Bookshelf #14:

Older Brother  and Little Brother
11 years old and nearly 9 years old
Kirkbymoorside, United Kingdom

These shelves are in Little Brother’s bedroom but both boys dip into them – as do I!  There are lots of favorites there – many of which we’ve got to know through PaperTigers.  Sometimes we just grab a random handful and pile into bed for a “book session” – though as they get older, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get readaloud time together apart from bedtime.

Submitted by: Marjorie

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Earlier this week I blogged about an annual event that takes place in Concord, MA, USA: Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature.  Pooja Makhijani left a comment saying “My book – Mama’s Saris – inspired a tree in 2007. It was the best honor my book could have ever received.” She followed up by sending me two photos of the Mama’s Saris tree! Isn’t it beautiful!?

If anyone else has photos of a decorated tree from the event and would like to email them to me, I would love to share them with our readers.

And speaking of photos, don’t forget PaperTigers’ Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. Send in a photo of your child’s bookshelf and you could win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! So far, we have heard from The Philippines, Canada, the UK, US, Sweden and India. We want to see bookshelves from all corners, though, and to hear about the books that inhabit them so next time you have your camera handy, snap a quick bookshelf photo and send it to me at corinne(at)papertigers(dot)org . Hopefully our combined photos will offer a glimpse of a big world made smaller through books and reading. Don’t worry about capturing the whole bookshelf/book collection in the photo. A partial image, along with a reading-related anecdote and/or a few lines describing the bookshelf’s content, should be enough to help us connect across languages and cultures.

For more details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

The lucky winner of our September “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” book draw is four year-old Clarke, from Los Angeles, California. Being the son of writer Candace Ryan (her debut picture book, Animal House, will be released by Walker Books for Young Readers in 2010) and of a very talented father who built him an incredible Zebra bookshelf, Clarke is no doubt a lucky boy.

Back in May Candace posted about her son’s bookshelf (built to his specification), on her blog Book, Booker, Bookets. She said: “Scrap wood, homeless books, a 4 year-old’s imagination—these were the ingredients needed to bring this bookshelf to life. The fact that one of our cats cowered at the sight of the zebra’s eye gave it just that much more credibility. For the bookshelf’s christening, all it needs is a copy of Dr. Seuss’s On Beyond Zebra. After all, this zebra’s imaginative life begins where that of other zebras ends.”

How lovely is that? And how lucky is Clarke to have such creative parents who surround him with books and whimsy?… I just hope Zebra will be keen on housing five new multicultural picture books, as they will be on their way to Clarke very soon!

Please help us spread the word on this project, so that the photos and anecdotes will keep on coming from all corners of the world! All bookshelf entries, excluding previous winners’, are entered in our bimonthly draw, regardless of when they were submitted.

Bookshelf #12:
Aiden and Heather
6 years old and 4 years old
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Our bookshelf has a mix of books. For the wanna-be paleontologist in the family, there are many many dinosaur books, with a few pirate and Scooby-Doo books thrown in for fun. For our princess, there are Dora, ballet and of course princess themed books. Their uncle in Australia often sends them Australian-themed books too.

Submitted by: Heather

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

The winners of our second “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” book draw are Morgan and Alastrin, from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Their prize—a selection of 5 multicultural books—will be on its way shortly. Thanks, Kathleen, for submitting a photo of their bookshelf. It’s wonderful to see a two- and a three-year-old already hooked on books!

All photo entries, excluding previous winners’, are entered in our bimonthly draw, regardless of when they were submitted, so we encourage you to send us a picture of your kid/kids’ home library (whatever format it may take in your household). We look forward to featuring it here and to further connecting through books and reading!

To see all bookshelf photos submitted to date, click on the “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” logo on the sidebar, and for more details on the project and the idea behind it, check out our call-out , as well as Janet’s post “Looking at Bookshelves and Wondering“.

Bookshelf #11:
Anav and Kanva
4 year old and 2 years old
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

This used to be the place for the gods & slowly got replaced by books
as the 2 little ones took over. They have a mixture of Indian &
western books; English till now. The books area is just a foot above
the ground & it gives them a chance to squat on the floor while
reading ;o)

Submitted by: Ranjini

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.

Five year-old Shashank, the winner of our first “Around the World in 100 Bookshelves” book draw, received his books! The following is a note from his father:

The books have arrived, and they are so wonderful! Thank you! I have already read them several times to Shashank. His favorite one is ‘Homes,’ and the page he likes the most is the one where crying clouds make rain! Take a look at all the new books on our bookshelf!

Thanks for the feedback and photos, Prashanth! It’s great to see Shashank smiling, with his new favorite book in hand!

Readers, take note: on Jul 15th we will draw a new winner, so keep sending us photos of your children’s bookshelves. They could be the next to win a set of age-appropriate multicultural books!

Here is a list of the books we sent to Shashank:

Homes, by Yang-Huan, illustrated by Hsiao-yen Huang

Speak Chinese, Fang Fang! written and illustrated by Sally Rippin

No English by Jacqueline Jules, illustrated by Amy Huntington

Colors, Colores! by Jorge Luján

Loongie, The Greedy Crocodile by Lucy and Kiefer Dann, illustrated by Bronwyn Houston

Last weekend The Vancouver Sun newspaper published an interesting article entitled “What do kids love most? Their parents reading to them.” Nick Vinocur reported on the results from a recent study that surveyed 500 children aged three to eight in Britain and found that half of the children said story time was their favorite pastime with their parents! Almost two-thirds of the children polled said they wanted their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed and 82% said reading a story with their parents helped them to sleep better. Storytelling ranked higher than television or video game amongst pastimes for kids and the best storytellers, according to the children surveyed, were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving.

Child psychologist Richard Woolfson led the study and says:

The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children’s lives. It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bond and play a vital part in their child’s development.

Click here to read the entire article.

I had to include the photo of my husband reading to our son Evan as it is one of my favorites and I still find it hard to believe that my first-born is now 12 years old. How time flies! Such fond memories…

Speaking of photos, don’t forget to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf for our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves project. You will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a selection of 5 age-appropriate books to add to your little one’s bookshelf! See the sidebar for more details.

Bookshelf #10:
Emma
8 years old.
Belcarra, Canada

I took this picture myself. We have a lot of bookshelves in our house but this is a very important one because it is filled with books we will never give away. Some of these books were my mom’s when she was little but most were given to my brother and me and we want to save them forever. In our house, when we receive a book from a family member, they sign and date the first page. It is neat to look at some of the books and see the inscriptions. One of the books was given to my mom on Easter 1972 from my great-grandma and great-grandpa. Another book was given to my mom on the day she was born! The Paddington Bear books were my mom’s when she was little and they were the first chapter books that I read all on my own. The books about space and science are my brother’s and most of the books with dogs are mine. One of my favorite books is Just Dog by Hiawyn Oram. There are some books here that have torn pages or covers but we won’t throw them out because they are too special and they have lots of good memories. We keep our library books in a separate spot so that it is easier to find them when they are due.

Submitted by: Emma and her mom (Corinne)

For details on how to submit a photo of your child’s bookshelf, click here.