Headshots of Youth Matters columnists Mara Rosenberg, at left, and Erica Thompson, at right, both from St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School in Washington, D.C.

Books Model Behaviors

June 1, 2023

We envisioned a club where students, teachers, and caregivers could share a common experience around literature. But it was also important that book selections modeled positive behaviors that align with our school values and fostered conversations around social-emotional learning and equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice (EDISJ). To bring our community together, we turned to … Continue reading Books Model Behaviors


How to Keep Kids Reading Over Winter

November 8, 2022

To highlight how the Winter Reading Challenge helps communities of all sizes read more, the Beanstack team compiled the 2022 Winter Reading Report. Packed with insights from past participants and winners, the report features helpful tips and tricks about how Winter Reading can encourage a community-wide love of reading. Beyond the chance to win big … Continue reading How to Keep Kids Reading Over Winter



Photo of ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall. Text says "From the Executive Director by Tracie D. Hall"

Fugitive Literacies

June 1, 2022

There is a long history of denying reading skills or access to particular groups, including incarcerated people, unpaid and low-wage workers, enslaved and colonized communities, and women. Ken Bigger, a new senior fellow in ALA’s Center for the Future of Libraries, connects literacy to civic fluency in his research. Bigger raises this point: The prison … Continue reading Fugitive Literacies


Reading Ukraine

March 15, 2022

Nonfiction All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin, by Mikhail Zygar (PublicAffairs, 2016) Russian journalist Zygar portrays four Putins—“Putin I the Lionheart,” “Putin II the Magnificent,” “Prince Dmitry,” and “Putin the Terrible”—while presenting a thorough accounting of his many crimes against humanity. What Zygar discovered is that Putin’s inner circle has been … Continue reading Reading Ukraine


Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Why Content Matters

June 24, 2021

Reading Plus is a comprehensive online program that provides students in grades 3–12 with tools to enhance their reading skills. The program includes online adaptive assessments that offer a full diagnostic profile of each student’s ability. Kerry Mescallado, managing editor at Reading Plus, said the program increases vocabulary as well as interest in and motivation … Continue reading Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Why Content Matters


Reading for Change

Reading for Change

June 5, 2020

Booklist recently compiled a list of antiracist books and other resources for librarians and readers. The full list is reprinted below.  It can, of course, also mean reading. We’ve seen the antiracist reading lists; there’s New York magazine’s roundup, Betsy Bird’s comprehensive piece for Fuse8, the Stacks’ collection of nonfiction, the list goes on. There’s … Continue reading Reading for Change



Karen Muller

A Celebration of Reading

May 18, 2015

The Mother of All Booklists: The 500 Most Recommended Nonfiction Reads for Ages 3 to 103, by William Patrick Martin, is basically a crowdsourced book list. The author gathered 155 authoritative and influential lists of award-winning books and recommended reading lists from a spectrum of organizations, including parenting groups, state commissions on libraries, libraries, library … Continue reading A Celebration of Reading



A girl reads to Minnie from K9 Reading Buddies of the North Shore.

Dog Therapy 101

December 22, 2014

“I started pitching it at the school, and my principal was absolutely against it,” Weibling tells American Libraries. The former 3rd-grade teacher, who was then working toward her master’s degree in library science, was eager to find new ways to get students excited about reading and comprehension. “Reading therapy dog programs weren’t common knowledge to … Continue reading Dog Therapy 101


Abby Johnson

Sponsored by Your Library

October 7, 2013

What does a commercial-free space mean to you? With corporations doing their best to surround children with advertising from birth, providing commercial-free spaces is essential to our continued democracy, which depends on creativity and critical thinking, skills that pervasive marketing can repress. Libraries, with our continual campaign for intellectual freedom, are the perfect places to … Continue reading Sponsored by Your Library