Skittles, coffee, a bunch of experience and so much heart. That is what Raising A Rock-Star Reader was written with. My co-author Amy Mascott and I put our hearts into this book. True self-promotion is not easy for me but you guys, this book is good, it’s really something I am so proud of. Although I teach preschool I am actually trained for junior kindergarten ( PreK) through 6th grade and I focused my elementary education degree on early literacy. In the dozen years since I’ve spent countless hours teaching, tutoring and working with my own kids on the foundations of literacy in developmentally appropriate ways. Amy who is a reading specialist ( which means she has a graduate degree in reading instruction) and I joined forces to share all our best bits of knowledge with you and we are thrilled with the response so far. I can not wait for you all to read it!
photo courtesy of Kim of stuffedsuitcase.com
Here are some of the things educators have been saying:
The business of helping someone learn to read can be overwhelming–there’s just so much pressure and confusion! The authors have broken it down into bite-size, palatable chunks that parents can have the confidence to implement with their kids. This is a book I can recommend to my friends without worrying that it will stress them out. It’s so good. – Megan from Coffee Cups & Crayons
and
As an educator, I’ve had many parents ask what they can do to help their child learn to read. THIS is the book that would hand to them! It’s practical, hands-on, simple, and gets to the root of what builds real literacy in young children. It’s not gimmicks or fads, it’s the experiences that help wire the brain for meaningful literacy. LOVE this book! – Amanda from Not Just Cute
As you can imagine we are THRILLED with this response and these are only a few of the many great reviews.
Giraffes Can’t Dance – it is a daily favorite.
Aesop’s fables to my five year old daughter. She loves stories about animals!
Just started Harry Potter with my 5 year old daughter. So far so good!
Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems
10 Fat Turkeys. Gobble gobble wibble wobble. I loved hearing them repeat that.
This is great. I just read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late with my 3 year old.
Congrats on the new book! Dang girl, you are one busy mama!! I would love to read this, since it has been a struggle to help Torah learn to read while we’re living in Spain and have virtually NO access to English books. Sigh. The last book we read together was The Story of Ferdinand (again! It’s one of the only books we brought with us.)
Torah has LOTS of time but you know that! Can’t wait to see you all when you are back home.
My 3 year old daughter loves to read and is obsessed with the Fly Guy books lately. Yesterday I think we read every Fly Guy book ever written.
I read Puppy Love last night before bedtime.
Cowbella and the Bad Dream. We got this and The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream a few months ago when she was having nightmares and they worked like magic. She “read” the Berenstain Bears one to me last night before I read Cowbella, and I love that she is trying so hard to be like her teachers and parents and read to me. She even reads to an imaginary classroom and scolds the kids for talking while she’s reading. SO cute.
I read “Once Upon a Potty: Boy” by Alona Frankel to my son last night. 🙂 The last book my older kids and I read aloud together was “Little Bo in London” by Julie Andrews Edwards. Congrats on the book and thanks for the chance to win a copy!
Click clack moo, cows that type
Sheila Rae The Brave!! Great book for my fearless three kids.
I read Curious George Goes to the Bookstore; Larry Gets Lost in Chicago (Michael Mullin/John Skewes); Listen to My Trumpet (Mo Willems) and There’s No Place like Space (Cat in the Hat) to my son last night at bed-time. We LOVE to read! Thanks for the contest!
Going to the Zoo and Mickey’s Halloween.
Goodnight goodnight construction site to my 3 year old 🙂
I read “Classic Stories for Little Children” by Usborne last night with my 4-year-old.
My 6 year and I are half way through Harry Potter, he read “I can…” Last night, and my two little girls and I read, ” There’s a Monster at the End of This Book”
We read Imaginary Fred last night. My toddler is just starting to be interested in reading books with his big sister, but I do find he’s been less interested than she was at this age so I’m very curious to learn more about how I can help facilitate his love for reading too! Thanks:)
I’m reading “Story of the World” to my daughter. My husband is reading “Swiss Family Robinson” to her.
Hello Baby by Mem Fox
I Like Myself and several Dr. Suess books last night including Put me in a zoo
How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin by Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated by Tim Raglin). My daughter and I both love the language in this book. She says it makes her happy and I couldn’t agree more.
Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer, one of our new purchases from the school book fair. 🙂
Last night we read Fly Guy learns about sharks! My first grader did most of the reading and I helped sound out the tricky words. We also recently read Oscar Otter and Everybody Sleeps but Not Fred together. He also loves when I read Magic Treehouse and Geronimo Stilton to him.
I read for my son Thanksgiving at the Tappletons’.
Mix It Up. She loves that book.
We read Uncle Andy’s Cats by James Warhola.
I am a reading resource teacher so I read allllll day with struggling readers. Even more challenging…English is their second language as I work with Deaf students. I would LOVE to get a copy of your book to share tips with parents! The last book I shared with students was The Giving Tree – it was my Halloween costume. 🙂
I read Shadowville to my 4 year old last night. He dressed in all black the week before and went to school as a shadow for dress as your favorite literary character day!
Little Blue Truck with my 2 yr old 🙂
Sylvester & the Magic Pebble
The last book I read with my grandson was Click, Clack, Boo.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid #5 with my 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter! So much fun!
I read “Katie Loves the Kittens” by John Himmelman to my 4 year old daughter.
Chica Chica Boom Boom followed by some wonderful singing of the ABC’s while pointing out the letters at the end
My daughter 2.5yrs old enjoys the story of rapunzel and my son 5 yrs old enjoys ” how do dinosaurs say merry Christmas”
On the night you were born. Love this book.
I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to my son and Dora’s High Flying Adventure to my daughter. Looks like you wrote a great book…congrats!
The Pigeon Wants A Puppy, by Mo Williems. My first graders loves when we read Pigeon books together.
I Took the Moon For A Walk is our go-to bedtime book; BUT we just read The Gigantic Turnip.
Dawn B, thank you so much for sharing the “sweet sleepy light” of I Took the Moon for a Walk with your family, and for mentioning it here. I appreciate your support!
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
One Family by George Shannon with my 3.5-year-old daughter. Introduces the concepts of sets and has beautiful illustrations with diverse families!
I’m reading Tuesdays at the Castle to my 3
boys
Charlie Brown Goes To School. We have 2 big Peanut Gang fans in this house and it’s only expanding, due to the new movie!
I am a children’s librarian and I do Storytime every other month. The last book I read the kids was ‘Click Clack Boo’ by Cronin. I am always looking for great early literacy tips and advice to share with the parents!
We read Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana.
We just finished Mary Poppins as a read-aloud and tonight we started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. First chapter was a hit with my girls!
Do you know that there are 14 books in the Oz series? They are amazing. I’m on #4 with my daughters.
Last book we finished was Temple of the Ruby of Fire from the Gerinimo Stilton series! My five-year-old loves for me to read chapter books to him.
Over the River and Through the Woods, the one illustrated by Matt Tavares. It’s almost Thanksgiving!
Charlie and I just finished Harry Potter 4 yesterday while he was home from school. Sick again today and we got to Pg. 115 of HP5! Got to finish the books before heading to Orlando next year!!!
Congratulations on the book!
La historia de la Cerdita Peppa
She wanted her Spanish speaking nanny to read it to her but was still napping when the nanny left so got stuck with my college Spanish version. 🙂 Would love more books on English though.
We just read Captain Underpants! Too funny 🙂
The Book with No Pictures ~ BJ Novack
My toddler loves reading together! We last read The Wheels on the Bus and The House of Seven Colors (A Sesame Street Book).
The Secret Garden… Loved sharing a book I loved with my daughter!
The Busy Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri. My 2 year-old class loved it. They helped me read by saying “he was too busy.”
Luann Colombo and 2 more
Uncover the Human Body: Take a Three-Dimensional Look Inside the Human Body
How Do Dinosaurs Say I’m Mad
Last Sunday, my 3 year old daughter and I read aloud together the book “Little Lamb” in English at a book cafe while enjoying yogurt. Actually I also need to translate into Vietnamese for her to understand the meaning, but it’s a good book for children to learn reading with simple words, and cute illustration. Btw, I’m very excited to have your book, but do you have ebook or kindle version? It would help me save shipping fee to Vietnam .
Sadly, we are currently in the midst of Angry Birds Transformers, the graphic novel (it’s about as good as it sounds). Before that was selected, we were reading Jabba the Puppett, which was much more enjoyable. I look forward to reading your book, as I have a very reluctant reader on my hands and would love to turn him into a lover of books (like me).
Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin. My 18 month old loves to answer, “No” to each question about where the pumpkin is.
The Diggers by Margaret Wise Brown. I love the rhythm of it, and my kids love the story and pictures!
The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
Congrats on the book!
I’m really looking forward to reading this book! The last one I read with my four-year-old was “Zen Shorts” by Jon J. Muth, tonight before bed. She loves Stillwater the panda.
George Brown Class Clown, Attack of the Tight Whites. By Nancy Krulik
Awesome giveaway! Thanks for the chance to win! The last book my daughter read to me was Super Fly Guy last night!
I’ve been reading Firefighters Thanksgiving with my almost 3 year old and my kindergarten class is loving Bear Says Thanks!
That is awesome news!!
The Pigeon Wants A Puppy (and not for the first time either, lol!)
We read chapters of Captain Underpants Book 2 last night, along with If You Give a Dog a Doughnut.
I last read my class There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves.
We just finished reading Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our 5-year-old. He loved it! Before that, we read Matilda. I guess we’re on a Roald Dahl kick!
My son LOVES anything written by Mo Willems. Another favorite is Horton Hears a Who, Little Blue Truck, and Are You My Mother?
We had a local author, Dee Maner, visit our school today and we read ARTIE: THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL CHRISTMAS TREE today.
We’ve been on a Roald Dahl kick with my 5-year-old. We started with Matilda then moved on to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not sure what will be next!
No, David!