visit a Library location to receive a paper log. Staff will take your information and provide you with a booklet to keep track of all the books your child reads.
- Or sign up on Beanstack to track books online, the Library’s online reading platform. Just create an account and log books as your child completes them. You can even download the Beanstack app to log books by scanning their barcode with your phone!
Literacy at Home
Does your reader love to play peek-a-boo with lift-the-flap books? Have you ever read a book that asks you not to turn its pages? Do books with touchable textures make you giggle and gasp? These supremely fun books have their own name: since they invite readers to interact with the book, they’re called interactive books!
Interactive books are more than just toy-like books – they’re great tools for getting ready to read, too. Books that encourage tracing and manipulating parts strengthen motor muscles and support early writing skills. Books with flaps, tabs, and moving parts invite children to make predictions and guess what will happen next. Best of all, interactive books are just plain fun! When reading is fun, your little one will want to keep reading their whole childhood long and beyond.
How can you use the St. Louis Public Library catalog to find interactive books? Try searching the subjects “Lift-the-flap books”, “Textured books”, or “Toy and movable books”. Have fun browsing!
Book Recommendations
Stir Crack Whisk Bake by Maddy Frost is a great example of a book that doesn’t need special parts to be interactive. Press, shake, and point your way through making a special batch of cupcakes – yum!
Peekaboo Moon by Camilla Reid is an interactive treat with its slides, tabs, and spinners! Don’t miss other books in her “Peekaboo” series like Peekaboo Apple, Peekaboo Pumpkin, and Peekaboo Sun.
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone stars our good friend Grover from Sesame Street. Please, please, please don’t turn the pages… there’s a monster at the end of this book!
Counting With A Ladybug by James Mitchum has trace-able trails and cut-out shapes that are fun to feel and count.
Bruno Builder Bakes Bread by Nelleke Verhoeff is one of our recent favorites! Mix and match tops and bottoms for dozens of character combinations. Bruno Builder and his friends can bake bread, fight fires, play piano, and so much more!
I Spy by Jean Marzollo has delighted children and children-at-heart for decades. Read the rhyme and find the objects in Walter Wick’s beautiful, crisp, and colorful photographs.
For Caregivers
It’s important to remember that when children see you read and engage with books, you’re setting a great example for them. Even if you don’t think of yourself as much of a reader, how-to books like craft books, cookbooks, and do-it-yourself guides count, too. As we like to say in the Library, all reading counts! So, why not check out Pop-up Paper Structures or Easy Paper Projects and make your own interactive pop-up card or booklet?
You can have fun at home making your own pop-up cards and booklets! Making your own pop-up creations can be a craft activity for the whole family: very young children can help with decorative scribbles while older children can cut, glue, and design their own pop-up creations. While you work, point to what you’re reading and read directions out loud from your book for a boost of early literacy power.
Library Updates
New 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten prize books are on the way! Five new titles to choose from will be arriving at Libraries soon. To make room for these new books, we will not be ordering more of some current prize books – so if there’s a particular one you’ve been meaning to claim, snatch it up before it’s gone!
It’s a new year, so keep your eye on our calendar for new programs in 2024. You definitely don’t want to miss sensory-driven and laugh-out-loud fun Dress for Mess or have the farm come to your Library at Chicken Storytime. Bookmark our full calendar of early childhood programs to find Storytimes and activities at a branch near you.
Happy reading!
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