As a ten year old at Uxbridge Public School among the bookshelves in the library, I declared to myself that I would never stop reading picture books and I never have. I even got in trouble in grade 8 for including a picture book on my list of books read during a "Challenge Yourself to Read" assignment. My response was, "It's a book and you didn't say we couldn't read it." She gave that one to me, but told me not to do it again. It probably helped that I had read a wide variety of other books, ranging from Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew to Stephen King and Flowers in the Attic to balance it out, but still, I was making a point.
review on Jim Trelease's newly re-released book, The Read Aloud Handbook. Matt Renwick wrote about this book as a Nerdy Book Club Post, as his school is reading it together to bring a greater "awareness of the importance of reading aloud both at home and at school."
In his review he provided ten takeaway points from the book and although I agreed and rejoiced with many of them the one that most applies to this post was:
Finally...since they are "everybody books" and they are sooo good I'm going to share with all of you. Here are the top ten Canadian picture books of 2013 as chosen by the Ontario Library Association. We have them in the library to share with the primaries as they participate in the Blue Spruce Program, but perhaps you'll be able to use them in your program too. I've highlighted themes, links and activities and hope you and your students will enjoy and grow from them.
***PDF with live links available at the bottom of page.