The children in our lives enjoy—and benefit from—all the pleasures that summer vacation holds, but we don’t want these precious children to experience a slide in their reading and writing abilities during their long break from school. We can tempt them with books and quizzes and games and wonderful programs at their local libraries.
I’ve come across another appealing way to encourage your mini-bookworms to read and express their opinions this summer: the opportunity to be a published literary critic through the Chicago Tribune Read and Write program.
Open to children 5 – 16, a selection of the submitted book reviews will be published in Printers Row Journal or online. Submissions must be in by August 15.
This contest is a wonderful opportunity for grandparents to get involved. Help your grand select a book—maybe suggest one of your childhood favorites. Read to a younger child or listen to an older one read to you. If your grand is a teenager, read the same book and then compare notes. Discuss the book’s plot, themes and characters and their reactions in an age-appropriate way, and encourage them to write a review. Younger children can simply draw their reviews.
Happy Reading!
What a great idea — thank you! I will definitely discuss this idea with Amara!
Good Luck to Amara, if she decides to try her hand at reviewing!
Great idea! Also, I can’t say enough good about summer reading programs at local libraries. I loved them, my kids loved them and now my grandchildren are loving them!
Thanks, Susan. And I am in total agreement with you about the public library (http://belindabrock.com/2013/05/21/that-lovin-feeling/): “Going to the library was my favorite neighborhood outing. My mother—my lovely mother—carried home shopping bags full of books and never complained (though she was a bit annoyed that I kept the books too long, thus, accruing overdue fines).”