Our Little Musicians

Corner Library

Literally. A library. On the street corner.

Summer 2011, aka "The Summer of Libraries"

This was definitely the summer of libraries for us! We went to our neighborhood library at least once or twice a week to escape the heat, see some other kiddos, and read lots of books. This is at the NYC Main Branch (the one with the statues of lions that you see in lots of movies). Have you ever seen so many picture books in one place in your life?

Scribbling: Circular Stage

Little L. said: "Circles!"

Little L. said: "This is rain. This is Pooh Bear. This Mommy. Daddy... Mimi... Grandpa..."

Yes, there are stages to scribbling! Little L. is in the late Circular stage, early Naming stage!

Click here if you want to find out the stage of your own tiny artist or writer.

Try these handy tips:

1. Compliment your child's work by naming what you see, reinforcing her newfound skills as well as vocabulary. If you can name it, she can learn what it is called. Try saying things like,"I see straight/curvy/zig zag lines!" or "I see circles/dots/curves!" or "I see lots of blue on your page, and even a little bit of yellow!" After a short amount of time, you'll hear her naming her own work!

2. Keep materials easily accessible. If you have to dig out the paper and crayons from the bottom of a closet or a drawer, you and your child will be less likely to spend 5-10 minutes drawing. Try an easel or large notebook set up with not-too-messy materials. Tape the paper down so she's less likely to rip it apart. A few washable crayons are pretty easy to manage and pose little danger to your furniture and walls--they really are washable--trust me! (Hint: The fatter the marker or crayon, the harder it can be for your child to use a three-finger grip. Really fat crayons and markers force your child to fist it rather than pinch it. Try having a variety of art materials, both fat and skinny, for fine motor skills, and also just for fun!)

3. Make time every day. While I'm making my coffee in the morning is one of Little L.'s favorite easel times. She hunkers down with markers and crayons for just the right amount of time for me to pour it, add milk and sugar, down half of it while I still have a chance!

Life-to-Text Connections

Real life always reminds us of life-to-text connections! (Yes, "life-to-text.")

This picture is from one of our many trips to the Bronx Zoo. It reminds us of so many great books!

This reminds me of...

... Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdney

... Is Your Mama a Llama?

... Zoo Looking, by Mem Fox

What does it remind you of?

Check Out the We Teach Summertime Learning eBook

Over at We Teach, the amazing leaders put together this beautiful eBook filled with fun ideas for summer learning. Check it out! Baby L and I contributed to it!

Experimenting with Magic Markers and Ice

This post is especially for teachers I work with. Next year we will all be trying out a new unit of study in science and writing workshop. We'll teach the kids how to design their own experiments, and how to write up their results. Baby L and I tried it out the other day, and here's how it went. (You could use the same materials for experiments with your kids, or you could use our "lab report" as a mentor text for their writing.)

Whether you are a teacher, a parent, or caregiver reading this, have fun doing experiments with your tiny scientist! If you know some great links to other fun easy experiments, please share!

Baby L's Lab Report

The questions we had:

What happens when you color on ice with magic markers?

What happens when you stir water with a magic marker?

What happens when you mix the colors?

What happens to soap suds when you add color?

What we used:

1. bowls of water

2. ice cubes

3. markers (nontoxic, washable)

4. some bubble soap

5. spoons and cups

What we did:

1. We had a giant chunk of ice-cubes that had melted together in the ice-tray in the freezer, so we took that out and put it in the big wooden bowl.

2. We poured some water on it to see what would happen. Not much. It made the ice chunk look shiny and slippery.

3. We colored on the ice chunk with magic markers. It was so cool! The ice turned different colors!

4. We poured some more water on the ice chunk, so now there was lots of water in the bowl. The water changed to the color of the magic markers!

5. We moved some of the ice into a new bowl. The ice was clean! No colors when we moved it!

6. We colored the clean ice and poured water on it. The same thing happened- the water changed colors again!

7. Then we poured a little water with no ice into a third bowl and stirred it with a marker. The water changed colors!

8. Last, we stuck in some hand soap to see what would happen. We made lots of suds, but the suds didn't really change color even when we stirred in more magic marker!

New Words for Baby L:

Melt

Drip

Suds

Mix

Stir

Frozen

Pour

Slippery

Summer Reading and Writing Kits!

Now that spring has (FINALLY) arrived, Baby L and I are already thinking ahead to summer! With all the traveling we plan to do, we need some portable drawing and writing materials to keep Baby L's writing life alive and strong!

Here's what we did.

First I gathered up materials to make a box to hold all of Baby L's fun summer writing materials: 1) a cereal box decorated with catalog clippings, 2) some stapled booklets of blank paper, and 3) some crayons, markers, tiny notepads, stickers, envelopes, and post-its:

























Then I put it all together, so that Baby L has one transportable, totally fun, totally awesome SUMMER WRITING KIT! I even added in the mini-clipboard that the Easter Bunny brought her.













In the classroom, I love ending the school year by making reading kits and writing kits for the kids to take home for their summer reading and writing lives. You can spend the last week or two of reading workshop or writing workshop teaching the kids how to take care of and use their special summer kits so that by the time they leave for summer vacation, they've had plenty of practice with taking things out and putting them back, coming up with their own ideas for reading and writing projects, and dreaming up the kind of reading and writing they hope to do.

Here are some ideas that many teachers (and parents and caregivers) love!

For a container you could use:

• A giant zip-loc baggy
• Cloth bags ordered from Oriental Trading or other catalogue
• If you're a classroom teacher, sometimes parent volunteers are willing and able to sew beautiful bags for reading or writing kits. Thanks parents!
• Blank aluminum lunchboxes (available at some craft stores and websites) for children to decorate
• A typical pencil box
• Children could decorate whatever the container is with glued on pictures, stickers, or paint to personalize the kits

Some possibilities for tools to put in the Writing Kit:

• A notebook or notepad with blank paper (unlined for young children)
• “Special” summer writing paper with a place to sketch, and lines to write on just like writing workshop at school (photocopied onto colored paper to make it special; stapled or hole-punched and stuck on a ring to turn it into a notepad)
• Consider various paper sizes, decorating the paper with a stamp, photocopy a border or design onto it or placing a sticker at the top to turn it into “stationery”
• Colorful post-its, or post-its cut into shapes (stars, hearts, clouds, or other)
• Special glittery or colorfully designed pencils, pens or markers
• Envelopes and stamps, include a card with an address where children can to write to you and their new teacher(s) over the summer
• Post cards, greeting cards, notecards, etc.
• Poetry object(s) (seashells, stones, feathers, leaves, dried flowers, other)
• Recipe cards, list paper, How-To paper, mini-calendar
• Mini-staplers, tape, and/or glue sticks
• Personal Word Wall, Alphabet Chart, Blends Chart

Some idea for reading kits:

• Collect favorite books to put in the reading kit
• Include books written by the child, other children, or by the teacher or parents or caregivers and friends
• Special book marks with reminders for things to think about while you read ("I'm wondering..." "This makes me think..." "I notice..."
• A tiny flashlight for reading under the covers
• Special post-its (of course!!)
• A tiny notebook for making a wish list of books, or for jotting or sketching ideas about the books
• A tiny calendar for tallying up how many books you read each day or how many pages you read (if you are an older kid who reads chapter books)

Whatever you do this summer, have fun doing it! If you decide to make a summer reading or writing kit let us know, we'd love to hear about it!

Easter Egg Hunt=Grammar Lesson?

Baby L, Daddy B, and I went to our first Easter Egg Hunt this weekend at McCarren Park! It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and Baby L filled a shopping bag full of eggs. We put lots of them back for other kids to find, and still had a ton to take home.

Later that night, after Baby L went to bed, I emptied out all the eggs and cleaned them up so L could play with them in her play kitchen. As I popped open each egg and removed whatever candy or toys were inside it dawned on me that we could hide the eggs all over again in the house--why wait until Easter? What a fun game to play!

So that night I filled the eggs back up with stickers and hid them all over the house. Since L is only 1.5 years old, I hid them in plain sight. I didn't want her to lose interest after finding the first egg.

The next morning, Baby L found the first few "hidden" eggs immediately. It's easy to see why:









After she found the eggs on the stools, we started giving her clues to find the rest. "Look under the baby doll.... next to the wagon... on top of the coffee table..."

L totally understood that we were telling her generally where to look, but the prepositions-- under, over, in, on... those were tricky for her. We coached her with gestures, we pointed, we restated, we repeated and emphasized certain words. What great practice with grammar! said the teacher-voice inside my head. Oh just have fun...don't ruin it with grammar! said the non-teacher voice inside my head...as usual.

Either way, L loves our new game!

Note:
Teachers are constantly asking me for ideas for how to teach grammar. A really great resource for teachers of older children is The Power of Grammar, by Mary Ehrenworth and Vicki Vinton. You'll find lots of smart ways to teach grammar in a way that calls upon children's abilities to think creatively and meaningfully, rather than memorizing a bunch of grammar rules for a test, or filling out worksheets.

Taking Our Tiny Scientist to the New York Aquarium

Yesterday we braved the pouring rain and howling wind and packed up Baby L and drove to the New York Aquarium. We brought along with all the books we could find about sea life, and read them on the way!



One great thing about this book...













...and this book....













are the audio recordings of the books on the CDs that come with them. We have four or five books from this series and all of them are equally as beautiful. Baby L, Daddy B, and I loved listening to the the CDs all the way to the aquarium, and we felt like experts on sea life by the time we arrived!

And then, one of the first things we saw when we got there...









He (or she?) looked just like the turtles in our book!

But Baby L's (and Mommy and Daddy's) FAVORITE thing of all at the aquarium was this guy:









I nearly bought a stuffed animal version of the walrus, but it was Baby L who said, "Put back!"(One of her favorite things to say these days--especially if it's a food she doesn't want to eat). I listened to her and I put back the toy walrus... we really do not need any more stuffed animals... but I kind of wish I had brought him home to cuddle with!

Make a Special Reading Spot in Your House

Kids love having their own special spot for reading. Having a favorite place to read helps children build their identity as readers - they can think of themselves as "readers" before they even know the alphabet!

Here are some ideas:

1. Set up a corner with a basket of books, some pillows and some post-its.

2. You could set aside a child-sized rocking chair with a tote-bag full of books resting in it.

3. Keep a basket of books next to your child's bed with a mini-flashlight for reading under the covers.

Here's Baby L's fave reading spot right now:

Use your imagination!

Does your tiny reader have a favorite place to read? Leave a comment and share!

Mark it With a B! For Baby and Me!

It started a few nights ago, in the tub, actually. Baby L pointed to the red foam letter B and said, "Baby."

I really thought it was just a coincidence, but just to check, I said, "Where's the B? B for Baby?" and she pointed to it again. Then she turned her attention to her beloved ducky and the moment had passed.

But the next night, in the tub, it happened again. This time I was singing the ABC song and writing the letters of the alphabet on the wall of tub with L's tub crayons. When I came to the end of the alphabet, I said, "L. where's B for Baby and me?" Again! She did it again! She scanned all the letters - starting at Z and moving backward very methodically, until she came to the letter B. She immediately smiled, pointed, and said, "Baby!"

Still, I thought, maybe just another coincidence. So, just casually, over the next few days, I started asking her to find the letter B. When reading a book with really big print I asked, "L do you see a B for Baby?" When playing with her ABC blocks. When walking down the street. She totally knows the letter B now! AMAZING!! (At least, I think so, anyway...)

Yesterday, I wrote all the letters of the alphabet on a big piece of paper taped on her easel, and she's been going back to it again and again with her crayons and markers, "writing" the letters. She colors and scribbles very deliberately, right on top of each letter. So cute!

She can also tell you where "D for Daddy" is, and "M for Mommy."

Next thing you know, she'll be writing her first book!

I do feel a little bit like I'm playing with fire, here. It is so tempting to go totally overboard. I could start asking her all day everywhere we go to find letters and numbers. Or pull out flashcards or something crazy like that. But obviously she's learning the letters without any particular drill or practice. So I think it's best if I just keep reading aloud lots of great books, talking about books and writing, and giving her lots of opportunity to see letters and numbers in her environment.

Do you have a story or idea to share about learning the alphabet? Please leave a comment and share!

It's Time for Holi! Author Interview

Amita Roy Shah is the author of It’s Time for Holi! Amita is also a consultant for several educational publishing companies, a researcher studying South Asian American women who become teachers, and is the mother of one super-smart kid!

Luckily for me, she was willing to take time out of her hectic schedule to answer some questions about her new book:

Tiny Reader: It’s Time for Holi! is your first children’s book. What inspired you to write a book about Holi?

Amita: The idea of Holi came to me when I was designing a Pre-K curriculum and realized that many Pre-K themes have to do with colors, seasons, and multicultural celebrations. Holi is the Indian festival of colors! People celebrate spring by throwing colors on one another…so I thought to myself, what child wouldn’t want to celebrate spring by throwing colors on their family and friends?!?

Tiny Reader: What’s a common question that children have for you about Indian culture, and how do you address it?

Amita: It’s not really a question but I think children are sometimes confused about the term “Indian." And in the United States the term is used to talk about Native American Indians the most. I think this term causes a lot of confusion, so I always make it a point to say that Holi is a celebration that started in the country of India but is now celebrated everywhere. I think it is also important for children to say “India” out loud and I hope the images from my book will help them develop a better understanding of Indians who are from the country of India.

Tiny Reader: What is your writing process?

Amita: My writing process has always been to write down whatever I am thinking at the moment and develop the structure, format, and language later! This has definitely worked for me. The first couple drafts of this book don’t really have a rhyme or rhythm and are just some ideas about roses, butterflies, birds, colors, and spring. It is funny to look back and see it all now.

Tiny Reader: What do you hope children will learn from reading your book?

Amita: I hope that all children get more exposure to the Indian culture. Throughout the book you will notice subtle images of the culture--such as the jewelry, the dress, the wall hangings, the containers with the colored powders, names of characters, etc. I also hope that children get really excited about spring and celebrating Holi at school or at home. Holi is about getting messy with colors so children can really do any activity that allows for them to make a mess with colors. I am going to have my son make colorful handprints or footprints with paint and throw some colored confetti on us at home. He will also go to a couple Holi celebrations that are taking place in the bay area. The other thing I hope for is that it helps validate the experiences of Indian children living in the United States. I think it is really important for children to see people like them and their families in books.

Tiny Reader: What does your son think about all this?

Amita: This is a great question! So let me give you a little more background. I needed the illustrations to look as realistic as possible--so my illustrator referenced our online family albums to create the characters. The boy in the book looks exactly like my son! So my son is absolutely ecstatic when he sees the book. He says, “Look! It’s the Deven book!” every time he sees it!

Tiny Reader: You are a busy lady—a researcher, a consultant, a mom, a children’s book author. What other projects do you have going on right now?

Amita: I think I thrive on multiple projects, so it’s actually a good thing that I have a lot going on. But I am also fortunate enough to have a flexible schedule that allows for me to prioritize projects so that my son always comes first. So with that, I do what I can when I can. Many people have already expressed an interest in a Diwali book... and I do have some ideas for that, so that might be next! I am also talking to a university about teaching part-time. But again, it all depends on time and scheduling!

Tiny Reader: What are your plans for the book now that it is published?

Amita: I have created a Facebook page, “It’s Time for Holi,” to write about all the latest happenings. But just to give you a couple highlights, I plan to do read-alouds at schools or community centers to get the word out. I just did a reading for children at Teachers College and will be at the Indian Community Center (ICC) this week. In the future, I hope to make a more interactive website for children to play virtual Holi game so children can virtually throw colors and get points! I also want to host a coloring contest during Holi and have children color some of the pages from my book. Those are just some ideas in the works to get children more involved in Holi activities 

Celebrating 100 Followers Today!

Yippee! Tiny Reader officially has 100 followers on Google! Thank you so much, dear readers!

Thank you also to all the Tiny Reader followers on Twitter, Networked Blogs, and Facebook!

Three Finger Grip!

At seventeen months old, she's a writer already!

Make March Music in Your House Month

I just learned from another blogger that March is Music in Our Schools Month. Yippee!

Baby L. comes from a musical family - Daddy plays guitar, and so does Grandpa J. (You can hear a clip of Grandpa J. here!) Great Grandpa E. plays the clarinet, and her Great Uncle T. plays drums. There's even a family band and a few albums that Grandpa J. made in his recording studio! Mommy was a band geek in high school and college, and her Grandpa K. knows every piece of trivia you ever could imagine about every jazz, blues, soul, and rock and roll artist ever.

So it's in Baby L.'s blood and it shows. She LOVES music.

To foster her love of music, Baby L. has a box of her own instruments that she often goes to. We always have music on in our house, and she'll often start dancing in the middle of doing something else when she hears a good tune! She'll even pick up her instruments and play along, sometimes she'll even "sing."

Here are some tips for supporting musical kids in your family or classroom:

1. Have music on whenever you can

2. Play lots of different kinds of music, even if they aren't your personal preferences

3. Talk about the music. Name and talk about the instruments you hear if you can

4. Clap, dance, and sing along with the music

5. Make a box of instruments - it's easy! (see below)

6. If you can, seek out music classes in your neighborhood or town. Often the local library, school, or YMCA offers music classes or sing-a-longs for free, or for low cost. It's great for your child to see other kids and grown-ups who like to sing and dance as much as they do.

7. Encourage your child to make up songs! (Even those "songs" that you don't think really sound like songs).

Some instruments you can make:

1. Fill an old plastic bottle with beads, pasta, beans, or coins to make a shaker. Use a drop of glue to seal the cap on so that your baby or toddler can't get it open.

2. Save the tubes from your paper towels. We call them Der-Der Tubes in our house because you can hold them up to your mouth and sing "Der der der der!" An instant trumpet!

3. Cookie tins make great drums - so do oatmeal containers!

4.Good ol' pots and pans are always fun to bang on!

5. You can clap two blocks together to make a great sound along with the beat of a fun song.

6. Your child's baby rattles can go into their instrument box as they get older.

All this music is great for a budding reader or writer, believe it or not. Lyrics to songs build vocabulary, as well as oral language fluency and expression. Clapping, dancing, and playing instruments along to the beat of a song supports phonological awareness - hearing the sounds in language. Just google "music and baby brain development" and a zillion academic research articles appear. Whether you buy into the "Mozart effect" or not, music is a great way to engage your little one in the world of language, words, communication, and fun!

***

Note: (I personal feel that the catch phrase "Mozart effect" it is a bit oversimplified - though it sounds wonderful, and there are some intriguing studies on the short and long term effects of listening to classical music. Some researchers explain that simply playing Mozart to your baby is not going to make her smarter. However, families who provide music, singing, a love of those kinds of things, are likely to be the kinds of families who provide lots of other great support too - books, language, stories, and lots more.)

Text to Food Connection

Tonight we're having Pete's A Pizza!

First we'll read the book. Then we'll turn Baby L. into a pizza, just like the boy in William Steig's book. After that, we'll eat a real Pete's A Pizza!

xoxoxo

Baby L. and Mommy

Wee Wee Wee!

One of our favorite games with Baby L is the one where we say "Where's your ______?" and she points to the body part and says it. She's only 16 months old, so it sounds like this:

Me: "Baby L, where's your head?"

Baby L: "Het. Het. Het." (taps her head)

Me: "Where are your eyes?"

Baby L: "Eyes!" (She blinks really fast.)

Me: "Where are your ears?"

Baby L: (She responds by tugging her cute little ear lobes.)

Me: "Where are your hands?"

Baby L: "Heh. Heh." (She waves.)

Me: "Fingers?"

Baby L: (She wiggles her fingers.)

Me: "Belly button?"

Baby L: (She points to her neck--which seems odd, but it's because in the book Where's Baby's Belly Button, Baby L lifts the flap on the belly button page, and the baby in the illustration has her hands pointing to her neck! Click on the link to see what I mean. It's adorable.)

Her cutest response of all?

Me: "Baby L, where are your toes?"

Baby L: Grabs her toes and says, "Wee wee wee!"

Note: The reading teacher in me is very proud of the text-self connections my baby girl is making here. Usually we think of readers bringing what they know from personal experience to help them understand books. Strong readers read a text and stop and think, "What does this remind me of?" But here, it's the other way around. It's as if Baby L is looking about her body, and thinking, "Hmm... what book does this remind me of?"

Love at First Read

At the library today, Baby L fell in love with this book! I've never seen her become so attached, so quickly, to a book.

She pulled it out of the board book section completely on her own and brought it over to me saying "Book! Book!" Then she demanded that I read it to her multiple times!

Has your child ever fallen in love with a book at first sight? Post a comment and tell us about it!

March is the Month for Text Sets

In first grade classrooms from New York City to Seattle, teachers are about to launch the March Unit of Study for Reading Workshop: Putting Texts Together: Reading Across Genres To Learn About a Topic and

Build Your Vocabulary.

And guess what, you can do the same at home!

Just collect up a whole bunch of books about a topic you and your little ones are interested in. Stick them in a box or a basket and have fun reading!

Baby L and I have been reading our winter books all season long. We've got stories, poems, board books, lift-the-flap books, nonfiction books, you name it. It's so much fun to watch Baby L make a connection from one book to another!

Winter is almost over (hopefully), so soon we'll be busting out a bunch of books about spring! Yippee!

Comments From the Peanut Gallery

Baby L is learning more and more words by the minute! Her newest craze is to chime in to conversations, books, songs, anything with her own "comments." Usually "Dooooo!" or "Deeda deeda deeda" or something like that, but she sounds like she's really adding to the conversation! We respond with all due seriousness, "Yes, Baby L., of course. What else would you like to say?" And she responds!

Adorable!

Add that to her fascinating "self conversations" that she has nightly in her crib before she drops off to sleep, and each morning when she awakes. She can be heard listing off the words she knows, cooing, and babbling. It's the best alarm clock ever!

So cute!

She can also be heard "talking" to Indigo, our dog, and Baby L's best bud. "Dee! Dee! Heh heh heh." She smiles, and pats him, or waves to him from across the living room and says as clear as day, "Hi!"

Too bad Indigo can't talk. Maybe with enough reading aloud, modeling conversations, responding to his attempts at conversation...

The Writing On the Bathtub Wall

Bath time has turned into a splishy-splashy writers workshop!

"Reading" Pictures

Can you believe it? At 14 months, Baby L is already READING!!!!

Seriously! She is!

What you don't believe me? (And NO-- I am not talking about "Your Baby Can Read." More on that some other time.)

It all depends on what your definition of what "reading" means. For many of us reading teachers out there, "reading" means making sense out of text. Literacy experts know that one of the first important steps into reading is when young children begin to understand that pictures and pages in books hold meaning.

L loves to turn the pages of her favorite books all by herself and name what she sees in the pictures. She even holds the book right side up... most of the time. When she "reads" it sounds like this:

Page 1: (pointing to a baby's face) Uh oh!

Page 2: (pointing to a baby hiding under a hat) Boo! (That's Baby L's word for peekaboo)

Page 3: (pointing to baby and woman) Mama!

Page 4: Nummy nummy nummy (points to a baby holding a spoon covered in yogurt)

She's totally reading!

Now I've started coaching her a little. I'll say, "L, what's this page say?" and I point to the picture. Then L says the closest "word" she knows (which is sometimes really just a sound effect like "vroom vroom" for car)-- but she is 100% making sense. She totally gets it.

What a great tiny reader she is!

New Year's Reading Resolutions!

Happy New Year!

It's the time of year when we all think ahead to the coming year and make big plans and big promises for ourselves. We think back on what we were able to do (and not do) last year and we think about how things can be better in the year ahead.

I've been thinking a lot on how much Baby L has grown since last year and my head just spins! Last year she was just a tiny newborn. She'd sit in my lap and listen intently as I read book after book after book. Her fingers would "skritchy-skratch" across the pictures and she'd pull books into her mouth to suck on them. I remember how proud I was when around this time of year last year she started turning pages!

Now, one year later, Baby L has favorite books of her own. She picks them out of her stacks of books that we have all over the house and she "reads" them to herself, opening and closing them (not quite turning one page at a time on her own yet), pointing and talking. For the book Baby Talk she always says "Mama!" because she loves the page that says "Mama." For Jamberry she says "Boom boom!" because she loves the page that says "Moonberry, zoomberry, rockets shoot by!" As far as I'm concerned -- she's reading!!!!!

(Sidenote - Lately, she's actually been getting very upset when the Jamberry ends and always wants to read it again... and again... and again... sometimes grabbing the book in frustration because she wants to skip right to the good part with the "boom." What a passionate reader!)

This year Baby L and I have a few things we definitely plan to do as readers together. Here are our New Year's Reading Resolutions:

1) Go to the library every week (and maybe even return all of our books on time!).

2) Read a few books each night at bedtime, and every day at naptime.

3) Keep books all around the house, and bring books with us when we go on trips in the car or when we ride on the subway.

4) Make sure Baby L sees Mommy and Daddy reading.

What are your New Year's Reading Resolutions? Post a comment and share!