Celebrating books published in 2023, now finishing its fifth award cycle, the Whippoorwill Award continues to recognize quality rural literature for young people. Each year, the award committee selects books that portray and honor the complex experiences of rural culture and communities. The award serves to help highlight the diversity of rurality…

Nudge theory, a strategy to influence decision-making, holds promise for enhancing an adult's use of evidence-based strategies during a read-aloud experience with a young child. This study examined the effectiveness of a nudge theory approach in increasing adult gesture use during a book-reading activity with a young child. Notably, 31 U.S.…

In this manuscript, I lift Black feminisms as a methodological intervention on a holistic meaning-making theory and its relationship to anti-Blackness. Specifically, I employed a Black feminist literary criticism, which presumes that Black people have cultivated living and survival practices throughout their history in the United States. I…

Bullying begins in the preschool years and presents a public health concern for children of all ages with negative outcomes observed for victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. With an eye on intervention, research suggests that reading and discussing books may help to encourage perspective taking and compassion for others, even at an early age.…

Familiarity is a crucial element in narrative fiction reading for children, playing a significant role in social learning from storybooks. Nevertheless, distinct studies greatly vary in their interpretation of what renders a storybook familiar to a child, researchers' methods for measuring familiarity, and how researchers link familiarity to…

In early education, reading difficulties can lead to negative outcomes. Augmented reality (AR) storybooks combine the benefits of e-books and print books, significantly aiding children's reading skills and gaining recognition from scholars and educators. However, the existing AR storybooks often overlook the design of interactive features, which…

The five young adult "Honor List" books of 2023 are all visual texts. These award-winning books offer tremendous stories in both pictures and words in the genres of realistic fiction, memoir, and historical nonfiction.

Relationships are all about connection. Teacher librarians are more effective at positively impacting learners when they have established relationships with them. There are a myriad of ways to build these bonds, and even small efforts can yield great results. In this article, the author presents the power of relationships when building bonds with…

This unit activity describes a series of lessons designed to enhance STEM students' technical communication abilities. The lessons culminate in two separate yet interconnected projects: (1) the development of a children's book explaining a complex topic and (2) presentations of those books to members of the local community. Students learn the…

This manuscript explores the trends of the American Library Association's (ALA's) Rainbow Book List Top Ten Titles for Young Readers for 2023. It provides an overview of the titles and curricular connections. The authors discuss how the 2023 Rainbow Book List offers a diversity of genres and topics and also delves deeply into portrayals of queer…

Acclaimed children's books in the United States (U.S.) may be utilized as resources to instruct global issues. As children's literature reflects social context and values, acclaimed books may provide curricular materials for those within the U.S. and to international audiences. Stakeholders, including librarians, teachers, national industry…

Incorporating books that facilitate inclusive understandings of dyslexia can be a challenging yet important pedagogical approach to promoting equitable practices. As realistically portrayed characters and stories provide a way for students to see not only themselves but also others, and enter different worlds, the need for multiple representations…

America's strength lies in its inherent diversity--an enduring truth that makes the Eurocentric nature of our educational curricula troubling. Despite this foundational reality, curricular materials remain predominantly Eurocentric, often excluding authentic representation and inclusion of Black/African American experiences in children's and young…

Understanding children's motivations to read and preferred materials is key to fostering reading skills and promoting a national reading culture. This study, conducted a decade after the launch of the "Soma Rwanda" (Rwanda Read) national reading initiative, explores children's access to books at home, their reading preferences, and the…

The practice of reading aloud to children is ubiquitous in early childhood classrooms. Teachers read aloud to young children to entertain, to build early literacy skills, to develop domain specific content knowledge and vocabulary, to promote social and emotional development and well-being, and to draw children into community with each other and…