This week our new arrivals feature some of your favorite authors, returning with new stories to share.

…And the Winner is…

The American Library Association announced the winners of the 2013 Youth Media Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, etc.) this morning.  

What are rare words, where can you find them, and why do they matter?

Rare words are those beyond the 10,000 words known as our Common Lexicon used in most daily conversation with each other.

You can find a great many rare words in children’s books. Children’s books have 30 rare words per thousand, while conversations between an adult and 3-year-old child typically include 9 rare words per thousand (JimTrelease: The Read-Aloud Handbook.) 

Quality children’s picture books are filled with rare words. Consider Byron Barton’s I Want to Be an Astronaut, a picture book for toddlers and preschoolers. It includes words like shuttle, mission, and gravity. These are words you might not use in everyday conversation with your young child. When you read this book aloud, you introduce him to these words, and they become part of his growing vocabulary.

Why is this important? Studies show that a child’s vocabulary upon entering school is the number one indicator of whether he will be a good reader. Trelease reminds us that by the time a child is 5-years-old, he will know 90% of the words he will use for the rest of his life. The eventual strength of your child’s vocabulary depends on how many of these rare words he knows. And the child who has heard thousands of picture books before he reaches school will have a larger vocabulary than the child that experiences very few books during his early years. 

There are thousands of vocabulary-rich books for young children. Check out the below sampling, but know it is the tip of an enormous iceberg. Visit the library often, attend storytime, and let us help your child develop a rich vocabulary through picture books.

I remember when my son was younger. While looking at the cereal box during breakfast, he put his head in his hands and sighed, “I wish I could read what this says!” He wanted so badly to read, but he could not seem to remember his letters and sounds from day to day.

British sensation One Direction is at Richland Library.  At least…a new biography is.